`85 Postal Service Golf Restoration: 16V ITBs - Engine bay

I glued the parts of the Airbox together (the printing bed size of the 3D printer forced us to print the upper and lower part in three pieces each) and reinforced the contact points with fibreglass:


The front clip was further cut out to make enough space to play around - now it seems to fit nicely, although still quite tight in some spaces. Perhaps some more cutting to do, but I`ll leave it like this for now:



"Rule of thumb"



Then - the air filter housing needs to be made. Since it was quite nice to work with CAD on this topic, I decided to also scan the wheel well. It took several hours since it was a bit tricky to scan but it came out wuite ecent, you can even spot the dent the upper edge at the front:

 

Small update: Since I want to build myself one set of "Show`n`Shine" wheels with the Spiess centers, I needed to take some measurements in order to be able to start searching for the right barrels. I really want to have the original old barrels with rolled lips, so this might take some time, even better to have the measurements as soon as possible. I test fitted with 2.5" outside and 6" inside barrels. Centers have different offsets front to rear in order to clear the brakes up front. Plan is to have an aggressive fitment, so my plan is to run 9x16 all around. These wheels will (obviously) not be built for driving (illegal anyway):



Front needs 1.5" barrels outside and 7.5" barrels inside to fit under the fender



In the back, I lucked out and the outside 2.5" I already have fit perfectly, so i just need some 6.5" inner barrels.

Also I went shopping! There was a garage sale of MK2 parts near me so of course i had to go there. beside some rear axles and other bits and bobs I was happy to find this:



A set of rust free G60 fenders - don`t know if i ever will ned them, but it`s nice to have. I also found a steering wheel which could fit my second MK2. It`s from Carl Kittel, the spokes are anodized alumium and it feels nice and strong:



And they had a bunch of hood latches which I also took with me, already disasselbled and ready for zinc plating:

 

The colour on those arches is beautiful!

 

Indeed! Plan for the second Mk2 I have (Facelift, 2dr w/ Sunroof) is to make a GTI clone with a 1.8T, and up until now I was fixed on making the car red. Seeing these fenders (probably Dark Burgundy or something like that? Perhaps someone knows more) made me think that there might be other interesting choices.

 

Update from CAD - I managed to construct an air filter housing, it`s already printed and waiting for final coat of paint - but first, here some pictures how it all began. The kneepiece has the wrong elliptical diameter, but the rest fits quite nice:

 

Now that's what I would call a labour of love.

 

I wish I had access to 3d scanning and printing. . Fabulous

 

Thanks guys! A 3D scanner and printer is acutally quite obtainable these days - We used a Creality 3D scanner which is around 400,- and the printer is a Bambulab and costs around 650,- (€). It`s not nothing but compared to people willingly buying smartphones for 1000+ it seems to be relatively fair price.

Downside is if you don`t need it that often, then the cost would exceed the actual benefit. I thought about buying a 3D printer myself, but since a friend of mine already has one, I rather pay him for printing, making it cheaper for both of us.

Speaking of printing, the parts came out of the printer just before Christmas. Since the 3D scan had not picked up the exact measurements of the front crossmember, I filled up the area with bondo to create a smooth transition between the lower part of the housing (which is wider) and the upper, narrower part of the housing. Also the part facing the wheel well did interfere too much with the fender liner, so I had to cut a portion off and fix it very professionally:



Also some louvers needed to be placed to be able to let air inside the housing, I didn`t want to just cut a hole somewhere when finished. The underside of the housing will have the largest area of air inlet, this will also serve as opening to be able to mount the air filter. But since this conctruction would mean that if i ever stood in a deeper puddle, there is the possibility that the engine will suck up water just like a vacuum cleaner. To prevent this, I wanted to create also an opening in the upper part. With this construction, the water colum below would be too heavy to get sucked up into the engine and fresh air will be drawn from the upper part of the housing.

I printed the parts separately out of convenience, cut them and glued them in place. Here you can also see the smoothed transition between lower and upper part of the housing sitting in the vincinity of the mounting points of the cross member.



