1984 VW Golf Cabrio - 01/12 - On the Road

[vulgalour]

I thought it was just me that saw the face in the hinge.  XD

 

Just in case, here's a tutorial on how I use the brake fluid.  Be sure to wear at least one rubber glove; I learned this the hard way so you don't have to, my fingers ended up almost painfully wrinkly after my first long stint without hand protection.

 

Decant some fluid into a little container, a little goes a long way, and apply to the piece in question by dipping a toothbrush into the fluid and then scrubbing lightly onto the surface in a circular motion.  To remove car paint you need to leave it a lot longer than for whatever mine is sprayed in, probably some sort of vinyl/acrylic bumper black paint.

 

You should find that the paint turns into something akin to to thick ink after a minute or so.  You can just keep applying more and scrubbing it  but eventually the efficacy of the fluid will dissipate and you'll need to wipe the surface clean.  Use kitchen roll or toilet roll to wipe the panel clean, when the paper stops pilling/sticking to the surface there shouldn't be any paint left.  On really thick paint it can take six or seven applications.

 

Don't use any water to clean off the surface initially, this will react with the fluid and go milky white.  It doesn't appear to damage the plastic, but you get a better result if the fluid is wiped off with dry kitchen or toilet roll and allowed to dry out fully for 24 hours.  Afterwards, give the plastic a coat of vinyl treatment to clean the last of the fluid off and to bring up a nice sheen.

 

So far I've found it works on hard plastics, bumper skins, and soft vinyls.  Be warned, if there's anything under the paint such as prints on column stalks, it can take those off too but if you've got stalks covered in paint the prints are probably lost anyway.  Oh, and try not to get it on paintwork, obviously.  Usually it washes out of clothes and will wipe off rubber without harm as far as I can tell.  It'll leave a greasy sheen on glass but is otherwise not harmful.

 

I think that covers everything.

[KruJoe]

Thanks, I'll be trying that on the RAV.

I wish to add my voice to those saying the old pram is looking surprisingly smart, so it is.

[MikeKnight]

The dent is probably passive aggressiveness from your neighbor.

 

We all know how he loves* having motoring tat on his driveway.

[cort16]

The hinge reminded me of this

 

[overrun]

I thought it was just me that saw the face in the hinge.  XD

 

Just in case, here's a tutorial on how I use the brake fluid.  Be sure to wear at least one rubber glove; I learned this the hard way so you don't have to, my fingers ended up almost painfully wrinkly after my first long stint without hand protection.

 

Decant some fluid into a little container, a little goes a long way, and apply to the piece in question by dipping a toothbrush into the fluid and then scrubbing lightly onto the surface in a circular motion.  To remove car paint you need to leave it a lot longer than for whatever mine is sprayed in, probably some sort of vinyl/acrylic bumper black paint.

 

You should find that the paint turns into something akin to to thick ink after a minute or so.  You can just keep applying more and scrubbing it  but eventually the efficacy of the fluid will dissipate and you'll need to wipe the surface clean.  Use kitchen roll or toilet roll to wipe the panel clean, when the paper stops pilling/sticking to the surface there shouldn't be any paint left.  On really thick paint it can take six or seven applications.

 

Don't use any water to clean off the surface initially, this will react with the fluid and go milky white.  It doesn't appear to damage the plastic, but you get a better result if the fluid is wiped off with dry kitchen or toilet roll and allowed to dry out fully for 24 hours.  Afterwards, give the plastic a coat of vinyl treatment to clean the last of the fluid off and to bring up a nice sheen.

 

So far I've found it works on hard plastics, bumper skins, and soft vinyls.  Be warned, if there's anything under the paint such as prints on column stalks, it can take those off too but if you've got stalks covered in paint the prints are probably lost anyway.  Oh, and try not to get it on paintwork, obviously.  Usually it washes out of clothes and will wipe off rubber without harm as far as I can tell.  It'll leave a greasy sheen on glass but is otherwise not harmful.

 

I think that covers everything.

 

Superb instuctions.

 

I think I would have negated the hand protection, had you not mentioned it!

I will let you know how I get on, when I have a bash.

 

As for the face, I see them everywhere. Plus, I am easily amused.   #apophenia

[dollywobbler]

In the words of a murdering psychopath puppet, that's the way to do it!

[vulgalour]

MOAR!

