If an 82 Z28 gets a thread...so does my 87 VW GTI.

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

RE: If an 82 Z28 gets a thread...so does my 87 VW GTI.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

At this point, I'm wondering if they're my bag, lol. This car has been one uncomfortable surprise after another.
I mean, I was expecting a few...but this is crazy!
I'm going to paint that gas door area and pretend it's fine, and I've ordered the two rear arch panels I need too. I'll definitely need filler for those, haha.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Hopefully the last metal I will need...

Broke4speed · Senior Member

This is what impatience gets you. A couple of new-metal arches that look ok-ish from 10' away.

Perfect :).

*said it before, and I'll say it again...I fugging hate bodywork. I have zero patience for it.*

StatikPulse · Veteran Member

Where do you get your metal? Fender Factory?

Broke4speed · Senior Member

I've ordered from there before, but I got my pans from www.fixmyrust.com and those arches above came from ATPAC (through a buddy's shop). They were the same brand, Klokkerholm, but two different distributors.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

The ass is next.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Picked up a cheap HVLP gun at Princess today. Then some tremclad, varsol paint thinner, and fiberglass resin hardener. I test-painted a spare door...and I may have the car in colour by sunday night ;).

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

Your a f'n freak man

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Thanks...I think, lol.

I managed to get the primer done today, and was getting ready to paint it when I realized I needed to prep the windshield cowl. Went to remove the wiper linkage and noticed that the PO had covered one of the rubber grommets with bondo. Ah ****.

It's rotten, and they used PAPER as a backing in order to bondo it back to shape. MFKING PAPER. Looks like I have a bit more metalwork to do...

Broke4speed · Senior Member

**** previous owners. The entire cowl was rotten, and missing HUGE chunks, so they just papered and bondoed the whole thing. Filler is fine if it's used properly, but it shouldn't be a substitute for metal. Looks like paint will have to wait.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

why are my pics so damn big? lol

Broke4speed · Senior Member

The cowl is done. I can finally paint the car, if I can find time.

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

Nice Brother

Broke4speed · Senior Member

A tip: use lacquer thinner when spraying Tremclad in an HVLP gun. The first coat was done with Varsol (fancy mineral spirits), and it ran like a sonuvabitch. I had to cut most of the sags out with an exacto, then sand the whole thing. I switched to lacquer thinner, which flashes faster, and did a 4:1 mix (paint:thinner). The second coat went on awesome, and it looks sweet :). 2-3 more coats, and it'll be time to buff.

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

All I see is a flashy orange lawn mower

Broke4speed · Senior Member

The golf is getting painted white. The lawn mower is stock Cub Cadet orange. If I could blend up some tremclad to match it, I would, haha. I love that orange.

Third coat got 2/3 applied...then I ran out of paint and thinner. Gotta get some more tomorrow, because it's starting to look really good. I did a bit of wetsanding before I laid down the paint today, and it's pretty glassy now.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Slow and steady, but it's coming along...

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

Dude!! I'm slow and steady your like that little mexican mouse in the cartoons.

65LOSER · Vice President

Nice!!

Broke4speed · Senior Member

So, long time no update. Well, things have happened...

The body/paint is done, and the majority of the wiring is now back in the car. All the electrical works as it should, and I'd like to get it running soon. How soon depends on Canada Post, since I'm waiting on a 36-1 trigger wheel to mount to the crank pulley. I've modified the original distributor to act as a TDC/cam sensor, and it reads as it should (according to my laptop), so as soon as the trigger wheel arrives I can get to making a bracket to hold the new crank sensor that I picked up from digi-key. Once that's done...hopefully it goes vroom!

I almost ufcked myself over a few weeks back too. Something happened during the initial cranking of the engine, and my new ecu fried. I was in the middle of talking with the company to get it fixed when I decided I didn't want to wait. It looked like a simple PCB track repair, and while I had never done it before, nothing ventured/nothing gained :). It worked perfectly, and I eventually stopped shaking from terror at what I was doing, lol. I also picked up a GPS speed sensor at the Syracuse Nationals, which will be wired into the new ecu since my transmission doesn't have a spot for the cable or a sensor of it's own. The 2008 VW I got the tranny from used the ABS sensors for the speed pulse, which my 87 clearly doesn't have.

