howdy.
trying to do this on a £500 budget, including the cost of the car
due to the death of my track day car and not having driven a gti for nearly 2 years i bought a cheapie off ebay a few weeks ago.
it is taxed and tested till the end of summer but its also a bit ropey (what can you expect for £200 though)
the story is... i bought it from a trainee aircraft technician who has too many cars. he had been using it daily. he bought it with the front end damage and while in his ownership it was broken into and theft was attempted. this damaged the wiring in the ignition and also the steering lock.
i drove it home and sure enough, the steering does indeed try to lock all the time!
anyway, this is how it looked on collection (apologies for the pictures - better ones will follow)
and this is what it looks like now, £600 later...
the plan...
make it roadworthy, make it look good, make it drive well. all on as small an outlay as possible
i am quite fortunate in that i have a good mate who has a well equipped garage and he is happy for my to tinker in the evenings. he is also on hand to offer advice and direction.
day 1.
suspension
stripped bottom arms and front and rear suspension off the track day car and fitted to the 5 door.
this includes... seam welded bottom arms, full set of polly bushes, eibach anti roll bar, lower strut brace, koni adjustable dampers with eibach 60mm springs. grooved discs were transferred over too.
day 2.
bit of body work.
stripped bonnet, slam pannel and o/s/f/ wing off track car and put on 5 door. this involved the removal of the damaged front bumper. came off easily enough but was a nightmare to refit as it it so out of shape. as the bumper mounts are the front subframe mounts we chopped them off and just bolted the mounts back on. replacement small bumbers are on their way.
day 3.
steering and starting issues.
my mate lent me his apprentice for the evening so we could sort the starting and steering out. we realised the steering lock was damaged so he decided the easiest thing to do is swap the columns over. steering wheels off, stalks off, columns out. we could then see 2 things. 1 the ignition wiring on the new car is a mess and 2 the steering lock is definately buggered.
we need both cars to be moveable so everything that comes off the donor car has to be replaced with the bad bits off the 5 door. this meant a good hour refitting the steering columns. (sadly i was helping out on a far easier job so left sean the apprentice to it. bless him)
so it now steers without locking up but the wiring needed sorting. we figured the best thing to do would be cut the plugs off the track car and rewire. i am terrible at anything involving solder so i left it to sean once more. he removed the home made immobiliser and did a sterling job of getting it going. it now starts on the key and also allt he mfa functions seem to work and the dash lights are back on. the cd player and horn work again.
by this time another mate appeared and he was desperate to see it on the porsche wheel so they were next.
the rear brake line and handbrake cables need relocating due to reduced clearances. this is easily sorted by a slight bend to the brake pipe and unclopping the cable and using the lower half of the clip only to resecure it. i then added a thick cable tie for piece of mind. a bodge? probably but it works.
with the adapters fitted and torqued up the wheels then went on and we dropped the car back on the floor. it looks great but there isnt much clearance on the rear arches. i dont know yet whether to trim/roll the arches and bond the arch extensions on or to fit a pair of front wheels to the rear. clearance on the fronts seems fine.
last job of the evening was a bit of decal removal. not a big fan of stickers, unlike the previous owner. i did leave one on though..
final grainy picture.
your thoughts, comments and criticisms are most welcome
