Rolf the five-door Golf - Oh. Fudge. Change of plans.

[razer]

I'm about 3/4 into this little trip, and I just have to start this thread while I'm resting at a hotel in Bodø.

Some of you might remember I had a few Golf before, and then life happened. My first project was Tougerenner, a kind of J-inspired '88 mk2 1.8, that was wrecked by a pizzacar. After that I had a few more golfs, but never had the money, nor the warm, fuzzy feelings from the first one.

Since then, cars, jobs, girls, and so on have been happening, but after I left my girlfriend in desember, I figured what the hell. The good, safe and trusted '06 Suzuki Swift had to go, I don't need safe or reliable, I need something fun to runabout when I'm not driving my lovely '67 bug(Undergoing a resto and paint atm).

So, meet Rolf:



Rolf is the car of a former classmate of mine, which she inherited from her grandfather. She lives far north, up in Tromsø, but we met at school in Oslo. I don't hear from her that often, but suddenly I got a joky message saying we should do a trade, since she needs a more modern car up there in the dark cold.... After she told me what she got, I said I was most definitely interested. She didn't believe me at first, but when I gave her an offer to drive the Swift up there, take her golf and some money, and drive home, we struck a deal.

Rolf is a one-owner 1985 1.6, 190k km car, carefully looked after, and never driven on salt. Being so far north, it gets too cold for salting. It is by the sea, but it is seemingly a rust-free car. We'll see about that I guess...:-p It has a few more doors than I want, but so far, we've really bonded. I removed the roof rack, the front mudflaps and gave it a wash, and it actually looks quite good now:



He has been wearing seat covers for thirty years, so I took them off, and it revealed a stunning interior. More pictures to come, and a big write-up of the trip with pictures of stunning norwegian nature:-)

See ya!

[fb1]

Bookmarked. Looks interesting. I love a good road trip story. Its good to see people actually getting out and doing things while all i seem to do is eat work and sleep lol. And the car looks good as well.

[razer]

Just tossed together a short video:-)

[HoTWire]

Apr 26, 2016 13:08:10 GMT razer said:

Just tossed together a short video:-)

Enjoyed the little video ... I like the two light grill too.

[Azryael]

Sounds like a fun trip in a fun car!

I've always wanted to drive the coastal roads of Norway myself; might still have to do that someday.

[razer]

Puh. Rolf and I are finally home after the trip of a lifetime, and I just have to do a short writeup before the true project starts.

The trip, part one:

So, for the trip up to Tromsø, I drove through Sweden and Finland, as it's quicker. Not the prettiest, mostly trees all the way, but ok roads. Not many pictures taken. Passed the arctic circle...



And finally reached Finland...



Not much to see. Bumpy roads, snow, reindeers I just missed with the camera, and absolutely stunning weather. I was extremely lucky regarding the weather, as the blooming spring I left at home turned in to snowy, cold weather, while I had perfect weather all the way.



One more interesting story is the fact that I nearly ran out of fuel on the Suzuki in the middle of nowhere. When the warning light goes on, I have about five litres of fuel left, and I usually use about 0.7l pr. 10km. So that meant I had about 71 km of fuel left. problem? The next gas station listed was 105 km away....
That meant I had to try to keep it below 0.5 pr 10km. Possible, but only just. After about 70km I was sweating, feathering the throttle and shifting gears quicker and smoother than anyone to keep my fuel consumption as low as possible. And there it was. One single fuel pump, next to a hut.... I was so relieved I nearly shat myself due to the abrupt loss of tension in every single muscle.

I parked up, inserted the nozzle, and the pump was open. A small sign told me to pay in the small hut, but I was a bit nervous they only did cash. As I went into the hut to pay, it was a "deliverance-esque" mood with the locals suddenly shutting up and looking at this out of place city boy. Mind, these guys only drive snowmobiles and reindeers. Almost anyway. Luckily, my creditcard was accepted, and I was on my way again as a happy camper...

When I finally got back into Norway and was only an hour away from my destination, suddenly the landscape opened up and gave me this view. Photo not doing it justice, but you get the... eh... picture...



