Golfing with Ghosty: IT NEVER ENDS

[Matty]

11 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

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). 

I'm beginning to agree with Imp jnr. Class cars which have aged really well.

[Ghosty]

Quite proud of myself today.

I finished changing the Golf's speakers:

 

 

and the Civic's engine is ready to go in, with a lightened flywheel, new clutch, Gates timing belt and thermostat, and OE spec NGK spark plugs.



I sorted the dash lighting and radio in the Golf. Whoever said to look for a switched live in the fuse box - thanks! I utilised one from an unused relay.



However, I've noticed quite a few fuses blowing at seemingly random times. I wonder if the alternator is on its way out, as it's been slow to crank occasionally, cranking dims the headlights, and my Bluetooth adapter suggests the battery isn't charging from the decreasing voltages I've seen through the day.

[Matty]

8 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Quite proud of myself today.

I finished changing the Golf's speakers:

 

 

and the Civic's engine is ready to go in, with a lightened flywheel, new clutch, Gates timing belt and thermostat, and OE spec NGK spark plugs.



I sorted the dash lighting and radio in the Golf. Whoever said to look for a switched live in the fuse box - thanks! I utilised one from an unused relay.



However, I've noticed quite a few fuses blowing at seemingly random times. I wonder if the alternator is on its way out, as it's been slow to crank occasionally, cranking dims the headlights, and my Bluetooth adapter suggests the battery isn't charging from the decreasing voltages I've seen through the day.

That looks like a fucker of a hill to walk home pissed up 🤣

[Ghosty]

9 hours ago, Matty said:

That looks like a fucker of a hill to walk home pissed up 🤣

I usually cycled up it.

Not a problem for me any more though, haven't drank since 11/12/23.

[Ghosty]

Another good day of progress.



Engine is IN.

 

 

Flushed the Golf's heater matrix.

Yeah, bit of crap in it. Ran the car and it still didn't seem to be running up to temp. Heater still cold too.
A Gates thermostat arrived in the post.

Better fit it, then.

Jack the car up to get a bucket under the thermostat housing. Wait a minute...



fuck me, it's a manifold back stainless exhaust I thought it was just a backbox.

I think I found why it was running cold.



'stat had NEVER been changed and was stuck open.

 

Coolant back in the (non-OE_ expansion tank, bled it up (a certain Favorit shitting a core plug versed me in this), and while doing so everything seemed fine, but still a stone cold heater.

I looked into this a bit, and it turns out there's a known issue with heater bypass valves on these. To sort it you fit a mk3 Golf matrix and bin the valves.

Looks like that's on the list then.

Alternator seems fine today.

[barefoot]

36 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I usually cycled up it.

Not a problem for me any more though, haven't drank since 11/12/23.

I haven't drank since 17:46

[Ghosty]

Oh also, it looks to have had front-rear brake lines…

[Ghosty]

Not much Civic news today, got the driveshafts back in and a couple of other bits.

WagonR sold to an Australian couple that are exporting it to Alderney (!) for their father. They suggested that the island community may have a market for more cars like that... and I have another WagonR coming up for sale.

Cleaning and polishing the Golf, it came up fantastically. I noticed this in the bonnet:



sprayed over lacquer peel. It's only bloody had a full body 2K respray, seals out and everything - aside from the bonnet, it's so good you can't tell.

 

I decided to look into the steering column play. As suspected, only the top bearing, which is in the ignition switch housing, had play in it...


because the car's already had a VW Heritage replacement part fitted, that's failed. Well, shit. Wonder how long the new one will last - 390mm steering wheel, no PAS and 8J wheels suggest not that long. I might have a new bearing pressed in if it happens again in short order. I've got as far as getting the housing and spline adapter off with bearing pullers before it started getting dark and my mates asked if I wanted to grab some food. I just need to drill the old housing to release the ignition barrel (yes, really) and swap the switch over to the new part and reassemble, which I'll do when I get back from a collection mission with aforementioned mates tomorrow. Should be a good one.
The stalks are replacement items too - wonder if these were added at the same time as the ignition housing.

People are inevitably going to ask me what my plans are for the Golf, and honestly? Just drive it, and replace things that break, nothing more.
This car was clearly someone's pride and joy that fell on hard times one way or another, it's had a serious amount of love and attention at some point in its life, and I just want to bring it back up to that standard.
I feel like it'd be an injustice to the car and whoever built it to change anything - I really like the car how it is, and the amount of love it gets from the public is heartening.
So I'm just going to keep it exactly the way it is, with a couple of sympathetic touches like the speakers I've added, and a little cleaning up, but nothing more. It deserves to live on - maybe one day I'll encounter a previous owner or something.
You have to wonder what this car's got up to in the past.

