techies mk2

[techie]

I thought i'd post up a little tale of my MK2. I bought it midway through last year from a friend as a non runner. Pretty quickly diagnosed a live supply missing to the Emerald ECU, this was quickly rectified. Only problem now was a busted clutch and cable. The clutch was never all that on this car so rather than replace the clutch and cable I decided it would be better to convert to hydraulic operation, this is where the snowball started.

The car was originally built my Phil Walker or PW Motorsport (who is a member on here) and built to quite a high spec (which made the £1500 I paid for the car an absolute bargain). Fitted with H+R coil overs, Neuspeed anti roll bars front and rear, powerflex bushing you name it it had it.

An original pic, 1988 1.8 8V GTi..



Anyhow I shall continue. I was storing the car at my sisters garage so working on it was awkward at best but still I continued. Engine came out along with the gearbox and started stripping the interior. I wasnt quite sure at this stage what the plans were for the car, just winging it.




New intercooler trial fit, from this...



to this..



Engine out..



Not much happened for a while after that until I got my own workshop/unit..




Work is proceding now and has been for a while, all the front subframes and suspension has been removed, striped, shotblasted and it awaiting powder coating. The engine bay has been de seam sealered and is going to be seam welded and smoothed a little. All unused holes in the bulkhead are being removed, wiring looms have been etended and are now running in the chassis legs.







A few other bits have been re conditionedor modified to help along the way. A B4 engine mounting bracket is fitted to the rear of the engine, this tilts the engine forward a little to help with clearance on the master cylinder, as does this..



The original 9" servo mated to an Ibiza Cupra master cylinder, 23mm in diameter and alot shorter.

Steering rack rebuilt (ti rod was pretty bent on one side)




I decided to convert the clutch to hydraulic operation my mating the original MK2 brake pedal box to a MK4 clutch pedal box. This has the benifit of the master cylinder being inside the car thus making more room in the bay which is at a premium to be sure.



And thats about where I am now, waiting for the front subframe etc to be done then its rolling around to my mates bodyshop for the welding and then I ill be rebuilding it. Just rebuilding an 02J gearbox at work at the moment, going to upgrade the old 02A and change all the cables over, easier to set up and alot less slop.

I'll keep it updated as and when, thanks for reading.