All done!
Yes, after several months and a couple of missed deadlines, our new owner finally has his new (old) 1992 GTI 16v. On the same day we finished the final assembly, Doug got in the car and drove it to Ohio. The car performed admirably during the 1300-mile trip, with only a wayward shift linkage bolt causing any unexpected delays.
We hope to tie up this project blog with a few words from the new owner as well as some more photos of the car in its new habitat. We do know he's been busy with detail work not covered during the build and that the car is now cleaner than it was when it sat on the dealer showroom floor. We miss the car already.
Look for the final update soon, but until then please enjoy the following pics.
Yes, after several months and a couple of missed deadlines, our new owner finally has his new (old) 1992 GTI 16v. On the same day we finished the final assembly, Doug got in the car and drove it to Ohio. The car performed admirably during the 1300-mile trip, with only a wayward shift linkage bolt causing any unexpected delays.
We hope to tie up this project blog with a few words from the new owner as well as some more photos of the car in its new habitat. We do know he's been busy with detail work not covered during the build and that the car is now cleaner than it was when it sat on the dealer showroom floor. We miss the car already.
Look for the final update soon, but until then please enjoy the following pics.
If you remember back to the debut pics of the car in its original state, you'll agree that the driver's side Recaro seat was looking a bit worn, especially on the outer bolsters. The truth is that considering the age and mileage of the car, the seats were actually in great overall shape. Still, the scope of the project has been to repair/replace/repaint whatever necessary while shaping up whatever was left.
Most seat bolsters are constructed with a kind of high-density foam. Over time, the foam can lose its "memory" and ultimately its shape. Replacement is an option, but for seats like our one Recaro, a bit of steam can do wonders. Steam has the ability to make this type of foam regain its memory and sure enough we managed to get our seat bolsters almost as good as new. We'd have like to have also repaired the disintegrated piping missing from the outer bolster seam, but the seat covers for these particular seats are not easily removed and thusly considered outside the scope of this project.
With the front and back seats in the car once again, the interior of our GTI is looking almost new. To complement the refreshed seats, we added to the interior a new Sony head unit with Sirius reception (relocated to the center console), new original "16v" floor mats, an ultra-rare VW Motorsport shift knob and boot, a Momo "Monte Carlo" steering wheel, and some Audi TT aluminum pedal covers. Also added (but not shown here) to the former radio location is a three-gauge panel and a set of VDO oil pressure, oil temperature, and voltmeter gauges.
Finally, we offer you a sneak-peek of the GTI in almost-complete form. It's just a teaser, but the next update will (finally) show the car complete and in all its newfound glory.
Most seat bolsters are constructed with a kind of high-density foam. Over time, the foam can lose its "memory" and ultimately its shape. Replacement is an option, but for seats like our one Recaro, a bit of steam can do wonders. Steam has the ability to make this type of foam regain its memory and sure enough we managed to get our seat bolsters almost as good as new. We'd have like to have also repaired the disintegrated piping missing from the outer bolster seam, but the seat covers for these particular seats are not easily removed and thusly considered outside the scope of this project.
With the front and back seats in the car once again, the interior of our GTI is looking almost new. To complement the refreshed seats, we added to the interior a new Sony head unit with Sirius reception (relocated to the center console), new original "16v" floor mats, an ultra-rare VW Motorsport shift knob and boot, a Momo "Monte Carlo" steering wheel, and some Audi TT aluminum pedal covers. Also added (but not shown here) to the former radio location is a three-gauge panel and a set of VDO oil pressure, oil temperature, and voltmeter gauges.
Finally, we offer you a sneak-peek of the GTI in almost-complete form. It's just a teaser, but the next update will (finally) show the car complete and in all its newfound glory.
As mentioned in the last update, we added wider lips to the 2-piece BBS RM wheels. Multi-piece wheels are nice because they allow you to do this kind of thing and to also repair/purchase only part of vs. an entire wheel.
