91 Mk2 GTI Replica: Work In Progress (LHD, ABF & AC)

***MASSIVE PIC HEAVY POST ALERT***

Hi there!



It has been almost 3 years since I have done barely any work on the car. I was really close to the point of giving up on it and selling it on. You know, life and responsibilities that get in the way of the fun stuff.

The good news are that I have picked up where I left and I am planning on having the car finished. Here is my progress in more or less chronological order.


A friend of mine from Norway spotted this gem advertised on a local site. Say no more, I had to have it. I believe its an American made item. Pretty funny how it utilises a BMW e30 power window switch.




Hi there friend.


Of course, no space remains vacant for long. The garage had accumulated tons of crap around the car. I put some wheels on the car and rolled it out to clean up the mess.


Had the rear beam, calipers and mounting brackets sandblasted and powdercoated.




I had an urge to try DIY rust removal using Hydrochloric acid aka muriatic acid. Its perfect for small fasteners, springs and various bits and bobs. Make sure to use PPE and do it in a well ventilated area as the fumes are quite toxic. Make sure to rinse off the part in some water with bicarbonate of soda in it to neutralize the acid.



Before


One minute later


Random bits




On to the gnarliest of all tasks. The infamous rear mk2 calipers. State of the calipers before rebuild.










Freshly powdercoated


On with the rebuild


New cylinder, seals, new handbrake lever and spring. The Budweg kit updates the handbrake return spring with a much beefier one. Everything is assembled using ATE Bremzylinderpaste and ATE Plastilube.




I bet Girling engineers were high on crack when they designed this







I had to swap out the hard plastic dashboard from the CL with the soft vinyl one from a GTI as the plastic one does not have provisions for mounting Digifiz brackets. I detailed the dashboard and put the speakers in.




I came across this 20 Jahre mk3 shift knob and had to have it. I think it will be a subtle little touch to spice up the interior.


To fit the ABF fuel pump I had to fit a mk3 fuel tank. Cleaned up inside and out.


Sachs Advantage with Eibach pro kit springs looking lovely.

 

Chased all the threads on the beam



New backing plates and spindles from vwheritage. All new fasteners torqued to spec and marked.



New dust caps for the rear spindles. VWheritage is the only place on the planet Earth that have these.



The Bible of all things Mk2



Almost done





I then bent and flared CuNi brake lines as I don't have the tooling to fabricate steel lines. I hate the look of copper lines, so I gave them a lick of paint for that OEM look.



Poly bushings for the beam



Brackets, new bolts and force regulator



Everything cleaned up and wax applied where need be



The car now can be lowered back on its wheels, which after all these years is a milestone for me.




I already installed the engine but it turns out the sump is seeping oil around the drain bolt. I did not want to bother with welding and taping the alloy sump on the ABF and ordered a new steel sump, new bolts and a windage tray gasket from a diesel.



Knock, knock! Who's there?



A leather steering wheel from ebay.de



-had the mk2 AC pipes recrimped with mk3 style fittings for the compressor. One of the pipes had to be elongated by 8cm.
-ran all the brake lines
-hydraulic clutch installed
-welded up the shifter box as the mk3 holes do not line up with the mk2 mounting holes
-ordered some aluminum/fiberglass heat shield sleeves for the shifter cables on ebay
-mk3 fuel filter bracket and filter installed, all the plumbing done
-had to modify the PAS reservoir bracket to sit closer to the chassis leg, as the 02a shift tower fouls one of the lines and I didn't want to convert to a g60 reservoir
-had the OEM r15 Sebring wheels straightened. Now off to blasting and paint
-ordered v-band flanges for the exhaust. Now have to TIG weld it to the manifold.
-FINALLY, FINALLY got my hands on the headlight washer system for big bumpers

How she sits right now


Will have to probably toss this counterweight from the shift tower as it hits the enormous 8l washer fluid tank



New master cylinder. Bled the brakes, but the pedal is still soft. Will re-bleed again later.



The two remaining options that I wanted to find were the headlight washers and Gamma 3 CD head unit. One option to go to full spec.

