shitbox edition JYD's 1990 Mk2 Golf Gti.

[junkyarddog]

I've owned this since 1997,bought to replace my '89 Mazda 323,it was my first car that had a bit of pep to it,everything else beforehand was small engined for insurance purposes. 

It came into the breakers yard where I was working at the time, the boss used to sell a few trade cars,and often had varied and interesting stuff floating about.

So a deal was done,and I had entered the world of superior German engineering and quality...........

Coming from my previous Japanese car it was a disappointment to find out none of it was true.....,well screwed together,but it was a car that needed constant bits doing to it

Two weeks into ownership it needed a head gasket, as it started to use water,the electric window regulator's would fail with monotonous regularity,the steering rack needed to be replaced,it had wheel bearing's ,alternators, bushes,the gearbox crunched in second when cold(TADTS),and numerous other bits that I've forgotten over the years.

It was my daily for 5 years and 70 odd thousand miles,and despite all the parts it required to keep it on the road,it never actually broke down(although it did run out of electricity on two occasions, but was able to be got going again)

It was replaced by a Honda prelude, now that was a revelation after the VW,being actually able to own a car that didn't constantly demand my attention, and worked as it should for the next 7 years despite being 11 years old when purchased.

So,the Golf got parked and forgotten..........

Time to breathe life into it again.

Where to start?

Let's get it mobile,and take it from there.

It's lovely and crusty,just how we like them,back plates were rusted through,and an attempt to remove them resulted in sheared bolts in the hub,they needed to be drilled,and the only way to do that was remove the wheel bearing.....So this it kind of where the resurrection began.

May as well clean and regrease the driveshaft and fit new boots.

Rebuilt front hub,freshly painted.

Rebushed and painted wishbone.

Front calipers were surpringly good,just needed to be cleaned and regreased. Slapped a coat of paint on them for good measure.

Just gotta do the other side now.....

Ta dah....New shock,new top mounts,bearing, disc,pads,brake flexi,wishbone bushes....

So that's the front sorted.

Rear beam of much crustyness!

Boxes of rusty assorted rear beam crap.Yay.

Time to fit new rear bushes. 

Out with the old,I'd replaced these before many moons ago.

And in with the new,awkward shape made it difficult to get them to go in evenly,but some creative bodgery managed it.

All cleaned and painted ready for reassembly .

Molly wasn't best pleased with me using her kennel as a work bench.

An reassembled back on the car,cleaned up the original discs,new bearings,pads, flexis ECT.Fitted mk3 gti rear calipers as these are less shit than the mk2s,they have Ford stamped on one part of them,it's nice see see VW using decent parts at last

Also fitted a new rear brake load valve,that was eye wateringly expensive, but as I was buying so much stuff the guy in the factors gave it to me at a big discount.

New copper/nickel brake lines gone in too,although some of the original ones are still serviceable.

That's it,for suspension and brakes(I hope)

Time to wake up the engine.

More crustyness!

New timing belt kit,water pump,thermostat,oil,filter, rocker cover and sump gasket later,I started it and let it run.

Bottom end is quite clean,I always kept the oil and filters changed in it.

Sump painted.

It was time to start it up,which it did.

It was always a good car to start,I will say that in its defence.

Except it started to mix it's fluids......oil in the water......FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!!!

So some headscratching ensued. 

It ran well,and didn't overheat,when I did the gasket years previously I'd used a genuine gasket, head skimmed and new strechbolts,so it was possible it was failing,but still there was some niggling me.

A chance conversation with a guy selling tools at the local market one Saturday morning gave me a idea,it could be the oil cooler!!

One new oil cooler later,and hopefully it's sorted,the old one was clearly past it's best,so it's possible that was the issue(fingers crossed)

The new oil cooler also wasn't with out it's problems,namely the fact it didn't come with a new "O" ring to seal it to the block.

I didn't fancy using the old one,a trip back to the factors was useless,"they don't come with them" was the reply,although in fairness he did try to find one,but had nothing in the correct size.

A trip to a local hydraulic spares shop found one that would fit,so that saved the day.

So,that was a much as I could do to the mechanical side of things,time to look as the body work.

Oooh look a small crispy bit.........

TBC.

[Tickman]

Excellent work.

