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Been here a while, browsed quite a lot before I signed up and been to RRG a couple of times but never bothered to do any thread on my car so I'll copy over some early posts from the Mk2 OC site to get things started and do some either new write ups or copy old stuff in, anyway... Posted 27th December 2013... Posted Feb 2014... Also Feb 2014... I'll leave that massive post for now and shall update some more over the coming few days, quite a bit has gone on with the car in the past two and a half years I've owned it and I don't plan on stopping working on it.  |
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So some more updates, I'm avoiding posting every inane update from the past as, well, it's a bit boring so will stick with key ones.
April 2014...
August 2014...
Shortly after then I had the MOT due and it failed on a couple of easy to fix things (like bushes, CV boots etc.) and a couple of harder to fix things like some rust holes in the chassis, which I couldn't exactly fix in my flat carpark.
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Over the next 8 months I did everything I could do myself to get it ready for the MOT so in November I sourced and completely rebuilt a subframe and steering rack:    The vigilant among you will notice the ARB is fitted the wrong way round, I did change this later as it fowled the car. You may also think I was supporting the engine by axle stands on the sump, I wasn't. I had the engine supported from above and place the wood and stands there as a 'just in case' measure. One hilarious MOT fail was it reading 6.5CO...yes, that damn high! Not sure how it happened really but I replaced the fuel filter and picked up a CO tester and worked my magic, MOT limit is 3.5 on pre-CAT cars but the mk2 Golf when running a PB engine with digifant fuelling is meant to be 1.8CO so that was my target... Took some fiddling of the air and fuel but fairly quickly got this:  and then the ensuing (after I sent the car off for welding) MOT emissions sheet:  Almost exactly a year ago I had a delivery from Germany:   Changing them over was fairly quick and painless and the end result of the suspension (and wheels I didn't mention above) was this:  It can still go plenty lower but I don't want to drag the  about, I want the car to be drivable...and 'at pace' which means a little lower than stock but not very low...and it does drive well these days. I won't cover the full ins and outs of these but I built up some projector headlights which are really rather good at night:  I've also installed some mk3 indicators in the fog holes...people still don't notice me indicating around Bristol:  Fitted a strut brace, because...why not:  Fitted a weighted rod and short shift kit:  The shift throw is now hilariously short compared to standard, but brings it more in line with modern cars and makes pressing on a breeze. Since I'd bought the car, I'd never given it a coolant change, I'd done all the other service items, just not that so in Jan this year I did it, probably should have done it sooner:  I also fitted a new heater matrix and some updated coolant pipes so that I shouldn't have the matrix explode and burn my feet, handy. In Feb I bought something I'd been trying to decide on for about a year, then made a decision in a matter of days:    Then in March I took the car over to Bruges for some beer and time away which proved to be a great drive and the car performed really well, even if I did lose gears in the middle of Bruges. I'd fitted an eBay shift linkage repair kit which included a metal rod with plastic ends which allows you to select side-to-side, so between R, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5. This link rod was obviously of poor quality and I managed to pop one of the plastic ends off leaving me with 3rd and 4th only whilst in traffic, pulling away in 3rd is the most upsetting thing ever, poor clutch. It was easily fixed by me in the hotel car park and then replaced once I was home. And that brings it up to date really, I've got plenty more plans for the car of course and will post them up as and when they happen. If you've read all this then well done, if not, I don't blame you.  Lastly, have a little video I made the other day in Cheddar... |
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That is looking great! Love an 8v
Did you notice a big difference with refreshed subframe and rack? Mine is rather sloppy
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Cheers, it is good fun, not gotten bored of the 112hp yet even after over two years. Well before I changed it all my rack was leaking fluid at an alarming rate and one of the TREs was fused to the rod...so it wasn't great before the work. I redid all of the bushes, engine mounts etc. which were all past their best. I went for OE rubber on all bushes aside from the rack one as I couldn't find a rubber one so went for poly on that. The rearward wishbone ones I went for Audi TT ones, solid rubber instead of rubber with holes, so an upgrade on stock but not as harsh as poly. Overall though it's massively improved the handling of the car, before it would crash a bit on uneven roads (so basically all of Bristol) and wasn't exactly confidence inspiring when trying to enjoy some roads. The car is tight and precise now, very much the point and squirt go kart many people say they are. I've actually found recently that the car's limits appear to be above mine after a few "uh oh, I'm going in too hot" moments and the car was like "nahhh, I got this bro", but equally...shouldn't be driving like an idiot. In terms of the rack itself, I redid most of it, took it apart, cleaned it up then replaced the rubber boots and TREs and there is certainly no slop at high or low speed. |
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Jul 15, 2016 22:01:02 GMT
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Jul 15, 2016 22:40:19 GMT
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Looks very nice, great video too.