I terrorized all the junkyards in Sweden for the headlight washer system. As they were more common in the Scandinavian countries. Finally one junkyard got back to me and were ready to remove and send the entire system to Latvia.

First the reservoir showed up.


Behold! One of the rarest options on a mk2


Drumroll!


I'm over the moon about this. It was pretty expensive but well worth it.



To celebrate I threw a battery in and stared at the Digifiz for good 5 minutes.


Now she will have the following spec:
-ABF
-AC
-Cruise control
-Tilt steering column
-Leather steering wheel
-Digifiz
-Power windows
-Power mirrors
-Power sunroof
-PAS
-Power & heated Recaros
-Headlight washers
-all the 91 spec visuals

I have made an agreement with a body shop to fix the couple little rust spots and touch up paint for April.

More updates soon! Thanks for your time!

 

Fantastic write-up GG on a super project. I hope it's all done now and have enjoyed cruising with the car. Cheers man, that's one really cool project

 

Not yet mate, not yet. It is year 5 since I have this car. Most of the work has been done in short bursts with lots of standstill for various reasons. I have bought another project car that I have to start working on this winter, so I need this finished.

Progress report in chronological order:

May 2019
I had the triangle flange on the header replaced with a v-band and also a bung welded in for AFR probe for future ECU tuning.





The cable shifter box was in good condition, I welded on some big washers on the bottom of it for secure fitting to mk2 body.



The original thermal insulation was banged up, and I covered it up with welcro tubing insulation made of fiberglass with a foil skin.



New wrap for the header



I started work on all the individual harnesses, had them cleaned, repaired where needed and prepared for installing.

Making the digifiz harness


Digifiz clock adjustment harness. Hand made.



I have enough heating elements to make the rear bench heated as well



I then fabricated a custom mount for the cruise control pump. I decided to mount it in the rain tray, next to the pollen filter, and use all stock mounts on the body. I wanted to avoid drilling holes if possible.







The rear glass on this car was in very mint condition, but it lacked the mounting holes for a spoiler, so I got me a brand new rear glass. Green tint and mounting holes for the spoiler.



I then disassembled the entire interior. I have worked on a couple of mk2s in my life and most of them were gnarly. Mostly moldy, water damaged insulation etc. This car smelled brand new even under the carpets.





Floor pans are MINT



Looks like the doors have never been taken apart. It has the original vapour barrier in perfect shape.



I got the Sebringwheels media blasted, ready for paint.




I sent the car off to a bodyshop this spring with the hopes of getting it the first months of summer, but we all know how bodyshops are. I got it back fully painted in July. So more than a year since any progress was made.

I had a couple of the holes welded up, the filler neck mount was replaced with a new OE one. I wanted the body to look like it was never welded, so I had the painter disguise all the repairs with seam sealer, replicating the original texture and had him paint the wheel wells too.

Some pics from the bodyshop:














Hi there fella, welcome back home



I started assembly right away. New vinyl for the rear lid, fitted locks, power locking, wipers etc. I forgot to have the rear plinth painted

 

Random pic of how clean and sexy it is



Fitted the central locking. All original clips and routing.





I then started cracking at the wiring. Oh boy. It took me a week of work (after work) to complete the wiring. I wanted to connect everything and test all the systems before bolting in the dash and the rest of the interior.



Starting to take shape. Mind you, it has AC, power seats, heated seats, power windows and mirrors, heated jets, headlight washers, MFA, cruise control, power sunroof, digifiz. Looooots of wires.



The original carpet was in great shape, gave it a quick wash.



In the middle of reinforcing the headliner. I covered the entire backside with fiberglass and epoxy resin.



Most of the things connected and tested. I can now start the final assembly. Everything works, no shorts, no parasitic draw, all good



I then cleaned the floors once again, ready for the carpet.







The roof was leaking in my parts storage, the centre console was covered in white residue from concrete A detailer buddy of mine restored it to near perfect condition.





He also polished the tails



I can not express how satisfying it is for me to assemble everything. OCD satisfaction.