So, in summary...I miss my carbs! ;)

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Never weld near delicate sensors...
Replacements on the way. **** I feel dumb, it's rule #1...

meoracing · Senior Member

ahhhh....you still the man! Lookin cool

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Man...I'm FAT!

Anyway, it runs now. The tank is empty, the ecu isn't tuned, and the timing is off...but it runs-ish :).

Oh, no ragging on my skullcap. It's a ball cap with the brim cut off. Helps keep the sweat off, and the dirt out of my hair when I'm rolling my fat ass around under the car. It also goes conveniently under my welding mask :).

-- Edited by Broke4speed on Wednesday 29th of July 2015 09:29:32 PM

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

Very kool man congrats!!

StatikPulse · Veteran Member

Nice work dude!

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Thanks guys :).

Managed to tweak the file enough to get it to fire up and stay running at 1000rpm, and the neighbours must hate me (more) now. It may be a 4 banger, but anything firing out an open exhaust manifold is loud as sin. My garage REEKS of fuel and exhaust now, and I do too...but I'm still stoked :).

65LOSER · Vice President

Awesome! Congrats... all the hard work is paying off! Going to be a cool ride :)

meoracing · Senior Member

Keep it up.....good job man

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Minor update: not much has been going on, since I've been trying to save money for fall Barrie. The single-piece brakelines the PO made for the car are all done wrong, of course. They're made with a double flare, and VW uses a bubble flare. He mentioned to me he was having issues with bleeding the brakes, and no ****ing wonder...they wouldn't seal properly at the calipers/master. I'm hoping to find a good bubble flare tool at Barrie, but if not, I'll make due with my cheap chinese one.

I am also expecting a few cool bits from VW of Europe. Since I swapped in a cable shifted/hydraulic clutch'd gearbox, I need to make a hybrid shifter box that allows for the 6th gear in the new tranny. Of course, these parts exist in Europe and not in North America, at least for my needs. Plus, it also means I don't have to cut out the tunnel and retrofit a North American shifter box, which is twice as big as I need.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Basically, I hate VW right now. To run my current transmission, which is from a 2008, I have had to switch to a hydraulic release bearing. I installed a new one when I put it all together, and I recently went to bleed it...drip drip drip drip. MFER leaked. I bought a new one and bench tested it...drip drip drip. WTF. I grabbed a used one from the pile of stuff I got with the box...DRIP DRIP DRIP! So, I'm out two new (aftermarket) ones, at $120 each, and a used one (free). Not a happy camper.

Pulling the engine is infintely easier than just the box alone, so here is where my car is currently while I sell some spare parts to get up enough coin to buy an OEM one from the dealership. I have no idea if it'll be any better, but I'm hoping. My buddy with the shop says he has done tons of clutch jobs on the hydraulic TOB VW cars, and NEVER had the issues I'm having, so I am really hoping that 4th time's the charm :(.

-- Edited by Broke4speed on Tuesday 13th of October 2015 06:31:37 AM

-- Edited by Broke4speed on Tuesday 13th of October 2015 06:32:12 AM

Broke4speed · Senior Member

$208 for an OEM replacement that is apparently a new revision, and made of metal instead of plastic like the aftermarket ones. I sure hope this one works.

If it doesn't, I doubt I'm going to stick with this engine/transmission combo. I'll swap in something from another manufacturer. I've always liked the 2.2L ecotec in my wife's 04 cavalier...

Broke4speed · Senior Member

...and it needs a new master cylinder, to replace the new one in the car that sat drying up for 7 years. I can't get pedal pressure, sigh. This car is going to kill me.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Brakes back up and running, just need a little bit more bleeding. Tomorrow I install the new TOB and cross my fingers.

65LOSER · Vice President

Good luck! Hope it finally works for ya...

Broke4speed · Senior Member

The OEM throwout bearing was the ticket. I haven't made much progress outside of getting the engine/tranny back in, and the exhaust bolted up. I visitied a buddy's junkyard today and found a stash of OEM parts from a VW dealership that closed down, so I'm going to be replacing a few items of dubious (ie: chinese) quality with the real deal :). Mostly door handles and other things like that, but I'm pretty stoked for that.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

I'm currently waiting for some DEI tunnel shield to show up, so I'm doing some busy work that needs doing. I am eventually going to turbocharge this car, so I got a few bits to rebuild one of the mitsubishi turbos I have kicking around. The internals are component-balanced, so there's no need for me to send it out for balancing, which makes this pretty easy to do. The rebuild kit is a quality one, with some custom upgraded bits to improve oiling, and I have a new hot side housing arriving tomorrow. The stock ones crack pretty badly, so it got binned. The cold-side wheel is a bit larger than stock, so I should be able to hit my goal of ~300whp before it maxes out. It'll be a few years for that though, I plan to enjoy cruising with 100hp next summer, non-turbo :).

