Restoring my Golf Mk2 GTI 16v

[VC10dan]

The time has now arrived for me to restore the old girl. She has put in a faultless 3 years of service, doing a daily 80 mile commute with no issues or breakdowns. However she is starting to look and feel a bit tired, 202,000 miles have finally started to take their toll.

During and after the restoration i plan on keeping her factory standard, no big daft wheels or slammed suspension.

 

So, today i began to strip out the interior carpet and fittings. I was slightly alramed at what i found.

 

 

Boot floor

 

Rear suspension turret

 

Hmmm. whats going on here

 

Oh... i see

 

Passngers side rear turret

 

I'm still going to plow on and see what else i can find ( hopefully not much mo)

[M'coli]

Wow, I thought these were meant to be half decent for not rusting! That looks impressive rot, good luck with it.

[Skizzer]

Ouch. Hope you can get that sorted - I have a soft spot for big bumper Mk2s and so many of them get scened to death. Good luck...

[Timewaster]

Oh they can rust! I had a hateful pile of a 16v Golf in 1999. I took the front wheelarch trim off to sort a small dent, there was barely any wheelarch left!

 

Naturally, I blobbed some kurust on it and put the trim back on.

[HBR]

Yeah, I had one almost the same, 8v but 5dr big bumpers & the same wheels. It was generally very solid but did have some of the unexpected rot like yours. Cracking car though, I loved it fun to drive & very practical. Bought it for £1000, ran for 7 years & only major repairs were a bit of welding, a S/H gearbox & little other than service & consumables like brakes & tyres in that time & sold for £900 which makes very economical motoring!

[Shep Shepherd]

That's a terrifying amount of rust for an Escort or Astra, let alone a Golf 2

[r.welfare]

I recall a thread on the blue forum a little while ago when a lad found rot worse than that, in a similar location, on a five-door 306. And everyone knows old Pugs never rust. So I think your Golf can be excused; it's lasted 20 years and 200+k miles - rust never sleeps, after all.

 

Good luck with the resto, like Skizzer I do appreciate a more-door big bumper Mk2 Floggit, especially with the BBS wheels and in a nice sober dark shade.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Saw this on another forum somewhere earlier. Did you buy the car originally after it had been sitting? SCARY amount of grot for a mk2 - are you going to stick with it or find another?

[VC10dan]

I'm going to get her sorted, i've always been of the mindest that nothing is irrecoverable.

[VC10dan]

The really fun bit began today, got the golf to my brother in laws unit to start attacking all the rot. Firstly though all the interior,trim, fuel tank and carpets had to come out.

Like This

 

Next remove all the trim that was riveted on, a right chew on

 

Fuel tank out

 

Now for some tasty grot spots

Bit of poking on the drivers rear cill/jacking point

Passenger side is just as bad

 

The rot that had started underneath the rear door seal is obviously an issue on these cars, this is the front kick plate.

The rear bumper frame was so rotten that it actually collapsed whilst i was taking it off the car

 

Wire wheeling and cutting out the car cancer tomorrow, will update as i go

[Lankytim]

A work colleague is breaking one of these (well her BF is) He's collecting it next weekend, it's an E reg 8v 5 door GTi if you fancy any bits? This one is pretty rotten too!

[VC10dan]

Cheers, I think I've got everything i need, i went down and ordered it all from the local dealer last week (made his day as well ).

[VC10dan]

Finally finished all the stripping/removing of interior/exterior parts. Then i covered all the bits of the car i didn't want sparks to get to before i started wire wheeling the rusty areas.

 

This is the hole on the rear kick plate

 

The rotten strut top mount

 

The rotten boot floor had started to eat into the rear panel, as shown in this photo

The boot floor

 

The rear panel

 

Started to look for some decent metal around the other rear strut top, thankfully this one is nowhere near as bad as the other

 

Found another area that needs some attention

 

Tomorrow i'm going to cut out the rear struts and attempt to put fresh metal back in

[RichL]

Keep up the good work! This will be a minter when finished, nice to see a Golf of this era being restored to standard condition not OMG rat look etc...