What was your brake setup initially?
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1979 Mk1 Passat Estate 1.6 LS
1996 Mk3.5 Fiesta 1.3 Classic
1997 Mk1 MX5 1.8i
2005 Mazda 3 TS
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It was 239mm vented front discs and a 20mm master cylinder which aren't really all that great, they do the job but the more I drive it the more I wanted better braking.  |
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Aug 16, 2016 22:25:10 GMT
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Put it all back together today, new lines run to the rear etc all nice and tidy, filled the res, no leaks and...can't bleed them. I've done it before with the aid of my vacuum bleeding thing but now, can't get any fluid through the system. Bleeding brakes is one of my most hated things, especially on your own. I'll try again later / tomorrow but I can't see me getting any further. If I can't I'll have to order a proper pressure bleed kit at stupid money to arrive at work during the week so I can do it after work in order to get the car to National. some extra pics from it all being back together... Compensator:  Front wheel:  Clearance:  ------------ Brakes bled (eventually) this evening with the aid of a pressure bleeder...darn good way to spend £40, seriously, it's awesome! I got a Sealey VS820 from eBay on a next day delivery and it's very simple to use. Just bang some fluid into the bottle, screw the cap onto your brake fluid reservoir, pressurise it to ~10psi then go round and bleed as normal. No need for a second person or too much faff really. Clamp the bias valve open obviously then bleed driver rear, passenger rear, passenger front and driver front. I had some horrific fluid come out of the passenger front, initially it wouldn't even let any fluid out. I had to force the piston out and back in a few times to release it and allow it to be bled. Took a quick test drive, seems to be working well / ok, maybe not as good as it should be but I think I'll have to give it another bleed after national and once the pads are worn in properly. This is what I forced out of the front passenger caliper, they had been off a car for a good long while so I'm not too surprised although this is mixed with some fresh fluid, it was thicker and darker when it came out the bleed pipe.  ----------- |
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Aug 16, 2016 22:25:21 GMT
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I think these two (also from RobDHC) show just how much roll I've still got...this is actually good as it proves my car isn't solid and I'd certainly not want to change the rubber bushes for poly ones (which would stiffen somewhat).   And here are all of my laps (out lap then flying/timed lap and back in): Lap 1 - 36.25s Lap 2 - 36.50s Lap 3 - 36.56s Lap 4 - 36.63s Lap 5 - 34.75s Lap 6 - 34.55s Lap 7 - 33.66s Lap 8 - 34.93s |
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Aug 16, 2016 22:26:01 GMT
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So today I've been sorting out something that's been bugging for ages but I've just not gotten round to doing before...  ...the lovely primer patches! Flatted them off, treated the metal again and reapplied primer earlier in the week. Ideally there car needs a patch really but for now I just want rid of the awful looking patches. I don't expect to end up with an amazing result but provided it looks better than the above pic once done I'll be happy, close paint match etc. Flattened the primer again today and applied some colour which actually appears to be a good match really.   I then flattened that with 1200grit wet & dry before applying another coat of colour.     You can see in the above photos that I've not filled the two main rust patches, as said this isn't to fully fix the side of the car, just to make it look better and make the car more presentable. I didn't bother with filler as that would result in just covering up some iffy metal which is likely to come back again anyway so at some point I'll have it repaired and painted properly. It also looks dull in a couple of the pics which is entirely fine as the shine doesn't fully come out until lacquer is applied as this is just colour coat not a mix (some paints are both colour and top / final coat). Typically, I've run out of lacquer though so for the moment today painting has stopped until I go fetch some more. Still, it now looks so much better than before though so I'm happy, it's not perfect but this car isn't really intended to be perfect looking. Just grabbed a couple of photos of the side, dull but the colour is there now, I don't mind that it isn't perfect, that's not what this car is about...it's all about how it goes / drives rather than how it looks, those are secondary. I do want it looking at least 'ok' though so the primer had to go.   |
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Last Edit: Aug 16, 2016 22:26:32 GMT by finaldecap
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Aug 16, 2016 22:27:35 GMT
