My 'new' toy... errr... Daily driver...

[Shadow_Rusty]

I've been meaning for a while to start a thread for my Mk1, but have been waiting for CBRVWOC.org to come back online as I did have one there...

Anyway, the longish story roughly goes...

Prior to getting my Wife's Bora, I've only ever bought Japanese cars, and mostly Toyota's. My best mate has a Mk5 GTI, and the thing is just amazing... This convinced me to consider VW for the wife's car as they just have so many more features for similar money to a decent Japanese car... Long story short, we ended up with a high km's, dirt cheap, V5 Bora, and we couldn't be happier with it...

After 10 years of riding my CBR-250RR (Great bike that just kept going and going), I decided that it was time to start thinking about getting myself back into a car... I considered getting another Jap car for me, but nothing really interested me in the sub $1500 price range... Even though I'd never previously considered getting an older dub, the Bora had been treating us well, so I started to look around. I've always liked the shape and styling of the Mk1, so that was high on my interest list.

I saw a couple Mk2's and Mk3's, but they just didn't look quite right. That said, I very nearly bought a VR6 Mk3 Vento, but, when I found out it was an Auto, that idea was binned... Then I saw a late model Mk1 Cabby, and just fell in love... It had that lovely classic Mk1 shape, was significantly newer (Mk2 age), and to top it off, it was a convertible... Unfortunately they were all way over $3000 for anything that didn't require a ground up rebuild... So the idea was shelved...

A couple years later, I was still riding the same CBR-250RR and the idea for a Mk1 Cabby was still smouldering there... This time around, I just knew that I had to find one... However, it did have to be registrable with minimal effort, as it was to replace my bike as my transport to work... So, once the finances from the wife had been cleared, it was decided that I would get about $1250 to buy myself a car... At such a small figure, I was expecting to wait for a while for an appropriate car to make itself known to me, but I checked everywhere I could think of... Here, ebay, gumtree, all cars, every other car sales site in Australia, etc... All the Mk1's I saw, were either $500, and really crappy, or over $3000, and still mostly crappy, and that included the hardtops...

I was just about to give up for the day (yep, only day 1 of looking), when I had a thought... I called my local mechanic, and asked if they knew of any cheap older dubs for sale... Intially, they said "no, sorry don't know of any"... Then he asked me what I was looking for, so I let them know that ideally I was after a late model Mk1 Cabby. Instantly he said, "hang on a minute", which confused me due to his previous statement... When he came back, he says "grab a pen and write this number down", which I did, still confused... Then he goes, "we have a Mk1 cabby here in the shop, that the owner can't pay their bill, but their car is in decent enough condition, except the 'psyco' inspired stab holes in the roof"...

I was thrilled... I called them straight up, and was give a brief history of the car. Turned out that they had been trying to sell it for a while. They had even fitted a brand new roof to it in order to sell it and within 3 days of the For Sale sign going up on the window, someone decided to stab the roof about 15 times. They told me that they wanted $1200 plus the cost of the mechanics bill for it... It was more than I wanted, but it was close enough that it warranted a good look... So, I eagerly awaited the end of work, and took off to have a look at the Cabby...

When I saw the car, I was surprised at just how good it looked... It was straight, no obvious signs of rust, had nice wheels, and it even had 2 months rego to boot. On the phone I had been apprehensive when I was told that it was white, but in the flesh, it looked great, especially when coupled with the Maroon roof... So I took it for a drive... I was once again surprised, it had 200k on the clock, was built in 1990 from a 1970's design, but it drove almost as nicely as the wife's Bora, and better than most 2000 model Jap cars... So I just had to have it...

A bit of bargaining with the previous owner, a discount of the work down by the mechanics, and I had a deal... It worked out to be $1500 all up, including the inspection and transfer fees, so it really was only just above what my budget had been... The best part was, that just 6 hours after first looking, I had found, bought, and was driving it home...

Here is how she looked when I brought her home...

[Shadow_Rusty]

I quick list of the work I had to do to get it passed for transfer of rego ownership...

Replaced headlight bulb.
Replaced fan belt.
Cleaned out the window washer jets.
Re-joined the window washer jet hose on both ends...
Replace window wiper heads.
Cleaned the paint off the front indicators.
Repaired the knob on the drivers window winder.
Moved the boot light into the cabin so that there is a door light.
Put a lower seat cover to 'repair' the small hole in the drivers seat.
Put a floor mat down to 'repair' the small hole in the drivers foot well carpet.
Cleaned out the reverse light switch and it now works again.
The flange seals have fixed themselves... Yippee...
What appeared initially to be an engine oil leak, looks like it was mostly spillage and an ever so slightly leaking sump plug, which I tightened.
Lubed and adjusted the clutch cable, so that's a little better to use.