So, after about 25 hours or so of driving, I was finally in Tromsø. I have no idea why people live up here, especially considering that during the worst winter months, they don't get ANY sun AT ALL! But then again, they have sun 24/7 during the summer. And when I woke up in my friends flat and looked out, the view was decent...



That concludes part one, part two coming soon!

[b3nson]

Love this already! I could read roadtrip write ups all day long.

[razer]

Apr 26, 2016 14:53:47 GMT Azryael said:

Sounds like a fun trip in a fun car!

I've always wanted to drive the coastal roads of Norway myself; might still have to do that someday.

It was. And you should!

b3nson said:

Love this already! I could read roadtrip write ups all day long.

Thanks:) I'm afraid I can't deliver that much material, but I'll do my best:)

[razer]

The trip, part two:

So, where were we... Oh, yes, I had just made it to Tromsø, and met up with my friend from school many years ago and the new owner of my Suzuki, Nora Marie. She was gonna show me around town and make a killer dinner. Kinda funny, 'cause I remember her as completely lost around the kitchen. Times change, this time she'd just bought and butchered a pig, so we were having homemade pulled pork on saturday. Damn. Too bad were not into eachother, 'cause she's also making her own bacon. Imagine that pickup line. "Hi, I'm Nora Marie and I make my own bacon".... My answer immediately to a woman saying that would be "marry me?".

Oh well, enough of that. This is where my story does a hollywood-twist, and the timeline gets shuffled around. Either way, we went around town, she showed me the sights while testdriving the Suzuki. Just look at this view from the top of the nearest mountain.............



A bit overwhelmed by everything, Nora shuffled me into the car and took me home for dinner. And here is the food and the cook herself. Pulled Pork, Sweet potato fries, a coleslaw-ish salad, and of course beer. And plenty of it:)



We ate, drank, played mikado and eventually I'm told we went out. This is where it all got a bit blurry. Never mind, I have to get back to telling you about my trip, not my headache.... So, on monday we went to the Statens Vegvesen to sort out the registration. Kinda funny, Rolf costs me about 175£ a year in road tax AND insurance, whereas the Suzuki cost about 1000£. And not just that, switching owners on a 30 year or older car is free. For Nora Marie to get her name on the registration of the Suzuki, that's an additional 220£. Felt really good having an old car again.

It was running a bit rough, so I bought a new rotor and distributor cap, and topped up the fluids before leaving. I removed the roofrack, the mudflaps, and by removing the terrible seat covers I found the car had had them since day one. The seats look brand new, and look at that lovely pattern. Nevermind the weirdo in the picture....




A less fun part of it, was that the window winder mechanism broke three minutes outside of Tromsø:S Luckily the window was stuck enough to stay up most of the time all the way home. About into my journey, I couldn't help myself. The car needed a wash, so I stopped at the first decent gas station and let the machines loose on it. It is full of scratches and needs an extreme polish, so I didn't feel to bad about it. And again, the view was great:



The goal for the day was to get to Bodø. To get to Bodø, I would have to do an 8 hour 45 minute drive that included one ferry. Of course I didn't hit perfectly, but it only got to be a 30 minute wait. That meant time to check out all earlier paperwork, and damn. That was a big bunch of papers, and receipts for absolutely everything.




The ferry trip was very nice, and of course I had the obligatory Svele. For those of you who have seen the great Norwegian car movie "Børning", you know what I'm talking about. Those who haven't seen it? Shame on you and get to it. Drifting superstar Fredric Aasbø does most of the driving, together with my brother Fredrik Sørlie who not only drives a bunch of the cars, but also his own Cressida for a few scenes:)






Now, I have tons of pictures from this trip, but I don't really have them sorted or remember where each picture were taken. Sooooo, I'll just post a few pretty ones, and tell you there from somewhere between Tromsø and bodø, okei?





I finally came to Bodø, where I had a room at Radisson Blu waiting, and I just made it to a local restaurant for tenderloin and beer before the kitchen closed...




