That has turned out great, the trim fitment really does give you the clubsport image. have fun adding the finishing touches!
Thanks buddy! This weekend was much more chilled. Everytime I've been back I've been on it day and night so I was adamant to just take my time and enjoy it. Made a start on the heater matrix – spent a good chunk of time trying to unbolt it from the bulkhead, of course the bolts were a complete pain! Ended up getting the grinder out which had them shifted in no time. Also kept going with the interior. Got the front door cards in but had to remove the door pocket to stop it fouling the cage. I'll try and trim these later to fit. But the good news is everything else fits including the window winders! They really are a super tight fit though! The rears are even tighter! they really took some wrestling to get in and a little bit of trimming where the cage meets the door seal. But after a lot of swearing, I managed to get it in. I had to pretty much fold the door card in half to squeeze it into place - not ideal, but my view was if I couldnt make them fit I'd have to make or buy some flat panel replacements which I'm not keen to do. But its really starting to come along! Went out Saturday evening for a wee blast in the Dales with my camera. Lovely evening and the first chance I've had to drive the car in the dry after the cage. Results are I definitely need to do some suspension tweaks. It's still in "Track mode" and 1st and 2nd gear are pretty useless on the road, the car just darts and jumps around all over the place due to the extra stiffness. But at lease now my suspension will actually be working rather than compensating chassis flex Still got loads to sort! But all positive stuff til next time! Cheers
Thanks Paul Some little updates. and some big changes in life... Due to some unforeseen circumstances I'll be moving out of London and back up to Harrogate, permanently! It's an exciting time and it will mean I'll have the golf to work on all the time so progress should be swift Due to moving up there I've decided I need a daily car to get me around, it will be perfect to really get into the golf and not needing it to get to work will be a real benefit! I'm going to look at a crazy cheap Honda Accord diesel tomorrow, so fingers crossed that works out. Not a VW but its a bargain. To update, I was back up north a few weeks back. The car needed an MOT and I had some doubts about the rear arch areas. Although I've tackled the inner fuel filler area the inner arches have always been crusty and a younger naive me thought I could just waxoyl them and be done. So I took a flat blade and BFH and went to town. I'm in no rush to get the car on the road, only the Ring to prepare for, for the end of July. That's the drivers side, same as the fuel filler. This side really seems to have suffered from tinworm. The other side is much better but will still need some work. For the rear valance I've ordered a full new panel to weld in and the rest I'll fabricate up. I made a start on one side of the arch. Generally, it went really well and I worked fast, I'm feeling much more confident with the welder. Got a few nice beads going until the dreaded factory Waxoyl melted and I couldnt get a clean weld. Still completely solid (tested with a BFH). I've decided not to remake the lip of the arch, I will weld the inner and outer together and make some tabs to secure the arch too. Very happy with how its going now onto the Matrix. The majority of the interior is now back in, I replaced the matrix fitted it back in only to realise later that I'd been sent the wrong matrix.. You can imagine I was pleased by that luckily the local SAS car parts got a replacement in the next day for reasonable money! Lastly I started to repolish the lips on my Mahles after they were ruined in the winter. Very happy with how they turned out! just the last 2 to do now. My best mate said to me "your car was more than a bit f'ed before you started all this welding wasn't it" and actually thinking about it, yes it was. I think if I wasn't able to weld and get stuck in the most logical thing would be to reshell the car. But I have to be honest. Although all this stuff seems very drastic I'm loving doing it, learning more and more and getting stuck in! I'm pretty confident after these rear aches are sorted the car should be virtually rust free.