[drewd]

I love Mk2 Golfs and this looks like a really nice example, understandable you'd want to preserve it.

My second car was a 1989 Mk2 Jetta TX, 1.6. I bought it in 2004 for scrap money as it had no MOT and the rings were shot. My dad changed the rings on it and we rebuilt the head, changed discs and pads and replaced the CV gaiters. Standard Old car stuff really. It was a high milage car and fairly basic but the interiors etc on these hold up really well.

It drove really nicely, apart from a stupidly high idle when it was warming up as the Pierburg auto choke used to stick. I managed to find a weber conversion in our local scrap yard for £10, which cured the idle issue. It used to feel pretty rapid, but my only driving experience then was my previous Mk2 Jetta 1.3 and my driving instructors' 1 litre 106.

[Ghosty]

What a day.

My mate was browsing Gumtree and found a Beetle for £1500, in Chelmsford.  Solid and running, but sat for a few years.
We piled into a K11 Micra and set off to get it.

We were met with this:

and with a jump start, it fired into life.

 

The rear tyres and valves were shot, so after a trip to Kwik Fit, wherein it turned out newer tyres of the same size needed stretching and fire to be convinced to fit. We went up a size, and returned, with a new battery as the one on the car was dead.



We were off.

However, at this point we found that the fuel tank had rotted out at the seams.

 

[Ghosty]

The sender was loose too:


A tank was sourced locally on Marketplace, I stayed with the Beetle and just relaxed for a while. I also pulled the decals off the doors.

We set to work:

and got the tank in, and transferred the fuel across:

 

and we were off.


The oil pressure was low, and the temperature was high - 20psi running, and at 240F and up.

Thankfully, we came prepared:



The late Richard Black always spoke well of the Pela pump, and I fully understand why. Glad I brought it with me.

This massively improved things - healthy pressure and lower temperature. That was, until it transpired the Beetle wasn't charging, and cut out on the A14.



Joni Mitchell took it the rest of the way after some coppers saw us and helped us push it off the A14, and we left in the Micra.

It's already back at my mate's place. More to come, but for now I need to reassemble the Golf's steering wheel and get the horn to work.

[reb]

Pela pumps are for winners.

[Ghosty]

Not much going on today by virtue of being knackered.

The Beetle arrived:



4-5v at the alternator, needs replacing. The wiring is a bit of a mess too.

Back to the Golf. I tried to fit the new ignition lock housing, but managed to damage the bearing while fitting the column pressure spring and spline adapter. Result is the bearing as f'd as before. I'm going to buy another as I've realised Parts in Motion have a Febi part - better than the JP Group one offered by Heritage Parts Centre.


I need to replace the dizzy too when I can afford it, as I suspect it's causing a misfire.
Horn: the horn is present, but not where I thought, it's behind the grille in front of the radiator. Relay is missing, I knew this but was glossing over it seeing as I didn't know I had a horn, so I looked into the relay. I found that there were two pins stuck in the plug:



I had some VAG relays knocking about from scrapyard trawling, so I tried one that had the right pin layout to see what happened. It didn't work as it turned out to be for the rear wiper, but it did confirm that 12v was getting to the horn, and the button. I need to find one numbered 53 or 645. I'm going to a VW spares place tomorrow so I'll ask.

The gear linkage stabiliser bushing has come loose.

[Rustybullethole]

7 hours ago, reb said:

Pela pumps are for winners.

How is the Pela better than others on the market?

Also whilst im asking questions how did a penis pump help with high temp and low oil pressure?

[Matty]

7 hours ago, Rustybullethole said:

How is the Pela better than others on the market?

Also whilst im asking questions how did a penis pump help with high temp and low oil pressure?

Going to assume that as its air/oil cooled that knackered/too little oil was causing the grief. Oil takes a beating in air cooled lumps.

[Bazfr69]

I’d love another Mk2 Golf, my mrs and I were both running GTIs when we met many moons ago. 
She’s also had a Corrado hankering for years though so who knows where we’ll end up. 
Both in Beetles atm. 😄

Lovely motors. 😎

[Ghosty]

3 hours ago, Matty said:

Going to assume that as its air/oil cooled that knackered/too little oil was causing the grief. Oil takes a beating in air cooled lumps.

Yep - we intended to do an oil change from the get go, but with tyre shenanigans we decided to do it a bit later.

It was old oil of an unknown grade, and it was too thin to maintain a decent pressure - 20psi at motorway speeds isn't enough, and the pressure gauge wasn't moving at all.

Oil change, and immediately the pressure gauge started reacting to throttle input.

[Ghosty]

Golf's downpipe is shagged!

