1994 called, they want your mk3 back

[19birel]

Wow, great job with the rhd swap, this thing is too rad! Keep it up!

[hinrichs]

So took a little while of trying every adjustment I could think of for reverse...seemed like it was never going to work. Finally figured out that by hand it works, but the shifter just wouldnt make it happen. Adjusted the part that most people say you dont need to touch, and bam it went right into reverse. Basically the shifter itself wasnt pushing down far enough, so it couldnt engage reverse. Thankfully it was an easy fix. It was late friday night and windy as hell so I didnt try and drive the car at all.

Saturday morning I got up after the fiance left for work early. Checked over everything once again and backed out of the garage for the first time. Fun how it looks exactly the same lol.

IMG-0332 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Went well, so I decided to take it down the road and to the local park.

IMG-0333 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0334 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Heat wasnt working so I went back home. Ended up pulling the blower fan and swapping in my old one which was a pain but now it at least blows. I however get no air out so I think the blend door has no foam. So glad I didnt fix or look at that before I put the heater core in for the last time. I will dig into that this week.

Was browsing facebook marketplace like usual, found some 15" widened corrado steelies and went to look at them. They were perfect with new powder coat, but had 165/50 tires which are just too small for the mk3. Guy then offered another set of corrado steelies but this time in 16". They should fit perfect, they just need some paint or powder. I will prolly paint them for now so I can try out a few colors till I make a final decision. I know steel wheels are kinda lame, but I feel like they will fit the look of this car the best. Plus I can run hub caps which is fun.

151B618B-115E-4CD6-84D9-D0624A50088D by minthinrich, on Flickr

[SebastienPeek]

First thread I came to check after the forums were back up. Saw the progress on Instagram, excited to see this all come together. Definitely worth the effort, adds that extra touch of cool to the Mk3. Nice work!

Aha me too!

[saturnstance]

So cool to see how "quick" this is coming together.

I've been thinking about going RHD on a car i've had sitting around.

[bwwaaaa]

First thread I came to check after the forums were back up. Saw the progress on Instagram, excited to see this all come together. Definitely worth the effort, adds that extra touch of cool to the Mk3. Nice work!

[hinrichs]

Well lets see where I left off. Went on vacation for a week and got right back into the car when I got home.

Car looked like this for a little while when I was figuring out the wiring. The dash needs to come back out since theres a lot that does work, but getting it running was the major goal.

IMG-0291 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Had a hell of a time with getting it to start. This wire was the culprit. Nothing for it to connect to with the differences in the harness. Ended up they needed to be connected together. Crimp nut and it fired right up.

60246017795--9E714C21-B5C8-4A33-9B3B-BCF5331DE508 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Time to work on getting the dash in, which was fun not knowing what half of the trim went to. RHD vs LHD is very different in a few panels. Took my time and it came out perfect. Ignore the upside head unit lol.

60272423566--E613A765-7172-4F03-B8CF-9A94CC7D68DD by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0324 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Threw the wheels back on, tightened the axles and other small bits and put the car back on the ground. Painted the center of the new "early us" grille, and took some pics. I have no reverse so I cant drive it yet, but will be working on that tonight.

IMG-0325 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0326 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0327 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Wiring makes me nervous lol

Luckily this is kinda easy as all I had to do was extend everything. Thinking its good practice for the M3.


Got the harness extended on Saturday and laid in how I want it. I still might re-route the one section but its in for now. Its longer than I needed but it fits decently. Threw in the heater core and got to work on the fuse box.

IMG-0149 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0152 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Had to sit in it and take a break. I had the seat in so I didnt have to sit on the floor or off to the side anymore.

IMG-0150 by minthinrich, on Flickr

I did get the carpet in, and body harness mostly installed but I didnt get a pic yesterday. These are the damn connections that I am having issues with as there are a lot, most un-used, but some need to be connected. I labeled a bunch, but since I went to the euro body harness my idea didnt pan out at all.

60113854932--40C88C40-617D-4EF7-BE99-A066D7DA5AEE by minthinrich, on Flickr

[saturnstance]

Wiring makes me nervous lol

[hinrichs]

10 Wires left and the engine harness is complete. Hopefully I can get it done tonight.

60082317472--F0274D8D-FCA7-4147-A13B-D9F6E40E8D65 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

I love clean wiring. There is something about that really tickles my fancy.

