Golfing with Ghosty: IT NEVER ENDS

[Ghosty]

I seem to be posting a lot, so I'll start a thread (and then likely forget about it).

First off, a bit of background.



Sorted.
Now, some context. Maybe too much, but it's my thread and I'll post what I want to.

Late last year I found a Civic on Marketplace for £995. Thinking it was an ideal daily to replace my slightly troublesome Max Power spec Cavalier, I bought it. Low mileage and good history suggested it was a winner. However, after using it for a couple of weeks it became apparent I couldn't keep it (let's not go into why), so I put it up for sale. The Marketplace ad was still up (and still is to this day), so it was a hard sell, until a mate down in Bristol offered a straight trade for a Yaris T-Sport. I took it, thinking I could make some money on it, but it was such a good car that I decided to keep it as a daily and be a bit sensible (?!). I threw a few parts at it, that made it a right laugh to drive. Over the last six months I did 8000 miles in it, and it was a hoot.




It was due an oil change recently, and conscious of this, I started looking for service parts. On my way home from a mate's house one evening, I found it hunting. No oil pressure.
Next morning, I found out that the lack of oil pressure was down to a lack of oil. I knew it was using a bit, but I wasn't sure why.
 

 

That'll be why. Piston rings.

A week prior, I'd sold a load of wheels for the thing to a chap from Sheffield, that said to let him know if I wanted to sell it cheap.
I took him up on that, to get shot of the thing as I'm too busy to fix it, and seeing a 216GTI for sale at RRW had planted the seed of me wanting to change it - I'd been starting to wonder if it was too small for my needs. Frankly, it was a bit, but it did everything so well on balance (including hauling a Civic engine and interior up from Essex) that I let it slide.

The chap offered me £1000 for the Yaris as it stood - entirely fair with all the bits I'd put on it, and six months' MOT. I just couldn't be bothered constantly checking the oil, and I didn't have the time or inclination to find a good replacement engine and fit it - the car would still be worthless anyway. I figured I'd struggle to make more than £600 for it, so I took the £1k and ran.

I started looking for a replacement.

[Ghosty]

I wasn't sure what I wanted to replace the Yaris with, my criteria was petrol, a bit larger, pre-2001, and mildly interesting, more so than the Yaris which was depressingly conspicuous, even if tasteful.

After a couple of days' eBay searching I found a Flash Red mk3 Golf GTI, 81k and with a load of work done. Looked great ticked all the boxes, and gave me a nice refund on my insurance of £80 or so, so looked like a goer. I enquired, and the seller almost instantly replied - the V5 was off at Swansea to have an 'error' corrected, and that was that. No further contact. I realised an old Golf ticked the boxes, so I kept searching for them, and this led me to seeing a mk2 1.8GL that had just been listed on Marketplace. At the same time, a mate messaged a link to the same listing to me. 100k, full history and a year's MOT. Huh.
I thought about it a bit, and hanging off my front porch smoking a rollie (the one thing I allow myself now), I realised a mk2 was the right car. Bit bigger than a Yaris, decent on fuel, interesting enough, and still usable daily. Bit of chrome, angular, distinctive. Interesting. I could make one of those look fantastic with a little work. And an insurance refund of about £110...
I smiled. Yeah, I could see myself in that. I've never really spoken about it or admitted it, but I've always liked VWs. I looked back on myself, and remembered sitting on the computer late at night as a teenager, reading threads on clubpolo and the like, which lead me to RR... which lead me here eleven or twelve years ago.

I enquired about that Golf, but someone was waiting to view it, and sure enough, they bought it.

Went back to Marketplace, and looked at more mk2s. I realised I knew roughly what colour I wanted, manual, not a 1.3, etc. That doesn't usually come easily to me. And these cars were in budget! Done deal, I'd look for one - I had an offer of a Honda Fit as a loaner until I found a suitable car.

