Project Panda-Kamph

[halcyontom]

Figured it was about time to throw my car up as a project.

-1988 Volkswagen Golf COX
-8 valve, manual, COX ECU, COX shocks with JDM coilover's apparently it had COX forged Rod's and Piston's, however as I have not pulled it apart, I have no way of knowing.
-COX Speed lightweight 16" alloys.

The Aim's;

-To restore the vehicle to its former glory, this will include resurfacing the mag's, which look like they have been parked into many curb's, respraying the car in white (at this point possibly only the drivers door, bonnet and patching the roof then buffing if I want to do it on the cheap) .

-Removing boyracer parts, at this point my main annoyance is that a previous owner has taken to the hatch with a drill, and put a Mazda Familia's wing on it, first problem is I now have a leek in my boot, second is it looks heinous, Im on the lookout for a Gti Wing to insert tidily at the top of the rear window.

-GTi lookalike, I want the red ring around my front grill, it may be blasphemy to some in here, but she'll look like a GTi, throwing in a new front grill will give me the chance to

-Replace my headlight's, which at the moment seem very faint, normal headlight setting = too dim, high beams - way too bright, I know Eurojet is selling a fairly nice set of headlights and grill, hopefully theyre still floating around?

-Fix or Improve the interior, one of the great things about the Vask meet I recently attended was the wealth of Golfs in the Wellington region, there must've been a every shape GTi , minus the mark 1 there - a great chance to check out everyone elses interiors, a big plan is to swap out my seats for something more comfortable anyway, remembering this is a two door which will soon have a car seat in and out of the back, if I can find a good set of mark 2 seats (in reality I only really need the drivers) ill take that option - opinions please

-Improve the soundsystem - at the moment its loud in the back, I've been considering how to sort out the front, another member has offered door panels for a mark2 which have speaker inserts, this may be a goer, Im also open for any less orthodox solutions for getting some sound out of the front.
Im not aiming for loud, just a system which is fairly even all around the car.

We've just spent alot of money getting the suspension all sorted out to get the car back on the road, and unfortunately several minor things are letting the car down these day's, in the near future I will consider an engine swap, but for the moment its quite peppy and doesn't need to be f'ed with
Im currently on the lookout for a cheap run-around for the missus to use, so the car can get some serious time in the shed,

Any idea's, tips or help will be greatly appreciated

heres some pics as of today, so there's something to compare to in the future

(bonnet actually has primer on it now )

[I-LIKE-VW]

cool project car bro. i just put some red pinstripe sticker on my grill. saves paying for a real red ring grill.
you have a good car to start off with tho. i mite see you at the next wellington meet. havent peen to one before but im keen to go allong.

[halcyontom]

out of interest where did you get the pinstripe stickers from

[I-LIKE-VW]

supe cheap auto but you can allso get the same product from repco. i think it was 6mm autostipeing or someithing like that.

[halcyontom]

your a champion, cheers 
hope to see ya at the next meet, should be 2nd wens of next month, If my memory serves me correct

[I-LIKE-VW]

your a champion, cheers 
hope to see ya at the next meet, should be 2nd wens of next month, If my memory serves me correct

cool are thay still meeting outside roundabout tawa? if so that not that far from my house.

[typ53]

Nice project, I like the rims.  Bummer about the familia wing.

Those headlights of yours will be much improved if you use a relay setup.  This will give you higher voltage at the lights and thus brighter dipped beam.  It's not too difficult to do yourself.  There is some info on that on here.

Component speakers in the front and a small sub in the back works quite well in mk2s, I forget exactly the size that goes in the front doors, but 5 1/4" rings a bell. 

[Aidan]

cool are thay still meeting outside roundabout tawa? if so that not that far from my house.

Nope, just down the road from and on the other side. Meet and chat, then into the pub

[halcyontom]

Update - GTI Band

Front grill got a coat of red paint today, as advised by I-LIKE-VW, I headed into Supercheap to get some 6mm autostripe during my lunch break, however it was sold out in red, so headed into repco, and forked out an extra $10 for what I thought was similar stuff.

