Mk2 2dr Project Car (1.8t swap)

[Weeman]

Update: 26/07/2020

Had heaps to be done but just not enough time. Everything was ready to go on to get the car rolling. Started with new rear wheel bearings and put the struts in, rotors on and finally got the BBS's on. I can already see they won't fit well as they will hit the spring on the suspension, will look into spacers. They are BBS RC324's, 17x7.5.

For those who know the VR6 subframe, it has the 2 extra subframe bolts which are after the sway bar. To keep it looking oem and not just leave them unbolted, had to put in some captive nuts. Drilled through the floor (about 3 sheets of metal) then used a hole saw on top to then fit the welder down and use the similar type of grommet plug thing that the other large holes get plugged with in the floor.

Sorry all the photos are terrible quality..
Cheers, Thomas

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[HaydEn]

Nice nuts!


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[sports racer]

Tight nuts.

[Weeman]

Update: 08/08/2020

Finally got everything together, new ball joints, bushes, sway bar link... Thinking it might be best to replace subframe bolts too. Put front wheels on and welp, no way are those 17 inch BBS gonna fit at all so will run the 15 inch BBS's from the vr6. The rims look rubbish so will respray them sometime. Finally rolling yiew!

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[Weeman]

Update: 09/08/2020

Fought the steering rack all morning trying to get out the vr6, cleaned it up with new tie rod ends.

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[Weeman]

Update: 28/08/2020

New whip!!! 2.0 Auto, goes like a little rocket, 125000k's and clear coat peeling everywhere haha. Love the rims tho, I was tossing and turning whether to buy it today as it has no service history but I couldnt say no. Will give it a big big service myself, just gonna change as much as I can inc. timing belt and water pump. Interior is schmick, and I got spares from the vr6 I can use to get it looking like it was 23 years ago. Hopefully the mk2 doesn't go on the backburner for too long.

Cheeeers

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[Weeman]

Update: 21/09/2020

Soz for no updates in a while, been busssssssssssy. New battery panel from VW heritage, only $50 of damage but its definitely worth it compared to what I had done which was cutout the rust then weld in flat plates. Will get this one in hopefully in the coming weeks.

Found a mate who was happy to flatten out the roof for me! Did an awesome job, go check his FB page, Clarks Customs Garage for his projects! Big thanks to him for that.

Cheers,
Thomas

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[sports racer]

Always good to see a MK2 getting the love it deserves. Well done.

[Weeman]

Havin heaps of fun with it, cheers!

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[Weeman]

Update: 03/10/2020

Had a good week, the roof has been banged out as flat as it will go, there are a couple points where if you pushed down on it, the area would pop down. Put fibreglass reinforced bog on the underside and holds it perfectly, cant push it down at all! Welded in the cross beams in the corners, sickaflexed them to the roof and hit them with a coat of hammertone. Also hit the plugs in the floor with hammertone and that means the interior cleaning is done!

Welded the battery tray in, just followed all the spot welds, drilled them out, old tray out, new tray in, spot weld back in and new tray, easy as that! I did the welding for it, I dont normally weld and honestly did pretty good, blew one hole straight through haha so had to build some confidence to weld it closed again lol.

Light sand over the engine bay and plenum as I have already taken it back to bare metal before then hit it with the good stuff, 2k primer. Lookin good, will give light sand, pick up the colour coat sometime in the next couple weeks and time to go bananas on swapping stuff. Just started stripping the interior of the VR6 to work out dash swap and wiring, which looks honestly probably the most painful thing I will ever have to do in my life, but oh well ill label as much as possible and hope for the best.

*photo montage incoming*

Cheeeeeerz

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[guile]

nice work mate, looking forward to seeing more progress...

[Weeman]

Update: 10/10/2020

Super pumped, colour is downnnnn. For the oem fans, I've gone with Calypso Metallic (LA6Z). Spent the morning sanding the primer with 600,800,1000 grit. Wasn't feeling confident spraying the colour but worked awesome, no runs and got full coverage!

Dash from VR6 is out, gonna be an epic job to swap the VR6 dash into the mk2, so I've ditched that for a while I reckon and gonna swap engine first haha.

Next problem, don't have the drivers side wiper hole in the plenum that I welded back in, time to drill that one in.

So yep, swapping stuff into engine bay next.

Cheerz, Thomas

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[Weeman]

Update: 11/10/2020

Aghhh yep I was mistaken with the wipers. Didn't realise there was 3 mounting points on the plenum until I checked my parts car, and that the passenger side one is just like a blanking plug. So just had to hole saw the drivers side hole and in it went. The gromet for that hole fits the curvature of the plenum so works perfectly. Will buy some new grommets as they are all pretty grotty...



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[Weeman]

Update: 11/11/2020

Been a month now, I'm back into it. Engine is out, not sure yet if I will put new timing chain and water pump on while its out. Had some awful pain and agony from trying to remove exhaust nuts, made me angry with the germans for putting one of them in the most ridiculous spot, stripped it to bits and then had to move further down the downpipe to the next join, another nut and bolt was frozen so i went to war on it hahaha (pic attached).

Mounted the shifter box in, drilled out the spot welds and got rid of the mk2 bracket. Used the bracket from the VR6 and just chopped and bent it here and there and feels solid. Put in half of the VR6 heater box, had to drill some holes in the firewall . The mk2 doesnt have a cutout in the firewall for the AC piping so thats gonna take some cardboard templates and lots of measuring to cut that right too!

Got some mk4 rear calipers on the way with the banjo bolts, was actually going to stick with the mk3 ones but they were seized haha so bought mk4 ones.

Got the next couple days to plug away, not sure whats next, will keep you all updated!

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[Weeman]

Update: 13/11/2020

Got the other half of the heater box in. Had to drill out AC hole and drain plug, perfect fit first try yiew.

Brake booster and clutch cylinder got fresh coat and mounted. Had to bash the firewall flat for the clutch cylinder and drill the holes. Going down the path of using the mk3 pedal box. Used the mount from the old mk2 box and fitted it on, whilst chopping some unnecessary bits off here and there. Overall happy with how its working out, hope everyone else getting time in for their dubs!

Thomas

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