Project Caddy Rustomod

[forkliftfred]

I'm always lurking around on here and enjoying other peoples build threads so I thought it's about time I started my own. It might spur me to pull my finger out and get some work done too (although as I type this it is snowing). I've always loved Golfs. I had a mk2 8v as my first and loved it. I then built a mk2 16v and did a full Euro style look for it. I had a mk1 Karmann cabriolet and more recently a mk4 Gti turbo. I've always loved pick up trucks, I had a Mini pickup and a 1984 Hilux. One day while wandering around Battlesbridge VW show with my mate, I spotted a Caddy on a trailer for sale. My love was instantly reignited. I promptly sold the mk4 and started the search for my Caddy. Several weeks later this beauty pops up on the bay.

I contacted the seller, went round for a look and a price of £750 was agreed. The guy inherited it 3 years ago and had plans for it but he was too involved with his mk2 Escort. My mate agreed to recover it for a curry, and we picked it up. Got her serviced and MOT'd and drove her around for a wee while. After some time, I got sick of only having 4 gears and started looking for a 5 speed. One turns up on eBay not too far away. I win the bid and drove over to collect. While i'm there the guy says to me "Are you interested in a mk2 project?" And so I ended with this.

I promptly removed the engine and box, wiring, interior, brakes etc. In the meantime,, fitted some front coilovers.

I started making an axle flip kit (mk1's have rear leaf springs) like this.

I removed the rear drums, welded up the mount holes, mounted the stubs from the mk2 et voila.

How she looks back on all wheels and lowered front and rear.

In the meantime the Golf was stripped and chopped up to make this.

It's going to be my new BBQ. I have plans to wire in the lights and run some low wattage bulbs. This is how it still looks now, work will continue if and when the sun decides to shine again. I will change the number plate too. Maybe "Gti BBQ" or "RO8S CARBQ" or "CAR B Q". I haven't really decided. Any suggestions?
The Caddy was now wearing these from the mk2

I think they looked OK but really wanted some 15"s and stretchy tyres so a deal was done and I got some MIM 1900's which were on a mates mk2 Golf and then a B3 Passat. How she looks now.


The 14"s are currently for sale if anyone is interested. 14" 4x100 ET33 BBS with good tyres. (See for parts for sale thread). I'll try and update some more pics tomorrow.

[forkliftfred]

Few pics taken today. Gti front seats fitted. I now have height adjustment and side bolsters! Nice ;D

The engine is coming along. I've got all the wiring harness laid out and mostly connected. Just the 4 wires for the ECU to figure out and connect. I have a Haynes manual on the way so I can use the wiring diagrams in there. All the coolant hoses are on. I have to marry the Gti exhaust manifold to the Caddy system. I have to mount the fuel pump/accumulator and run the fuel lines. I got the bigger servo on. I need to buy a larger 22mm master cylinder, the one from the doner Golf was toast. The driveshafts need fitting. I am using the original 1.6 ones. I swapped the output flanges on the gearbox so they should be the correct length. And I have to change/modify the selector linkage from 4 to 5 speed. I haven't quite worked it out yet.

Thats it for now.

[forkliftfred]

Small update from today. The 22mm master cylinder I ordered finally turned up, so gave it a quick clean and bolted it to the bigger Gti servo. The original cylinder was 19mm so stopping power should be improved. I now have to adapt the brake lines with splitters as this master cylinder only has two outlets instead of four. I also need to fit the two brake light switches into the lines.


I also married the Gti manifold to the original 1.6 exhaust. For what looks like a simple job, actually took me all morning. Cut, fit, test, cut a bit more, test, weld, adjust. When I have a little more money I will have a full exhaust system made with a tubular manifold. I had one of these on my old 16 valve Golf and it made a massive difference not to mention it sounded great and upset the neighbours. ;D

[oxb1l]

Good stuff ,I like the barbecue aswell

[forkliftfred]

I think you mean CarBQ . I will do a seperate build thread on that if the snow ever melts.