[cobblers]

Flipping nora that's hiding some horrors! I had a 3dr 8v with ABF 16v conversion last year - It was an absolute flyer but I suspect it was probably hiding even worse horrors than yours. I had a few bits done (scuttle and under fuel flap) and moved it on while it was looking mint but I bet it's bad now!

[VC10dan]

Cheers for the comments, yeh I would never rat her or do anything like that. I love it in its standard guise, I was pretty lucky that when I bought it the only non standard item on it was some shonky 90's CD player, took me ages to track down its original cassette player but I got one eventually.

[In The Pit]

VW Golfs can rust very badly the MKII was better than the MKI for rust and the MKIII rusts horrifically. Lucky your stripped it when your did that rear suspension top looks dangerous. Good luck with it.

[Pillock]

I assume the quality of metal just got worse over the years, as I've seen a few late Mk2s with similar horrors underneath but earlier ones seem OK.

As they moved onto the Mk2 the year after yours, and things got even worse.

[stuboy]

blimey thats grotty

[fordperv]

Good luck, I loved my mk2 it was a last of the line 1.8 driver but it was bloody solid I for a lot of engine mods on that one, I had to detune it for the girl I sold it to as she scared herself in it lol one of the many cars I regret selling on

[VC10dan]

Time for a bit of an update, cracked on with the cutting out of the grot and started prepping and welding replacement metal in.

 

Firstly the rotten rear kick plate

 

 

The rotten rear turrets

 

 

The rear valance/boot floor

 

Bottom edge of rear arches

 

Plus a bit of future rust prevention

 

That's all for now folks

[outlaw118]

Just caught up with this.... ....looking at the initial pics she looks ok, and you/one/I was lulled into a kind of false sense of security....i'm thinking "Well, that looks alright, probably a few bubbles here and there; passes the 20 yard test".

 

Shows how much I know!!!

 

Coming on nicely; just wish i could a) weld as well as that, had the patience!! c) didn't have a herniated disc!!!

[VC10dan]

Yeah i know, it's frightening what you find when all the body kit/interior and trim are out. All this plastic and carpet hide a multitude of issues.

Still, even after all this it's still been a cheap car to own/run and look after.

Hopefully now she will easily see another 21 years of service

 

DAN

[VC10dan]

Another update, been a bit of a chew on recently as we start to get right into the severe areas of rot on the car.

As is always the case there was more areas of rot than first anticipated

But we will still plow on and hopefully get her back on the road

 

Constructing the rotten rear inner arch

 

Next the sills, the job i was most dreading (turned out i was right to do so )

 

 

Perhaps the most frightening bit of rot, this is right where the drivers seat bolted to the floor pan, there was no surface indication that this was going on

 

Reconstructing the inner sills and floor pan

 

The damaged area around and behind the fuel filler cap

 

That's it for now

[Skizzer]

Blimey, now you're properly scaring me about mine (same age but a soft top so mk1 body): it too looks fine on the surface, but now I'm wondering what lurks beneath...

 

BTW don't let Billy Cavette catch you spelling sills with a C, it sets his treatment back years

[VC10dan]

I own a mk1 cabby as well and its nowhere near as rotten as this, puzzling really

 

I've also edited my previous post to prevent a keyboard bashing lol

[Talbotman]

Crumbs! This Golf puts philbusmos Lancia y10 in to perspective!........German or italian - watch out for the rot!

[Bren]

This takes me back - like the SD1 I bought off Pete.

 

Only when you really start stripping do you uncover the true horror of the amount of work it needs.

[VC10dan]

Yeh, we are getting there though, plus so much has been cut out/welded into the shell that i now need a full respray. so i end up with one shiny mk2, least the areas of laquer peel and crazing will now be gone

[daverapid]

It's a shame so much work is needed but I love seeing old cars being saved that most "normal" people would just throw away. Fantastic work.