The next day was Bodø - Trondheim. Initially I planned to stay one day in Bodø as they have a great aircraft museum, containing amongst other a U2 spy plane, and for one who loved "Bridge of Spies" that's a must see. Buuuut, I had a meeting in my bank, and also I thought Bodø was so beautiful, I need to go back and stay for a few more days anyway, so I got going. only 11-12 hours of driving ahead, but I tried to not go mad. Not that much to see, but I did stop at ACR. What is ACR? Well, you see, 20 years ago, someone figured putting a big racetrack that could potentially hold big international races so far away from people that noone goes there was a good idea.....
Yup. Arctic circle raceway is great, but so far you would never go. The gates were closed, and the landscape makes for very little view of the track, but at least I captured the gate...



I arrived late in Trondheim and slept on a friends couch. The last day I had a meeting at my local bank in Oppdal, about 1.5 hours from Trondheim. I got there a bit early, so I found the old trainstation, parked were I shouldn't, and changed the thermostat, as Rolf was running a bit hot.



The rest of the way from Oppdal to Lørenskog(Just outside Oslo), is a 5+ hour trip on rather boring roads, so this is the end of this story. In the mail when I got home was this though:)

[razer]

So today I've had a looong day... I've vacuumed and washed Rolf, changed the bumper and grille for new items, rolled my fathers old Fiat 600 from the garage after ten years and washed it, and started cleaning the garage. No picture to prove it, but I also changed the window winder the other day. Did a motor wash on Rolf as well, doesn't look too bad:)

I've had a small water leak on the passenger seat, but I think it was just clogged drains. I've tried to look for other spots where the water can get in, but couldn't really see anything else. Anyone with other ideas? And is there drains further back as well?

I initially planned on keeping the double-light grille, but Nora Maries grandfather had done the conversion himself, and it wasn't particularly well executed, so I thought "curse word it"! I've ordered both coilovers and new wheels, so in about a week it should look great. Until then I won't tell what wheels, but they're curse word cheap on Ebay and look awesome.:-P




Last thing I did is quite a big deal for me. Remember the Tougerenner? When I bought it, the girl I bought it from had gotten it from her parents in germany, and apparently they like the original steering wheel just as little as I do, and had a great Momo Racing line it it. I've kept that wheel and had it in a few cars since, but lately it has just been hanging on the wall until my brother borrowed it for this years winter drift car.



Yesterday I ripped it out of his toyota and put it where it belongs. Feels amazing to hustle the Golf along with the Tougerenner wheel... Loving every friggin' second of it!

[razer]

Just a very short mashup of a few snapchat vids and such...

[razer]

Sooo. The fact that I made it home 2000km away, without even noticing this everytime the hood was open, is frightening. The fact that it didn't go crash and burn up in the deep norwegian mountains is nearly a miracle... I didn't take the tape off before I threw it away, but I wouldn't be surprised if grandpa taped it to stop a leak......



Well, that changed, and I went on to ripping out some wires. I sadly didn't take any photos, but there were a bunch of wires for running two lights and a 12v cigarette lighter. Ripped out a lot of wires, and removed all the hackjobs done to the few switchblanks. I've ordered a new set of switchblanks now, and I just got the radio delete panel and put that in. Will be tidy eventually:)I got a new 12v outlet, and pulled some new wires, put it on the lower part of the dash, close to the tunnel. Tidier, and better:-P



While I was at it, I was also cleaning my garage now and then, and found an old tachometer I put in. Nice to see the revs, even though they ain't many on the small 1.6... Also wiped off the dash, It's getting there... You can just see the 12v outlet in this photo.



Last job for today was remove the glue from the doors after I removed the door trim. Insanely well stuck old glue, but with citruscleaner and Scraperite(BRILLIANT TOOL!!!)I got it off at last. Took a lot of scraping to get it all of, but damn it looks a lot better;-)



Soooo, now I'm tired as hell and socially retarded, so I'll leave you with a picture of the fantastic front seats. After 30 years in covers, the seats are mint in this car. I love it!

[razer]

Howdy!