[forkliftfred]

Update time! After months of crappy rain and snow and cold and 70 hour weeks!!!!!! I finally got some garage time last night so my mate came round and wired in the ECU for me. 4 wires, 2 relays and 3 fuses later.....she's alive. The first time the engine has run in nearly 3 years. It sounds very tappy which I assume means the tappets need to pressurise and there is a bit of a misfire but new leads and plugs will hopefully sort that. I'm officially a happy chappy. I also removed the rear compensator valve as i'm running rear discs and we fitted a proportioning valve in line with the rear brake line which will hopefully avoid lock ups in the wet. We will set up the bias on my mates rollers in his workshop. I had to fit a small pulse pump in line from the fuel tank to supply the swirl pot. I was hoping that gravity would be enough to supply it but sadly not. I will try and post up some pictures later.

[forkliftfred]

With the Mrs Fred on a hen do, i've the day to myself, so I have spent the day making brake pipes. I have ditched the rear load compensator as I have fitted discs to the rear so to control the rear brake bias I've fitted a pressure reducing valve.

The rear brakes were fed by two seperate lines but now have only one so I utilised one of the original rear axle flexi hoses and fitted a T piece from the donor Mk2.

To make sure I retain the tandem split system, the rears are split from the drivers front and the passenger front has it's own seperate circuit. I used another T piece from the donor Mk2.

I need to make some front lines but the car is sitting an ramps at the front so I need it on the ground so I can remove the wheels to get access to the calipers. I re-fitted the dash andf secured the new engine wiring and refitted the selector. I bought some new selector arms and bushes for the linkage from a bloke on the Caddy forum, and stuck them all on.

My neighbour popped in so I convinced him to help me set up the selctor. After much faffing with me under the car and him inside holding the gear stick, we still can't get all 6 gears. I suspect it has something to do with me using the original 4 speed selector. I need to do some more research on it. After months and months, i'm now at the stage where I can put the car back on all it's wheels.

It looks good back on the ground. I had to sit in the drivers seat and remind myself what it felt like. Job's to do for next time are; fit drivers side drive shaft, make up front brake pipes, secure the fuel pump and lines, tidy the engine wiring and secure, refit the inner wings, bleed the brake system, refit the bonnet, buy and fit 3 new tyres.....and buy some road tax!!

[forkliftfred]

Small update, not really worthy of pictures. The drivers side drive shaft is finally on and while I was there I connect the brake pipe. I had to get the car on it's wheels and then shuffle it across the garage a little because it's too tight up against the wall. I have plans to extend the garage and move the garage door across so I have so more room to work in. I tidied up the wiring under the arch a little, refitted the front bumper and noticed some more welding that needs doing. The front grille is back on too as well as the indicators. I have to sort a wiring issue with the front front left but it may just be a bulb. The gear selector also needs adjusting since it used to be a 4 speed but I was able to select 1st and reverse and she moved out into the sunshine under her own steam for the first time this year. I topped up the brake fluid but couldn't get any to bleed through so I gave up and went and had dinner.

[forkliftfred]

I managed to squeeze in a few hours last night. I started by bleeing the closest bleed nipple first rather than the furthest and....success!! Thats when I discovered the passenger front brake pipe had rotted through, so I whipped it off and made up a new one, screwed it back on and bled it through. Then jacked the rear and did the same. I now have functioning brakes. There is a small private road outside my garage and seeing as it was only 7.30 pm, I thought it would be rude not to try them out. They work fantastically! I will set up the bias on my mates rollers at his MOT station later. I also worked out I can select all gears and reverse although to get first I have to half put it in reverse so it just needs a bit oif fine tuning. I have a bit of an exhaust blow to fix and it's still misfiring.

[forkliftfred]

Sorry for the lack of pics lately in this thread, I managed to drop my phone from one of the cranes at work so no camera for now.

[forkliftfred]

Got a new phone so an update with pictures. I ordered a brake light switch from ebay for a 2002 BMW, so I made up a quick bracket. Luckily there was an M6 hole already located just above the brake pedal on the steering column, so I just drilled a few hole and found a bolt and some not's et voila.