Garage space is legit. I want that much room to play.

Only took me 7 years of looking to find this garage/house combo. I never knew how nice it was to have a proper sized garage untill now.


Spent a few hours in the garage last night. Does it look like a lot of progress? No....but extending the harness sure takes some time. I am also scrounging around to find the wire I need so its been going slow but steady. I have wire coming thursday, but I did pull a lot from the RHD harness which I dont need, auto trans harness, and other parts of the body harness I didnt need anymore. Cut. Splice. Tape. Repeat.

IMG-0127 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[SebastienPeek]

I love clean wiring. There is something about that really tickles my fancy.

Garage space is legit. I want that much room to play.

[hinrichs]

I **** pesky missing bolts!

The brake lines are in, as long as they hold pressure and get you stopping, it works. Can always revisit when you can.

They should all hold. I will hopefully get to bleed the system soon enough once I get more of the interior together. I might need a new clutch slave on both ends but not sure on that yet. The rod into the pedal is a little loose so I feel I may be missing a clip or something but havent gotten to dig into it yet. Next winter, if I still have this thing, I want to do a motor swap so I can redo the lines at that point if I feel its necessary. I am not going for a show car but more a cruiser that I can enjoy.

This is a fuckload of work just to move your steering wheel to the wrong side, respect to you

Brake lines you're probably better redoing them completely, get a roll of line and a straightener and the little bender thingy and you can whip up some mint ones in less than you'd spend getting those kind of straight

I did redo all the lines, was kind of practice for the BMW. I wish I had gotten a straightener, but I did get a bender and everything else I needed. Just stopped caring about making them look perfect haha.

Got the car on the ground last night, need to fully tighten up the axle bolts but that will happen once I go over everything. Ignore the mess in the garage. I will do a deep clean once the golf can go back outside.

IMG-0120 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Then I pulled the body harness out of the bin. I should have taken a picture of the before. It was a true cluster, and balled itself up. It was kind of like Christmas lights. Well I spend about 2 hours sorting it out, and re taping the whole thing with new cloth harness tape. It looks much better but I didnt get it installed into the body yet. I did get 5 wires extended as well, but didnt take a picture of them.

IMG-0121 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[Fruttolo]

This is a fuckload of work just to move your steering wheel to the wrong side, respect to you

Brake lines you're probably better redoing them completely, get a roll of line and a straightener and the little bender thingy and you can whip up some mint ones in less than you'd spend getting those kind of straight

[SebastienPeek]

I **** pesky missing bolts!

The brake lines are in, as long as they hold pressure and get you stopping, it works. Can always revisit when you can.

[hinrichs]

Progress is progress man! Looking good!

love the progress

Man you’re hammering this out so quick. I always forget how much goes into projects like this, wiring harness, brakes, steering etc. It’ll be worth the effort for sure though.

Thanks guys, it means a lot to get some feedback on this. I feel like its been taking forever but I am finally getting some real progress done. Its amazing how many little details do go into this kind of conversion. I feel like if I got a "new" swap, this would have been a lot easier since I keep having to find little things that I dont have and need.

Some updates from this weekend...well friday night and then most of saturday.

Fiances camino was sold. We really wanted to keep it and have fun with it, but it was time for a new home. She and her uncle fixed it up over the years, and his neighbor was the one who came to look at it and decided he wanted it. He knew the work that went into it, and what it needed yet so it was the perfect person for it to go to. Loaded up and away it went. She has some ideas on cars, so we are starting to look now for a replacement to her dodge caliber, since she got her grandfathers truck (2004 silverado with 49k on it).

60044472235--A20C2F31-D306-49C9-9FF3-5A341F2764AE by minthinrich, on Flickr

Worked on the brake lines and finally came up with a plan. Are they good looking? Hell no. They look terrible in the bay but whatever they will work and someday I will figure out how to make them look good. The lines in and "finished" was a huge push of motivation to get some real progress done. I threw on a zip tie which made them look better, but I still want to figure out a better mount on the firewall itself.

IMG-0080 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-0081 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Threw in the motor which didnt take long. Need to track down some bolts that decided to leave the garage but its in.

60046216502--27C8082C-A5EA-40AB-8E12-3F9E22697AAF by minthinrich, on Flickr

I have a goal to drive it out of the garage by this Friday. Lets see what happens.