Ended up buying the Accord! shes a right barge. It's been remapped so goes like a buggerlol (200bhp-400nm) has heated electric leather seats, cruise control, Sat Nav, climate control and 60mpg on a run! cant grumble with that and all for sub £1k. - enough Jap talk.. back to business. More time spent at home and more rust unearthed, did I say I was enjoying this...lol I started by cutting off the rear valance. I decided not to drill the spot welds running along the top but instead to cut below it and weld the new panel on top of those spot welds. This extra thickness should dissipate the heat and give me more room for error when welding the new panel on. Eeek no going back now. Here was my first mistake, Id cut about 5mm too high meaning I'd cut completely along the boot floor what a numpty! - gave myself a hard time then cracked on and fixed it! After welding, all ground back And in zinc primer Then moved onto the new panel, had to modify the exhaust outlet as this was a non GTI panel with a single exit exhaust. With that sorted, it was time to work on the rear corners. These need to be mint to be able to align the new panel and ensure everything is solid while everything is cut off and the tank is out. Remade the section above the towing eye. Unfortunately, the underside was looking a little crusty. Again all hidden behind the factory underseal. This is after some wire wheel action, with the rear box section removed and a small amount cut away. You can see where the rust has got underneath the feet of the box (to the left) First job I marked out where the towing eye sat Then drilled out the spot welds holding the tow eye on (has to be my favourite job!) After a well needed brew the plan of action was to cut this whole section out. Voila... Cut out the top layer of the chassis leg which looked fine from the top side but I want it right so decided to get rid. It was really hard getting the grinder in there but managed it with small cuts Got that welded in nice and solid ready to plate over the whole lot. And that's how far I got! I plan to clean up the towing eye and weld that to the new plate that's going in, needs to get some strong welds on there. Other good news is the rest of the chassis legs look really solid! Lets hope shes ready for the 'Ring end of July if not I'll be taking the new barge.. (it will probably be faster!)
Nice work as ever! Kind of in awe of your welding skills and fair play for just getting on with it Really must learn to weld. Are you self taught?
Thanks mate I didnt really have much choice, it was either pay someone alot of money to do it or buy a decent welder and teach myself and get stuck in and I'm really glad I did! I watched a lot of videos about what to look out for/what to listen for etc which helped loads. Its hard work both physically and mentally in the areas I've been doing but its just like a big jigsaw and mega satisfying! Still lots to do, its pretty daunting but once its done its done
Thanks Beetie! With the 'Ring trip soon approaching (this Saturday) I've been working on the golf every day this week! and I glad to say I've got loads done. some photos..I hope you like welding... Starting with the passenger side.. Its things like making this little piece that take the time, With that in I started making patches and buzzing them in Back to the drivers side to sort this out I was going to make up some rear corners myself but with them being curved and dimpled to match the rear valance I knew I'd have no chance with my tools. So I decided to order both sides keeping as much of the original metal as possible. Anyone who has ever welded a mk2 will know the pain of the photo bottom left. Bloody Waxoyl! it creeps into ever weld even if you clean the area beforehand. Passenger side corner I decided I didn't want to recreate the lip of the rear arches. firstly because they will rust easier due to collecting dirt and secondly for excess clearance for my wheels. This caused one issue which was how I was going to attach my plastic arches. To over come this I made some small tabs which I welded on in the correct alignment along the arch. Getting the rear panel lined up took some doing, but I took my time and made sure it was the best it could be before welding it in. Using spot welds similar to factory. With the rear panel in and perfectly level I used some brushable seam sealer to make sure it was all sealed Once the rear panel was in I began cleaning up all of the tank mounts and making sure I'd got all the rust from the back end. Luckily everything was clean... oh, apart from the chassis leg... at this point it was starting to get a little tedious Everything was treaded and sealed