It didn't take long. Not even a day later, I saw a car on Marketplace, a bit over budget, but I could make it work. Right colour, manual, 1.6, single headlight, and as a bonus it had wheels, coilovers, a stainless back box, and a wooden Nardi steering wheel on it. I'd do all that anyway, so the extra money it cost seemed justified. It looked perfect, and it was on 49k miles. It was no show queen, more an honest driver (well, a CL), and I didn't think I could ask for more. The description mentioned the clutch and said it ran well, but divulged little more.

Needless to say I enquired, and it was available... if I could go the same day. It was in Aldershot. It was 2:30pm and I'd have to leave immediately. The seller asked for an hour to confirm. In that time, I noticed on the MOT history that in 2006 a 1 had fallen off the front of the mileage, which took a bit off the value IMO. Spoke to the chap on the phone and he admitted it was on 149k, and he'd been disclosing that in enquiries and had just neglected to mention it. The car had a brand new clutch though, and he spoke very well of it, so I reckoned it was worth a shot and jumped straight on the train.

The car pulls up outside Aldershot station, with a T25 in tow, and I look around it. A station attendant complimented us on it as I looked it over.

Original paint, rock solid, with one tiny patch of welding on a rear sill end. It ran well, and was completely honest and as described. The lads selling it told me everything I needed to know about mk2s, what to expect and how to sort it. They explained that it'd had a new clutch because with a previous owner, the gear linkage had snapped, and they'd burnt it out driving everywhere in third and fourth. They'd replaced this, and showed me the shiny linkage, but didn't say much else about what was under the bonnet - all I saw was a universal cone filter on the intake. One thing that made me curious is that they told me I didn't need to use the choke or tap the throttle to start it, which didn't sound right for a carb car. Took it for a test drive. Clutch was spot on, and the cambelt cover proudly stated that the belt was 9k and five years old. Bonus. I couldn't argue, it had a couple of small niggles, but the shell and running gear were so good that I bought it. I wasn't going to find another like this.

And that was that. First petrol station I went to, I got swarmed by folks showering me in compliments and shaking my hand. I knew I was on to something good - I've wanted a usable classic for years, and it just so happened that the Golf fulfilled that in droves, on top of ticking all the boxes I needed it to.

Drove home, door seals whistling, and a bit cold as the heater turned out not to work, but the car ran sweetly, and the drone from the backbox was surprisingly tolerable.

]

The risk had paid off. I'm smitten. Seriously. It's not at all what I expected, it drives like an old car, but with enough refinement and comfort that it could do anything. With it back home, it was time to take a closer look.

[Ghosty]

In the first instance, I massaged some Armor All into the door seals to get them a bit more supple. This worked a treat, and as detailed in News 24, I set to attaching some ISO plugs to the radio wiring, and ordered some Alpine speakers to replace the original blown paper coned units, which are strangely specific sizes - 3.5" up front and 6x4" in the back, not off-the-shelf sizes (these seldom go under 4", and 6x9").

 

This didn't allow many head units to work, though - I've learned that these pre-ISO cars don't have a 12v switched feed, that I'll plumb in, and this should let any head unit work, and shut off with the key. It also meant I could sell the battered Alpine, the only head unit I had that the car's wiring would work with, for a tidy profit. More news on this soon.

There's some play in the top of the steering column - as I understand it, this is because the iginition switch surround is also the top column housing: this has a needle bearing in it that has evidently worn out. Part is on order to replace this and should be here in the next couple of days.

I bought some oil, a filter and ECP's finest Bosch spark plugs to service it - however after changing the oil which was about as simple as possible, I found the car had new looking three pole NGK plugs in it. Those can stay. These were complimented by new HT leads, cap, arm and distributor, a Nissens radiator, a replacement looking expansion tank, and pretty much every concievable service part it might need.

The car was idling too high and misfiring, so I started looking into this.

The cone air filter on the intake had a hole in it, so I thought about replacing it to see if that helped, that was until I opened the airbox and found a washable K&N panel that needed a clean and re-oiling. Having the cleaner and oil on the shelf, I did this, binned off the cone, and found a mild improvement was made.
Set the timing with a timing light, idle dropped a bit, but still misfiring. I started to think about a carb rebuild.

