New diesel owner

[GeorgeMK1]

Awesome man, cool pics. Sammy should really make a build thread on here!

[DieselMk1]

There's some seriously good pix in there and it looks like you had a fantastic day.

The yellow one looks like my old one.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9770[/ATTACH]

You need to get out the angle grinder and cut down your springs though, make it look less sit up and beg and give it some attitude.

Cheers

Paul

I would but I really like the smooth ride for once, plus for once I get no attention from the boys in blue. It's a nice feeling not stressing out when there's a cop car behind you once I take it off the road for rust repairs I'll buy some coils and drop it an inch or so

Awesome man, cool pics. Sammy should really make a build thread on here!

He should, although as far as I know the wheels and coils are the only mods. His other build though, well, that will be one to keep an eye out for

[sports racer]

Take the coils out and cut them with an anglegrinder. That's how I've been lowering my cars for the past 30 years, ever since I bought custom Lovell springs that turned out to be too long. I sent them back and got the exact same springs returned after they cut off a coil.

I figure if they can do it then I'll save money and do it myself too.

The advantage of cutting your own springs is you can set the exact ride height you want by cutting off half what you think is enough, let the car settle, then work out how much more you need. It's never as much as you first thought. The springs also get harder when they are shorter (less compression because there's less spring) so the car is stiffer. This is great for standard springs.

I've done this on every MK1 I've owned and every one of them handled much better after this mod. I've never had a spring problem on any of my cars.

Cheers

Paul

[DieselMk1]

Take the coils out and cut them with an anglegrinder. That's how I've been lowering my cars for the past 30 years, ever since I bought custom Lovell springs that turned out to be too long. I sent them back and got the exact same springs returned after they cut off a coil.

I figure if they can do it then I'll save money and do it myself too.

The advantage of cutting your own springs is you can set the exact ride height you want by cutting off half what you think is enough, let the car settle, then work out how much more you need. It's never as much as you first thought. The springs also get harder when they are shorter (less compression because there's less spring) so the car is stiffer. This is great for standard springs.

I've done this on every MK1 I've owned and every one of them handled much better after this mod. I've never had a spring problem on any of my cars.

Cheers

Paul

Not to sound rude but I'm quite akin to the ol' Makita super lows

The main reason I don't want to cut my springs (aside from keeping the stock look) is the fact that this is a one owner, completely original car, save for the little bits and pieces I've done. As I drive this car daily and drive long distances on terrible rural roads, comfort is number one for now after learning the hard way in my first Golf that low stiff suspension is awful for long distance driving. First on my list of things to do is to make it get up and go a little more, and if I havent bought a daily by tax time I'll be spending money buying tyres for the Mk2 steelies I have and then investing in some coils. Ones that fit this time hahah.

[sports racer]

Fair call.

I cut down the springs on my 98 polo and it's still a soft ride, just not as seasick inducing as a normal polo.

Go for a decent rear sway bar, one that fits inside the rear beam. That and a front lower strut brace + decent tyres will really put a smile on your face. Rear sway bar and brace can be built up for less than $100 if you know how to weld.

Cheers

Paul

PS How bad are your roads? I do 180 ks per day in the MK2 with cheap coilovers and it's really fun but some sections of the local country roads make the CD skip a bit. I've recently fitted 14's with 60 profile tyres instead of the 15's and 50 profile I was running and it's heaps better but I can't go through corners as fast as I used to.

[DieselMk1]

Fair call.

I cut down the springs on my 98 polo and it's still a soft ride, just not as seasick inducing as a normal polo.

Go for a decent rear sway bar, one that fits inside the rear beam. That and a front lower strut brace + decent tyres will really put a smile on your face. Rear sway bar and brace can be built up for less than $100 if you know how to weld.

Cheers

Paul

PS How bad are your roads? I do 180 ks per day in the MK2 with cheap coilovers and it's really fun but some sections of the local country roads make the CD skip a bit. I've recently fitted 14's with 60 profile tyres instead of the 15's and 50 profile I was running and it's heaps better but I can't go through corners as fast as I used to.