Was eager to get playing in the sun as soon as I got home,

$17 pinstripe tape from repco, not the 6mm autostripe advised from supercheap...
long story short, dont get the stuff from repco

The pinstripe tape wasn't what I expected, as in it's obviously not a permanent solution to reding out the bumper, seeing the grill with red around it spurred me on though, it had to change.
I finally found the big brass ones needed to sand down the edging around the grill with some left over hundy grip from my house painting days.
A quick mask up with painters green and hit with some red spray paint and clear coat makes worlds of difference, I plan on sanding this back completely at a latter date and re-doing the entire grill

Cheap stuff from supercheap does the job no problem, make sure you sand the surface you want to spray back well, and be very careful with your masking tape, D.I.Y tip - always use painters green (unless anyone knows of some other great tapes?) holds back paint really well, no bleeding etc, about $7 at mitre 10, and will save you scrapping bad edges.

Heres where things change a little, after painting up the front I decided the car was begging me to take it for a cruise, I convinced the almighty pregnant one to come for a ride out to the beach to get some photos of the sunset (an excuse to get some shots of the car)

Theres a beach in here somewhere

Upon arriving at the beach I noticed a change in the exhausts pitch, sounding a little less throaty, I checked it out and decided there must've been some kind of rust hole, which would have to be added to a list of things to get done, so took little notice.

As the tide was too high to get any nice photos of the car on the beach, I decided to cruise to the river.
Halfway there, a different sound... scraping metal.
Pull over to the side of the road, and my exhaust pipes being dragged below the car
<insert foul language here>
Had I sacked the car out on something? no! the exhaust ring had just snapped, what a c*unt,
immediate new project Aim - repair or replace the exhaust... this is why your project and daily shouldnt be one and the same 

the destroyer of hopes, dreams and all that is good in the world!

Any ideas on what Pit - Stop charge for muffler repair? any other people I should check out from the manuwatu/ wellington regions?

[bigbumper]

What's the problem with the exhaust?  If it's just the hanger they're about $5 from Pit Stop.  But perhaps your exhaust was damaged when the hanger broke?

[euro-jet]

this happened many a time in my mk2....because of the way it is attached to the manifold.it breaks the seal everytime the exhast moves excesively (broken mount)replace rubber mount and carbon will create a new seal over a few weeks.

[halcyontom]

What's the problem with the exhaust?  If it's just the hanger they're about $5 from Pit Stop.  But perhaps your exhaust was damaged when the hanger broke?

exhaust is still attached, but split the top of the pipe, will pop into pit stop for a new hanger tomorrow, gonna be a fun drive to work tomorrow 

[I-LIKE-VW]

stink about your exhaust. did you have truble on the corners with the autostripe stuff? the first time i did mine all the corners fell off because i had strecied it to mutch but the next time i was i litel less hard on it and it worked fine. it still saged a little bit on the corners but i was cool with that because i did not have the balls to try and paint it as i was concerned that i would make a big mess but its interesting to know it can be done. who knows i may just try it some day myself.

[halcyontom]

yup the corners were the primary problem, the stuff I got wasn't holding very either though, very low tack.

the biggest problem you can have in painting the grill is bleeding a little bit, fixed easily enough with some hundy grip, black spray paint and clear gloss coat
Infact it may be worth completely overdoing the red first, allowing it to dry, clear coating.
Then mask over the red, and give the entire grill a new cover of black and another clearcoat

Update - Exhaust

Car's just gone into the mechanics (C J Automotive - Levin, I'll update you as to his work/ costs later, all you need to know now is the guys known in the horowhenua for his work on classic car's, hot rods etc)
Absolutely typical that my vask vinyl's should arrive today (thanks rambo_005) was keen to see how they'd look in the back windows.

Oh well, while its in their im getting the mundane small tasks done (oil, air  - filters, belts checked yadda yadda) looks like another week without my big day out ticket.

[gtimanik]

how much lower is this car. its how low im looking to go with my golf. are you going to b upgrading your suspension? ill b interested in your struts and springs if so