'89 Mk2 Golf GTI 8v -> ABF -> VR6 -> VR6 Turbo

Discussion in 'Members Gallery' started by rye1991, Jun 12, 2013.

  1. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    So I thought it was about time I posted a build thread for my new project, a 1989 Mk2 Golf GTI 8v. I have used clubpolo.co.uk in the past so a couple of you may recognize my last project:

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    Polo 6n2 1.0 - coilovers, Steffan RS (14x8 et10 front, 14x9 et20 rear), loads of GTI bits and other subtle touches. Im still driving this car now as my daily but on 40mm springs and sensible wheels.

    Theres more pics on mates flickr if you're interested: http://www.flickr.co...s/lewisbrymner/

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    So my latest purchase!

    1989 Mk2 Golf GTI 8v
    140k on the clock
    almost full VW stamped service history with service book in dash
    a folder full of receipts including old tax discs tyres, bulbs etc.

    Its fully original, no modifications at all, It even has a fischer cassette holder. Bodywork wise its mint with only the odd tiny surface rust spots (around the rear wiper and tow hook) and 1 tiny dent on the passenger. There is no rust around the fuel filler, arches or front wiper arms. Its literally better condition than my 2001 Polo.

    The bad points are all mechanical, the service history seems to end around 2010 and I can assume it hasn't had any work done since then. Its off the road at the moment until I give it a full fluid and belt service along with a new clutch and brakes all round. The brakes are so bad I don't see how they got through its last MOT. Despite being a bit of a dog mechanically it still pulls like a train and was ridiculously fun to drive for the 24 hours I had it insured :p

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    The brakes! My friend has take a lot more pictures which I will upload soon.

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    I tried one of the Steffans on from the Polo but decided 14s are too small in my opinion and would require too much lowering to pull them off.

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    Plus it they touch the rear beam on the back, so needless to say they may be for sale soon.

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    My lovely girlfriend got me a 280 to slap on which should be fun without power steering [:D]

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    Filthy bay.

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    Almost mint interior (small tear on drivers bolster).

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    The Huuuge aerial which we later nicknamed the fishing rod.

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    I bought a selection of rubber grommets from Halfrauds to plug the holes until they're welded up.

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    The rust around the squirter hole needs grinding back and painting anyway so its a perfect opportunity to weld up both of these holes.

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    More temporary grommets. Excuse the sticky residue left from the tailgate decal, this was removed as it was already tatty.

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    Theres no picture of it finished but I also painted this plastic rain tray satin black.

    My short term plans so far to get it on the road:

    Full thorough service
    Sachs clutch kit
    new discs and pads all round
    a good detailing
    pressed plates

    Thanks for looking and expect some decent progress soon!
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2017
  2. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Obligatory pressed plates.

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    Clutch kit for 77, bargain!

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    Gearbox out.

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    Thought I may as well give it a bit of a clean up while it was out.

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    A couple of hours cleaning.

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    Almost there

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    Old clutch, still a bit of life left in it to be fair but it was definitely worth changing.

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    Fly wheel cleaned up.

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    Window spacers used to align the friction plate within the fly wheel.

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    Homebrew engine support.

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    The freshly painted 'box shows up the rest of the bay.

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    The view from below. Ignore the grubby finger prints on the fresh paint, it was a mission to wrestle the box back in!

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    I also saw the battery tray for the first time and was presently surprised to see that it was solid with only a bit of surface rust.

    The next job to do is the brakes followed by a service and it should be on the road!
     
  3. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    I give up with this forum! I posted a big update and had replies from people then its all gone again?
     
  4. TSR 2.1 Forum Member

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    Could I suggest you stick with this place. The loss of your posts was a one off and will not happen a second time :)

    Oh and nice mk2, by the way.

    So how bad was the steering with the wee wheel fitted ??
     
  5. Matt48 Forum Member

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    yes it was last weekend maintenance and two days worth went walkabout
     
  6. Richard Mk2

    Richard Mk2 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Yeah as said above , dont worrie about it. I also lost a lot of posts and updates on my thread.

    Nice original Mk2 you have there though. Look forward to seeing some updates [:D]
     
  7. Admin Guest

    There you go, sorted the last lot of photos out for you.
     
  8. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    @TSR - I haven't had chance to try it yet but once i've sorted all the important bits I will get a boss kit.

    Thanks for the positive comments and for sorting my photos Jon.

    This week its been treated to a full service and new back brakes.

