Wreck to Race.

[Peter Jones]

Well not quite a wreck but I liked the sound of the title

I`ve been a bit quiet on here, I`ve been putting in a few hours every night to prepare my MK1 for the track. I`m not really sure what type of racing or class I'll end up in so the car is just generally being made sound. I`ll do the rounds of VWCV events for a year or so then work out what I want to do.

The project car is my 1979 MK1 Golf "White".


Purchased about 3 years ago.

As purchased

Buggered suspension.
4 door ex GLD
MK2 GTI steel wheels
5 speed box.
MK2 GTI 1.8L 8V K-Jetronic motor
Extractors, home made exhaust.

Work to date.

King Springs
Gabriel Gas Shocks
GTI front discs 239mm
New Interior.
New Dashboard.
New tyres B F Goodrich G-Force Sport 185 60 14
New fuel Pump.
GTI rear sway bar
Whiteline Front Sway Bar.
Poly bushes to steering rack and repair "floating" rack.
Tear down gear box to fix selector issues and diff bearings.
Upper front strut Brace
Lower Front Strut brace
Rear Strut brace
New 2.5" exhaust from extractors back.
Minor rust repairs
Many electrical gremlins sorted.

Track prep.
This is some stuff I`d already planned to do which I had parts stock piled for as well as stuff I found along the way.

Poly Bushes
Front Engine mount Done
Front arm pivots.Done
Rear Beam pivots Done

New Ball Joints
New tierods and ends Done
MK3 rear disc setup. Done
machine front discs Done
New wheel bearings Done
1 replacement wheel hub Done
New TRW brake pads all round Done
Braided brake hoses Done
MK3 booster Done
22mm master cylinder. Done
Scirocco Proportioning valves. Done
Scirocco hand brake cables. Done
Purchased MK3 alloys for track tyres Done
New strut mounts Done
new bump stops front and rear. Done
New sump gasket Done
new rocker gasket Done
new timing belt and tensioner Done
new plugs Done
injector seals Done
Fix leaks at cam, intermediate and crank shafts. Done
Fix leak at oil cooler Done
Wheel alignment. Done
Fit race seat and harness.
Weld in front shock towers. Done

Credits and Thanks go out to

Jodie, my partner, for encouraging this madness.
Matt (Golf Loon) - Many parts and a lot of wisdom.
Andrew (gtimk5 - Parts, wisdom and ecouragement.
valver - Front Sway bar, booster, master cylinder and inspiration.
Mark Zellner - Sound advice and ecouragement.
Bruce Woodward - Advice and years of experience
Dean form Volkspower - for arranging the track training days that got me off my backside and back into the game.
John at Bondi Engineering
VolksBaru
www.vwwatercooled.org - for listening.
e-bay !

I`ll edit the above as more comes to mind and add photos below.

I keep finding things along the way to fix too which is slowing me down.

I` m not looking at doing anything to the motor yet, I`ll think about that when I`ve worked out all the implications for classes.

Enough for now I'm on the train and not too far from my stop.

Pete