Now the rear valance was on I could line up and weld the rear towing eye back on. It was really nice to weld this part on, the metal is really thick. I began welding on the strap itself built up a pool of weld and dropped it over onto the panel which was a lot thinner metal, so not to burn through. Confident that everything on the rear end is now rust free, I started to prep and paint the rear valance. The panel had a few manufacturing marks and small dings which needed sorting For the lower corner I wanted to replicate the factory stonechip paint. Doing some research It seemed the finish was very hard if at all possible using spray can rather than a proper Schutz gun, which I don't have. I decided I'd improvise, so I used a thick coat of seamsealer and stippled it with a brush. Check the final finish photos for how this turned out My process for painting is slightly different to most people. I tend to use very heavy coats rather than thin coats. This ensure a great finish out of the can and also gives you enough paint to flat back. I was using spray cans from Halfords. Zinc Primer on any bare metal 2 Coats of Grey primer Flat back with 1200 grit (to remove imperfections and dust from my garage) 2 thick coats of VW Black flat back with 2500 grit (wet) to remove orange peel 2 coats of clear lacquer Flat with 2500 grit (wet) 2 stage Machine polish using a red soft pad and Menzerna product. Final results. Very happy with the arch tabs and the textured created for the rear quarters I'm very very happy with the results of this one! I've learnt alot and had a great time in the proccess, so win win. With that success I thought it was about time I tried a new tyre, ready for the 'ring in a few days. I have nothing but good things to say about my Nankang NS2R's - A really fantastic tyre which has worn unbelievably well! Since Nankang brought out the AR-1 I've been intrigued to try it. Especially as it was 4 seconds a lap quick around Spa than Toyo R888R and has much better wear rates. The only downside is they have an 'E' rating in the wet, where as the NS2R's have a 'B' rating. So thats bound to be interesting or terrifying... Either way I'm excited to try them! Had them fitted and the car MOT'd which thankfully it passed with flying colours!! Just this evening I've changed the oil and filter as well as the coolant and fitted a new flange. Fitted a new clutch cable, repaired and fitted a new wiper stalk and finished off all the interior. I was also aware I needed to order a new set of rear pads after last years 'incident' (see video below) This was caused by my standard Delphi rear pads getting too hot and momentarily sticking to the disc. The challenge has been to find a pad which provides no more friction than standard but one that can deal with a higher heat. After a lot of research and not finding much I stumbled across Tarox Strada which claim to has a coefficicent of 0.49 which is very similar to standard. But they can cope with a much higher heat, perfect! With all that sorted, I've currently got my feet up and a cup of tea in hand! It really is needed! Only some odd bits and bats to finish now and she's ready for the Nurburgring. We are off for 9 days and the track is open every evening so it hopefully should be a great trip. I'll report back after the trip
Fair.Play. Is all I have to say on this! Outstanding work/level of skills. Nice one bud Good luck at the ring!
Thanks lads! I just got back to the UK today! The trip was incredible! but eventful! - very eventful... will get a proper write up done as soon as I have the photos through
Fantastic update as always. Have really enjoyed reading your thread on here and back in the day on Edition38 (I think when you first started the thread) - how time flies!
Nurburgring 2018 Another year and another fantastic trip! It didnt go without its mishaps which I'll touch on later... We set off to Hull for the usual 8pm crossing to Rotterdam. We had a nice steady trip over and arrived over the other side for 8am. We had the usual bunch of lads - Ford in his 3.2 TT and Beardy in his Teg. This year, the same as usual, we rented a house for the 9 days we were there and I think this is one of the best we've stayed in. It was a 10 min drive to the Nordschelife entrance in Virneburg and cost us £130 each for the 9 days, so great value. The owners were amazing, super friendly and spoke great English. After unpacking I gave the golf a final check over of fluids and pressures before making our way to the track. First port of call after unpacking was to top up with some racey 102 fuel Arrived at the track and went straight out for a lap. Straight away the car felt amazing! by the time I got to Flugplatz I could really feel how much stiffness the cage had added and how much more grip was on offer with the new AR1's. Unfortunately here is where this report goes downhill for a little while.. Just before Wipperman I went to grab 4th gear. The gearstick was stuck solid. A few more wiggles (yanks) and still nothing. My initial thought was the box has got too hot for what ever reason and it needed to cool. Never the less I kept positive and enjoyed the rest of the lap in 3rd gear -pretty much at full pace Just before the mini karusell it suddenly dawned on me that Id have to get out the carpark and up a HUGE single track road with tight hairpins in 3rd gear... this was going to the interesting. Parked up in the carpark and left the car for 20 mins to cool. Still nothing! stuck solid. I inspected the linkages and everything seemed in order. Popped the linkages back on and got Ford in the driver seat to give the gearstick a wiggle while I check the movement of the linkages. Next news I let out a little giggle, Ford replies "What?" as we both watch the ball that should have been attached to my relay shaft go rolling down the carpark.. GREAT! Ford felt absolutely terrible, but I told him not to worry and I must have cracked it on