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    What was left of the rear brakes!

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    After unbolting one of the calipers all of this crap fell out, bits of disc pad and old back plate.

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    I hate how discs go rusty after a couple of weeks so I painted all of the non-contact surfaces with caliper paint.





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    cleaned the ISV with petrol.

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    Half way changing the rears.

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    Much better!

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    Perfect spot.

    A few pics of the in-dash service book:

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    Thats it for now, all thats left to do is the front brakes, tax and insurance and it should be on the road.
     
  9. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Ok so the Golfs on the road finally, all the brakes are sorted and its running much better now. I've also done a couple of small low cost things to try and revamp it aswell.

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    The old caliper bolts were a nightmare to remove, luckily I already had some replacements.

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    Replace the breather connector as the old one was very worn to say the least!

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    Managed to find a weighted shifter rod from the scrapper which is a straight swap.

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    Before.

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    After. I would recommend this mod to anyone, it takes 5 minutes to do and it makes a big difference.

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    I drilled out the old filter gause, I can see why people have trouble cleaning these. They are 5 layers thick and very restrictive!

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    Eventually I want to pick up a mk3 alloy rocker cover but for now I decided to tidy up the old cover.

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    Oven pride

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    Two hours later, just rinsed it off with water.

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    The outside doesn't look so good, its came out spotless but very rusty. I could have sanded and polished it but its steel so I would rather save my efforts and polish an alloy cover later on.

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    A bit of prep before paint.

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    New rocker cover as the old one was leaking, amber indicator bulbs for the rear and a pack of jubilee clips as every one I touch on this car falls apart.

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    Its tidier but I wish I went for black instead of silver as it looks pants

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    Also bagged and Apexi filter and adapter cheap, I only spent 10 minutes fitting it. Eventually it will have a propper bracket to lift it up slightly, a heat shield and a black hose. Im not sure if im going to keep this yet, I prefer the look of the standard air box but it does sound good and the throttle seems a bit nippier pulling away.

    Thats it for now, the next mini jobs to sort are the rattling windows and exhaust which sounds like its about to fall off!
     
  10. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Its been a while since i've updated and to be fair, I haven't done that much :p

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    Picked up a momo boss for a tenner but it was small spline as apposed to the big spline on my column. So I needed to remove the spline adapter. The puller I already had didn't have a deep enough reach so I had to cut two slots in the adapter for the jaws to grip but it wasn't quite gripping enough.

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    I then bought another type of puller which still wasn't quite right! After some stressing, we took the steering column shroud and stalks apart to get some grips behind the adapter which then gave a decent surface for the puller to grip against :lol:

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    I know its nothing special as a good percentage of this forum probably have one but I love it, its really improved the feel of the car.

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    The rear hard lines also needed replacing and were a ***** to remove!

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    Sorted, eventually Im going to pick up a spare beam to shot blast and powder coat, along with some braided flex lines.

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    It was long overdue a bleed!


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    Im getting the alignment sorted soon but wanted to replace the track rod ends first as it makes sense. Driver side was no problem, 5 minute job. (Yes, I desperately need new ARB bushes!)

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    The passenger side wasn't so easier, it turns out non PAS Mk2s came with 1 non-adjustable track rod from the factory! I couldn't believe it until I did a bit of research. So I now need to get a new track rod now as well.

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    Another trip to the scrappers, brought back the wiring kit from a BMW to stick the battery in the boot. I just need to sort out some form of tray/ battery box.

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    The old spoiler was badly colour coded at some point.

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    I picked up a fresh one from ebay, forgot to take a pic of it fitted.
     
  11. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    My post from the 4/8/13 hasn't appeared again :(
     
  12. Finite

    Finite Paid Member Paid Member

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    Seems to be a lot of small bumper Mk2s on here at the moment, loving it :thumbup:
     
  13. mk2 nas Paid Member Paid Member

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    liking it so far.youve done a lot.
     
  14. 91standard New Member

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    lovin the work ...great photos
     
  15. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Thanks for the comments guys, I am tempted to swap to big bumpers but really can't decide haha.

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    I didn't get any decent before pics but I degreased and jet washed the bay, it made a huge difference and the amount of crap that came off was scary.

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    Eventually im going to remove all the seam sealer, weld up any unnecessary holes and give it a fresh coat of paint, but for now a simple clean has made it a bit more presentable. The only 'dirt' left is the factory applied wax which im going to have a go at remove with a heat gun and a scraper.

