As some of you may know I was panning a 1.8t engine swap in my other mk2 but decided it wasn't in keeping with the theme of it. So say hello to my new mk2 project. Going for a stripped out track car with this one. But I'm sure I will go overboard with cleanliness still. It's a 1990 3 door driver in silver originally. The previous owner started a TDI swap in it but gave up on it. Came with a few nice bits. GTI bumpers and early grill. Gti black headlining that looks to be in good condition. So should make a bit of money back selling the bits i wont use. Like that grill and and headlining. Its was a bit low and has some of those blue camber shims at the rear. But I'm not sure it was ever driven like that because the underside is pretty decent. Only bit of rust on it is the rear strut towers. But that should be an easy fix. Overall its quite a clean shell. To make the car cheaper the owner kept the TDI engine that he had put lot of money in to. But since he is out of the country i had to whip the engine out for him. Luckily it was only resting on its mounts. So it didn't take long with an engine crane. Now I will have to learn CE2 wiring. Never really worked with it. Wont be much different I'm sure. I also thought I'd got lucky and it already had the hydraulic clutch pedal box installed. But when I looked inside it was just bolted to the firewall with the standard pedal box in place. You are mine now. Plans are; Put the arch trims and door mouldings back on (Need to buy some, Would swap for that early grill) 1.8t swap Upgraded brakes Upgraded suspension. Bare minimum interior Not worry too much about the bodywork
Did some inspecting today and started a to do list. Started by taking of the exhaust that was hanging off and stopping me from moving it around. To my suprise its a 2 inch scorpion system. That's an ok make right? I wound up the rear coilovers so it wasn't impossible to fit the jack under it. Had to censor the front wing because it had cocks drawn all over it. Whipped out the rear half of the interior to check the rear turrents properly. Not as bad as I thought. This is actually quite a clean shell. Underneith, fuel filler, sills, battery tray, bonnet hinge mounts, bottom of the rear arches, all very clean. This is one way to stop a squeak I guess. Grease all over it. Then I ripped out all of the audio cable and the ridiculously high gauge speaker wire. Some semi decent speakers in it but still. All money coming back to me from selling it so I'm happy. Got to love this hydro clutch master cylinder mounting. In the advert for the car he said he had the diesel engine running so I was expecting to see something more than this when I checked the fuel tank. It's just the carb level sender. Or is that all you need for a diesel since the pump is on the engine? Did find some 100mm drive shafts though so thats a bonus. But no 16v hubs, ah well. Didn't think it was possible to have 100mm drive shafts in the solid calliper carrier hubs. Gonna give it a good clean tomorrow.
Yeah I had a check at the price of them new. Should be ok for the 20v engine. Couple more bits done today. Gave it a clean. Paint didn't come up too bad. Also polished that red wing to get rid of the drawings. Too many projects Took the front speakers out. Its easy when you have the right tools. And I did a few deals. sold the headlining, stereo and rubber floor mats. And used that money to buy some second hand GAZ coilovers. Potentially sold the early grill, gti badge and the spot lights. Swapping the jom coilovers for a gti rear beam with disc brakes, gti front anti roll bar and some arch trims. Also got a 4 point roll cage and some 16v front hubs and brakes in the pipeline.
Well this is one way to smooth the holes for the trim. Pretty sure thats a corner piece for plastering. Thats why those stripe stickers are in the wrong place then. In a way I am glad I could just peal this off and the holes weren't welded. Because now I can put the trim back on easily.
Nice bodge! This is why I hate stripping down cars - sometimes you'd rather not know. Glad you've decided to keep the Monza mechanically as-is. Would have been a shame I think.
Quite happy with this bodge tbh. Makes it easy to reverse it. Yeah so am I. I knew it would be wrong to do from the start.
It's started already. Was just going to be a nice simple track car build. Just strip it out and then put the engine in. Was even just going to keep the cheapy coilovers on it for a while. Ah well. Bought some Gaz adjustable coilovers and a OMP half cage. The cage needs painting and one of the coilovers is leaking. So they will need a rebuild so I got them crazy cheap. 100 for the coilovers, 50 for the cage. Bargain. Need to get rid of the sunroof to be able to fit it now though. And I will be sending the coilovers to Gaz to get them rebuilt and made to look pretty again.
I saw them coilovers for sale, looked a bargain.. especially as they're rebuildable in the UK! Amazing how some people think they're scrap because they need a bit of tlc, I got a set of H&R's for 75 delivered because the threads were seized. You getting the cage powder coated?
You've ended up with my old cage in there then! Take it you got it from Lewis? Looks like a nice little project!
Defiantly a bargain. Can't wait to get them rebuilt. Didn't even think they wouldn't be able to be rebuilt in the uk? I will probably just paint the cage. Pain in the ass to move it about. Yeah I bought it off of Lewis. Thanks! Still quite a cheap project even with these purchases. 250 it owes me so far and the main bits I need is the engine mounts, intercooler, brakes, and fuel stuff. I should move all the posts over from my other tread about the engine stuff actually.
Moving these posts over from my thread from my 16v. Will try and edit them a bit as I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the 16v engine out of that one. Hence the extra mk2 now lol And that's where I'm up to with the engine.
Got a little done this week. Realised the half cage was bent over. Turns out that the car it was in was hit in the B pillar. Should be able to bend though. Front legs Back legs Started cleaning up and ordering parts for the engine. Mounts and gaskets etc. Before During After Cleaned up some other parts of the engine, sorted a few that need painting, and some that need vapour blasting. Mostly the aluminium parts. Bought a complete gasket set Bought some mk3 tdi front hubs (they are the same as mk2 16v hubs) and foolishly assumed the brakes were the same, since they were 256mm discs. Realised when I got them home, after i started taking them apart to clean that they are solid discs. So the carrier openings are 17mm, but 16v vented discs are 20mm thick. I am yet to measure the opening in the calliper, they should be 53mm to fit the vented discs and 16v brake pads. Hopefully they are the same as the 16v callipers. Would just have to source 16v carriers then. Or maybe machine these ones. While waiting for the paint to dry I thought I'd take off the subframe and start cleaning it up. But I found this Need a new subframe now. Also I don't know if I should keep the power steering or convert it to manual? What do people think for a track car?
Nice base to start with. I'd stick with power steering, the rack is quicker turn to turn than manual one. I was thinking of gaz coilovers but looking at how them ones are all rusty