Now, the car was black smoking a bit on load and ostensibly running rich, and crackling quite a bit on overrun, hmm. Having seen how much love and care the car had recieved in the non-immediate past (I don't think the seller had it long, just replaced the clutch and flipped it), I wondered if they'd do all that work then leave a Pierburg carb on there - I'd assumed it was standard, the seller hadn't told me about any of the work done on the car aside the clutch, and they had no history for it either.

Sure enough...

 

Weber conversion.

The car's had about £2k of parts and work done to it, it's incredibly well maintained.

[rainagain]

You’ve won the watch with that car! Looks fantastic. 

[Ghosty]

Knowing that the carb is a Weber 32/34 and not a Pierburg, it became more apparent that the issue was more likely to be bad setup than anything. Junkman very kindly agreed to take a look at it.
It had a very uneven idle, around 1200rpm by the sounds of it (no rev counter), and misfired constantly.


#

The mixture screw had been dialled all the way in, and the idle was out of adjustment - setting these up has restored a 'proper' idle and smoothed the car out in general, with a mild improvement in throttle response: the overrun crackle has also gone now (I wonder if this was intentional). The choke needs a small adjustment as it currently doesn't do anything, and I'm advised to adjust part of the throttle linkage to account for the carb being more intended for 1.8s than my 1.6. I don't think the partially open choke thing is an issue, but we'll see after I adjust it.

After that I need to check the thermostat: the temperature gauge was seldom reading above 1/4 and the heater runs cold. Cleaning up the sender on the contact has got the gauge working - and as of today showing correct temperatures, but still no heater. Both hoses to the matrix are hot, obviously this doesn't confirm if it's blocked but before I pull one out I'll look at the thermostat. The 'stat is easy to get to so I'll just order a replacement (I bet it's had one already), stick that in and take it from there.

In the meantime, I've got the radio wiring to play with some more, and I also need to work out why my dash illumination has stopped working.

[loserone]

Have I verbalised claiming dibs on this yet?

[rainagain]

Is the engine now running at the correct temperature (according to the dash)?

[Ghosty]

2 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Is the engine now running at the correct temperature (according to the dash)?

Yes, and it always has been - been keeping a close eye on all the coolant hoses, and they're all as hot as each other. I think the spade connector on the temp sender has just been making a poor connection.

[bigfella2]

I am surprised at the switched earth not been on your car, I had a f reg 1.6cl and am pretty sure it did. 

Also had the no heater thing too, on mine every hose, heater matrix, radiator was just full of rusty sludge, am guessing it had never had a coolant change. Flushing it all out made the heater like a furnace.

I also did the Webber thing when the pierburg started up, was the worst thing I ever did. A manual choke and a huge flat spot from cold that I could never get to the bottom of.

Heres mine, a GTi replica, 20 odd years ago mind.

[stuboy]

looks a smashing buy

[barefoot]

My Scarecrow is a 1.6 and it was me that replaced the pierburg with a weber. It's a lovely fruity sounding device which has on occasion (taking my mother to a funeral, a 300 mile round  trip) hit 44mpg. Generally though, it's head & shoulders better with no flat spots and a choke that just works, although my carburettor bloke is a bit special needs and makes 205s run on 4 motorcycle carbs and Saxos on a brace of huge Dellortos.

[rainagain]

3 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

Also had the no heater thing too, on mine every hose, heater matrix, radiator was just full of rusty sludge, am guessing it had never had a coolant change. Flushing it all out made the heater like a furnace

If the engine is up at temperature ignore the thermostat and have a go of above. It’s probably been run on just water at some point. 

[Matty]

Lovely that @Ghosty, absolutely lovely 😍 

[Ghosty]

22 minutes ago, rainagain said:

If the engine is up at temperature ignore the thermostat and have a go of above. It’s probably been run on just water at some point. 

I'll try that, ta.

Found something else - it's straight piped to the exhaust box.

[sutty2006]

I do love these mk2 golfs. They are surprisingly modern inside yet old on the outside. Win win all round. Top buyage there! 