After A LOT of sanding the parts were ready for body filler - I already painted the air box with epoxy base but there were still some imperfections so it was also painted with body filler:



Currently missing is the final coat with 2K paint to make a nice finish ready for molding!

 

What the h*ll! The level of work going into this is amazing.

I love the 3d scanning and printing. Class stuff.

 

Great to read your updates Steffan and interesting to see your routing for the airbox! Look forward to seeing them in carbon/kevlar

 

I didn't think a scanner was so affordable.
It really is the future for serious car modifiers

 

Thanks guys, I`m really excited to see how everything plays out.

The diameters in the air path are only getting bigger, so there is no choke point, which is good.

I just hope I am able to fabricate the final pieces in a good quality, not having a lot of experience and the geometry of the parts being somewhat complicated will definetely be a challenge.

Speaking of challenges - the radiator. As some may remember, I ordered a custom radiator core, and I always was a bit anxious about welding it. There is a lot that can go wrong, but no one is going to do it for me, so I pulled myself together and started prepping:

I bent the boxes in a 45° angle, with the intent not to stress the aluminium too much and I think it looks nicer, too:



Cutting some tubes proved to be difficult because of the geometry, so I made some dummies out of toilet paper rolls to gte the angles right:



Cutting the holes, trimmed the holes with a dremel later to ensure a good fit:



Decided to make a brushed finish, relatively easy to do and looks nice and smooth:



Prep for welding, some may recognize these metal blocks



Welding. I also punched in some letters to document the origin of the radiator



Since I am not running with a pressurized expansion reservoir, the filler cap wanted to have a place to be, too. In order to know where the bonnet height will be I made a makeshift bonnet:



Semi-finished, I hope I can finalize it this weekend:

 

Thats i incredible work, I am jealous!
To be able to make a custom radiator would be so helpful in cars with ITBs in the front!

 

I give up, what are the metal blocks?

 

Thanks Danpy

The metal blocks are absorber weights of the front axle from 35i Passat and Mk3 Golf - useless in a car, but very neat when you need a fixture for welding.

 

Upcycling!

 

Another topic to tackle was the exhaust system. Being a MK2, it's pretty straight forward. I used Simons silencers and picked the biggest ones I could find which still fit, hoping it will be as quiet as possible - I don`t really like obnoxious loud exhausts. So, in goes the front silencer:



I managed to put it as far up as possible in order to not create a low spot:


Next up was the middle silencer and the rear one, at the moment it is about 90% finished, I just need to remove the welds on the s-bend exhaust tip and weld the rear attachement point:



I had to have an s-bend tip, I just can`t help it.


Some close-ups, I also did the whole exhaust with backpurging in order to create a smooth flow:

 

You're annoyingly talented!

 

@Tristan: If that`s the only way I`m annoying, I`m fine with that

Speaking of annoying things, here my topics of the weekend:

Since the first try painting the air box and the other parts outside at -3°C Celsius resulted in a number of paint runs, I was awarded with sanding the whole charade back down again and painting it again. With a little bit more prep and better weather conditions I managed to put out a decent enough result which will allow me to now move on to the molding process:



Having done that, I wanted to finalize the radiator. I welded the upper and lower U-shaped aluminium sheet to the radiator for being able to make mounting points. When checking for the final position I remembered that I should probably also check if there is room for the hood latch. Turns out, there was not.
So I had to make some room by making recesses on both sides, unfortunately at the exact same spot where I needed some room for the hood latch there was also the Airbox just sitting behind the radiator. The solution is not perfect but I hope it will work:



This cost me enough time to not being able to finish the radiator, still need to complete the mounting points for the Spal fan:




And the knee piece has finally the correct measurements, I smoothed some radiuses with bondo, sanded everything down and put filler on it. Hopefully I can paint this weekend and finish the prep work for molding.

 

I say out with the hood latch and hello Aerocatch

(But that's too late now)