So I found my MK2, having had a Jetta many years ago it's bringing back all the memories. Absolutely love it. Picked her up Saturday morning and made it back in good time but so far I've not had time to do too much other than order supplies, bank holiday weekends being what they are and I'm on the long crappy support shift at work this week. Overjoyed with it though, discovered it also has central locking (as well as PAS and a sunroof) which I didn't know about til I got it home. The luxury! She's a beauty though. 1.8 GL on the Weber Carb with the VW autoslushmatic-5000. So far I've given the interior a thorough dust and hoover and given it a thorough inspection. Replaced all the vaccum lines from stock as there was some perished though I've a feeling the vaccum routing is actually incorrect, ordered the servo vac line as that cracked off in my hand so I've Jerry rigged it for now. Also got a slight weep from the matrix feed hose so ordered them along with a new carb flange as that is perishing. Old cars, old rubber and for a few quid all worth doing imo. Plans for it in the short term: Paint Correction, ordered paint, paper, DA pads, compounds. Plan to give it a full clay and correct all the little imperfections - reckon it'll come up with a bit of touch up and a machine polish. Both rear window scrapers have seen better days so need to order them along with the drivers door seal which has a bit missing Bleach the yellowed auto selector numbers and other interior resto bits, and refoil the badges on the outside Few other preventative maintenance and cosmetic type jobs, I'll probably give the engine bay a thorough clean to help locate the very minor oil leak. Temp gauge also seems hit and miss as she's running too cold on the motorway but operating temp round town, I'll trace this back - may be the thermostat sticking open, may be temp sender. Either way not a hard or expensive fix. All cheap, easy jobs, I now remember why I love MK2's. So easy and cheap to work on! Having come from the land of bikes where everything is a pain in the arse and leaves your wallet light as a feather this is a breath of fresh air. Lots of ideas for her, mostly restore and get it to a good happy point then decide what I want to do with drivetrain and suspension. But dead chuffed with it, absolute cracker.
be nice to put a manual box in there and that will make it a little more fun to drive.. have you thought about an engine conversion yet? it will come
Yeah I'm gonna see how I get on with the automatic as I've never had one before - I know the gearbox isn't hard or expensive to swap to an 020 or similar so the thought has occured. At the moment I'm sort of enjoying the lazy man life and just enjoying the car and indeed having a car as I've been on motorbikes only for years just borrowing cars as needed. I've had lots of thoughts, it'll be an ABF conversion most likely if I go down that path. Or I may just keep it on the stock engine but port and polish the head maybe stick a GTI cam in it and run it on bike carbs. I'm gonna do a compression test see if it's worth my time. Also had a fleeting idea to stick a hayabusa engine in it, or a GSX1100 with a turbo - something a bit different sticking bike engines in cars. Though for me that would be real uncharted territory. But I know sod all about sticking them in cars and it being even half drivable, so that would be subject to research.
Put a little shine on her Saturday as I woke up early. 3 hours spent washing, dressing and a very quick hand polish then at the pub for 10 o'clock wedding pre drinks. Still needs a proper machine polish bit it's highlighted areas I need to work on with the touch up. Got some family stuff going on this week that's taking all my time but I've ordered new stat, matrix hoses and coolant. Good a distraction as any. Gonna do that before I pull the carb and give it an inspection and quick clean, easier to get the car sitting at operating temp so I can tune it then.
So I rebuilt the carb today. Two fuck ups, one was losing the Bowden cable retaining clip to Narnia (after saying "Ok, I'm definitely going to fucking lose this" the second I laid hands on it. The other was float levels are wrong and it's flooding. So no car for me til I sort that! Thank god for motorbikes