 

Got some bulbs today.  Now my dash binnacle is fully illuminated, even the LCD clock (which appears to have started to bleed on the top edge).  Two of the old blue bulbs had blown, Autosupplies had black replacements in stock for something like 40p each.

 

Had to dismantle the dash fascia again *sigh* but at least it meant the bulbs could be checked and we found that the weak illumination on the heater controls is mainly down to a blown bulb.

 

Also found that the headlight switch had blown its bulb, and replaced that.  At which point the sidelights decided to stop working except for the tiniest flash when you clicked the switch... more on that shortly.

 

Brake warning light was dismantled and another blown bulb found.  Replaced with a healthy bulb - Autosupplies again, matter of pennies per bulb - and hey presto, my brake warning light now works!

 

 

So, those sidelights.  To check things were as they ought to be, it was Mum to the rescue with the soldering iron.  I'm rubbish at soldering, but Mum used to construct electrical components for a living so she's a dab hand with it.  We did feed the wires back into the proper plug, this was just to check the circuits were fine.

 

Frustratingly, things were still not right with the sidelights, though the wiring checked out.  We had a scour of the engine bay and found more extraneous wiring to remove.

 

Several plugs without the other halves too, not sure what any of them are for.

 

 

 

Also spotted a missing jubilee clip which will have to be addressed so I don't have serious petrol related problems further down the line.  Really glad we spotted this, up until now we'd completely missed it.

 

Eventually, we did sort out the sidelight issue.  Removed the headlight switch and doused it in WD40 after which the switch operated much more switchily (that's a word now) and all the sidelights worked as they should... well, apart from the one missing in the passenger side cluster but I couldn't find my spare bulb box to sort that out.  Apart from the battery telltale, ALL of the lights on the car now work properly.  The rev gauge is still inoperable, except for when you turn the engine off at which point the needle jumps a little bit which is a new thing it has started doing.

 

After also finding out that the over-rider washer pump is dead (boo!) and in need of replacement - we did clean the contacts, to no avail, it seems the internals have died - it was determined that the car should have a quick rinse off.  Vacuumed all the leaves and detritus out of the scuttle first and gave the seats and carpet a quick go over as they'd got a bit scruffy too before setting too with the hose to get rid of the worst of the muck.

 

Since treating the roof and rear light clusters to a full deep clean I'm not longer getting any leaks on the passenger side of the roof or into the boot which I'm very happy about.  Unfortunately, I'm still getting a leak on the driver's side, though not through the window which has a certain knack to it to close it properly and keep the door watertight.  Any ideas what exactly is leaking here (apart from the roof, obviously)?

 

 

The window scraper (outer) on the passenger door is perished quite badly and in need of replacement, there's also no moisture membrane on the door so water drips on the hinge cover and bounces into the car now there's no speaker there.  I'll get a moisture membrane fitted to prevent it being a nuisance, but a new scraper is a must have I think.

 

Finally, a clicky video of the engine running.  There's a very definite click on the top right hand side of the engine.  In the video it sounds like a knock, but it's not that serious in person, it's actually not too dissimilar to the noise a Beetle engine makes  When I first got the car, the whole top of the engine made clicks and we'd put it down to the tappets being a bit dry or gunged up, but this one click has stubbornly remained.  I've not yet taken the top of the engine apart to have a look, but since I have to do the valve stem seals it'll have to happen anyway.

 

Anyone got any thoughts on what it might be?  It sounds like it's right at the top right corner of the rocker cover and as though it's limited to a single component.  It clicks faster and slower in accordance with revs.

 

Speaking of clicking, click on the picture below for a listen.

[Vince70]

If its coming from the top end I would say sticky hydraulic tappets, I've had it on a few VW/Audi's over the years that have been standing it seems a common problem through lack of use.

 

A couple of oil changes should sort it out.

 

My current 2 Vags suffered from this due to standing around, one of them on one of the bills from Audi suggested using the car more and changing the oil on a more frequent basis.

 

I also had the same problem on my old mk1 cabriolet so hopefully after an oil and filter change and an Italian tuneup it should be ok.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Full points for dedication, sir ! Please keep the updates coming !!!

 

The rev gauge is still inoperable, except for when you turn the engine off at which point the needle jumps a little bit which is a new thing it has started doing.