track trying to get it out of gear. So the inevitable was coming, how to get back to the house. With a quick push in the carpark to get going, the mighty 8v pulled away (alot easier than I was expecting) Next challenge was the 1:3 hillclimb back to the house. The turning up to the hillclimb was a very acute left hand junction in a village. With Beardy's word ringing in my head "theres no way your getting up there in 3rd" I had no choice but to get 2 wheels on the right hand kerb at 25mph, quickly flick the car left with about a turn of lock and stamp on the throttle. Poor Dorris was out gardening and I bet she thought I was a right yob Ford was behind and said the inside rear lifted about half a foot I managed to negotiate the hairpin and got back to the house feeling quite proud That was the first hurdle. Now onto the actual problem. At this point it was obvious there was a serious issue, this was made more obvious after we attached the bar off my jack on the end of the selector shaft and gave it a nudge and it still wouldn't budge... Time for a brew. I came to the ring this year on a very tight budget. At the time I was moving to the other side of the country and was in between jobs so any extra expense was a push! I have Euro breakdown and seriously considered giving them a ring and getting him put on a flatbed and sent back to the UK. But wheres the fun in that!? After finishing my brew I'd made my mind up that I was going to fix it. After all I had 9 days off, and 2 mates with me to help... A quick google German translator and some German ebay later I had a possible gearbox located only 30mins drive away from Virneburg. Only issue was the box code was ATH - a 1993 diesel Passat, so the ratios would be interesting. I'd been told there was a scrapyard near the ring, just by the GP tack. By this time it was 8pm so we had a look over the fence and spotted a promising looking MK2 Feeling knackered but determined we made our way to Adenau for some food. That night I found out a stuck 3rd gear in an 020 box is fairly common, and is down to "overshifting" whatever that means! I've watched the footage back and I heel and toed every gear on that lap and didnt do anything untoward... Perhaps a 30 year old gearbox just needs a rest sometimes! The next morning I was up bright and early and we went straight off to the scrapyard. Using my best german I asked the owner if he had any vw gearboxes, he gave me a funny look and just shook his head. On reflection I hope it was a gearbox I asked for! Luckily his son spoke perfect english and we went for a tour around the carpark. The mk2 we spotted the night before was for sale as a complete car. There were a few mk3's and other bits and bobs. Managed to find one mk2 but it was a 4 speed so knocked that idea on the head. Heading back to the car I emailed the bloke on German Ebay and told him we would be popping over to his unit - hoping that he was in. Most roads around the 'Ring are just like this one! After trying to get the bloke to crack a smile we made a deal on 100euro for the box and a relay shaft. Not too bad in my time of need! Did I mention I'd be changing the box on the guesthouse driveway!? Very glad I packed all my tool and even spare driveshaft bolts! ... but wheres that damn spline tool... yep, I'd left it at home! We were staying next door to the English lads who own the Crown Pub in Adenau, they saw the box on the driveway and came straight round with a big set of ramps and asking if we needed any help. I explained we had everything apart from a spline tool. They made a quick ring to Stu at Ring Garage, who I spoke to on the phone. He said he had a tool we could borrow and if we needed anything else he was more than happy to drive round the area and pick up supplies! - These lads are true gents and I cant thanks them enough for their gratitude!! Even though you're thousands of miles from home in a foreign country, at the Nurburgring you really aren't too far from home at all. So, onto the task in hand. To put the difference in ratios into context, check the tables below. The left hand side is my standard ACD 020 close ratio box, on the right is the diesel passat ATH 020 box. My main priority in doing this job was to not spill a drop of box fluid on the driveway! The last thing I wanted to do was annoy the German couple who owned the house. Just as I got the car on stands the owner came out and said "problems!?" I said yes... thats when he saw the gearbox. "you are going to replace that!?" ... "erm, yes, if thats okay with you!" ... "of course! you have the garage there, please rearrange it how you want" - 2 mins later he came out with some massive dust sheets, obviously he was concerned about his driveway too! Again cannot thanks the owners enough for being so kind and accommodating! First job Removal of the box went fairly well. Until I tried to remove the dreaded driveshaft spline bolts. I got them all out bar 3 bolts, which had completely rounded - No problem I thought, I'll get my Urwin bolt gripers on the job... nope, I'd left those at home too! Strangely, just before locking up my garage in the UK, I grabbed my angle grinder! Unfortunately it wouldn't fit in the gap between the box and driveshaft, that resulted in me having to take the guard off the grinder to gain access, not