Mk2 Golf Gti 16V ground up rebuild

[Coakers]

We are now entering early this year (2019 if someone from the future is reading) I went and found a bargain and sourced a full genuine mk2 leather interior, It required a hefty road trip to Bedford to pick them up but well worth it. All for £230 inc door cards! The drivers side has got a lot of bolster wear but than can be sorted in time. I'm also thinking of dying it black but I need to look more into it as I'm not a huge fan of the grey leather but mk2 leather interiors crop up so infrequently now I had to have it at this price.




These were up for sale for around 4 hours, at which point the seller said he was swamped with offers but I said I'd give him a deposit. They had been recently refurbished and he only wanted £300. It required another lengthy road trip but was well worth it.

[Coakers]

Let's talk about bumpers shall we, or rather restoring them. For thousands of years mk2 golf owners have debated, argued and fought over the best way to restoring the fading textures to bumpers and arch trim. Well I saw Rye1991's thread a while back and he used this stuff

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F262589135785

Pro-XL textured bumper paint.

Didn't get many before pictures but all I did was clean the bumpers with white spirit, key them with scotchbrite pads, clean again with white spirit and dry with a MF towel. Oh and mask...





That's the rear bumper after one coat compared to the untouched front bumper.


Close up showing textured effect.

I thought well I can't have nicely painted bumpers and just leave the faded GTI stripe. What a paint these were to mask up.



But I was very happy with the finished result.





Not perfect, there a scratches and dints in them but I think they'll look good on the car.

[Coakers]

Not much to report for the time being, I've been buying parts that I need, bits and bobs really, I need some GENUINE 84-87 gti arches of anyone has a line on some. But in terms of jobs I've not been upto much except open a gigantic can of worms.



You see where this is going.


And after 47,000 years working my way up from 80 to 600 grit then switching to mop attachments on the dremel I've ended up with this.





The third 'runner' is slightly duller than the rest as I tried a different finishing method but I'll go back and sort that and tidy a few other bits and bobs. They need to be thoroughly cleaned inside as undoubtedly aluminium swarf has ended up inside so you obviously don't want any of that getting sucked inside the engine.

[Coakers]

Let's fast forward a little bit to this year. The car was sent to a recommended bodyshop called firefly speedshop.

They stripped it to metal...

[Coakers]

After a f**k ton of body work



And then the moment I've been dreaming about for a very very long time. This is literally in the last 2 weeks (Oct 2019).

[Coakers]

And she's home, dropped off at 21.30 last night. Helped the guys fit the window regs and sunroof, missing a few bits from the sunroof but I can finally work on it now. Its only now shes back I'm reminded how much their is to do and how little time I've really got! :rotate:





And if you needed reminding what she looked like before..



Same car, same location, but a bit of difference ..

[Simeon]

Lovely mate, looks gorgeous in the new paint.

Lots to do, but so much easier when you're putting parts back on and the end is in sight!

[Madone_si]

very nice..

[Coakers]

Thanks for the kind words guys, i find myself daydreaming about driving it a lot now!
However since the cars return I've done next to nothing, swapped over the bonnet seal and a few other bits but thats all. Time being the primary factor as per usual.

I have also been building a new shed in the back yard as I have gathered a multitude of different tools and parts since starting this build there is no room for anything anymore plus my missus keeps sh!t machines (rabbits.. Not mk1 allegros) too so there is a lot of stuff knocking around.



I've just spent a couple of hundred quid on the last remaining parts that i need to properly put everything together on this car though. My missus is buying me 2.25'' trackslag exhaust system for my birthday :-) and that will be the last piece of the puzzle.

I'll start updating this regularly every sunday unless something significant happens like the first engine start.

Oh yes I filmed a very basic and poor (why i never shared it at the time!) walk around video of my car when it was in the storage unit in the depths of winter at around 23:30 at night. I do look back on them times of working on the car there with rose tinted glasses I must say. But its good to see a video format from what it looked like then to how it does now.

https://youtu.be/5WmUOtVh8vs