Scotty's MK1 Golf.......D.I.Y Extreme Edition

[ScottyMK1]

Hello to all, thought I would post this in the MK1 section so It didn't get lost amongst the general builds. I'm a 23yr old Gold Coaster with too much time on my hands. This is my build thread. Your opinion, suggestion and experience is more than welcome so please feel free to comment.

3 weeks ago I joined the VW owners club and purchased a 4 door MK1 golf, I've wanted one since I can remember but my purchase influences have been biased towards Japanese imports until now. Since then it's been a very short love hate relationship in the quest to get this girl to where she deserves to be.

I purchased the car off another member on this forum in Brisbane for a price I could justify in a condition I wanted. Unregistered, Not running and looking like **** haha. Some have probably seen it around before as I've read it's been for sale a couple times before. While I understand buying a car completed is the easy option, I wanted this one to truly be mine. A true D.I.Y build to keep me occupied.

I pretty much knew I was going to buy the car before I had seen it, Bad rust was my only real concern and this car was virtually rust free except for a few minor areas and some spots on the roof which had been repaired (kind of)..

This is how it was when I first laid eyes upon her.



Drove up the next day with the trailer to take delivery.



Got her safely home and unloaded. A great task lay ahead of me...







First thing I made a priority was rectifying the roof. The roof had a few sections of rust that had been previously repaired but had still not been sealed. I live right on the water so getting this covered was paramount. A quick clean up and removal of about 3KG of unwanted/unneeded body filler did the job. I only used a spray can to cover the roof to a satisfactory standard. I have every intention to remove it once I start preparing it for paint.



The car didn't have a working handbrake when I got it as one of the cables had snapped. Luckily the old owner has sourced a cable so it just needed to be fitted. A hour later and it was locked like a chastity belt. I took this opportunity to inspect the rear brakes also.



While I was fixing the handbrake I decided to clean out all the junk from the interior and install the seats that came separate with the car. A pair of Honda Prelude seats which have been adapted to fit MK1 rails. I'm not sure if I fully like them yet but they are many times better than stock items.



Next on the list was reassemble the engine and replace the turbo...OK let me back track here. Did I mention the car is turbocharged? Still carburettor but featuring a blow through set-up. I'll go into a little more detail in another post. Anyway, The turbo had to be replaced as the oil seals were shot. On closer inspection along with the 5mm up and down shaft play, A nice exhaust housing crack had appeared.
The Turbo was a TD05H 14B from a 1st gen 4G63 engine (Mitsubishi). I tried for days to find a replacement the same size as I wanted to avoid putting on a laggier 16G or even worse adapting the set-up for a new turbo all together.

[ScottyMK1]

3 Days of trying later (Even through a friend in Japan) A good condition 14B turbo was never going to be found at a decent price. So I made the inevitable decision of using a T25 turbo from a stock SR20DET (Nissan) engine. The flow rates were much the same though the T25 had a smaller overall foot print. This will make it easier getting to bolts if it ever has to come off.

Straight away this meant 3 things had to be done. Change the manifold and compressor pipe and make a new dump pipe.

The existing manifold was steam pipe so cutting off the 14B flange and making a T2 flange then welding it was pretty simple. Same went for the pipe that had to be adapted to the compressor housing.




The dump pipe was the next step. Using a standard one wasn't an option due to the angle at which it sits (directly onto the drive shaft). Modifying the cast one successfully wasn't really and option. So in true D.I.Y extreme mode I decided to create one from scratch. Now I only use a mig when welding and my joins wouldn't win any competitions but don't you know that utilitarian is the new sexy? Haha. I made it a front pipe to save myself making another flange because by this time I was sick of working with 8mm and 10mm thick steel.





They say I looked like a power ranger...



It all went back together and spent a few hours lining everything back up. The walk through thread on timing a MK1 was absolute gold. Without ever even touching a VW before it made it child's play.







Before I could really get to firing it up and and hoping for the best a package arrived.



For the $450 odd price tag I really couldn't complain.

[ScottyMK1]

This meant I needed some wheels ASAP. When I bought the car it included a set of 13 x 7 Super light rims. Pretty sure these belonged to a member on this forum also? I didn't mind the styling and a quick test fit on the rear without tyres gave me a tingling sense that my offset was soon to be full of win.

The colour wasn't what I wanted and they were in a fairly rough condition with two random holes outside the centre bore that are clearly not factory. DIY extreme mode was reactivated and soon I needed sun glasses to look at them.

Notice the random holes....



Notice those same random holes gone...





Homicide style spray booth...



I needed some tyres so tracked down some new Nankang AS-1 with a profile of 175/50 R13. The guy rashed two of my rims while fitting the tyres which I was pretty annoyed about. Nothing that I can't fix but one of those things that I really didn't want to be doing again. I did get a coupon for a free alignment when my car is ready..(like it will make it on the hoist anyway haha.)

The 2 damaged ones...



Now it was time to do some trial and error with my suspension set up. I wound down the coil overs until they had about an inch left of lowering and installed them. Rear wheels went on perfect...



That's when it hit me. My front brake calipers stick ridiculously far out. I hadn't seen a set-up like this before and I still think it's ridiculous. The retainer is a good 25mm out past the face of the rotor . This is one of those things that I wasn't anticipating on happening but now I need to change. I believe I could shave ~5mm off the retainer safely but that still wouldn't come close to fitting my wheel without a spacer. What makes it worse is that the old owner just spent $650 overhauling these and adding in the slotted rotors. I am still yet to rectify this issue so I have removed the calipers temporarily so I was able to fit the front wheels.

[ScottyMK1]

A few different angles...











I was overall pretty happy with this. I was dreading looking under the car as I knew by looking at the set-up when I was making the dump pipe that once lowered the control arms were likely to be the lowest part of the car...I hate when I'm right..





Thought I would give it some more food for thought so I moved on to do a little bit of body prep so I can get the visuals happening. I removed the front bumper but actually like the aggressive stance so I think I may leave it off permanently.



Finally brings me up to date. Today I started on the rear hatch. I welded up the 6 holes which are no longer needed.





I also have a spare damaged hatch with a really good condition seal and window. I had to remove the current hatch window to repair some rust as the seal was totally shot. Need to finish it up tomorrow.

[eltonking]

great work mate looking forward to seeing it complete! keep us posted on your progress

[badgerboards]

i cant wait to see the finished product . this is very well structured, i just want to read more now. lol

[GeorgeMK1]

Woooooooow dude. Im in love with what you're doing. Love the D.I.Y Extreme hahaha.

I think the rims look really sick on the golf, and not to mention how suprised i was with the turbo

Great little project you have, and i envy that you do everything yourself. Keep it up, GREAT work !

Just a quick question, how long have you been working on the mk1?

[JoshFair]

wow very cool man, love the way this is heading. post up detailed descriptins of what and how your doing things, and maybe i will learn some things hey what are the specs of those wheels???

[mikinoz]

Nice work dude. Love seeing people getting stuck in.

Pisser on the rash from the wheels going on, would have expected more from professionals.

No disrespect though, can you possibly change your avatar?

[henryg]

This looks like a project to follow..

With your wheel fitment, I had exactly the same problem with my ATS classics not fitting over the front calipers. I even wasted money buying spacers, I say wasted because I have now upgraded to MK2 GTi brakes and they fit perfectly with no spacer.

I believe a GTi caliper from Mk1 and Mk2 will clear your wheels, but its most likely you will need to change rotors and maybe hubs too depending on models.

It does however seem a shame to get rid of those overhauled brakes and new rotors..