I don't know if I've mentioned this in an earlier post, but I was made redundant at work for the summer. Not really a big issue for me, as I for the moment just came out of a relationship and had to move to my parents anyway. I get 66% of my normal pay each month, I got every curse word day off, and my boss needs me again from september... Soooo, actually better off than most people.

Anyway, living at home 20 meters from the garage has its perks, so with plenty of free time I'm trying to spend as much as I can out there. As my 1967 Beetle comes home freshly painted pretty soon, I not only need to get Rolf up to a decent standard, I also need to fix up my fathers 1963 Fiat 600 that hasn't been running for 10 years...
Fresh fuel, fresh battery and some adjusting of points, and here ya go:



Whilst firing up the Fiat, I also removed the bootlid spoiler. Now, I know many people like it, but I think it makes the car look too long, since it's a five-door. I also had a waterleak that seemed to come from the clipmounts that are squeezed under the windowrubber. They seem to fetch quite a lot on Ebay though, and it certainly would look good on a three-door, so I might keep it in storage. It's truly in mint condition. The bootlid came out okay as well. Worn paint here and there, but overall okay.



The mailman came by today with the switch blanks I had ordered, and I finally found my horn button in a box of old parts. It's starting to come together nice and tidy inside:-)



Sooo. I'm not much of a stickerfan. Or... Well, for those of you that remember the original Tougerenner, I really was once, but I grew older:-P But then on my last visit to my local parts dealer, I found myself as a sticker, and I just had to have it. Put it on the drivers side front quarter window:).



You see, as a young racer/drifter/wannabehotshot, I made this flyer with me all dressed up in my racing gear:



While I was getting on with some bodywork, my dad came home...



I had this ugly dent on the front wing I wanted to fix, so spent most of the day grinding it down, filling it up, and painting. It turned out okay, and it's no rust now, so I feel good:)

The dent(looked a lot worse IRL, and had a fair bit of rust as this was an old pic):



I can work with this!



Sadly, I'm terrible at taking photos of what I actually do, but here it is, painted and shiny(Good from a meter away or so. Good 'nuff right now!):



Oh, I forgot to mention, I did some tinting as well....





So, is Rolf the new Tougerenner?

Well, no. No car can replace it, Rolf is Rolf. But even though he has a few more doors than most, he will become a Touge/stagedrive/trackday-runaround for those days when I need to blow off some steam. My plan so far is basically just wheels and lowering for this year, as an everyday cruiser. My hope is to rebuild the engine with porting, gti-cam, some webers and exhaust for a happy 120 hp or so, and change all the suspension bushing and so on for next year.

It's all just hopes and dreams for the time being, but being a bit older than the last time I used to hang on this forum, I'm in it for the long run with a better economy.

Thanks for reading, and good night!

[razer]

So, I've been looking for a gearknob that looks okay, and matches the wheel a bit... couldn't find anything I liked, so I found some yellow paint on the shelf :-)

[razer]

This should look pretty good...

[keekster]

May 24, 2016 22:47:55 GMT razer said:

This should look pretty good...



Yes, I believe it will!

[varelse]

May 6, 2016 23:48:57 GMT razer said:

I was reasonably interested in this thread from the road trip, but now you have me!
More, please.


Also, nice wheels!

[razer]

varelse: The Cressida is my dads and will stay original, so not much to post about that one. But you might have seen my brothers Cressy. You know the one in the same color drifting everywhere, even Nürburgring?

[The Jackeria]

May 25, 2016 21:53:17 GMT razer said:

varelse: The Cressida is my dads and will stay original, so not much to post about that one. But you might have seen my brothers Cressy. You know the one in the same color drifting everywhere, even Nürburgring?

Your brother is Fredrik? That's awesome!

[varelse]

I put a little effort in to finding the movie you mentioned last night, but had no luck.
I can't say I've seen any Cressida's drifting, but I generally don't go out of my way to watch cars racing. Drifting I would probably check out once or twice, but if you're not doing it yourself, it doesn't hold my interest. Much like sport, haha.

Got a link to some footage?