something I was comfortable with but it had to be done. After this hurdle it was the end of the day, yes it really had taken that long to get 3 rounded bolts out! Next morning the lads helped man handle the box out! I had checked online before buying the box at 020 specs and this new box was listed as exactly the same apart from the ratios. I spent til lunch time getting the new box in and bolted up - all going well so far! Trying to bolt the driveshafts up I suddenly noticed they were 90mm flanges and not the 100mm I needed for my driveshafts... balls! At this point we were all knackered and I thought that would be end of the trip. A quick google and some encouragement from Nige, I was back out swapping the flanges from one box to another. This again proved to be a complete pain, 2 hours later all the cups were swapped over and I was able to bolt the driveshafts back up! Marked up all the bolts so I could see if anything came loose Got the car back on the ground, topped the box fluid up with the cheapest stuff I could find and went for a test drive! HUGE RELIEF! the box is lovely, smooth as silk and everything aligns and slots in as it should. The ratios are completely laughable though! I knew the track would be interesting, now I'd be using 2nd, 3rd with occasional 4th. Got back to the house and checked everything over, everything looked spot on! We'd done it!!! By this time it was getting late so I jumped in the shower, and we all headed straight for the evening tourist session. As you can imagine I was a little apprehensive about going out. But i needn't have worried! after a couple of miles my confidence in the car grew and we were back on form, albeit alot slower due to the box. Smiles all round! saw Dale from Bridge to Gantry in the carpark and he was very exited and seemed to love the golf, before I knew it he'd jumped in and started it up going "wooow" Ended up doing 2 laps and felt so pleased we'd managed to sort it! Only issue I could find was I was boiling my cheap box fluid, so replaced that with some decent stuff and had a leak from the speedo cable hole, which i fixed with about an inch of high temp sealant After all the box needed to last me a week and get me home! Drove home with a huge grin and sat down to a very well deserved cold one! For the res of the week we lapped hard and had a fantastic time!!! This year the golf got alot of love! everywhere we stopped and even on the motorway people we taking photos and asking questions about the car We stopped a few times to grab photos ourselves. It really is a stunning place! Got some lovely photos on track! I'm claiming all 4 wheels off! The only issue I had through the week were the exhaust rubbers. No matter which ones I try they always melt!
So had to make do with some makeshift hangers One of the highlights of the trip was being able to take Jeffery out for his very first lap at the Nurburgring. Him and his family had travelled to the 'Ring from the Netherlands to watch the classic racing the week after we were there. They were staying next door and got chatting to them. I said we were heading to the track the next day and if he asked permission from his mum I'd be more than happy to take him for a few laps. He was beyond excited and his week family holiday just got a whole lot better! Jeffery's family invited us round for a BBQ as a thanks. We had a fantastic time a have some new friends in Holland. Throughout the trip ambient temps were around 33degrees C! even at 7pm at night. That meant an alarmingly high track temp!! As a result Beardy and Ford decided not to go out after both experiencing over heating tyres and brakes. The Golf still felt great so I kept lapping, I think Jeffery came out for almost all of them! The AR1's were really dealing with the heat well and even though they took a mile or so to warm up the level of grip compared to the NS-2R's is next level! To sum up an amazing trip I had the most enjoyable last lap I've ever done at the ring!! After an accident before the miss-hit-miss a little Swift Sport tagged onto the back of me and suddenly I found myself really pushing. All within comfortable limits, but we were very evenly matched and we were both having a whale of a time! On our way back to the ferry we stopped off at Micheal Schumacher's karting, where I managed fastest lap of the week Getting stuck in a traffic jam in in a black car with no aircon, in this heat is never fun! but 47 degrees!!!?! On our way back we hit a derestricted part of the motorway and I decided to open the taps up and see what the new box had in it. I had all my tools in the back and my old gearbox... but I still managed 142mph! You might wonder how I managed to record that, well my speedo goes to 120mph and the needle was wrapping back round to 0 Ford was behind in his TT and he said he saw 142mph! The old girl does well! We made it back to the UK safe and Sound! I'll be uploading more videos shortly so will post them up here
Great report, one of my old 020 boxes used to get stuck in 3rd gear when at Santa pod but was always fine on the road! Just watched the swift video, god that box does sound over-geared somewhat!
brilliant thread, always love the updates! What welder do you use? i'm looking to buy one and its good to see you are getting good use out of yours