Cheers for the tips I really need some sway bars aha

Our roads are really quite bad, it's surprising really seeing as the Barossa Valley is somewhere people from all over the world come and visit yet the roads are awful. Go figure

[DieselMk1]

Random update, I got a genuine Mk1 foglight switch for my foggies chuffed!

[DieselMk1]

New update woooo

So, there was an auto swallowtail for sale for a while on Gumtree. Someone bought it, we ended up finding the new owner on Facebook through a Euro group, and surprisingly he lived around the corner from where my missus lives. Car itself is a 2/76, and is the earliest one I've seen in the flesh I'm pretty sure.

We met up with him and got some problems sorted on his Golf, including:
- replaced bulb in left hand head light
- replaced parking lights
- replaced left hand front indicator
- swapped out the air intake and filter box for some good ones
- got the high beams working
- got all the instrument panel lights working
- swapped the really crap dash with a not as crap dash
- replaced the bolts on the cam cover
- re-secured the battery mount
- replaced the middle water pump hose
- replaced both windscreen wiper arms
- swapped out the sun visors for some factory ones
- replaced the indicator stalk as the old one was busted
- installed a dash mat!
- installed a new fuse box cover
- cleaned out a fair amount of crap out of the back











Now the owner is wanting to sell and guess who has first dibs

Seeing as my diesel needs some rust repairs and rego is due soon, the timing is perfect Hoping to pick it up on Friday

[gazzmo]

So other than an old straw and a few pens did you find any coins

I hope you paid a fair price for her given how much work you had already put in.

[DieselMk1]

So other than an old straw and a few pens did you find any coins

I hope you paid a fair price for her given how much work you had already put in.

Found a 5c coin haha that's about it. Yeah I'll be paying a very fair price for it

[sports racer]

Love this photo

[DieselMk1]

Love this photo

So do I mate

As is my luck the bloke sold it from under me, so annoying :/

[DieselMk1]

UUUUUUUPDATE


So, it's been a while since my last update. Not much has really happened with my Golf, just been driving it and enjoying the tidy stockness.

Until yesterday.













Enkei Big End Rodders, 15x7 +35 with 5mm and 20mm spacers in the front and rear respectively. The fronts poke about 5mm and the rear almost pokes so I really only want 15mm in the rear and none in the front (unless a fender roll and some camber up front bring them in) but the wheels don't clear the calipers the rear has settled since putting them on but the front needs to be brought down, happening next weekend.



The fenders need to be rolled, I have access to a fender roller but not until next Saturday so I may just do the ol' cricket bat handle trick to get me out of trouble.....maybe.

[DieselMk1]

Holy thread revival

No I didn't drop off the face of the earth! I'm here to have a quick update, hopefully I'll be posting here more often.

Anyway the last post left off with me getting new wheels. Which I loved, and complemented with a set of Bilsteins.

Not long after that I did an adult (read: stupid) decision to get a loan and get a car I could actually daily, my injector pump was starting to leak real bad and I needed to be able to work on it.

So, I did a silly thing and bought a black Mk3 VR6, at night. I quickly scored some Merc wheels from a mate and some adapters from eBay and slapped it all together. Ignore the headlights, they went away eventually.

Apologies for image sizing, computers still confuse me



(The Enkeis were lent to a friend and then once I got them back I sold them as I needed money)




The day before it sold, I couldn't put up with it breaking all the time. It had gone through a couple of not very nice owners and an engine before I bought it, info I wish I knew before buying it.


In the midst of the VR6 saga I said goodbye to the original shell. An empty hull of the car I and its previous owners once loved. I'm in the process of getting the hatch back, I want that Diesel Club sticker lol.


I then went through a couple of cars and ended up with a Discovery. Great for hauling parts, or in this case more long term projects

1960 Lloyd Alexander TS, one owner shed find. Been off the road since 1978.




Things died down for a bit but then one morning I woke up to find there was a couple of Mk1s up for auction in a large deceased estate auction comprising of mainly aircooled VWs. A $20 joke bid was made and a few hours later I was surprised by a phonecall saying I'd won one! Excellent. Another white 4 door diesel, can you believe. I can't escape them!

