PAGE: 1 2 3 4 5

1 Month Rebuild

Monday the 9th of April. Early in the morning, something went wrong for Nigel. He was lapping a normal lap, in normal conditions when in only a way that the Nurburgring could, caused a spin that sent his MK2 into the Armco. No one was hurt, but the car was a write off. With another trip coming round the corner, the car needed to be rebuilt within a month, but the shell was a write off, and finding a sensible priced rust free GTi these days is getting very hard indeed.

The following text and pictures has been taken directly from Nige's write up and edited with his kind permission.

Apr 18 2007

As soon as they got back a new shell was sourced, a MK2 Driver, and the entire family began to strip the car down.

Apr 22 2007

Engine removed from the old car:

Dash board removed:

Apr 27 - The new shell arrives

'The underneath is unmarked, no sign of any repairs. The previous owner told me the car was waxoyled from new and you can tell, there is no sign of rust. The brake pipes are all pretty new too, I was going to change them, but they were replaced in 2005 and I cant find any corrosion on them.'

Apr 30th:

The old shell was finally stripped and off to the scrap yard. A sad day, but now the real work can begin!

May 1st

'It went very well, would be easier with a proper hoist, but some scaffold, angle iron and a block and it was out quite easily. As I`ve read in many golf threads, the easiest way to remove this engine is to jack up the car, support the engine and then remove the front crossmember, its only 6 bolts, then you can lower the engine onto the floor, there are a couple of benefits from this, you dont need to lift it as high, there is less likelihood of scratching the bodywork and its easier & safer.'

'After removing the Engine and Dash, I removed the Master Cylinder and servo, that gives easier access to the wiring loom. Started removing the loom and cjslator, who had phoned earlier with an offer of help turned up.

We removed the front sub frame and then removed the wishbones ready for poly bushing and removed the old steering rack. I`m fitting the rack from my old golf, its a quicker rack and better suited to track use.

Once finished, the view under the wheel arch was quite bare...'

The engine bay was then treated to a full clean up, and any surface rust removed.

Before:

After:

'Next job was onto the internal wiring loom whilst the paint dried. I removed the rear wiper, it will not be needed as I`ll be fitting the polycarbonate windows and the wiper would just scratch it. I then removed the loom, which runs from the fuse board, along the drivers side and across the back of the car. I wired up the handbrake, petrol pump & level and rear lights.

The fuel lines and fuel pump were next. The ones fitted were too small and would not supply enough fuel to the engine. I had to lower the petrol tank to be able to feed the pipes from the top of the tank to the pump. That job took ages, it was very fiddly...'

May 3rd 2007 - The wiring harness!! 

'This was the harness I started with...'


'After careful routing and the re-making of a few soldered joints, I ended up with everything in place Its not obvious, but all the loom is where it should be.'


'As my battery is in the boot, I need a main feed from the engine bay to the cabin. I have a rubberised connector that allows the cable to pass through the bulkhead, but this car didnt have a suitable hole. one hole saw later and I had a hole .'



Connecting the main live feed ready to be connected when he ran the cable to the battery in the cabin


'I then laid out the cabin wiring harness.'


'Connecting it all into the fuse box tested my patience, but it seemed to go OK.'


'Before stripping my old golf, I'd taken LOTS of photos of all the wires and where they went. I also took a few of the fuse box after I'd numbered each connector. This proved invaluable when reconnecting them all !'

Fuse box after numbering before removal from old golf

PAGE: 1 2 3 4 5

All content is copyright © Fastclassics.co.uk 2007 :: Email Staff