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    The head cleaned up really well and i've remove all traces of the old rocker cover leak.

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    This pic doesn't do the car any justice but I gave it a good polish and a couple coats of AG HD Wax.

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    I swapped the standard battery (bottom) for the one from my polo which is physically smaller yet offer 50 extra cranking amps.

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    It should look at home mounted in the boot.

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    The washer bottle should fit neatly the opposite side of the boot but I may swap it for a smaller one, I haven't decided yet.

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    My organised mess :blush:

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    The rear badges were looking really battered

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    I've painted them black for now just to tidy them up. I may keep them like this or get some original chrome ones from VW Heritage.

    The next job on my list is overhauling the gear linkage as i've lost 5th completely and 2nd is hard to find :lol:
     
  16. Richard Mk2

    Richard Mk2 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Very nice mk2 you have there :)

    :thumbup: Thumbsup for the big bumpers ;)

    Regarding your lineage problems, I have a new relay shaft
    And ball, & part of a new bush kit for your car for sale in the classifieds.
     
  17. TSR 2.1 Forum Member

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    Good progress, hope you are feeling pleased with results.

    Oh if you was to remove the factory wax, I found the heat gun along with kitchen towel to wipe it off is a lot neater and you get quite a good result as it dose not scratch the paint under it.
     
  18. Finite

    Finite Paid Member Paid Member

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    I've got a similar sized second hand battery in mine which was the catalyst for getting it back on the road, but I found inboard position takes all of the slack out of the positive lead. So I've put an extra notch in the nylon wedge adapters to make it over hang like the previous battery for now.

    What are you using for the fisheye pictures?
     
  19. rye1991 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Richard - I already had a full linkage kit to fit but thanks anyway!

    TSR - I will try that, cheers!

    Finite - I have plenty of slack in my + cable, so thats strange. My friend took the fisheye pics, I think his lense is made by Samyong is something along those lines haha, I will find out what kit he uses.

    Thanks for the comments!

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    the paintworks starting to get better.

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    I've got some PB Black Hole and Natty Blue wax to try out if the weather picks up tomorrow.

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    I also picked up a new track rod to replace the non-adjustable OEM one, can I just take the alignment to be sorted as you would be a normal setup or does the passenger side need to be set to factory length and left alone, adjusting only the other side? Im not sure if using both sides for adjustment would throw the rack out of square?

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    There are more important things that I should be buying for the car at the moment but I couldn't resist buying some polished wing bolts for a quick and easy improvement.

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    It got to the point where I lost reverse completely so I had to fit the linkage kit i've had waiting to fit from Veedubmachine.

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    I now see why I didn't have 5th gear at all!

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    removing the header tank gave plenty of access for this fiddly job.

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    This weird box is part of the alarm system that doesn't work, I wanted to remove it completely but the car wouldn't start without it so it obviously acts as an immobiliser.

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    The main shaft bush was very badly worn.

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    All of the old linkage parts, I degreased the parts I was keeping and they cleaned up pretty well.

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    The gearbox got me :(

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    The relay ball

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    Fittings the new shaft bush, instead of drilling out the rivets I just softened the rubber with hot water and used a G clamp.

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    All the parts that I could happily bin!

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    All back together

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    The gear change is now 100% better, its so smooth and positive with no play in any gears. A very fiddly but worthwhile job. I have replace all parts of the linkage apart from the ball and socket under the shifter, im going to do these when I fit a full exhaust system as I will have plenty of access.

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    The kit also contained this piece which I can't see on my linkage anywhere, could this be for a different model?

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    I also didn't seem to need these either :huh:





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    I found these wires behind the centre console, any ideas what they are for? They are factory wiring that have been chopped off and replace with block connectors. There are also two black cables which don't look like factory wires.

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    The wires lead to this plug under the steering column. The cigar lighter isn't connected either, could they be for this?

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    My girlfriend thinks I should mount her ipad where the console used to be ha <_<

    A few pics taken by Lewis:

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    My next jobs I want to do before the MOT in October:

    new anti roll bushes and drop links
    new lower ball joints
    fit passenger side track rod and track rod end
    full alignment
    fix speedo (I think its broken behind the cluster)
    Plumb in the washer bottle and mount in the boot.

    Thats it for now :)
     
  20. rubjonny

    rubjonny Administrator Staff Member Admin

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    ciggy lighter ;)
     

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