A slight adjustment and we have brake lights. I also bought a universal air filter from the bay a while ago and I also managed to find an air filter adaptor, which is basically a piece of plastic which converts the square intake of the Golf's air flow meter to the round of the air filter. Saved me alot of fabricating and looks alot neater. The air flow meter box had some pre drilled and tapped holes on one side so I turned it on it's side and made up a bracket to mount it. Et voila.



As it's the first of the month tomorrow,i'm going to buy some road rent!! So I swapped the wheels back to the standard steels as they are legal, fitted the front bumper back on and refitted the lower part of the dash. It actually looks like a complete vehicle again. Can't wait to drive it in the morning. Have an engine bay shot to finish.

[TS]

This is gonna be sweet. Always loved the rodded caddys

[forkliftfred]

After months of lost mojo, plus I acquired a new toy in the shape of a 1997 Discovery, the Caddy is now taking a new direction. After months of badgering from my mate, it's now going to be rear wheel drive. It has leaf springs on the rear so should be a reasonably easy conversion. Many engine options were discussed. I would have liked to keep it VAG but rear drive set up's with good power are non existent. We love drifting but an engine from a 200SX (SR20det) go for quite a lot of monies. I have heard horror stories of CA18DET engines being unreliable and prone to big end problems. After some research they seem to be good engines but everyone abuses them and abandon them when they fail. So after some ebay scouring I ended up buying an engine, gearbox, wiring harness and ECU.





£150 for the everything you see in the pictures. My mate gave me a box of spares for free too.



All I'm missing now is an inlet manifold and plenum, turbo and a cam angle sensor. I will acquire these as I go along. So last night I stripped the engine to assess the damage. This is what I found on number 4 big end.



The stripped engine. It now needs cleaning and new gaskets. I will drop the crank off at a local Engineering firm for measuring and they can also skim the head. The good thing about a project pick up truck is plenty of storage space.



So consequently the GTi engine is now for sale. It will include a genuine 85,000 mile engine, 5 speed gearbox with reconditioned Mk1 shift linkage, ECU and wiring harness and modified GTi manifold to Caddy exhaust system. The engine has had a new cambelt, plugs, dissy cap and oil change. I've only done about 100 miles since fitting it! It's still in the car so you can hear it running.

[discostu]

Sweet. You like a challenge then!

Awaiting the next instalment

[usedabused]

Cool project!!

I'll just leave these here.

[sciclone]

Nowt wrong with the CA18. They're just used to not being serviced and then having the bottom ends fail when oil becomes sludge after 40,000km of no maintenance.

If you throw a set of big ends and some cleaner at them, they'll keep going for quite a few years more.

[grifterkid]

Love it with knobs on...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[forkliftfred]

May 29, 2014 23:21:45 GMT usedabused said:

Cool project!!

I'll just leave these here.

I love the purple one although I don't think much of it is Caddy anymore. Is the white one also on Caddy forum. I think I have seen it before. Very nice. Something to aspire to. Although he has used a Nissan 200SX rear subframe.

[usedabused]

Yeah its off the Caddy forum mate its just so well executed,

[forkliftfred]

The Gti engine conversion is now for sale. Gti 8 valve 85k engine had cambelt replaced, new oil and filter, new plugs and new temperature sender. Engine comes with coil, modified gearbox mount to fit 5 speed gearbox, Mk1 engine mounts, 5 speed gear shift linkage with all new bushes, modified wiring harness and ECU, radiator and fan. The gearbox output flanges have been changed to accept Mk1 driveshafts I will include the exhaust manifold pictured above but it could really do with an exhaust to be fabricated. It will fit in a Mk1 Golf, Jetta or Caddy as a 5 speed upgrade or can be refitted into a mk2. I'm not including the swirl pot or fuel pump. The engine is still fitted so can be heard running.
I also have the larger 9" brake servo and master cylinder which is a direct bolt in upgrade for any Mk1 brakes.

I would like £150 for the engine and gearbox and £40 for the servo and brake cylinder. Located in Benfleet Essex.