Disassembly was as simple as removing the 120 8mm 12-point screws that hold the two parts together. At least it should have been that easy... It seems that these wheels had been apart before and possibly more than once. It's quite likely that the screws were over-torqued as several of the holes had been stripped and repaired via Heli-Coil. Since the screws are situated in relatively soft aluminum, they simply cannot be tightened a great deal. To add insult to injury, some of the old Heli-Coil inserts came out with the screws. Since they cannot be re-used, this meant we needed to enlarge the holes again and use more Heli-Coil inserts.
With all the prior damage attended to we began the process of attaching the new, wider lips to the existing barrels. After torquing each bolt to 15 lb-ft, we then used a silicone-based sealant to guard against air leaks. We ran the first bead and pressed it as deep between the two halves as possible, let it dry overnight, then repeated the process a second time the next day.
After the second bead had a chance to dry, we took the wheels and tires over to Lanning Tire and had them mount and balance them for us. Note that due to the narrow width of these 195/45-15 tires relative to the now 8"-wide wheels, not every tire store will be comfortable attempting to mount them. Lanning has the equipment and experience to do the job and the wheels and tires came back in 4 units vs. 8 and without a scratch. A couple of day after the fact proved we had no leaks to worry about either.
We couldn't resist mounting two of them on the GTI right away and the pics below will substantiate our satisfaction with the results.
During this time we also managed to get the carpets back in the car and the engine bay buttoned up. We're really in the homestretch now!
Disassembly was as simple as removing the 120 8mm 12-point screws that hold the two parts together. At least it should have been that easy... It seems that these wheels had been apart before and possibly more than once. It's quite likely that the screws were over-torqued as several of the holes had been stripped and repaired via Heli-Coil. Since the screws are situated in relatively soft aluminum, they simply cannot be tightened a great deal. To add insult to injury, some of the old Heli-Coil inserts came out with the screws. Since they cannot be re-used, this meant we needed to enlarge the holes again and use more Heli-Coil inserts.
With all the prior damage attended to we began the process of attaching the new, wider lips to the existing barrels. After torquing each bolt to 15 lb-ft, we then used a silicone-based sealant to guard against air leaks. We ran the first bead and pressed it as deep between the two halves as possible, let it dry overnight, then repeated the process a second time the next day.
After the second bead had a chance to dry, we took the wheels and tires over to Lanning Tire and had them mount and balance them for us. Note that due to the narrow width of these 195/45-15 tires relative to the now 8"-wide wheels, not every tire store will be comfortable attempting to mount them. Lanning has the equipment and experience to do the job and the wheels and tires came back in 4 units vs. 8 and without a scratch. A couple of day after the fact proved we had no leaks to worry about either.
We couldn't resist mounting two of them on the GTI right away and the pics below will substantiate our satisfaction with the results.
During this time we also managed to get the carpets back in the car and the engine bay buttoned up. We're really in the homestretch now!
This is the fun part; putting it all back together and making it look like a GTI again. There are still a few trim pieces to paint, but as you can see all the major stuff is painted and on the car. The new flares, skirts and bumpers really complement the awesome paint to create the look of a brand new 1992 GTI 16v.
You may notice that the red stripe around the grille is a bit orange, but fear not as we plan to freshen that up, too.
The 2-piece BBS wheels are apart and ready to be assembled with some wider outer lips. This is quite the process in and of itself (30 bolts per wheel and the threat of leaks) and will be covered in a future update.
You may notice that the red stripe around the grille is a bit orange, but fear not as we plan to freshen that up, too.
The 2-piece BBS wheels are apart and ready to be assembled with some wider outer lips. This is quite the process in and of itself (30 bolts per wheel and the threat of leaks) and will be covered in a future update.
It's almost reassembly time.
The dash is in, the hood is painted, and most of the other small trim pieces are painted and ready to go back on the car.
We're spending some time making sure the interior is clean and orderly. The carpets have been removed and thoroughly cleaned, and even the interior painted metal surfaces have been cleaned and detailed. We still need to perform some minor repairs to the driver's side Recaro seat, but it's now time to put the interior back together.
What else is left? There's a radio to relocate to the center console and some gauges to add the resulting space, and a rear fog light to wire and add to the existing driver's side taillight cluster.
