'85 1.8 20vt Project

[lewis1641]

New car time!

As some of you may know my car was written off towards the back end of last year.  It was/is a jade green 5 door 8v gti with an AUQ engine conversion.

I have been searching for a suitable replacement since the collision but had some criteria

1, It had to be a 3 door this time
2, It had to be an early mk2
3, It had to be a GTI
4, It had to have metallic paint

Ideally i wanted something good, and straight, or something tatty but cheap.

I couldn't find anything at all that matched all four of my essentials and had all but resigned myself to a compromise,but thankfully  this car ticks all the boxes. And the best part is that its the same colour as the car that was written off. Another grandad spec 1.8t sleeper then!

It is an 85 gti, 130k on the clock, 3 owners and the last owner on the log book bought the car in '89.

For anyone that is still awake, I was pretty lucky to find this, I had a difference of opinion with a mate so I set out to prove him wrong, using ebay "sold items" to gather evidence. This car was amongst those and it caught my eye due to it being the same Jade Green as my last one. The car had sold on ebay back in Nov/Dec but the seller had his number on the advert. I dropped him a line on the off chance and he still had the car. Well happy.

It is now with Map-tech in Brigg, North Lincolnshire where I am fortunate enough to be able to rent some space.  With the help of a mate we are doing some mot work to get it driveable, then it is going back in the workshop later in the year for the 1.8 Turbo conversion.

Here is a picture of the car as it stands on day one



and this is the car is is replacing

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=154676.610

[thai-wronghorse]

Onwards and upwards, I had one Identical to this replacement. 

[lewis1641]

Not a particularly exciting update but had the car on a ramp and it seems solid. The suspension seems new, no play in the bushes that we can find.

Been through the car with mot in mind and can only really find fault in the fact the wipers are missing for some reason, so robbed the arms off my old car. They were a bit tatty so I stripped the paint and rust and repainted them Matt black. Hopefully they will stay looking good, if not I will replace them.

[lewis1641]

Car went in for MOT friday, failed on a fuel leak, it seems someone had repaired the pump but it was leaking through the repair.

Replaced with the pump off my old car, new filter and accumulator and fitted that up. Past the retest on saturday.

It doesnt like starting from cold but we have discovered the injector seals to be leaking so I have those on order.

Feels great to be back in a mk2

[lewis1641]

injector seals went in last night, had to dig a load of silicone out so someone knew of the issue already...

starts a bit better but still not great.







i retrimmed the roof lining in accustic cloth following the guide on the forum, turned out pretty well, the pictures are sh!t though

[hardmonkeys]

Excellent!! Finally caught up with the old one, I read it'd been written off, so seen that but first before I went to the beginning and read the whole story...some major work went into that

Looking forward to seeing this in progress

[lewis1641]

I am really hoping for it to be a better car this time round

[hardmonkeys]

I'm sure it will be

[lewis1641]

A few bits have happened since I last updated.

Firstly, I have had my first breakdown and had to call the AA, the reconditioned alternator stopped alternating. Made it back home with the AA following with charged batteries. 

Replaced that with a new one but while it was being done we noticed the cam belt was not only slack but the timing was a tooth out, so we replaced the belt and resent the timing. suprisingly the car starts on the button now...

Anyway, interesting stuff.

I have decided not to do any of the conversion work or paintwork to the car this summer. I have been 6 months driving a rattly old caddy and I have missed having my Golf, so I have decided to make it cool for the summer, then gut it over winter.

Treated the black plastics to some Q Techniq C3 trim restorer, its supposed to keep them black for over a year with one treatment. expensive at £30 for a tiny bottle (JUST enough to do a small bumper mk2) but if it works it'll be well worth the money

i then treated myself to a nice B road drive out to my folk's place in the Lincolnshire Wolds



Ordered a set of BBS RM's off ebay and set about replacing the 30mm lowering kit with some Koni adjustable coilovers.

Sadly the konis had come off a sensibly lowered mk3 and the adjusters have seized so I am running a pair of borrowed JOM rears, and the FK fronts off my old car.  These were also seized but I ak ok with the ride height for now.

The RM's arrived so I fitted a set of 185/45/15 Nankang NS2's and realised the person who built them didnt seal them properly (the lips are getting replaced soon so dont worry about the bend!)



I think it looks ok at this height, looks slightly reverse rake in the pic but its from dodgy parking





Next job is to install the stereo set up, tried to keep it period looking with a Panasonic CQ RD25 - it dates from 1991 but has an aux in round the back so i can run a 3.5mm jack

[Waspy]

Looking good!

Where did you find the stereo? I really want to replace mine with something which looks like it's supposed to be there. Rather than the ever so typical 00's faceplate I have at the moment.