This car is in the middle of a 3 stage rebuild.
Stage 1:
Engine rebuild, with 1mm oversize rebore to compensate for unevencylinder wear. Snyder pistons were used as VW dont make 1mm oversize pistons. Apparently.
Cam followers and cam chain were changed. This is crucial to rid the engine of it sounding like a box of spanners being chucked around. The cam chain change rid the engine of around 70% of its noise.
We have compared this car purring next to a suposedly good 16v. The difference was quite startling. My engine is absolutely spot on.
Power and torque are definitely increased. It has developed some very odd habits with the extra power.
Next job was to replace all four discs, all brake pads obviously, master cylinder, rear brake compensator, all four suspension struts,ball joints and anything else that looked brown.
There are many many more parts used on the car to get to this point. All VW sourced of course.
Stage 2:
Bodywork. The car has had front wings replaced, drivers door replacing, new tailgate. New windscreen, replacement rear screen, new window motors. Its also had new seats put in, and the drivers seat rebuilt professionally. The interior (for 15yo car) looks the dogs danglies.
The bodywork was rubbed down to its original VW primer. All the little side dents were pushed out and then filled and then primed ready for the repray.
If you had seen the car 6 weeks ago you would think it was about to be scrapped.
The final job was a full repray in its original metallic black. We have even managed to keep its original internal VW stickers!
Final job was reblacking the side trims and front and rear bumpers. These were all sourced from a delightful person who put big bumpers on their mk2. However, these side trims and bumpers are a half measure. I will be sourcing new VW parts to replace them this year.
Another job done to the car was to remove its old (non functioning) alarm system and immobiliser. When I say remove, i dont mean disconnecting. I mean removing every trace of them, including sensors and wiring looms. This car is now tidy.
Of course, it would be criminal not to have a decent security system on the car. However, the new system is virtually undetectable, and doesnt have nasty wiring looms everywhere, or bits soldered into the main power cables of the car etc.
Final final job - new Golf ball.
Stage 3 - to be done sometime this year.
New bumpers and side trims. New starter motor, and possibly fuel pump.
Wheels are being refurbed next month,along with new tyres, which will be BF Goodrich. (BFs cause they are superb tyres - more grip than yokos for half the price and they last twice as long- and i'll import themif i have to)
There are a host of other things we need which i've forgotten. (Stupid things like whatever sits at the top of the leather trim around the gearstick).
If you are wondering how much this has cost - we dont know. We gave up counting some months ago. We have developed a new unit for counting the cost. That unit is equal to the price of a nice 16vGTI. We are talking about 4 units so far
(and that not including peoples time spent on it either).
So there you have it, if your gonna do a job, do it properly!