 

[sierraman]

Good work there JYD. Those Mk2 GTI are starting to be worth a few quid. My neighbor had one an 87 D plate 5 door in Silver with the BBS alloys. Really classy looking car even today. 

[junkyarddog]

So,the welding started at the front,battery tray needed a tickle.

Followed by the nearside floor pan.

There was more welding need at the rear floor pan,but not much,I don't have any many pics of that,was starting to become a bit fed up with it,so it was rolled into the shed and stayed there until the weather got a bit better.

 

[junkyarddog]

I had picked up this sorry looking thing a while ago,just for the sole purpose of harvesting it for parts.

I spotted it locally one day,knocked on it and bought it.

Originally a 1.3 petrol it had been converted to 1.9 tdi, and made to look like a GTI,which I initially thought it was. 

Engine had gone bang and it was parked up with most of the engine chucked in the boot,I really wanted to use the wheels,but the rears are stupidly wide,and would foul the arches,still it can provide a lot of useful parts.

Here it is behind my Dads long suffering '99 Focus.

 

[rickvw72]

Greatest car in the world.

But I’m biased! 
Had mine 13 years. 
 

[Inspiral_Mondays]

I had a Mk2 GTI 16V back in the nineties, took me ages to track one down that hadn‘t been crashed or stolen, which was a big problem with hot hatches at the time. I used it to commute 50 miles to work each day, it was amazing to drive and I regretted selling it the moment I saw the buyer driving it away. Only downside   I can remember was the rattly dashboard.

[junkyarddog]

This is what has happened this year so far,

Started welding up the drivers side floor pan.

Grotty.

Welded up.

Not nice welding on your back.

The sills had a few small holes on the lower edge,I bought new ones,but decided against using them.

A few localised patches will suffice.

Chop out the rot.

Make a replacement section.

Clamp into position.

Weld it into position. 

That was the lower edge sorted,

There was some rust on the door seal lip too.

Sorted.

next was the spare wheel well,

This is also the support bracket for the fuel tank.

Welded in.

Fuel filler was next.

It quite the mud trap up in there.

Donor part welded in.

Carefully mark the outer panel,then chop it out.

Donor part stitched in.

Rusty wheel arch next.

Donor parts.

Welded and ground down.

Some of the scrap metal that was removed.

Bonnet hinge and top of the A post is next.

TBC...

[Datsuncog]

Crikey, you had a busy morning.

I only managed to make some toast and delete a load of emails.

?

[jonathan_dyane]

Some superb work going on here and fair play for managing to keep it all these years, it’s actually lasted really well.

 I’m not much of a VAG fan but I had a mate with one of these and I have to say it was a superb drive, practical, nippy, and fun. Remarkably economical too.

[junkyarddog]

6 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

Some superb work going on here and fair play for managing to keep it all these years, it’s actually lasted really well.

 I’m not much of a VAG fan but I had a mate with one of these and I have to say it was a superb drive, practical, nippy, and fun. Remarkably economical too.

Funny you should mention economy, 

As I mentioned previously the gearbox in this crunched going into second from cold,

When it needed a clutch fitting,I decided to change the gearbox from another GTI that I had bought for spares.

That one didn't last too long either,and during a spirited overtake one Saturday afternoon coming home from work that gearbox fucked itself,was able to limp home,but what to do now?

Down on my cousins farm, he had a 1987 1.6 petrol Montego as a spares car for his then 1990 estate,but the gearbox was different between the two,the later Montego had a Honda box,but the earlier one had the VAG derived one.......

So my Golf GTI ended up using a Austin rover gearbox

The driveshaft flanges needed to be swapped over and it bolted straight in,and it was smooth into second gear!!

So what this got to do with economy?

The different gearing made a huge improvement on the MPG,it used a lot less fuel on my travel to work,I actually had fuel left over at the end of the week!

(Although I ran it on recycled fuel from the scrappers)

Those were the days.

[junkyarddog]

So,it was time to peel back the layers of the bonnet hinge aera and see what I was in for.

Hmmmmm.

Crispy.

Let's start with the easy bit,so made up a patch for the hinge aera and work back from there.

Clamped into position and drilled for the hinge,there is also a reinforced piece on the other side of the bonnet hinge, so this helped with locating the holes in the patch.

Note,the rusty reinforced piece in the A post too,Oh joy!

It also forms part of the door hinge support too.

