My MKIII Golf GTI 20 Years - Daily Driver

[Shepherd]

Just something a friend of mine sent me.... recorded at last year's MIVW.

[Shepherd]

gti-03 from GShep on Flickr


gti-04 from GShep on Flickr

Some weeks ago (before the pics above were taken), I fixed some rust.












It was way too cold for the filler, the bondo hardly dried... so I just gave it a quick sprayover. Once the temps go up a bit more, I'll have that all smoothened out.

Next thing was my gearbox breaking down... 4th gear doesn't work anymore and all the other gears are all wonky, first and second gear sometimes need a lot of force to shift... so eh.
Didn't wanna spend money on some gearbox where I didn't know in which condition it was, so I ripped the gearbox off the 2.0 16V that's still sitting in my garage.
For what I plan to do with the engine, I wouldn't need the gearbox anyway.

Of course I couldn't just put it in though. Had to give everything an overhaul to match my standards.

First the shifter box... taken apart and cleaned, waiting to be put together with new parts now.




The gearbox itself, oily and dirty.


..diesel took care of that.


Where did all that dirt go?!


...oh there it is.


After the pressure washer and some cleaners, it still wasn't clean enough.


...so I scrubbed it with a wire toothbrush for two hours, till the alu was all shiny again, time to tape it up, get it fillered and painted!


Now that looks like a gearbox that I would allow to sit in my engine bay.


After I was done with the gearbox itself, I started sandblasting the few parts that I won't replace... like the starter.


surprisingly it had green parts, lol.


Just fillered everything I sandblasted then and cleaned up then, gonna get all the rest painted tomorrow.
Still sooo much stuff to do till Wörthersee next month!

[Kaiyin]

stuff and things and stuff and things

is it time for Worthersee yet?

*gets on a jet-plane*

[93foxx]

damn that plast-dip is bright as shit i like it

[Shepherd]

Finished up the gearbox...


All related parts got a little overhaul and new paint and are ready to go in now.


My rear shocks were leaking, so I got two new ones... also installed new camber shims. -2° now instead of -1.5°


Everything taken apart...


...one bolt had to make problems of course, but nothing the angle grinder couldn't fix!


New vs. old. New shocks with KW springs.


all done.



dropped the ass 1,5-2cm and it looks so much better now, finally less rake and rubbing
Sorry for the shitty pics though... idk but thought the foam would come out better.

[P78]

next time you are in brussels, let me know, so i can c this in real life

damn that golden plastidip look really works

[kittenpuncher]

love absolutely everything but the tinted tails but I guess with your red car it kind of works. Great attention to detail, pretty awesome you are almost at 250,000 miles thats an accomplishment.

[Kaiyin]

<3<3<3<3

[terrorandre]

ich liebe diesen wagen <3

[bernardgam]

anyone buy some golf mk3 gti parts from china ebay?

anyone buy golf mk3 gti parts from china ebay buychina.com as follow:
http://www.buychina.com/products?keyword=golf+mk3&cid=

want to get some suggestion, thanks very much!

[Shepherd]

(Older) Update on the GTI...

My gearbox was so beaten up after 375000Km that I finally decided it was about time to do the swap.
Put the car on jack stands one day.


Ripped everything out.


Engine with the old gearbox


Clutch was still good, material wise... but it was completely oil soaked.


Didn't come from the engine though, gasket is all dry and ok.


Gearbox though dripped with oil and was the cause for all the mess.


Since the 02A Gearbox has a wired shifter and a hydraulic clutch, I had to swap the shifter box and all the clutch stuff. unfortunately, unlike most Golfs, mine didn't already have the holes for the hydraulic clutch, so I had to drill them. Quite shitty work and it took some time, but what has to be done has to be done.


After I had the car prepped, I put the new gearbox on the engine (after I gave the engine block a good cleanup).


Car prepped meant that I cleaned the whole engine bay and axle, threw the old, leaking steering rack out, put a overhauled, freshly painted one in, painted the driveshafts and replaced two broken boots on them as well. Also replaced the old engine mounts with more stiff ones.


and then I just worked 36h straigth, powered by beer and energy drinks, to get the engine in and everything on again. Didn't go back home till I had everything running properly and fuck I was really done after that, haha.
Of course it didn't go all to smooth, the wire connecting the starter motor and the starter switch was rotten, so it wouldn't start at all at first... but after I fixed that, it started up and everything worked fine




After I was done with the gearbox, I finally was able to get some more fun things done.
Started making my Wichers strut brace fit properly.



Bought a parts car for cheap, which had any upgrade from the upgrade list you could get at that time and directly ripped the cruise control out, overworked a few little parts and it was ready to go into my Golf.


I do love it a lot, makes long trips so much more fun, but on German cars it's a very rare feature at that time.



After that I just decided to have some fun on the Ring.


Before I installed a GoPro holder under my Licenseplate at the front, so I tried that one when I did my second lap that day.


Next I finished the strut brace and repainting my new uniball top mounts.


Installed the strut brace first.



While I was at it, I directly swapped to my second set of wheels. Race Wheels Monoblock in 16x9 ET25 with 5mm spacers all around... of course I lowered it a bit, too






The tires on the AZEVs just were used to the max, metal was already coming through, lol.
Wanted to run the AZEVs for Wörthersee though, so one evening, I put new tires on them with the help of a friend.
Went from 215/35s to 195/40s... because I wanted more stretch, low and poke, plus they are a lot easier and cheaper to get
So when I got the car ready and put the wheels one, I turned the coils down a bit more and added 5mm spacers as well, haha
Setup now is AZEV A 16x9 ET15 with 195/40 Dunlop SP9000 (Front) and Hankook S1 Evo (Back) + 5mm spacers all around. Plus I finally threw my uniball top mounts in as well.




see2013-shoot-1 von G Shep auf Flickr


see2013-shoot-3 von G Shep auf Flickr


see2013-shoot-4 von G Shep auf Flickr


see2013-shoot-2 von G Shep auf Flickr


see2013-shoot-5 von G Shep auf Flickr

Proper airride look, imho, yet it rides all comfy and smooth, perfect for daily use...
Had to test that setup on the Ring for sure, but uh... let's just say 195/40 on 9" isn't a proper combination to go fast, lost ~30s, so guess I'll go with my second set of wheels when I wanna have some fun.

[Smeeeb]

Not going to lie. I am quite in love with your car.

[Smeeeb]

Double post.

[bernardgam]

Hi, Shepherd,

It cost me many time to read your post. the car is cool. also like it.

[VdubMKII]

I took some pics of your car on EuroSunday


DSC02037 by Bmw M Powerrrr, on Flickr


DSC02035 by Bmw M Powerrrr, on Flickr


DSC02034 by Bmw M Powerrrr, on Flickr


DSC02033 by Bmw M Powerrrr, on Flickr