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So I got a new set of clocks and one thing that's been bugging me about my old ones is the weakness of the full beam tell tale so I ordered some LEDs to test in its place. I tried a 5mm blue one but it was far too bright so I tried a 3mm which was also too bright too but then I slipped the old bulb cover on and it brought it down to a much better output. The clocks I got were on 194k and my car is on 213k so I had to strip them down and wind them up to 213 so now it matches my car. I then fitted them once reassembled, all seemed OK...   But then I spotted an LED or two not being lit....  Tested the full beam tell tale at night....  ...I might have overdone it a touch. I then figured I should try out the rest of the clocks by firing it up, this is it idling...  Helpfully I've put it all back together too, so tomorrow evening I'll have the fun of stripping it all out again and try to fix all of these things. Worst case, I bang the 120s back in instead of the 160s given I need working clocks from this weekend. ---------- Sorted! Big thanks to rubjonny for helping via Facebook. I now have a set of 160mph/8000rpm clocks fitted with correct mileage too. I also fixed the LED slightly, it's a bit bright still but it'll be fine. Only issue is I'm not 100% sure the cluster lights are working / the backlight on the MFA works...uh oh... So I've just tested the instrument cluster at night, that roller on the headlight switch is a pain, thought my bulbs had failed, wiggled it and...   The phone makes the LED look much brighter than it is, yes it's more noticeable but it's not blinding and it's pretty much exactly what I wanted, a visible light as the 3mm bulb + cap is quite honestly rubbish. Oh and for those that don't want to watch the video:   Fixed the rev counter, this required me stripping the blue PCB sheet from the 120 clocks and fitting it to the 160s. Bit annoying as my mint original clocks are now not mint original clocks but I guess given they are on 213k not being mint isn't really a big deal. |
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Aug 16, 2016 22:57:13 GMT
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With leds, I'm sure I've seen before where people sand them down a little to reduce the glare. Just a thought.
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I put black sharpie over the new LED, it's reduced it a touch and is enough I think. My phone really doesn't like taking pictures of LEDs, it just blows out the pic with them, even the red ones look blown out and extra bright but are standard ones. It's really hard to show just how it looks with photos, the video above using my GoPro clone shows it a lot better than my phone can.
One of the issues is that very few people sell normal LEDs everything these days is ultra bright assuming everyone wants as bright as possible not just a simple colour.
I did get some 3mm red LEDs too and figured I'd try that behind the blue cap, the diode illuminates but none of its light gets through the blue cap.
I may in future change it / fiddle with it but I'll see how I get on for now, main thing is I wanted it visible during the day as the original little bulb with blue cap isn't so sometimes I'll have my full beams on without realising. Most of my driving at night is in town or late evening motorways so rarely actually need full beam.
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Ray Singh
Posted a lot
More German exotica in my garage now
Posts: 1,993
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I love Mk2 Golfs and would love a 16v car.
Your work is great and I really like how you are enjoying getting the car back together.
Please keep us updated. I can gauge how good a thread is, when i imeadiatly go and search for a similar car on the internet!
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Lovely. I think I need to have a mk 2 at some stage (I've had a mk4 and have a mk6) and this ticks all the boxes. Nice work  |
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Aug 17, 2016 21:17:20 GMT
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I love Mk2 Golfs and would love a 16v car. Your work is great and I really like how you are enjoying getting the car back together. Please keep us updated. I can gauge how good a thread is, when i imeadiatly go and search for a similar car on the internet! Cheers. I always enjoy working on cars (mostly when they aren't a daily) and improving them to my preferred standard. Haven't kept a single vehicle as long as I've had the Golf (Since end 2013) and I still enjoy it so I must be doing something right and it must be a half decent car. I like to update threads etc. too I just keep forgetting to update it here so often so mega updates as per last few. Lovely. I think I need to have a mk 2 at some stage (I've had a mk4 and have a mk6) and this ticks all the boxes. Nice work Well you can't have mine! Mine is just a lowly 8v although at some point in the next 18-24 months I would like to give it a bit more power, in the 170-200 region should easily be enough. More on that if/when it happens, for now it's a case of improving the performance of what I have (handling etc.). Another update from today to follow this. |
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Aug 17, 2016 21:17:47 GMT