Luckily this was in good condition on my parts car,so it was salvaged from it,along with a lot of other metal bits to complete this repair. 

So,that was all patched,and I was reasonably happy with it all,time to see if I could cover it all up.

Trimmed up and trial fitted the outer A post skin.

Took a while to get it to fit.

And weld it in.

I trial fitted the door at this point only to discover the top hinge had moved slightly, so some delicate twatting with my big hammer had it back where it should be.

Time to trim my donor scuttle panel.

This wasn't good enough to use in its entirety, so will just take the section needed,and fortunately the piece needed was in good shape.

Trial fit,with the door and wing in position. 

Not bad.

A bit of fettling got it fitted nice, so time to weld it in.

Welded in and sanded down. 

Nearly there. 

Trial fit the panels (again)

Yeah, that'll have to do.

So,this is where I am now.

Will update this as work progresses,I'm suffering from a case of the "can't be arsed" at the moment.

TBC....

[junkyarddog]

Spent another few hours on this today.

Couple of small holes on the nearside scuttle panel, thankfully the hinge aera on this side is sound,so I don't have to go through the same as the opposite side.

I also trial fitted the windscreen to make sure it still fits the hole,I'm glad to say it does!

I'd like to think I'm getting close to finishing the rust repairs on the shell,the rear boot lid seal lip needs some work,and I've yet to remove the rear bumper,so there may be some rust lurking there.

Then it's on to sorting out the best body panels from my stash,and prepping the body for a squirt of primer.

TBC....

[J-T]

Heroic stuff!

I had an oak green 16v about 10 years ago, that crunched into 2nd too. I was aware of the Maestro/Montego gearbox being VW derived but never heard of one bring repatriated- is this a thing or did you just have a go with it? 

[junkyarddog]

33 minutes ago, J-T said:

Heroic stuff!

I had an oak green 16v about 10 years ago, that crunched into 2nd too. I was aware of the Maestro/Montego gearbox being VW derived but never heard of one bring repatriated- is this a thing or did you just have a go with it? 

Oak green is one of the best colours on them!

The gearbox thing was something I was aware of,we used to sell them for VW's,when we had no actual VW ones in stock,The driveshaft flanges are different but are an easy enough swap.

[Dick Longbridge]

Only just spotted this. What an amazing effort so far! I'm hugely jealous that you managed to keep it for so long- was it out in the elements for all that time? 

I've owned several mk1s and mk2s. I sold my last mk2 around five years ago; it was an animal with a 2.8 VR6 conversion. I do miss it. 

What sort of paint do you use for your wishbones/sump etc? It looks a really decent, tough finish.

Looking forward to the next update!

[junkyarddog]

9 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Only just spotted this. What an amazing effort so far! I'm hugely jealous that you managed to keep it for so long- was it out in the elements for all that time? 

I've owned several mk1s and mk2s. I sold my last mk2 around five years ago; it was an animal with a 2.8 VR6 conversion. I do miss it. 

What sort of paint do you use for your wishbones/sump etc? It looks a really decent, tough finish.

Looking forward to the next update!

Yes,it was outside for about 90% of the time,

I was tidying it up for sale ages ago.......but i had a slight mishap.....I set the fucking thing on fire!!!!A stray spark got behind the dash,that resulted in needing a new wiring loom ,the damage was minimal,but and this is a big but, I didn't realise the powder fire extinguisher I used was corrosive and it fucked everything it touched,so it fucked the steering column,the steering knuckle,the steering rack,the servo,switches,fuse board!!

To say I was pissed off was an understatement,so it got stripped out washed thoroughly,then waxoyled to preseve it as much as possible........then I left it sit.

It's still painful to think about.

Will check on the paint,it's just something I got from a hardware shop.

[Dick Longbridge]

10 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

Yes,it was outside for about 90% of the time,

I was tidying it up for sale ages ago.......but i had a slight mishap.....I set the fucking thing on fire!!!!A stray spark got behind the dash,that resulted in needing a new wiring loom ,the damage was minimal,but and this is a big but, I didn't realise the powder fire extinguisher I used was corrosive and it fucked everything it touched,so it fucked the steering column,the steering knuckle,the steering rack,the servo,switches,fuse board!!

To say I was pissed off was an understatement,so it got stripped out washed thoroughly,then waxoyled to preseve it as much as possible........then I left it sit.