I then fitted the front, adjusted the panel gaps.



I then installed the drip rails. Scary stuff, as they are the best specimens I have ever seen. Taking a mallet to the roof of a freshly painted car is frigtening



I left the rear 60/40 seat to be retrimed, I had a spare rear Jetta bench with the same fabric.

Assembly takes time as all parts are being cleaned before fitting. Parts off the donor car are covered in dirt and mold. So I clean them all and then treat them with ozone before fitting.



This is how she sits now. There will be lots of progress over the next few weeks.

Cheers!

I want to finish the GTI ASAP to make room for this baby in the garage. It will need lots of work.

 

That is an impressive rebuild!!

 

just read the whole build so far really enjoyable, attention to detail is great I would be pleased if mine turned out half as good as this. I'm envious of your air conditioning, never gave it too much thought previously but now having owned more modern cars with it fitted I really miss having it, makes summer driving (which is all I do in a MK2 now) much more pleasant. SEC looks cool

 

Really Impressive, giving me motivation to get mine finished!

 

Exactly my train of thought. I want the summer cruises to be as pleasant as possible in a mk2. I like to drive my cars alot, especially longer trips, therefore AC is a must. My heart aches when I see guys from USA rip out the AC system for marginal power gains.

 

Good evening folks! Time for a little update

-picked up 3mm foam backing material and glue for the headliner
-ordered 2.5'' Jetex resonated exhaust system
-got the sebring wheels refurbished
-restored the door cards

My original plan was to use the door cards with the matching Recaro fabric as a donor, as they are the cardboard type and had suffered water damage and were all moldy. I wanted to remove the fabric and glue it on the plastic door cards that this car originally had. Upon closer inspection I decided that it is too risky and I will instead try to restore the cardboard door cards. It appeared as if one of the rear cards had suffered some rodent damage as well.

They were all warped and the bottom sections were soft and moldy.





When removing the door pockets I found something quite unorthodox. A little baggy with what appeared to be heroin or hashish. I will try it later and I'll let you know how it was. J/k



I first hit the cards with a tornador so they are not that gross to handle. It removed most of the dirt and mold. Very impressive. I then soaked the backsides with epoxy resin and laid down some fiberglass mat. I laid down one layer of epoxy and mat in most sections, 2 layers on the bottom parts where most of the water damage had occured.

The epoxy soaked card became soft and malluable, so I clamped it down to the table and put some weights on it (pavers wrapped in cling film work great) to take out the warp. The epoxy I used had a pretty long hardening time of 24 hours, but it came out great. No warp whatsoever. I used two pieces of wood wrapped in packaging tape to form the edges as they were all wavy.

Some random snaps from the process:











When they had fully cured, I glued back the edges of the fabric I had peeled back with contact cement. Hit them with the tornador again and stuck them in a box with the ozone generator to eliminate all smells.





I installed first of the trims as eye candy. I need to stick on the vapour barriers on the doors and then reassemble the doors.


After a long search I found a unused 4x100 r15 spare wheel with the toolkit in great shape for sale.


I got the wheels refurbished. They were pretty oxidized, but they came out lovely. Barrels painted black, faces silver. Some snaps from the guy who did the refurb.




Mounted Bridgestone Turanza 005 195/50 tires for that OEM look.


Wheels finally on! I am very satisfied with how it came out.




Thats it for today

 

Fantastic Work

 

Well it's great to see the progress done since the last couple of months. The attention to detail here is impressive! Amazing stuff mate

 

can I ask what your plans are for the exhaust, are you going for a custom built one?

I've been looking for a single outlet performance exhaust to work within the non gti rear valance and have only found the tracksl@g system so far so am looking for some options

 

Thanks guys!

Can't wait for my clubgti membership card and the stickers

I mentioned in the previous post that I have ordered a 2.5inch jetex system. It has the dual round tips. I forgot to cut the rear valance before paint, I will have to do that now. I will try to fit the exhaust without cutting the valance and take a pic for you. I should have the exhaust delivered tomorrow or the day after.

 

What was the paint you used for your brake pipes? Looks really good!

