After a long, long break from Mk2's I've decided to get back to my roots so to say.

Picked up this fairly rough around the edges 1990 4 door 8 valve auto as a long term project.

Long term plans are a manual swap, spicing up the engine just a little bit, then some paint and panel, with some minor upgrades along the way.

Starting with today, this is how the car arrived to me here in Wellington. Bought the car somewhat sight-unseen after having a friend give it a brief looking over/test drive in Auckland, I negotiated a deal with the previous owner and had it transported down.





First thing you'll notice is the strange paintwork. From what I can understand this is one of the many previous owners attempts to hide some rust and make it look like the paintjob was on purpose.




The paint on the roof is also completely gone. Fully crazed and rough as anything. At some stage the car will likely get a cheap respray, potentially by myself if I can figure it out. Given the way the paint has faded quite badly I'll potentially look at a colour change, but this is way down the road anyway. For now I'll prioritise any rust that could cause me issues down the line.

Also found some nice gifts left behind by a previous owner:
Piece of rubber/foam that appears to be supporting a dodgy strut mount?


DIY Horn with bonus wood block:


Super Sweet K&N PCV Delete...


Plus the remnants of what could be 2 different sound systems, neither of which are functional (head unit is not plugged in to anything??)

Plus a bunch of other somewhat questionable things..
Despite the above, the car still runs great and with 170k's on the clock I feel it has a bunch more life left in it.

Last time I was working on a mk2 I was probably 15 so this time around with a bit more of a budget and know-how ( + my dad watercooled help via email I'm hoping to do the majority of the work myself, but time and budget will tell!

I'll do my best to keep things updated as I go, but things will likely be slow at least for the time being.

Having some issues with the door handles, primarily the drivers door where the lock barrel just spun when I went to unlock the car.
Appears the locks/handles have possibly been replaced at some stage (given the look of the single key for the car).



I was able to assemble the lock so it works again, but theres a bit of play here which seems to be what is allowing the locking mech to jump the spring that usually returns it after locking. Unsure if this is due to poor quality parts, missing parts or what.



The door is slightly damaged around where the handle attaches at the rear of the door, so i'll need to wack that a bit straighter as if I tighten the door handle on as tight as you'd want it the door release gets jammed. Tack a spin or so out of the screw holding the door handle in and it works correctly. Fun stuff!

Took a couple more pictures of the car after a quick wash, honestly the paint almost looks better when its dirty given how rough it is, but loving the car either way.

Will get some pictures of the interior when the lighting is better as honestly that's the tidiest part of the car!






Next up I'll look at sorting a PCV valve, as well as potentially a replacement front bumper as the current one appears to be missing the slot on the drivers side for the side to slot into the quater panel.

Spent some time making a basic parcel shelf to replace the other DIY one somebody had made which had some speakers in it. Traced the shape of their one onto some thinner ply, then cut and made some small adjustments.

Much thinner


Test fitting it I've found it should be light enough to attach some of the hangers to get the parcel tray to the tailgate to look somewhat factory. Last thing to do will be finding some cheap carpet that doesn't look too out of place compared to what was in there originally.



Also had a go at removing the towbar as It's not something I want to keep on the car the whole time, but might be nice when I need it. Unfortunately, this towbar isn't like ones i've previously had for Mk2's where its a separate piece to the bumper bracket, these ones are all one piece:



So looks like I'll have to get some more brackets, I need to get a new outer front bumper anyway so I'll start hunting for some cheap ones.

Lastly took some decent pictures of the interior. It's in pretty good condition strangely compared to the exterior of the car.




Have ordered a basic head unit that I'll run with some oem-sized speakers, nothing too fancy but the car has nothing in it currently so needs at least something.

there's an ABF thats popped up on the for sale section.  They drop is so easily into the mk2's - especially if you're heading down the Manual Swap effort anyway ;-)

Quote from: liv on July 15, 2024, 08:54:34 AMthere's an ABF thats popped up on the for sale section.  They drop is so easily into the mk2's - especially if you're heading down the Manual Swap effort anyway ;-)

I'd consider it, But budget for this project means I'll be doing it all myself and I'm trying to keep things cheap and cheerful. Have had an ABF powered car in the past and it was a blast though!

I'm sure we can round up a few other willing wrenchers down here in Welly and have to all swapped in a weekend.

Thats a kind offer however the cars an auto and requires a bit more that an abf and without gearbox, induction and exhaust , not sure my son is interested in this as he is happy to just do a manual swap in the future and tidy up current issues, as the car is now it's a great driver.
Did an ABF conversion on my Corrado and found that to be more than the internet suggested but had the right gearbox (02a) and to avoid issues with old (now ) FI system I stuck with K-jet of the old KR motor...just to keep it simple much as my son wants to do with his car ,cheers.

Glad to see someone is giving this car a new lease of life. The past owner was a good guy, He had intentions of doing a 1.8t swap or even just putting an 020 in, but life got in the way. He did the odd track day here and there. It used to be slammed on some lowering springs but I sold him a set of factory shocks/springs off my CLI. sould be nice and squishy to drive now! haha

Quote from: TimmyG on July 19, 2024, 02:01:18 PMGlad to see someone is giving this car a new lease of life. The past owner was a good guy, He had intentions of doing a 1.8t swap or even just putting an 020 in, but life got in the way. He did the odd track day here and there. It used to be slammed on some lowering springs but I sold him a set of factory shocks/springs off my CLI. sould be nice and squishy to drive now! haha

Yeah I've seen a few posts on facebook from the previous owners, hoping to bring it back to life somewhat! Will take time but looking forward to it.
Oh yeah, she's very boat-ish which makes it a bit lethargic with the auto, but I'll hopefully get both of those things sorted in due time.