Broke4speed · Senior Member

So now my alternator won't charge, and the computer isn't seeing the throttle position sensor anymore. I finally found two busted wires in the harness that must have broken when I pulled the engine to swap the throwout bearing. Awesome...broken wires buried in a tentacle of black tape and more wire...fack.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

In between bouts of barfing and sweating (thank you, flu), I got my oil pressure gauge and GPS speed sender hooked up.
Now it's time to go lay down.

meoracing · Senior Member

Keep the faith

Broke4speed · Senior Member

All problems solved. A lovely hidden connector under the dash had come unplugged, which killed a bunch of things at once. Sometimes I wonder why I play with cars with so many damn wires, lol.

The flu is finally abating too, so I may be able to do some work soon :).

Broke4speed · Senior Member

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tsqE9C4OkE

Well, the engine is basically done. Added coolant and had it running to burp the system. In all, it ran for about 15-20 min without a hitch :). Now I am just waiting for some little bits to arrive, then it goes back down onto the ground and I can rest for the winter, lol.

-- Edited by Broke4speed on Friday 20th of November 2015 05:07:10 PM

65LOSER · Vice President

Right on!! She runs good :) nicely done

Broke4speed · Senior Member

When a LOSER needs a flange, and the canadian dollar is in the ****ter...he makes one. 3/8" plate, plus a bit of time and measuring (didn't have a gasket to work from, hence the slightly-off holes), and problem solved. I also hit up a local big rig parts supplier for some 5/8" oil cooler hose to use as an oil return for the turbo, and got Diotte Hydraulics here in town to make me an oil feed line. I'll probably be installing all this crap on sat, since I have zero patience, sigh.

I'm going to leave the flange 'raw' around the edges until I weld the piping onto it, to keep the distortion down. Then I'll clean it up with the bench grinder.

65LOSER · Vice President

A LOSER always finds a way... lol Should do the trick just fine!

Broke4speed · Senior Member

I decided I wanted a different intake manifold, so I snagged one from a 2000-2005 VW 1.8L 20 valve turbo engine. I spent a day or two making an adapter plate out of 3/8" aluminum (killed my good Dewalt 1/2" drill too :( ), and I think it's going to work great. I'll have to make a new front coolant outlet flange, but I have plenty of metal left for that :). Lack of tools shouldn't be a limiting factor to an idea, since cars were rodded before CNC machines existed, although I have to admit my arms are sooooooooooore today from all the filing and drilling.

(Yes, this is a dead engine on a stand).

Rottnkid · Sergeant-at-Arms

You're a f'n freak, glad were friends.

Broke4speed · Senior Member

That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, *sniff*.

lol, thanks Gary!

Broke4speed · Senior Member

Well, I broke down and bought the last part I need, instead of making it. The new intake will work perfectly, but it fouls the front coolant flange. I was going to make one, but I kept psyching myself out over whether or not I could make it leak-free. VW cooling systems run 25psi, so any pinholes in my welds would spray like crazy. I found a company in the UK that specializes in flanges and carburetor conversions, and they have a custom coolant flange that is exactly what I need. It was money I didn't have, and I should NOT have spent it...but it's done now.

So, once that shows up, I can bolt everything to my engine and go for a test-fire. I will be losing my idle control valve, which kinda bugs me, but short of drilling a HUGE hole in the intake manifold, there isn't a way to add it in.

...luckily I have a 13/16" drillbit to make a big hole :).

Broke4speed · Senior Member

I ordered the part I need last Friday, and I already have the tracking number....BUT THIS IS THE LONGEST WEEK EVER. I friggin hate waiting for parts to come in.

I've been watching a ton of Roadkill and Hot Rod Garage on youtube, and I'm really starting to get the urge to build something with a V8 in it.

...and turbos.