[bunglebus]

Got my kid's mum this Driver, was a pretty good car although I never found it a very good handler - probably something up with this particular one as they're supposed to be good usually 

I test drove a 1.3 auto before this, terrifyingly slow!

[fatharris]

Looks tidy enough, that!

[andy18s]

57 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Got my kid's mum this Driver, was a pretty good car although I never found it a very good handler - probably something up with this particular one as they're supposed to be good usually 

I test drove a 1.3 auto before this, terrifyingly slow!

I had a Driver,white 3 door.

Iirc they were a Gti in every way but fitted with a carb engine.

[twosmoke300]

The rubber carb bases on these used to cause all sorts of running issues . Spray some brake cleaner around when running and see if it changes how it runs as it sucks it in 

[Verysleepyboy]

I had a 1.6 Ryder 3dr Mk2 years ago - really tidy (but basic) car, but would never run right on the Pierburg despite lots of effort. Should have swapped it for a Weber but moved it on before I got around to it.

[Ghosty]

  

On 25/05/2024 at 02:29, Ghosty said:

My professional* diagnosis is a blocked heater matrix and gauge not plugged in. Be fine. 

 

On 25/05/2024 at 09:24, Ghosty said:

Nobody tell me it needs a Weber.

LOL

[Ghosty]

Having looked into the Golf steering column a bit more, I've found that given the work involved in swapping the top bearing out (fairly involved, ignition barrel is removed with a drill), it takes barely any more effort to also replace the lower column bearing, a £12 part. Once you've accessed the top bearing you only have to remove two shear bolts and a bolt through the UJ in the footwell to pull the entire column and tap the lower bearing out. Given it could well be part of the issue, it seems academic, so that's on order.

I haven't progressed with the Golf today, as I've been a bit busy...

 

 

I've been pulling the Civic's engine out. There are a couple of reasons for this:

 

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

Story time, again.

The Civic is something of a rolling project. I got it in February of last year: I had a different Civic at the time that was written off.  I posted on 4GUK, the EF Civic Facebook group about it, and I was offered this Civic by a lass that had lost interest in it: she claimed it ran but had negelcted to admit that she couldn't diagnose a starting issue - she'd rescued it from ULEZ, fitted BC coilovers, had the sills welded up, and then parts cannon'd the entire engine with new bits. However she'd failed to replace the dead coil, not knowing it was located inside the distributor. After trying to jump start it for ages, and various armchair diagnoses such as mistiming, it randomly fired into life, so I paid her and fucked off home without turning the engine off.
She works for the Aston Martin F1 team in a technical role.

Here it is on the day I bought it, with my then-girlfriend's MX5, and some other Civic I was working on at the time.

After I got it home, I swapped a few bits over from the written off Civic still sitting on my driveway. Just silly bits of trim, things like that... but also the fully working distributor, and the carbs. The dead car had always had this weird issue where it wouldn't quite idle, and stalled a lot when cold - even after my dad rebuilt the carbs while the car belonged to my mum, and the new car's choke had issues... it turned out that the choke linkage was bent and did nothing. Strangely, both cars ran perfectly when the carbs were swapped between them. The car was almost ready to be pressed into service.

 I adjusted the coilovers back up to a sensible height, and stuck some wheels with better tyres on.

I ran around in it like that for a while - at the time it was my daily driver. It was shabby but solid and useable.
It cleaned up rather well.

I managed to straighten out the front bumper a bit.

[Ghosty]

I don't know what it is about the standard steering wheel in these Civics, but I can't stand it - it aggrvates the callouses on my hands from cycling. I solved this with a Nardi I had lying around after removing it from my old daily MX5. I also added some floormats.

The driver's seat was in a right state - it had been picked open and a cushion had been shoved inside it by the long term owner, and the base was completely flattened.

 

Wasn't looking too bad.

 

I sourced a front number plate holder.

I bought a back box from a twin cam 1.6i-16. One of those Polish ones you can still get new, it was pretty cheap and worthwhile, after I added a couple of Halfords chrome finishers to it:

 

 

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

Things ticked over for a while. I was messing with an MX-5 at the time, fitting an LSD and such, so the Civic was just reliable HONDA ENGINE transport.
You can see the state of the passenger side here, dents, mismatched paint etc:

 

the wing was particularly bad:

 

I got sick of the 'beauty' ring on the steering wheel. It didn't suit the car (strangely, the Golf's one does).