The thing had been unregistered since 1996 and showed it haha. With a LOT of encouragement (and Start Ya Bastard) I got it fired up. It was soon apparent why it'd been retired, it had nearly 400,000km on it and a cylinders worth of exhaust was pumping out of the valve cover. Ahwell. This car had many plans made and changed and has eventually found a home. The floors and sills are rotted to hell but the rest is surprisingly solid.

The car itself is a tad strange though. It has a button on the dash for the glow plugs (I assume this was fitted by a previous owner), it has a strange Japanese sticker on the timing cover, original starting instructions printed onto the windscreen, and no month/year of manufacture stamped into the ID plate. It also has the early style earth points above the glovebox.

What I did manage to get out of this car were speakerless door cards! After so long I had some tan ones finally.





I was going to keep the radio (as I've always wanted an original radio) but ended up swapping it for a louvre


Things went quiet again for a while. I lost motivation, again. Which seems to be a reoccurring theme.

After however long I decided I needed to get at least one Mk1 running and driving for Volksfest. After a lot of deliberation (and worry about defects) I decided to get Bam driving again. Which meant either re-sealing the pump (which I was hesitant to do), changing pumps (which I was really hesitant to do) or swap engines with one I knew ran, which is what I did do. A friend and I also had to swap hubs after I had a spacer fail and the wheel became loose, which in turn ripped the bolts from the hub and also broke the bleeder from the calliper. I have the best luck.

I also came into possession one of my favourite sets of wheels. P slots



After the hub swap me and a couple mates got started swapping engines. It was their first time working on a Golf and my first time swapping Golf engines with an engine crane (all with my limited tools) so it took us all day to get it out and (by myself) a week and a bit of after work afternoons to get it back together again. I found putting the gearbox back on the hardest part, holy crap.

2 whole days after I got it driving and registered, I had to evacuate due to the Pinery bushfire. I packed the Disco with animals and photos and had to leave the Mk1 (plus the rusty Mk1 and the Lloyd) behind. It was a heartbreaking decision but with the fire front moving 80km/h toward home and mum stuck on the other side of Adelaide I couldn't do anything, and got the hell out of there.



Luckily the wind changed when the front was about 20km from mine and it survived

Volksfest was that weekend, so once it was safe to go home I got my butt into gear and got it ready to show off publicly for the first time in more than a year. The engine I put in isn't fantastic but it's also been rebuilt at some point. It has a non genuine head, oil baffle in the valve cover, a weird temp sensor (which doesn't work with my plug), a strange oil pressure switch (which I swapped out), an extra threaded hole in where to coolant goes into the front of the head, and an extended dipstick tube. Plus the block and valve cover have been painted red. It's not fantastic in the way when its cold it struggles to start it runs on 3 cylinders and smokes hardcore, with some compression blowing out of the intake. When it's warm though it's fine and runs fantastic, although still has air coming out of the intake. A mate has suggested rings, which I thought first, but the smoke it blows when cold is black. I think its something to do with the valves, or even a crack between valves, which closes when it gets to op temp. I dunno. Its getting worse though, some days its almost as if the timing changes as it will go very tinny and clacky and be slow and then later it'll be fine. I dunno. I'm driving it daily atm until I get the Disco registered.

Anyway, after that novel, have some pics lol








We got a few Mk1s (and a couple of Mk2s) to Volksfest, so many in fact they let us have our own area


And my fave pic of it so far. I always pass this abandoned building and finally bothered to stop


I have put the original bonnet back on as well since those pics.

Oh and if you know of anyone in SA with a Mk1 or Mk2, send em over to us at Mk1 Golf Adelaide. We love having everyone in the one place on FB


Thanks for reading

[DieselMk1]

Oh and I found out because Bam is a 9/80 car, it makes it one of the last Mk1s sold in the country. Pretty cool imo