I am after some direction and advice on upgrading the suspension on my 1977 4 door Mk1. At the moment driving around, reminds of my first waterbed from the 80's with no internal baffles!!
I am after a good road driving car that wont be sending me to the chiropractors every few weeks.
What is a good replacement for the stock bushes? I have read the red ones are bad?? What about the blue ones or yellow ones?
What is a good brand of adjustable coilovers?
Do the sway bars need upgrading?
Im not after a top end spec mega buck setup... nor the cheapest - just a good middle of the road option (I only drive this car on weekends to go to church.....honest lol)
Years ago I did my suspension upgrades on the cheap and ended up having a few MK1's that could outrun almost anything through the corners.
I started with wheels and tyres. Back then it was 14x6 with 185x60x14 tyres (I told you it was a cheap upgrade) but 15's with 195x50x15 would be better. Next step was a serious rear sway bar, at least 22mm thick but 25mm is better. I used the front sway bar off a Mazda Capella and welded brackets onto the Golf rear beam so I could mount it. Use this method if you can't find/afford a proper aftermarket rear sway bar for the MK1. You don't need a front sway bar unless you want the car to look good underneath. Save your money.
I made a crossbar to link the front of the lower control arms together. Cost was less than $10 and it really helped when throwing the car into a corner - made it feel much more nimble. See Pilk's MK1 thread for instructions and pictures.
For the springs I went really cheap and cut them down to get to the ride height I wanted. Don't listen to the doom merchants who will tell you never to do this. I've done it on all my Golfs in the past 30 years as well as my old Mercedes, a few Triumphs and Fords and never had any issues. Every single car benefitted from being lowered and their cornering improved. Getting coilovers is a better option but it depends on how much money you have.
Just these simple mods tranformed the Golf into something that was so much fun to drive. I used to deliberately cut in front of hot cars in traffic just before going into sweeping on/off ramps to tease them into trying to stay with me through the corner. The Golf could be driven on the throttle so that when I came out of the corner it would do a 4 wheel drift and I could shave the mirrors against the retaining walls if I wanted to. No car ever kept up with me when I drove it like this. I'd get smashed on the straights but that's a different story.
My MK2 is almost as good, come for a drive with me sometime.
Cheers
Paul
PS Is yours the 2 tone blue/purple MK1 that was at GAD?
Last edited by sports racer; 09-10-2014 at 12:28 PM.
A 77 Golf does not have anti sway bars for a start,but would be a good upgrade and I suggest factory mk1 Golf Cabrio ones,front and rear.
These 22 and 25mm ones are over the top and are for silly boy racers.A good spring shock combo like Bilstein or Koni are the way to go and only lower a small amount.Use good quality springs. Coil overs aren't the be all end all and there are plenty of rubbish ones on the market.
Stick to factory bushes as well.
I see you want to make it nice to drive on the road not the race track,remember VW did build the original hot hatch with the mk1 GTI that people rave about still today,a good act to follow.
Sorry but I have to disagree. I used to have an original 1981 MK1 GTI which I kept completely standard and it didn't corner as well as most people think. Sure it was fantastic against other cars of its time but those cars were Morris Marinas and XD Falcons. A well driven SUV will shut down a standard MK1 GTI today whereas a properly modified MK1 will embarrass most cars on a tight and twisty road. And give you a grin from ear to ear.
On one of my 79 MK1s I had problems with a mounts for the front sway bar that I fitted so I removed the bar and was surprised how little difference it made to the handling. That was 25 years and 5 MK1’s ago and I haven’t bothered to fit a front bar on any of them. The rear bar on that car was 22mm and it was really nice to drive, very predictable through corners with no vices. If I found myself going into a corner too fast or the corner tightened up all I had to do was back off and the Golf automatically scrubbed off speed. The nose turned tighter into the corner without any hint of drama and it felt like the car was always looking after you. There's no other car I've driven that was so sure footed.
These are my observations gained from modifying my cars and working out what works and what doesn't. They suit the way I drive which used to include the occasional hill climb but the cars weren’t set up for racing. They were set up to be fun to drive and to embarrass the rice brigade and they did that very well.
Advice on suspension upgrade
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