 

I don't know anything about VW electrics, but could the tachometer problem be related to the loose connector next to the coil ?

[Pillock]

I was halfway through a reply telling you how VWs of that era had really noisy injectors (both my Scirocco and G40 ticked like crazy) and then I've just realised it's a carb engine.... isn't it? I'll leave the suggestion here just in case I'm wrong about my wrongness.

 

Behind the headlight.... is that a picture of an aftermarket relay? In which case you already have the relay mod, there shouldn't be any down there from the factory. 

 

Tacho is almost definitely one of the loose wires. Does the negative to the coil have a double-spade on the end of it?

[vulgalour]

I'm on carb rather than injection, so happily it's not an injector issue.

 

The relay behind the headlight was actually for the spotlights in the grille which are no longer wired up as the wiring looked questionable and the relay didn't involve the battery in any way for this.  Plus the relay looks pretty knackered with its rusty pins so I didn't keep it.

 

On the coil, there's the suitable number of connectors connected and the connections themselves look to be in good health.  Besides which, to get that stray plug to reach the coil I'd have to turn the coil around and remove it from the car at which point none of the other connectors would reach so... I don't think it's that.

[greengartside]

Just been looking up on the tacho issue as well and that wire near the coil you pictured should be a red coloured wire. It may have had a replacement coil in the past which isn't exactly right maybe??

 

I'm sure Mike 'old aht yaaa haaand' Brewer did a cluster replacement on the Wheeler Dealers Golf episode many moons ago, because the tacho wasn't working...

[Rocket88]

Ref rev counter. I would suspect a dry joint somewhere on the back of the instrument binnacle. Ticking, as previously stated, is probably a lazy tappet. Good, but fairly industrial, method of clearing old oil and gunk out of the top end of the engine is to drain the oil, lob about 4 litres of diesel in the sump, then run the engine for about 3 minutes. Then drain sump and fill with fresh oil.

After it blows up, ring gippo with hi-ab...........seriously this does work wonders on gunked up engines.

[cobblers]

Wynnes engine flush will deffo sort your sticky tappet out without fucking the engine up, lob a bottle in, drive around for a while (5-10 steady miles) or just leave the thing ticking over with the choke on until the tapping stops, then another 15 minutes for luck, then change the oil and it'll be fine for ages. It's turned really terminal sounding engines into sweet runners in minutes for me a number of times.

[vulgalour]

First up a picture of the coil and just how things are plugged in.  There's only one spare spade connector but even so I doubt this is the issue with the tacho.

 

I bought an air filter today too, a measly £5.  Suddenly the engine is quieter, more willing and less clicky, though whether this is just down to the fact the car has been run up and down the drive daily and it's loosening everything up, I don't know.  Speaking of things loosening up, we went with my brother's suggesting of putting a little squirt of WD40 into the servo through the vacuum hose hole to see if it would unstick and do you know what it has.  It's not perfect, but running it up and down the drive a few times I'm getting intermittent sticky pedal rather than permanently stuck pedal and the braking effort feels confidence inspiring.  I'll try it out again tomorrow to see if the soak overnight has helped, but it seems to have freed up the spring or whatever inside the servo.  Probably not the pro way of doing it, but it's a completely free fix so far.

 

Set to after that with more vinyl cleaning, I'm actually very nearly done with this now.  Got the rear 'door' cappings done.

 

 

Then was annoyed to discover that the driver's door capping is black with a broken brown fixing.  That'll have to stay on the wishlist until I can grab a replacement.

 

Finished off the screen surround, finally, so I'm pleased with that now.

 

Judging back the lack of chips and scratches I reckon the windscreen has been replaced recently.  The other giveaway is the stupid rear view mirror location, not sure what to do about this bar put up with it.

 

Finished cleaning up the centre console and shoved it in place.  The gaiter might need a bit more work, it's difficult to tell really, it looks brown enough but some areas appear darker than others.  The sticky stuff in the console cubby is still being horrible to remove, I wish I knew what it was so I knew how best to get it out beyond using rags.

 

Best of all, I got the steering wheel sorted.  The rim is still disgusting, looks like it wasn't cleaned before being painted and now every time you go near it with cleaners - brake fluid or otherwise - you get this disgusting nicotine-brown sludge come off on your hand.  I'm letting it dry out overnight and then I'll hit it with more cleaners and wipes and whatnot to get it feeling nice again.  Apart from the dash vents and rear bumper, all the plastics are now restored.  Hard work, but well worth it I think.