Am enjoying reading your build you've put up!

No huge updates, waiting on a bunch of maintenance parts from overseas, will be adding back in the PCV system, as well as doing a full service.
Car seems to be running very rich and misses in the high RPM's so will have a go tuning it once I've got new parts to put in.

Put in a very cheap ($60) Wireless Carplay/Android Auto Headunit, will put some basic speakers in the factory spot, possibly a slimline sub down the line but not looking to do anything crazy at the moment! The head unit works great and doesn't look to out of place as I was worried about.

The unit is a Navifly OD6 off aliexpress if anyone is interested.






Wiring for the speakers is a bit of a mess, so this can serve as a reminder that I'll need to give it a tidy up at some stage.

No huge updates as of late, had some parts arrive but am still waiting on the PCV valve to get that fitted up then will be giving the golf a tune-up. Will likely go throughout the engine bay and replace all the vacuum lines to try and sort the issue's im having with irregular idle and hesitations above 4k RPM.

Fitted some new tail light seals as mine were a bit buggered and the car has some water staining in the boot which I'm fairly certain is due to ingress from around one of the tail lights. Found one of them was torn, unsure how long it's been like this as it looks fairly fresh!.



Will be going through the interior wiring a bit as the car has previously had a sound system put in and all the wiring is left inside. While replacing the tail light seals I found a live 12v wire just sitting in the boot, which is a bit of a worry, so when the weathers nicer I'll be lifting the carpet out and tidying things up.

Finally got around to sorting some more parts for the Mk2.

Found a replacement horn via the NZ MK2 Facebook Group, which means I get to get rid of my wood + horn button:
This:

To:


Also picked up a Sportline Wheel that was a little bit rough around the edges. Gave it a good clean and did my best to re-paint the logo on it. Will likely run this between WOF's 


After a cleanup and some paint:

Also as a quick update, I believe I've got to the bottom of my poor running + misfiring past 4k revs.

Took of my intake boot to find this:



Which is ridiculous, looks like the car boot has been taken to by a flathead screwdriver rather than cracking over time? Who knows. This car has clearly been through a lot.

Haven't updated things in a while as things have slowed down a lot due to instability with my current job, haven't been keen on dropping a whole lot of $$$ on this until I know I'm out of the clear.

The car still has a misfire issue after replacing the intake boot above, but it's definitely better. There's a few parts I need to replace or test specifically in the ignition system, and I'll get there eventually, but the car has a lot of things required to pass a WOF as unfortunately the car was sold me with a fresh WOF but a lot of issues that wont pass a WOF.. So will be working my way back from there.

First thing's first is I ran into some grief with the steering column/shaft, I was rushing with fitting a Boss kit and different steering wheel and managed to damage the thread on the column. I haven't had any luck finding a replacement that fits, my understanding was that the difference between the early/late models was just the steering wheel spline adapter, but there's 2mm difference in diameters between the two which means it doesn't fit the sleeve + bearing in the ignition housing unfortunately:



Going forward my options are either keep searching for a replacement, look at getting mine repaired, as people have mentioned that the thread may be repairable, or seeing if I can get a different bearing or bearing sleeve to use the older shaft.

Picked up some cheap BBS RS Replica's in 15x7 et15. Offset is pretty aggressive on them but after giving them a trial fit they should fit pretty good.


They're in pretty average condition, faded gold paint and lots of clearcoat failing all over the wheels, so I'm stripping them fully back and will be repainting/polishing the lips.



I was having big issues with sanding back the clearcoat between the fake bolts, but found out they're quite easy to remove. I managed to damage a few while taking them out, but have since found they're readily available on Aliexpress, so I just took to the rest with a drill and took them all out.



Have started giving them a pretty good sand, getting most the imperfections out and they're already looking much better than originally.

In the spirit of building this car on a budget, I found some cheap lowering springs on the marketplace, albeit for a MK3 Vr6/GTI. I was going to make them work with different top spring hats and top strut mounts, but unfortunately I wasn't getting a good height setup with them, as well as them not being captive, so have decided to get rid of them.

My dad happened to have some Mk2/3 Based lowering springs which he's sent to me and I've got those sorted.
Had to replace the rear bump stops as somebody in the past was using Yoga Mat cut into circles as the rear bump stops... The bump stops I sourced appear to be slightly different to the standard ones, but fit the same and are the same height, so they should work fine. I intend to either go with coilovers or a proper spring/shock combo later down the line, so these will do for now.



Got the new springs installed and really happy with how they're sitting.



Have a bit of rubbing, up front, but the tyres on these wheels are too big for a mk2 anyway, and I'll look at giving the front a little bit of a clearance if need be.

Also gave the new wheels a bit of a mockup, they should fit really good, potentially could need a small spacer in the rear just to even up the fitment.

Next up on the list of things to fix that it will probably fail WOF on:

-Look at sorting the steering column thats kept the car from driving for the past ~3 Months
-Repair/Replace/Remove Rear muffler, it has 3 different leaks in it which would of been present at last warrant, but were definitely looked past.
-Potentially different headlights, the current ones are cheap LED ringed ones which dont appear to direct the beam, so unsure if they'd be legal?
-Look for rust, there's a bit that have been poorly covered/hidden by a previous owner, nothing too major (I hope) but want to be sure before I put a lot more time into this car.