questions questions question

[Mid_life_crisis]

Hi all,
right i bought a 91' 5 door gti in tornado bout two weeks ago cost me just over a bag of sand its a bit of a pig but i always wanted one and this came up fairly cheap,i just donno what to do with it im not mechanically minded and its has got a few problems should i bother spending loads of cash on it or jus run it into the ground.
i collected the car from rugby nearly 100 mile from where i live and the drive home in it was ok part from the whine coming from the front wheel bearing,rear wiper not working,gearbox was is like a spoon wondering aimlessly in a can of beans,clutch being a bit heavy.
overall condition of car is ok part from paint fading in a few areas to the point of the undercoat coming through and theres a small area of crappy rust near the rear arch that a previous owner has tried to repair BADLY,
i spent two days autoglyming paint renaviting and waxing it and most of the pinkyness has gone and now looks ok
the engine runs ok but think it needs a real good tune up also as i come to a stop and depress the clutch the revs go to bout 1500,there is no service history on the car.
since i have owned it i spent jus over £300 sorting out the wheel bearing,track rod arm,ball joint and two new toyo's down at elite in rainham.
i think car piccy can still be viewed at ebay item number 320177544545
so the question is spend or just use till it dies?

[DarnPB]

This all depends on what you want out of it. Being a 8v 1991, means it is a digifant. There is a lot of info here on how to tune it right. The gearbox problem is almost certain to be the gear linkeage mechanism. Fairly straight forward. Have a look at the mechanism under the front scuttle under the bonnet and see if the ball is still there. If that is missing, you can still select gears but it will be like stirring a rice pudding. A new kit will sort that out. The clutch may just be a cable change. Do not replace it with a self adjusting one. They are crap.
Do what you need to do to make it a nice drive then make your decision. Base your decision on how much rot has got to it. Mechanics can be sorted. Rust is a little more tricky. Decide to run it till it drops or slowly bring it up to standard.
These cars are relatively simple to work on and parts are easy to find, so don´t be afraid of diving in and having a go. There is a wealth of info in this forum to bail you out of trouble if you get into it.

[Mid_life_crisis]

thanks for the reply
when the car was a elites i poked my head underneath and i was fairly sound i think what im really looking for is a decent trustworth mechanic i mean i dont mind paying the going rate for any work carried out on the car jus dont wanna take it to a pikey who's jus gonna rip me off..
so are there any recommendations?
i think the dodgy repair to the rear arch and the odd touch up here and there will only be bout a couple or three hundred to sort out
what sort of prices should i pay for the work you suggested to be done professionally?
cheers

[Mew]

Do you really not want to give it a go yourself? You could easily do the tuning, clutch cable and gear linkage in a weekend and you'll end up with a different car after the 2 days and a hell of a lot of satisfaction when you go out for the test drive!

Here are a few helpfull links from the mk2 maintenance section that should be a good read for you. 


http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=33253.0

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=33100.0

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=27772.0

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=27627.0

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17309.0

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=51321.0

Oh, and welcome to mk2 ownership 

[Mid_life_crisis]

thanks alot really appricate the help been on ebay and just ordered a linkage kit

[Mew]

Oh, a good alternative to gsf for parts in the future (and quite often cheaper!):

http://www.vwspares.co.uk/golf.php