 

There's not a huge amount left to do now:

> Oil and filter change, engine flush too

> Locate the water leak that seems to be from the middle of the bottom of the engine, no joy so far

> New timing belt and tensioner

> Replace blown rear bulbs

> Fix tacho

> Get battery telltale to work

 

So far, recommissioning this car has cost the grand total of about £25, maybe as much as £30, and a couple of weeks of graft.

[barefoot]

Re tachometer

I bought a replacement instrument cluster for the Scirocco (non functioning odometer) for the princely sum of fifteen quid!

That might sort out your battery light too.

[Rocket88]

Water leak may be a core plug?

[vulgalour]

I'm nearly done now, happily, it's reallly come on a treat this little car and I'm beginning to feel proud of it.  Understandable then that I should be annoyed that I now have a scratch on the passenger door to match the driver's door and there's a large scratch on the panel under the driver's rear light.  I don't know how these scratches are appearing or what's causing them, they're not right for malicious damage, it looks decidedly more accidental and car park in nature but without the car moving from the bottom of the drive where it should be really out of the way.

 

Anyway, I found the cause of the water leak today on emptying the second glovebox out.  Turns out water is getting in where I knew it was through the tear on the hood, puddling in the spare wheel well and draining out of the drain hole that's slap bang in the centre of the car.  Bit of a relief really and had it not been for recent overnight rain I probably would have been scratching my head for a while on this one.

 

Finished stripping off the paint on the vent on the left here and rebuilt it.  I didn't want to strip both vents down so I was sure to have reference to rebuild each vent.  The colour difference isn't too evident in the picture, but the texture is, there was a ridiculous amount of paint on this.

 

Found that under the paint was the original chrome paint on the surround and a white marker on the flap control wheel.  Unfortunately, the chrome wasn't very resilient and came off with the black which was disappointing.

 

But that's okay.  Judicious application of aluminium flashing take and a sharp craft knife saw the top vents for the dash - not originally chromed, but I fancied trying it out - and the lower vents redone.

 

I might do the ashtray surround as well as it has the same moulding, but that would be it on the dashboard.

 

I also finished stripping off the last of the stubborn paint on the back bumper and bolted it onto the car.  I could not be bothered with the sheared bolt today, I will resolve that another day.

 

Looking more and more liked a looked after car with every bit of progress I make now.  I put the side trims back on just to keep them from getting damaged.  Unfortunately, the driver's door trim is missing the end piece and the front trim clip on the wing doesn't work so I need to replace those.  I also need to get the overspray off this side of the car, it's the last big cleaning job.

 

This bit leaks, but not as much as the other side.

 

I removed the patch from the other side of the roof and found the tear was much smaller than the patch.  I was going to just apply duct tape and resolve the leaking issue but it turns out that the duct tape doesn't like sticking to the outside of the roof and it was difficult to bridge the tear because it had also been cut a bit for some reason so there's not as much material as there should be.

 

Folded the roof down and back up to check it would stay put and it kinda does.  It's only marginally better than the old patch for preventing water ingress and no better looking.  I'll get some black duct tape and clean the surface of the protective stuff I put on in the hope it'll tide me over until I can afford to get a new roof fitted.

 

The last job was to refit the repaired hinge.  I didn't remove the hinge and whoever did lost the original bolts so I replaced them with some allen headed jobbies that fit well and look smart.  Just like the rear bumper, I copper greased the threads so they don't seize up on me.

 

Window sits nice and straight and the hood goes up and down a lot smoother, unsurprisingly.

 

The only plastic item I have to restore now is one dash vent.

[Pillock]

So are you banging a new hood on or just doing a neat-as-possible fix and enjoying your nice bargain?

[vulgalour]

Yes, to both.

[vulgalour]

I was hoping to get a good portion of the car properly cleaned today, but the brilliant sunshine seems to switch to really heavy rain before you can really get much done so I've sacked it off as a bad job.  I did manage to get my glass sorted out, happily.  I started with the windscreen which I hadn't realised was quite as badly covered in overspray as it is, when I was done you could actually see through the screen as though it wasn't even there.  Passenger side done and driver's side not in this picture.  You can see a bit of black paint on the dash top I haven't yet fully removed, it's so thick that it needs repeated application of cleaner to cut through it so I'm poking at it a bit at a time until it's fully gone.