Car had it's check, and as expected, it failed...

Both front seats failed due to excessive movement...
Both boots failed (expected, and ordered, but they didn't arrive till the day of the inspection)...
Clutch firewall repair plate was cracked...

So, I then spent all night fabricating a new repair plate, and fitting both steering boot and cv boot...
The next morning, I checked the seats. The seat runner plastics have had a 1mm thick, strip of plastic (piece of an old credit card) used as a spacer between the metal foot of the chair, and the inside of the plastic feet that run inside the runners. The seats now have no movement in the base, and they slide back and forth very nicely...

It then passed rego...

[Shadow_Rusty]

A few other things that I have done to / found out about it...

Thankfully the roof really only leaks with standing water, and even then, it runs down the inner roof to either side of the car...
Still, I really should get it fixed... I hate having to put a tarp on the roof when I know it's going to rain...

Fixed the dash light brightness control...
Opened up the headlight switch, and the wirewound resistor had melted near the end.
Cut off the 3 melted coils, and reattached the remaining coils and now it works perfectly...

I removed the main support for the gearbox linkage, and fabricated a new bushing out of 2 pieces of a 12mm nylon chopping board...
It's still a little tight, and I haven't quite got the linkage correct, but it is SOOO much better. No longer is it a bowl of porridge feeling with guess a gear selection...

I looked into my electric roof issues, and found that my hydraulic pump was completely missing...

Hmmm, found the source of my 'roughness' when hitting a 15mm step in the road...
Turns out that the car is sitting 10mm off the front bump stops without me in it... If I sit on the front quarter panel, it bottoms out...
Now to figure out how to fix it... First I'll need to check driveshaft to chassis clearance, as the car doesn't appear to sit too low. Then I'll probably trim the bump stop to give more clearance, but still not allow the driveshaft to hit the chassis...
But I'm definitely open to suggestions on this one...

Hmmm, had a weird noise coming from my rear right wheel... Decided not to risk it, and took it off.
Found that the stub axle nut had loosened by 3 turns, and that the noise was a loose spring in the drum... The nut retainer was too short to actually stop the nut spinning till it had undone a little. So I put an extra washer under the nut to space it back into the retainer properly, and now it's all good...
Also, figured out found that the last guy to work on this drum must have really not cared... Both of the pins / springs / retainers that hold the pads to the backing plate are completely missing.

Well, that brings this thread up to almost current...

[dylan8]

That said, I very nearly bought a VR6 Mk3 Vento, but, when I found out it was an Auto, that idea was binned...

who what and where!?

[Shadow_Rusty]

It was a red one in the ACT area, that from memory had a blown head gasket...
Still, it was only about $1200, but that was about 2 years ago...

[dylan8]

wow, cool to know.
keen to see where you go with the mk1!

[Water Boy]

It was a red one in the ACT area, that from memory had a blown head gasket...
Still, it was only about $1200, but that was about 2 years ago...

Sure it wasnt a passat?

[Shadow_Rusty]

Could very well have been...
I did look at a few cars back then, most of which had blown head gaskets... Must of been something in the water... lol.

Definitely considered a Seat Cordoba with a blown motor, a couple of Vento's in varying states of disrepair, and a Passat.
I did think that the Passat was a 1.8t though...

[Shadow_Rusty]

So, that bring me to the latest fun escapade...

Left work to pick up parts for the wife's Bora, a few corners later, went to turn a corner, and nothing... No steering...
Panic definitely ensued, but thankfully, with some more steering, it did make it around the corner...

Pulled up on the side of the road, and found that the steering rack was moving side to side about 40mm...
So I very slowly and gingerly, nursed it home. That was one very slow and extremely stressful trip...

Turned out that the steering rack mount on the drivers side had completely separated from the chassis.
So, to work I went, stripping it down to get to the trouble area...
Drivers side driveshaft out.
Sway bar off.
Exhaust manifold and down pipe out.
Steering rack out.

So, with the bracket out I could assess the damage...
All of the spot welds had broken, and the bracket had also cracked in 2 places too.



My father then welded up the cracks, we cut off the broken spot welds, clamped it in place, and he welded it back in...


Now to re-assemble the car...


Oh, and to top things off, I also noticed that when I jacked the car up, the front left wheel just about fell over...
Turns out that the drive shaft was at least 3 full turns loose...


Edit:
A good link to the only guide I found for this issue...
http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index....ing-rack-mount

[sports racer]

You had a CBR250?

Did it have pink faring and a fluffy seat?