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As some will know, my wheels are rather close to the calipers, like, you'd struggle to get a fag paper between the calipers and wheels.   Stupidly close to the calipers which meant the weights on one wheel were touching the caliper somewhat...  Oops. So this had to be sorted sooner rather than later, especially as I'm going to need it to be stable and safe. Best option? Get new wheels that will clear the brakes properly. Second best option? Get some spacers to clear them, decided on 5mm to minimise hassle and to avoid changing too much. Ordered a pair of 4x100 hubcentric 5mm spacers last week and they arrived earlier in the week, once I'd sorted the instrument cluster I cracked on with these.  Well made and decent quality, unlike the various generic ones you can buy for 20p a pop or whatever. Fitted them tonight and now there is better clearance on the calipers so it shouldn't be very dodgy in terms of heat or hitting things and stuff knocking about.    Passenger side weight is still a tad close but now it isn't rubbing and general caliper clearance is vastly improved.  Not driven it yet but it should still be fine and not change characteristics much as I've only increased the front track by 10mm. One thing I'd like to do before the weekend is bleed the brakes with another load of fresh fluid as I'm not totally sold the current fluid being clean now as after I found the dirty gunk in the caliper I didn't do a full bleed, just made sure that one put out some clean fluid...so that'll be tomorrow's task, which is nice and simple thanks to the bleed kit I've got. |
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Aug 21, 2016 22:26:37 GMT
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Done around 580/600 miles yesterday and today, got another 1400 to go by the end of next week! Scottish road trip finished off by the RRG and a well earned rest on bank holiday Monday. Filled up twice today...  One when we got to the Scottish border...  Photo of the car in the Cairngorms on our way up.  One of all of us in Cairngorms.  |
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Sept 11, 2016 11:41:30 GMT
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So I'm going to try and post a write up for each day on the Scottish road trip I did in August, to start off with some background on where we were going... The North Coast 500 is a 500 mile route around the highlands created by the tourist board to get more people up there and inject money into the economy, their tag line is " Scotland's answer to Route 66, the new scenic route showcasing the fairy tale castles, beaches and ruins." which is fair although I have a feeling it's much more of a driving and scenery road than the American Route 66. A quick summary of our trip and route is:  The standard route runs from Inverness over to the west towards Gairloch and then clockwise around the coast. We did it in reverse, anti-clockwise from Inverness, upto John o' Groats and all the way round to Gairloch. This is where we created our own route and included the incredible but slightly busy Applecross Pass (Bealach na Ba) and then over to the amazing Isle of Skye. We then went back on ourselves, down towards Fort William, over to the Cairngorms to drive the Old Military Road (A939) and also ride the funicular to the top of the mountain. From there we did the final leg to Edinburgh where we ended the trip. I've now done over 2000 miles in the last week or so and really enjoyed the trip, very well arranged by one of my mates he's a top bloke at sorting out a bunch of morons. I had the oldest and slowest car there but nothing broke on the whole trip, I did have some speedo issues but I'd built the instrument cluster the night before I set off so hadn't had a chance to test it, so it doesn't count. Even with a mere 112hp I was able to enjoy the roads and generally keep up / pass the others. The cars: [*]2005 BMW E46 M3 (Evolve Eventuri + remap, CSL manifold standard)
[*]2003 Honda Civic Type-R (Spoon N1 exhaust)
[*]2013 Ford Fiesta ST-2
[*]2008 Nissan 350Z (Nismo wheels + Invidia True Duel exhaust)
[*]1989 Volkswagen Golf GTI 8 valve Day 1:Right, edited my pics from day one...I didn't take many so that was easy so I may as well write up a proper post. We arranged to all meet up in Stockton-on-Tees on Sat where we went out for food and all being southerners (aside from the Civic driver) we went out for a Parmo...chicken and molten cheese, it was good but rather heavy work. Sunday saw us on the road for over 7 hours getting to Inverness, we kept stopping for pics/looking around once in Scotland as "wow these views are amazing"...little did we know... The first stop was on the border because, well, you basically have to of course.    From there we travelled up through the Cairngorms by the A9 which has average speed cameras along most of it which is obviously a bit tedious but it does mean you can safely check out the views and take it all in. We stopped a few times in various laybys for photos of the cars and the scenery which broke the time up nicely and it all flew by quite quickly.    Food and drinks in the hotel whilst copying our footage etc. onto hard drives saw an end to the first day. Not the most exciting day really but the proper start point was always going to be Inverness so it was all a case of just getting there for the trip proper to start really. |
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