There was only the tiniest dusting of overspray on the rear window, it was mostly just mucky on the inside so that cleaned up quickly and well.


The side windows had heavier overspray on them, but not as bad as the windscreen.  They too came up nice and smart for the most part.




There is some minor damage to the drop windows in the doors most likely from badly fitted scraper clips.  One bit I can't understand is this strange mark in the centre of the driver's door glass, it's almost like it's been shot blasted and had an attempt to polish it smooth afterwards, there's no contaminant in the glass as one might expect with welder or grinder spatter.


The weather broke when I'd done the windows, but held long enough for me to make a start on the bodywork proper.  Although the car has been washed twice and given a work over with cutting compound I hadn't yet treated it to a claybar so that was my next thing to try out.  I was surprised that there was more overspray hiding under a sort of stubborn rough film of dirt on the front wing and even more surprised at just how well the paint came up once I'd cut through it all back to clean paint.


I managed to make a start on the bonnet too.  You can see the finished polished section on the right.  The rest of the bonnet is clean but it doesn't have as crisp a reflection and looks a different colour purely down to the amount of dirt and overspray still to remove from the panel.  I'm not entirely sure what has caused the plethora of dents on the bonnet but my current theory is that it played host to the annual Little Persons Tap Dancing Contest.  At least it comes up pretty shiny enough to detract your attention from the damage.




Then the heavens seriously opened and I called it quits for the day.


I'll keep plodding away at the overspray removal just like I did with the black paint on the interior and before you know it I'll have a Golf that looks careworn rather than neglected.

[Des]

I like your onesie very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Partridge]

Much respect. Can’t wait to see it finished!

[Ghosty]

It bugs me a lot more than it should that the car has Mk3 Golf steels, but they don't actually look bad.

 

Great work as always

[vulgalour]

Don't worry, the Mk3 steels are better than the alloys that were on and my eventual goal is Mk1 steels and hub caps.  I'm also unlowering it.  Oh yes, I'm just that awesome.

[PhilA]

Don't worry, the Mk3 steels are better than the alloys that were on and my eventual goal is Mk1 steels and hub caps.  I'm also unlowering it.  Oh yes, I'm just that awesome.

I'm going to add my vote for keeping it at chav-height. There's something about the proportions that look good.

 

It's coming along well. Looking very respectable in the pictures

 

With regards to that copper washer, get a steel or nylon one in there. Copper does not good bushings make.

 

Phil

[Rocket88]

Ref hood repair. You can get a very good repair kit that's used to patch tears in inflatable boats. Worth a try

[RichardMoss]

I suspect that the spare blue wire near the washer bottle is for the rear washer pump - not fitted on your car, of course.

 

The rev counter may respond to resoldering the joints - very much a 1980s problem.

 

The hood leak may be water coming through the stiching - try some Fabsil if you haven't already

 

I vote "unlower" - the whole retro rides style chavvy "slamming" thing really gets on my tits.

[RichardMoss]

Then was annoyed to discover that the driver's door capping is black with a broken brown fixing.  That'll have to stay on the wishlist until I can grab a replacement.

You could spray it brown - reverse engineering the previous owner's efforts

[vulgalour]

@PhilA: I'll agree, the ride height isn't too offensive but the comfort is.  It'll be wheels first at any rate, smaller wheels with bigger tyre wall might counteract some of the discomfort. The copper washer is out of necessity, it's all I had in the stocks, but it's a greased joint and is showing no signs of binding since it was done so it'll do for now.  Not an ideal solution since ideally you need to knock out a great big rivet to refit a steel washer.

 

@Colc:  That's a great idea.  If I cut out two patches that look smart I can hold off spending hundreds on a new hood. I shall investigate, the gaffer tape solution is rubbish.

 

@RichardMoss: The leak is definitely coming in through those damaged rear quarters.  I've tested the hood to see how porous and leaky it is and the seams and fabric are actually pretty watertight.  There's two holes on the point of greatest stress and movement, where the gaffer is on one side, and it's this letting the water in because there's not enough fabric to cover the hole any more.  I'd also considered the vinyl painting, but the person I'm getting the brown seats and whatnot from might have this item so I'm holding off for now.