 

Hello there gentleman!

Keeping the tradition of posting once a year alive

The build was finished back in May. Pour a drink and join me on the memory train.

A full 2.5 inch jetex stainless system was ordered from the UK. I opted for the resonated version. Really happy with the exhaust. Had to modify it, as it is made to couple with the stock mk2 downpipe.




Angle of the dangle was adjusted slightly and a v-band TIG welded on.


Later on I received the largest package of my life. A black headliner from e-bay. Very happy with the fit and finish of the product. Totally recommend. The seller is headliner-world on ebay.



Spare material is included for the sunroof panel and visors.


The Golf had to chill outside for a while, while the SEC was disassembled.


The SEC left and the Golf reclaimed its place in the garage.


New stickers for the sills


A whole bunch of goodies for fitting the bodykit


The Recaros were removed from a junkyard car a milenia ago and the floorboards were full of water. Therefore the legs looked like they belonged on the Titanic. I cut off legs off the stock seats and welded them on real good. I tacked the legs to an angle iron before cutting them off to keep the correct orientation and angle.







On to installing the uber-rare power sunroof conversion kit. It is made by Electric Life. I bought it as NOS, but that does not necessarily mean the part is going to work straight out the box. I first installed the kit and the sunroof would not even move. I took the whole thing apart and it turnout out the grease from wormgear assembly had leaked out and saturated the friction disc on the clutch mechanism. Cleaned it all up, scuffed both surfaces of the clutch plates and it grabs now. All good. The black ring in the bottom right corner is the clutch disc.



The kit is hilarious. It is very loud and uses a BMW power window switch for operation. A lovely piece of history.


On to installing the bodykit. The used plastic items were thoroughly scrubbed, degreased and painted with bumper paint.




I did not anticipate that installing the sills is going to be such a pain I honestly feel for the guy who had to do it at the factory. The poor bastard probably jumped out the window.








Got the steering wheel refurbished. The leather was pretty good but slightly worm in the usual spots. Got it repainted and resealed by pros.

 

On to the bumpers. Turns out buying good big bumpers for a mk2 is practically impossible. I tried my luck with 2 original used bumpers. They had their problems, badly rusted, cracked, 10 layers of paint etc. I decided to go with new aftermarket bumpers.

I spent 3 afternoons fighting the front bumper to get it to fit sort of decent.



Oh god...



I sanded and filed the horrific edges, had to heat it and straighten it in some spots. I continued with drilling holes for the headlight washer system.


Off to paint. Had to paint the black parts as well, as they needed reshaping. The rear bumper was pretty good, a strong 8/10, while the front is pure garbage.






2 hours of my life I will never get back. A fresh lick of mars red paint.


Much better


Bumpers being assembled and installed


The paint shop did a good job of matching the color. Had the mirrors and rear plinth painted.


Plumbing for the front bumper. Got a hose that matches the original. Yes, the cars with headlight washers had this garden hose-looking thing. I had a little piece of the OE hose in the kit I bought.


For me installing the bumpers was a very important milestone. For the first time in 6+ years I could see the car in flesh, exactly how I had imagined. The gti kit, the wheels..








A few laps around the neighborhood, as its not MOTd and not insured.


Loaded the now GTI on a trailer and took it to knock out a few last things on a lift. Wheel alignment, a few bits of plastic on the bottom. Finishing touches.




The SEC and the GTI next to one another.


Had the car MOTd. I had to write an extensive project paper because of the engine swap. It took 2 weeks to be approved.






Roaming the roads FINALLY!

 

I have done about 3000km since May, including 2 intense track days at Bikernieki race circuit in Riga. It is a fantastic race track, check it out on youtube or sim race. No major issues, a little leak from the tranny, and the right inner CV decided to throw a little excess grease. Feels like a brand new car.

A random selection of pictures from local Youngtimer events and trackdays.

 

She is a beauty! Incredible work and dedication.

 

Great reading, looks amazing.
Just bought an aftermarket front bumper as mine needed replacement, the new one actually fell apart while trying to fit it!