My MK3 Back to life story and build.

**alu-siv_golf** · 10-10-2010, 11:50 AM

Back to life mk3 build
Now that this little 3 door CL is on the road I figured Ill tell you guys and girls it’s story and keep you updated on its future progress.
It all began sighting a gum tree add for mk3 golf, I was looking for a cheap but safe and reliable car for my fiancé after her Mazda Astina decided to drop it’s bottom end and we sent it scraping, and as soon as I showed her pictures of it she fell in love, mind you these pictures where a little misleading as I found out the next evening when I went to have a look at the car.
After meeting the owner who had used to car as backpacker transport in an inner Sydney suburb I took it for a drive and discovered that it had a whole lot of issues, not massive ones but ones that would require quite a bit of weekend time to sort out, After the test drive I advised the owner of the issues and made him an offer that I believe at the time offended him, but he later realized that the quanity of work needed on the car was not going to get him his asking price so he folded and we signed the papers after a few minutes of discussion, I will tell you all one thing, it had a good body and engine and not much else but I still think the price I paid for it originally was highway robbery.
Let’s have a look at some pics and work that I have done over the past few months to get her back to life.

This was what it looked like at first light the morning after I purchased it, pretty…..nasty

The interior was horrid, when I got back home from work I took out one and a half bags of rubbish out of it, from batteries to women’s shoes and Frisbees.

The following weekend I decided to give it a wash that it probably never had for a few years.

The interior scrubbed up well too with a huge clean and some floor mats I had from the Mazda, I had to reassemble the dash board after finding most of it in the boot and fixing minor electrical issues.

Now that the car was cleaned up, degreased and test driven around it was time address it’s issues, the first being the above picture…..broken gearbox mount, on top of that the things I didn’t take pictures of, broken CV joint, rooted shock absorbers and brakes all round, broken mirrors, broken drivers side window, worn foot pedal rubber, broken drivers side seat, dodgy electrical with some pics coming up, oh and I forgot cactus battery and leaking power steering and missing rear windscreen wiper.
All the bigger stuff was purchased through VW at Mascot as my mate works there and installed, by a mate at his mechanical workshop, all the smaller stuff that I could access I did myself and with my brother.

Now was the time to tackle the dodgy air conditioning controls and removing and cleaning up the wiring from at least 3 previous dodgy stereo installs.

The seriously nasty boots install.

**alu-siv_golf** · 10-10-2010, 11:50 AM

Pulling out wiring after fixing the air con controls

What I kept at the end and sold for cheap to get some more coins for the golf.

While I was there I decided to clean up the broken air con vents.

Because the entire centre’s of the vents where broken I ripped them out.

I stated on the outer plastics with some forever black, above is an example of what it looked like originally and now.

I received clips from my mate for the moldings on the side of the car and got to tidying them up.

An iced over golf roof at 6.30am (pretty cool picture)

**alu-siv_golf** · 10-10-2010, 11:53 AM

Next to be tackled was the nasty roof lining, many thanks for the DIY Tutorial, I was stoked with the result, the fabric was a near suede type of material from spotlight, it also had foam backing.

The sticky foam stuff left over on the floor.

The new good stuff

And on a cold rainy day all the effort paid off and she was registered, my missus and I where stoked.

I got stick of the missus bugging me about no stereo so a mate came through with a cheap head unit from his old car; I cleaned up the last of the wiring and got to install some sound.

**alu-siv_golf** · 10-10-2010, 11:54 AM

And this her today, got some seat covers, trimmed the floor mats to suit and got a cup holder for her.

This is it after a quick wash, I still have to install the front lip that I got from golfgti101, and I am looking for a nice set of maybe 16’’ rims to give it a better look. I won’t be going all out with this car like some of the gorgeous examples on this site but it will be a nice and clean looking stocker getting around.

Watch this space I will keep you updated on whatever I do to the car.
Thanks for looking.

**Ben J** · 10-10-2010, 01:51 PM

nice work. Good to see another golf being saved.

It amazes me what a mess people can make putting in stereos, I must have pulled out dodgy wiring for about 6 different headunits, not even soldered but barely connected up with sticky electrical tape when I went to put mine in haha

**ryana89** · 10-10-2010, 07:27 PM

The God's will look kindly on you for doing a great deed to society... saving a Volkswagen!!!

It really is great to see people like you who are willing to take cars like this and bring them back to what they should be.
Nice to see sombody SOLDERING and using heat shrink on a stereo install as opposed to some 3M tape

Btw, did you use the Forever Black on the rear spoiler/wing? Cause yours looks amazing!

**alu-siv_golf** · 10-10-2010, 10:07 PM

Thank you for your comments, it took some time and was a little struggle i am proud that i saved this gem from potentially ending up at a wrecker.

yes i used forever black on every plastic trim including the lower lip of the rear bumper, the door handles and side molds, i couldn't be happier with the result my self and it took a few cotes to get it looking that good.