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I have another build thread that was supposed to be for my E30 but where I've been working on the Golf it's taken over that thread, so I thought I'd do a proper one for my main project seeing as it's moving forward quite quickly at the moment.
Here's how it should hopefully go...
2.8 OBDII VR6 conversion
Smooth bay
Wire tuck
Lay it on the ground
I have some interesting wheels that I need to make fit, offset needs some planning with the adapters.
New interior, hopefully retrimmed eventually.
Then see how it goes from there...
Theres a bit of a catch up until I'm up to date where I've owned this car for a few years.
I bought the car back in August 2010 as a completely standard 1990 1.8 8v GTI. Annoyingly I couldn't insure it until April the following year. I just left it as it was for a while, it was having timing issues and electrical issues where it had been sat in a barn for so long, so all my money was going towards sorting it out.
Eventually I managed to afford some cheap JOM coilovers, so they went on and I just played about with the ride height and left everything as it was, apart from a from maintenance parts here and there.
This photo is from August 2011, parked next to the E30 I now own haha
Not long after insuring the car, I was at my now ex-girlfriends house, when I saw my car rolling past the window. The bolt for one of the handbrake cables had snapped and the car rolled into the neighbours brand new Mazda 6. You can just about see the damage in this photo. A nice crease down the door, cracked door handle and indicator, cracked bump strips. I was gutted.
Last year I was looking at ways I could improve arch clearance to drop my car some more when I came across a load of unknown rust under the plastic arches.
I quickly tidied that up and bodge pulled the arches with some mole grips for more lows haha, I'd had enough of my car after finding all the rust so didn't really care about appearance for a while.
Car was used in a music video just after this
For my birthday I got all of the damage repaired. Had the dent in the door sorted, the rear arch replaced. Then the front two arches cut out and the back to rolled. Now I have plenty of clearance for wheels .
The next step went a bit wrong. My wheels were all flaking and horrible and I couldn't afford a new set. So I decided to refurb them myself. The finish turned out pretty good, but the paint was not the copper I wanted it to be, it was orange -.-
Edition 38 2012
I drove the car around like this for a while before I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to just get stuck in a do what I could myself. So I decided an engine change would be fun. I chose a VR6 mainly because I like the look of them and the idea of having an extra 2 cylinders, I realise I could go down other routes like a 1.8t for more power.
I got pointed in the direction of someone selling a 2.8 OBDII with most of what I needed for the conversion for £300 which I didn't think was too bad.
So off I went, and started stripping the car down.
Resprayed the Mk3 subframe.
Then shortened the new mount and test fitted the VR. Still needs a bit of adjustment.
Picked up some Corrado front and rear seats.
And a Jetta front end, £15 well spent I think!..
I then started on cleaning the bay. I wasn't going to bother with smoothing etc, but I couldn't resist once the bay was empty. Seam sealer is the worst creation...
I then had to have a go at welding. I'd used an arc welder a few times before around the farm. So thought I'd just get stuck in. Didn't go amazingly well, but I'm starting to get the hang of it I think. As long as the first attempts stay in place, I'll be able to tidy them up haha.
This was my attempt before moving on to the car. The car was a LOT harder. I realise the rust really isn't ideal. I spend much more time cleaning up the metal on my car, promise.
There was a lovely rust hole under the battery mounting bracket, so I thought I'd tackle that first.
Here's how it should hopefully go...
2.8 OBDII VR6 conversion
Smooth bay
Wire tuck
Lay it on the ground
I have some interesting wheels that I need to make fit, offset needs some planning with the adapters.
New interior, hopefully retrimmed eventually.
Then see how it goes from there...
Theres a bit of a catch up until I'm up to date where I've owned this car for a few years.
I bought the car back in August 2010 as a completely standard 1990 1.8 8v GTI. Annoyingly I couldn't insure it until April the following year. I just left it as it was for a while, it was having timing issues and electrical issues where it had been sat in a barn for so long, so all my money was going towards sorting it out.
Eventually I managed to afford some cheap JOM coilovers, so they went on and I just played about with the ride height and left everything as it was, apart from a from maintenance parts here and there.
This photo is from August 2011, parked next to the E30 I now own haha
Not long after insuring the car, I was at my now ex-girlfriends house, when I saw my car rolling past the window. The bolt for one of the handbrake cables had snapped and the car rolled into the neighbours brand new Mazda 6. You can just about see the damage in this photo. A nice crease down the door, cracked door handle and indicator, cracked bump strips. I was gutted.
Last year I was looking at ways I could improve arch clearance to drop my car some more when I came across a load of unknown rust under the plastic arches.
I quickly tidied that up and bodge pulled the arches with some mole grips for more lows haha, I'd had enough of my car after finding all the rust so didn't really care about appearance for a while.
Car was used in a music video just after this
For my birthday I got all of the damage repaired. Had the dent in the door sorted, the rear arch replaced. Then the front two arches cut out and the back to rolled. Now I have plenty of clearance for wheels .
The next step went a bit wrong. My wheels were all flaking and horrible and I couldn't afford a new set. So I decided to refurb them myself. The finish turned out pretty good, but the paint was not the copper I wanted it to be, it was orange -.-
Edition 38 2012
I drove the car around like this for a while before I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to just get stuck in a do what I could myself. So I decided an engine change would be fun. I chose a VR6 mainly because I like the look of them and the idea of having an extra 2 cylinders, I realise I could go down other routes like a 1.8t for more power.
I got pointed in the direction of someone selling a 2.8 OBDII with most of what I needed for the conversion for £300 which I didn't think was too bad.
So off I went, and started stripping the car down.
Resprayed the Mk3 subframe.
Then shortened the new mount and test fitted the VR. Still needs a bit of adjustment.
Picked up some Corrado front and rear seats.
And a Jetta front end, £15 well spent I think!..
I then started on cleaning the bay. I wasn't going to bother with smoothing etc, but I couldn't resist once the bay was empty. Seam sealer is the worst creation...
I then had to have a go at welding. I'd used an arc welder a few times before around the farm. So thought I'd just get stuck in. Didn't go amazingly well, but I'm starting to get the hang of it I think. As long as the first attempts stay in place, I'll be able to tidy them up haha.
This was my attempt before moving on to the car. The car was a LOT harder. I realise the rust really isn't ideal. I spend much more time cleaning up the metal on my car, promise.
There was a lovely rust hole under the battery mounting bracket, so I thought I'd tackle that first.
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