Erik & Rupert: The Tale Of Two MK1s

[HuH]

I got a bit of advice from Peter Jones and he's pointed me in the right direction. I've ordered new five speed linkage rods and a short shifter. They may be enough but he's going to do some measurements for me in case the other levers need modifying.

[HuH]

Got bits from America today.



Short shifter and short linkage rods so that I can actually select fifth gear. Keen to fit them up.

The car is still at Peter Bower's workshop. I took it up there last Monday. He found that the diaphragm in the brake booster was leaking and he couldn't tune it until that was fixed (as air was leaking through to the intake manifold). He sent it to his neighbour and they have wasted so much time and charged me way too much money. I'm angry about how it's gone down, but it's done now. Peter is taking the car back tomorrow to do the actual tuning stuff.

He found a couple of things that need to be done. The injectors are leaking slightly and there's an issue with the electronic ignition not advancing with the revs like it's supposed to. Can't remember specifics as we talked about it over a week ago, but he's going to look again tomorrow. May need a new dizzy with mechanical advance, but clearance is an issue. We'll see.

[RedMk2Gti]

I had the privilege to see this car tonight and it is just awesome. You time, money, blood and tear just worth every single cent.
This make me miss my Mk1

[mikinoz]

Where is it up to? Still at the shop?

[HuH]

It's back. Picked it up yesterday afternoon from Peter's shop. He spent a lot of time on the K-Jet system and it's made a huge difference. The idle is perfect now and starting it is a lot easier. He's a good bloke who I'd happily recommend. A lot changed over the time it was up there, so it's hard for me to outline exactly what was done, but in the end it mostly came down to replacing the injectors, fitting an auxiliary air slide and recalibrating the warm up regulator. Turns out the ignition advance was working, so that was great news.

Today I had the guards rolled and a wheel alignment done. It's all in the name of getting it ready for GAD! I put the short shifter in last night and can now select fifth. It still needs some adjustment as you have to press down on the shifter to select first and second, which isn't great. Very easy to grab reverse rather than first if you're in a hurry. I'll look into it tomorrow night.

I had the privilege to see this car tonight and it is just awesome. You time, money, blood and tear just worth every single cent.
This make me miss my Mk1

Thanks a lot for the kind words, Eric. I really appreciate your help with the c-spanner. Love your Mk2 and E30!

[HuH]

There's a few things I need to do now that it's back.

- source and fit a fuel accumulator
- fit a smaller fuel filter
- fit a larger (5/16) fuel return
- take it back to Peter to have a fitting tapped into the throttle body for the auxillary air slide to function better
- replace temp sensor in block (gauge not working)
- fix carpet edges under the side strips
- fix the door seals at the hinges
- paint touch ups in areas that weren't sprayed
- restore arch flares
- fit front number plate
- get new exhaust
- take back to spraypainter to do passenger a pillar which was missed last time.

And that's my whole list. Plus give it a really good clean!

I've got spacers to put behind the wheels now that the guards are rolled, but I suspect I'll have to raise the car all around to do that. Bit of a bummer after getting an alignment done today. I wasn't thinking ahead obviously!

Super keen for the drive to GAD in a few weeks. Especially now that I can get fifth gear!

[HuH]

Two shots from today. Finally got the rear bumper on!

[Jarred]

looking forward to seeing this at GAD!

[powerd_by_polska]

Mate its looking soo nice and clean, I wish the green one looked this good keep up the good work IMO smoked indicators look soo much better then the amber ones got mine today in the mail (even though I don't have proper bumpers to fit them too) they also have the parking lights in them which is double awesome keep up the good work

[HuH]

Mate its looking soo nice and clean, I wish the green one looked this good keep up the good work IMO smoked indicators look soo much better then the amber ones got mine today in the mail (even though I don't have proper bumpers to fit them too) they also have the parking lights in them which is double awesome keep up the good work

Cheers mate. I'm not really a fan of the smoked indicators. I like the look of the factory ones. Keeps things more 'classic'. Good luck finding some good bumpers. I still have the pair of small plastic ones or a spare chrome rear one if you want to try and find a front. No brackets for it though.

- replace temp sensor in block (gauge not working)
- fix carpet edges under the side strips
- fix the door seals at the hinges
- fit front number plate
- take back to spraypainter to do passenger a pillar which was missed last time.

The list above is stuff I've managed to tick off my list over the last couple of weeks. It's been slow going and I would've liked to have more done with GAD just over a week away, but such is life! I'll get some more pictures of things when I get a chance. The more 'complete' the car gets, the more I like driving it.

looking forward to seeing this at GAD!

Can't wait, mate.

[HuH]

Here's a couple of photos to show what I did with the carpet. It's aftermarket carpet and not a perfect fit. The edges wouldn't stay under the side strips so I had to come up with a way to secure them.



What we did was bend up three of these little alloy pieces per side, and drill holes in them to accept cable ties. I used a leather punch to make small holes in the carpet and threaded the cable ties through both.



That held the carpet up against the edge of the floor, and the gaps between the alloy were big enough to allow the clips for the side strip to fit in between them.



The plastic strip clipped on over the top, and (almost) hid all the ties. I should've drilled the holes slightly closer to the edge, but it's barely noticeable. If I get inspired I'll re-do it one day.

[HuH]

So I'm back in the office on a Monday morning after a bit of a whirlwind weekend. Yesterday was the big day with over six hours of driving in little mate going to Canberra and back for German Auto Display.



On the road bright and early we got to the event at 9am. I had spent hours and hours on the car over the last few days getting him looking his best. I was definitely happy with the outcome.



Five Mk1s showed up. Heaps of other VWs, Audis, Porsches, BMWs, Mercs and other more unusual marques. Definitely a cool show and amazing weather.



Rupert got heaps of compliments from people, and had a lot of photos snapped! Something got the judges attention too and we managed to snaffle up a trophy!



There's a few little jobs to do after the big drive, but overall he didn't miss a beat. Drove like a champ all the way there and back. There's a bunch of photos coming out since the event so I'll update and add a few more in here soon.

[paintz]

Awesome mate. Congratulations. Peter Bower is having mine this week!! Waiting on a call to take him up there.

[MiKe1_golf]

well done Ryan. well deserved my friend!

[EwenHayton]

Good on ya bud prob coz it was the best coloured one there! Have you seen the pic of the yellow mk1 3dr with a black spoiler rear spoiler? Looks mint!

Im hoping if i get to a show im the only mk1 there and i might get a trophy lol