On the outside we still need to widen the BBS RM 2-piece wheels and mount the new tires; we're waiting on a few new pieces of hardware from the dealer before we can button-up the engine (lots of stripped and rounded bolts, broken clips, etc.); and we still need to sand blast and paint a few pieces such as the upper and lower intake manifolds as well as the valve cover.
No doubt there are a few other items not listed here, but we'll get them all done before delivering the car to its new (and very patient) owner.
The dash is in, the hood is painted, and most of the other small trim pieces are painted and ready to go back on the car.
We're spending some time making sure the interior is clean and orderly. The carpets have been removed and thoroughly cleaned, and even the interior painted metal surfaces have been cleaned and detailed. We still need to perform some minor repairs to the driver's side Recaro seat, but it's now time to put the interior back together.
What else is left? There's a radio to relocate to the center console and some gauges to add the resulting space, and a rear fog light to wire and add to the existing driver's side taillight cluster.
On the outside we still need to widen the BBS RM 2-piece wheels and mount the new tires; we're waiting on a few new pieces of hardware from the dealer before we can button-up the engine (lots of stripped and rounded bolts, broken clips, etc.); and we still need to sand blast and paint a few pieces such as the upper and lower intake manifolds as well as the valve cover.
No doubt there are a few other items not listed here, but we'll get them all done before delivering the car to its new (and very patient) owner.
We mentioned earlier that the original dash had several cracks, so we found another dash in better condition to use. The only problem is that the new dash was from an earlier non-tilt steering GTI, and it needed to be modified to work on our later tilt-wheel car.
The pics below, due to the fact we didn't take many detailed images, make things look more confusing than they are, but basically all we've done is taken the earlier dash and trimmed the area that accepts the steering column. We cut enough material to make it accept the trim collar piece that we took off the original dash. A bit of epoxy had everything looking OE in the end. The first pic is the late-model dash with the trim collar piece removed and the other images are the early-model dash being modified to accept that trim piece.
We've also included some pics that show the (brand new) exterior trim going on the car. You'll note we've even used the OE black vinyl "foil" pieces that cover part of the inner door sills and wrap under the skirts. These no longer come pre-trimmed to fit the Mk2, and though they're a bit of a PITA to work with, they do lend a finished touch to the paint and exterior work.
The pics below, due to the fact we didn't take many detailed images, make things look more confusing than they are, but basically all we've done is taken the earlier dash and trimmed the area that accepts the steering column. We cut enough material to make it accept the trim collar piece that we took off the original dash. A bit of epoxy had everything looking OE in the end. The first pic is the late-model dash with the trim collar piece removed and the other images are the early-model dash being modified to accept that trim piece.
We've also included some pics that show the (brand new) exterior trim going on the car. You'll note we've even used the OE black vinyl "foil" pieces that cover part of the inner door sills and wrap under the skirts. These no longer come pre-trimmed to fit the Mk2, and though they're a bit of a PITA to work with, they do lend a finished touch to the paint and exterior work.
We're lucky to have an owner who's committed to helping us turn out a superior car. As an example, though the stock bumpers on this '92 GTI were in very good condition, our customer chose to provide us with brand new OEM front and rear bumpers and also all new flares and side trim. We can't tell you what a luxury it is to be working with fresh, unmolested plastic!
We'll soon have all the new trim on the car, but in the mean time, we thought it'd be nice to roll the GTI outside and snap a few pics in real daylight. It's really a neat feeling to see an older car looking so new again. To be fair, we had a great platform to begin with (thank you, Chris, for taking such good care of your baby), and our work could have been far more difficult had we not started with such a clean example.
The car is now next door on the "clean" side of bpd operations and we'll now be working on more detail-oriented tasks as well as putting back together the interior.
We'll soon have all the new trim on the car, but in the mean time, we thought it'd be nice to roll the GTI outside and snap a few pics in real daylight. It's really a neat feeling to see an older car looking so new again. To be fair, we had a great platform to begin with (thank you, Chris, for taking such good care of your baby), and our work could have been far more difficult had we not started with such a clean example.
The car is now next door on the "clean" side of bpd operations and we'll now be working on more detail-oriented tasks as well as putting back together the interior.