'96 VW Golf 3 VR6 - Winter mode activated

[Dr.AK]

Current state:



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Soooo!

My previous daily was a 2010 Ford Mondeo, it was good car but I wanted to get back into something older again as to me it always felt kinda like driving a rental.

16 years ago my first car was a '92 Golf GT Special with a few mods:



When I sold that a year later, I always swore I'd own another Mk3 one day.

Fast forward to this year.

When a buddy of mine took me along to a Mk2 only meet earlier this year, I came out of that day inspired to look for Mk2s with AC for sale but ended up finding very few and none of them really caught my eye. Then I figured I might as well look at Mk3s again. A bit shocked by what people wanted for them, because a good, original VR6 seems to be roughly between 10 and 15 thousand Euros. That's when I remembered - a buddy of mine had a VR6 sitting in the back of his shop that he bought just because it was offered to him for cheap by a customer. A quick phone call later, I went over there to have a look at the car. I saw it on the lift and I was impressed - the last time I had seen a Mk3 this clean was probably 15 years ago, and even then I can remember seeing cars with rotted out strut towers, non existant sills and swiss cheese'd hatches. The only rust on this one was a small hole on the passenger side fender.

However, the car had sat for about 10 years, so some more work was likely to be expected.

The interior was in very good condition too, although some trim pieces were missing or broken. The leather seats were retrofitted by my buddy, the matching door cars were included, although not fitted on the car.The engine ran, but sounded bad - the chain would need replacing. We struck a very decent deal - I basically got the car for what it cost him + whatever the chain plus some paint on the fenders (I'd source a new passenger side fender first), which was roughly 5k€.

Ready for collection at my buddy's place:



Then I drove it over to my garage.























Then I got it registered.

[Dr.AK]

Drove it for a day and the alternator crapped out.
Installed a new one asap.






And a few days ago, I finally had the time to take some decent pictures of it.






















I've already fallen in love with this car and have only driven it for like two weeks. I feel like I'm 18 again.

I've basically bought the dream car of my 18 year old self. And I'm going to build it into a car that I would have dreamt of back then. Think mid-00s euro style.
I've already got coils lying in wait, also sorted a set of red/clear Hella tails and a set of 8.5x17 Porsche Boxster S wheels.

[Dr.AK]

Took care of some minor things this week.

Was missing the tow hook cover, got a new one in the mail.





European Golfs didn't have cupholders but I need one for longer drives. So I sourced a US model cupholder and cut apart my center console to fit it.









Now I'm just waiting on my brake stuff to come in so I can do that sometime this week.

[maf260]

I really like the new registration - a great mix of German engineering!

[mrbig]

Liking this! I've had a couple of VR6s and they remain one of my favourite engines. Except when its time to do the timing chains, what a horrible job.

Followed you on IG to see progress on the Golf, those Porsche wheels will look great

[joe1976]

Euro-look suits the Mk3 so well! I'm a sucker for a bit of dish on the wheels with this look personally, but i bet your's will look great!

The VR is such a great sounding engine - the fuel economy is a killer though!

[DarrenW]

Lovely car, great colour! They sound sooooo good.

[ChasR]

This is a lovely thing.

The touches which are being put onto this are great. It will be good to see how this travels with you.

[Dr.AK]

Nov 30, 2023 9:28:39 GMT mrbig said:

Liking this! I've had a couple of VR6s and they remain one of my favourite engines. Except when its time to do the timing chains, what a horrible job.

Followed you on IG to see progress on the Golf, those Porsche wheels will look great

Yeah, I am very happy I did not have to do the chain job myself haha


Thanks folks!

This weekend I did the front brakes and a cv boot and also got new snow tires put on the stockers.

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Gonna do the rear brakes this week whenever I find the time and then maybe also finally install the coils I've had sitting in my garage for the past few weeks...

Winter tires were not a moment too soon, as yesterday we saw our first snow this year.







At least the dog's happy!

[Dr.AK]

Got the coils in yesterday! Just some cheap TA Technix coils for the time being, but it's better than the worn out factory suspension and looks a million times better as well. In the long run I'm planning to swap for some better coils once all the other stuff on my todo list has been taken care of.

Couldn't do a test drive however, as the drive shaft joint came apart when I unbolted the factory suspension and the knuckle swung down, lol. Replaced the boot there almost two weeks ago and had already wondered how easy I could take it apart, but figured it was still good. Now the boot is full of little ball bearings, oops. Oh well, ordered a new drive shaft already.

[Dr.AK]

What a mess...

Friday after I installed the coils (so the 17th), I installed a new drive shaft.



Do a test drive and just a few hundred meters down the road the drive shaft starts knocking real bad. Suddenly the car won't drive anymore. Was able to push the car back into the garage together with a neighbor and then took it apart again.







The brand new drive shaft exploded.

I fixed up the old drive shaft with a new c-clip, that seemed to hold for the time being so I could drive the car for a few days.