Nowhere has exactly the right part, aside from an Autodoc Polmor special. Errr, no thanks.

I know what to do.

[Ghosty]

Right, I've stuck a repair bandage on it, and so far so good. Have ordered a cheapo stainless manifold as the only other option is a Polmo one from Autodoc that would take ages to arrive, and probably be a bit shit.

The gear linkage bushing had just popped out of place, I've pushed it back in but it's not perfect so I've ordered another for the sake of a £5 part. Easy enough to fit. Spent most of the rest of the day on that Beetle, reassembling the alternator and trying to get the throttle linkage in place as it was sticking after reassembly.

[tooSavvy]

Great to hear that a *bargain Beetle might be had....

.... and rebuilt - with 'locally sourced components' 🤣 - on the way home.

See a car, buy it, fix n fettle 'on the hoof'!

What we are all here for 👍

When I went down to get MrGetz.... It needed fuel after leaving the bombsite dealer.... I stopped a little down the road and 'didn't switch it off' when filling it up = because I couldn't hear the engine.

Not 'quite' the same.. with SuziQ buzzing away 🤣

 

[Ghosty]

Febi ignition housing has arrived. The bearing is significantly better quality than the JP Group part. Think I'm going to avoid JP Group parts, and sellers like Heritage et al going forward. Places like that seem to exist for people that don't know better, good quality stuff is available if you can be arsed looking for it (okay, maybe not distributor bodies, that was luck).

[Supernaut]

£1500 for a running* and driving* air cooled beetle is good going!

[MrBig]

Serial beetle and mk2 golf owner here. I massively approved of this thread. I'm currently on the hunt for my 10th mk2 but I'm struggling a bit with paying the silly prices people want on marketplace.

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

£1500 for a running* and driving* air cooled beetle is good going!

It has air suspension too, but the compressor's been removed. Ported heads as well. It's a good goer now it's charging and has a leak free tank, just needs cleaning up. Seller didn't really care what it was worth, he'd just fallen out of love with it and wanted a buyer like my mate to put it to good use. We could barely believe the price ourselves.

[Bazfr69]

19 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

It has air suspension too, but the compressor's been removed. Ported heads as well. It's a good goer now it's charging and has a leak free tank, just needs cleaning up. Seller didn't really care what it was worth, he'd just fallen out of love with it and wanted a buyer like my mate to put it to good use. We could barely believe the price ourselves.

It’s a proper bargain, I could easily have seen it going for double that and still thought it was a decent price. 

[N Dentressangle]

On 03/06/2024 at 12:53, Ghosty said:

The sender was loose too:


A tank was sourced locally on Marketplace, I stayed with the Beetle and just relaxed for a while. I also pulled the decals off the doors.

We set to work:

and got the tank in, and transferred the fuel across:

 

and we were off.


The oil pressure was low, and the temperature was high - 20psi running, and at 240F and up.

Thankfully, we came prepared:



The late Richard Black always spoke well of the Pela pump, and I fully understand why. Glad I brought it with me.

This massively improved things - healthy pressure and lower temperature. That was, until it transpired the Beetle wasn't charging, and cut out on the A14.



Joni Mitchell took it the rest of the way after some coppers saw us and helped us push it off the A14, and we left in the Micra.

It's already back at my mate's place. More to come, but for now I need to reassemble the Golf's steering wheel and get the horn to work.

Fair play - you earned that recovery. Not like you hadn't fixed a fair bit already.

[HillmanImp]

6 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Fair play - you earned that recovery. Not like you hadn't fixed a fair bit already.

I remember the RAC man turning up to move my mates 'broken down' Polo from Hull to Barnsley. 

'Its only got half a fucking engine mate' 

'Are you going to move it or what?' 

'Yeah, alright' 

[Bazfr69]

Is the Beetle on standard steels? 
I’ve been thinking about getting a set and painting them black for a change and they look pretty good on that imo. 
My car is on Marathon wheels atm and I was thinking of getting the rears banded but I’d need a second set in the meantime. 

[Ghosty]

21 minutes ago, Bazfr69 said:

Is the Beetle on standard steels? 
I’ve been thinking about getting a set and painting them black for a change and they look pretty good on that imo. 
My car is on Marathon wheels atm and I was thinking of getting the rears banded but I’d need a second set in the meantime. 

Yeah, they're some sort of standard 4x130 Beetle steels. The rears have been banded to something like 7-8j.

[Bazfr69]

2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Yeah, they're some sort of standard 4x130 Beetle steels. The rears have been banded to something like 7-8j.

I was just thinking of 5.5 or 6. I don’t think I’d want anything wider, just a little bit of dish. 
They definitely suit the one you’re fettling though.