 

 

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

I was sick of the state of the front bumper. I'd bodged a straighter crash bar behind it in attempt to make it less wavy, but it was from a prefacelift car and didn't fit properly. I posted on Facebook looking for a new bumper, and by some miracle, a lad I'd been following on Instagram in Devon commneted stating he was selling an entire front end, as he was getting a JDM nose for his car. Now, I knew what this guy had, and offered me an entire nose - not just the exterior panels, but headlights, indicators, slam panel, the works - for a very reasonable price. Crucially, this included a power bulge bonnet from a twin cam! He also happened to have some rear light lenses he was willing to part with - fortuitous, if you look further up you'll notice one of mine was badly cracked from a London interface at some point in the past.

Fitting these parts paved the way for a respray. Things were getting serious now.

 

I actually drove it like that for a bit. But then, it was time for paint.



Ah, it's not a daily now.

[Ghosty]

I added some more personal touches - to compliment the bonnet, the red trim stripe from a 1.6i-16, and a Japanese sized front numberplate:

and took it to RRG. I wasn't aware of the significance of this day at the time. Things weren't quite all roses.

 I added a Spoon gearknob, Broadway mirror (these are a revelation!) and some MX5 mats I had lying around:

 

all-black iVT door cards:

replica JDM EF2 side decals:

and then I found a set of 1.6i-VT seats, and all-black rear 3/4 plastics. I also happened upon some JDM floormats - supposedly from an EF9, but the rears seem to be for a sedan, so I'm sceptical.



Things were coming together.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

Autumn was coming, and things were starting to change - less car shows and events lead to a change of pace.

I didn't know it, but I was being haunted.

I found some 15" wheels. They didn't quite fit right and scrubbed a bit on the arches (205 section tyres were too big), but improved the handling.

At some point I added the carburettor trumpets, and a front and rear strut brace. I don't seem to have any picutres of those.

I was pointed to a large missing piece of my interior, an all-black dashboard, which I fitted in the street:

 

I found some better fitting wheels, for a relative steal:

I was conscious that the clutch was on its way out.
Somewhere around this time I fitted the subwoofer from the Cav into the Civic's boot. I'd already made the space pretty much useless from fitting a rear strut brace (which I've since replaced with a stiffer, shinier one), so it wasn't going to hurt anyone, and the two door speakers just didn't provide enough bass.
Things quietened down for a while after this. It was a very dark time.
~

The sun began to rise on 2024. As the light got brighter and my eyes adjusted, things looked very different. The Civic abided. And it had done through an entire year.

I was buying something else for the Civic that I'm yet to fit off the same chap that had pointed me to the black dash, and I stumbled into a pair of door cards from an EF9 SiR, which feature more plush velour than the iVT items:

it was around this time that the car's handling got a bit iffy, and I started having to chase knackered bushes around. Firstly the rear trailing arms got polybushed mounts, and the lower control arms were replaced with Skunk2 items, just about visible below:

 

after this the rear upper arms were replaced, then the front uppers, and finally the front lower control arms were replaced with polybushed CRX items - combined with the matching CRX anti roll bar, I've been able to install better designed droplinks. I get bump steer now, I need to get a proper alignment.

While this was all going on, I'd been collecting parts - with the clutch feeling worse every time I drove the car, I wanted to replace it.
On these Civics three of the four engine mounts are actually on the gearbox.

If it's coming out....

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

Things have been very strange lately, it's been surreal to look back over them and how much has changed.

 

 

I was still stuck in the middle, on the inside.

but I broke free. Through it all I still had the Civic, and I still do. I've nowhere near finished with it.

 

[HillmanImp]

Imp Jr right fancies these after seeing yours when we looked at the Chavalier.

He makes me look for any that are for sale every now and then. 🧑‍🌾 (not sure why that emoji came up on my phone as a suggestion, I've just rolled with it).