Then I received a package from an old buddy - older Alpine CDE-9880R headunit with a bluetooth module and a new, never mounted Hertz ESK 165.5 2-way component system. Eventual goal is a nice sounding fun hifi install that is completely invisible.



Got started on installing the radio, put the bluetooth module behind the glove box. Works flawlessly and integrates itself very nicely into the interior since it has green lighting like the rest of the interior.





When I drove home from the garage, suddenly the passenger side started knocking. Back to the garage, up on the lift... oh, nice, passenger side drive shaft is also broken.

So now I have ordered a bunch of parts to replace everything up front.

- 2 new drive shafts
- ball joints
- control arms
- tie rods
- sway bar links
- wheel hubs
- wheel bearings
- new oil pan gasket since I have to remove it anyways to access one of the bolts of the control arms

Hope this stuff arrives sometime this week so I can get it back on the road.

[Kombi]

I had a 1995 Golf Sport from 1998 to 2006. It had the sad little 2.0L, but I had the head ported and polished, added an exhaust and custom ECU chip and that woke it up a lot. I loved the car, but it had to give way to something more family-oriented.

I even briefly owned a VR6 GTI version, but turned it back in to the dealer as the pre-purchase inspection revealed the oil had not been changed long enough that the forbidden glitter was in the oil pan.

I miss that little Golf though so it's nice to see another Mk3 getting some love.

[Dr.AK]

Oh boy, haven't updated in a while.



















Did all the front suspension, new drive shafts, new wheel bearings... went alright. But after I did all this, the car developed a bad vibration under acceleration.

Long story short, after some trial and error it turned out the new driver's side drive shaft was the cause. Installed another one and the car ran fine.


Bonus shop dog:

[Dr.AK]

Did new calipers up front.




Then we had snow.


















Then did some test fits of the summer wheels. Will need to source another pair of adapters though, the ones I have currently are 20mm and 25mm, with the 20mm they don't clear the front struts. Gonna order some 30mm for the rear.








And then I finally got around to fitting a big lip. I hate the small CL style lip.

[The Doctor]

Time really has been kind to the Golf 3. I never really looked at them, but now that's changing.
Especially in this VR6 flavour!

Nice work!

[Dr.AK]

Did some minor fixes over the last few weeks.

Repaired the licence plate lighting



Repaired the heater lighting



Got new side signals since my old ones were broken and kept falling out



Replaced the broken cover for the rear wiper:






Then I had to align the car - bought myself a TrackAce and did it myself






Two weeks ago I finally installed the taillights I had sitting in my garage for months. I think they mesh a lot better with the white lighting on the front.







And yesterday I pulled another front grille out of my parts stash and gave it a quick coat of paint. It's not perfect, there's a dent in it that I didn't remove completely, but it's 100% better than what's in there now as that is more stone chips than paint. And once the car is not my daily anymore, I'm planning on a whole re-paint anyways.

Sanded


Filler


Base


Clear




Gonna let this sit for a few days then do some finish on it - sand it with 2000 grit then buff it. After that it's time to install it

[Dr.AK]

Yesterday I finally put some tires on my Boxster wheels - 17x8.5 with 205/40





Photos look a bit like they're curbed but that's just left over lube from mounting the tires, they're curb rash free

Went to fit them today only to find a not so nice surprise - I sold the previous set of adapters because the fronts were too narrow (20mm) and I needed wider ones (25mm). Went with a different brand and never bothered to test fit them. Suffice to say I was very disappointed today to find they don't fit over the 288mm brakes the late model VR6s got because they don't clear the pads. Have already ordered different ones.





At least the rear sits perfect and just how I wanted.











I then got around to roll the fenders, which went off without a hitch, I'm happy to report. Should have more than enough room to run the wheels without rubbing now. Now just to wait for the new adapters to come in...

The goal of having the dream car of my 18 year old self is getting nearer and nearer.

[Dr.AK]

There's 17 years between these pictures.





















The Boxster wheels are on! 17x8.5 ET50 +25mm adapters, 205/40/17. Rear fenders rolled, front fenders rolled and slightly pulled. Didn't come out perfect, but that's okay. The car is 28 years old and has scars from a hard life. It's fine. It wears them with pride. Maybe I'll repaint it one day. If that happens, it won't be my daily anymore.

Fitment could be tighter, but this way nothing rubs and it drives absolutely normal. It looks just like a random slightly done up Mk3 would have looked about 20 years ago. Big Porsche wheels, not too skinny wheels, low but not too low, M3 tails... That's what I dreamt of at 18. That's what I grew up on.

Nothing rubs this way and it should pass TÜV inspection.

I'm 34 now and quite happy with my current fleet, but right now I feel 18 again.

[thebaron]

Looks great and I really love the pictures 17 years apart.

[motardman]

Kind of sad to see it done! I was enjoying the journey.

Looks amazing mate, the wheels especially. I wasn't sure if they would work, they do!