It's still painful to think about.

Will check on the paint,it's just something I got from a hardware shop.

Wow, what a ballache! Your commitment to the cause suddenly just became a whole lot greater!

[junkyarddog]

Today's effort was this rear seal lip.

Not excessive, but an awkward shape.

I went down to the spares car,with my new toy, but it was in worse condition than my own.

I chopped out a section anyway,but it was much too short.

Only one thing for it,I'll have to make up my own repair sections.

Because it's two panels joined, I got my spot welder out and welded them together.

Then welded them into the shell.

Ground down the welds.

Then tried the boot seal for size.

That'll do.

TBC....

[Dick Longbridge]

Neat work. Are you a welder/fabricator by trade? Any luck with finding the name of that paint? 

[junkyarddog]

6 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Neat work. Are you a welder/fabricator by trade? Any luck with finding the name of that paint? 

No,just an amateur bodger. 

The paint is Johnston's smooth metal paint,no idea how good it is in the long term.

[junkyarddog]

Today's antics have been just finishing off a few bits and pieces on the shell,mainly a few pinholes here an there,and cleaned up the nearside rear wheel arch.

This had been damaged and filled prior to my ownership, it had been drilled to pull it back into a rough shape,then wagged over.

Looking like a piece of Swiss cheese.

Holes welded up and ground down,I had thought about cutting the arch out and replacing it, but there would be much to be gained from that,I'll spend a bit of time reshaping it,then fill it again.

Also removed the rear hatch screen,

Hummm,that explains how water was getting in,slightly on the fucked side.Think I have a better one in the shed.

Splashed a bit of red oxide primer on the floor repairs inside.

Will do underneath tomorrow, then some seam sealer,then a coat of white stone chip,then it's onto filling and sanding the body shell in preparation for a coat of primer. 

TBC.......

[junkyarddog]

Still plodding away at this,

The underneath has been given a coat of stone chip as has the floor pan inside.

Filled the repairs and rubber the paint down on the door shuts.

Refitted the fuel tank,I'm glad to say my repairs seem to be in the correct places as everything bolted back together nicely. 

Removed the sunroof and mechanism because there was some surface rust in around the drain tubes,no pics of this unfortunately. 

Also found a few pinholes here and there that needed attention,but finally I think all the welding on the shell is complete. 

Started to work on the panels now.

The tailgate is first for attention. 

Some localised rot around the fixings for the boot handle.

Surprisingly the one to be replaced was sound there,so these bits were chopped out. 

Also chopped out that large piece of surface rust around the number plate fixing point.

Next rub down the inside,and fit it back on the shell,to check the gaps.

TBC....

[junkyarddog]

Tailgate fitted.

Quite pleased with the gaps,so will move onto the doors next.

Shame that there's four of them.

TBC....

[dave j]

Good work! I haven't had a mk2 for about 12 years now, didn't realise there were so many rot spots! My last mk2 was a Jetta that was getti g rough round the edges but j had just bought my camper so needed a sensible daily

[junkyarddog]

9 minutes ago, dave j said:

Good work! I haven't had a mk2 for about 12 years now, didn't realise there were so many rot spots! My last mk2 was a Jetta that was getti g rough round the edges but j had just bought my camper so needed a sensible daily

Standing outside for a long time hasn't done it any favours really,but for a 30 year old car it's not too bad.

I always find with German cars though that something will always bite you.

Still I'm quite enjoying it's resurrection,looking forward to driving it again.

[hairnet]

jaysis

if thisd been a mk1 or 2 jetta diesel woulda have bothered   :)

 respec to the weld

[stuboy]

coming on greatly

[junkyarddog]

Picked out the best doors from my stock,all have issues,but some less than others.

Happy with the panel fit now,some needed a bit of persuasion.

The right rear door needed the most work.

The double skin aera here always seems to rot out.Thankfully it's a simple enough shape.

More rot by the lower hinge.

Finally was this channel that the window runs in,gone quite crispy. 

I had a door on my donor car that is really rusty,but this section is pretty much perfect!! So it was duly chopped out.

I'm hoping that the welding is now at an end!!

Time to start prepping the shell for a coat of primer.

TBC.......

[sofarsogood]

Really nice work. Nice to see a bit of Vag on here too. I might even be brave enough to do a thread on my G**f