Out for the summer months.

Well it's been ages since I posted about this great little car. Truth is, it's been so reliable over the last 2 summers that there really hasn't been much to write about. Got the insurance back on last week, pulled the cover off it and took it for a quick drive. I also dropped it off at Bero Motors for an oil change and a quick look over. Ended up needing to replace the CV boots and the leaky valve cover gasket...those damn VW cork gaskets never seem to seal all that well!
A couple of small projects are planned: I need to replace the sway bar bushings as they are pretty much gone so I'll just plan to spend some time under the car and update all the bushing to polyurethane. Should probably get some new strut bearings too....hmmm, time to get a spring compressor.

What a beauty!

Red has been home for over a week now and everybody in the household is smitten with her. I spent a few hours today steam cleaning the interior and the engine bay to make her look pristine. It drives beautifully and feels very composed over rough pavement. In a few weeks once I feel that the paint has fully hardened, I will give her a good polish, seal and wax treatment.

first drive

Got to take the car for a drive this afternoon to see if there were any issues needing attention. Red drives beautifully and feels even tighter than "white" did in the last few years. It's not officially home yet and won't be until tomorrow at the earliest. The list of adjustments needed is pretty short and most are of the cosmetic nature. Frank and George at Bero, have driven it and they really liked it. Andy still has to take it for a drive to see if there is anything else that needs attention. What a fun little car!

Back from holidays, but...

the car is still not ready. It's been sitting at the bodyshop for 3 weeks now waiting for a break in Laki's schedule so it can get it's final touch ups, colour sanding and polishing. Andy at Bero is pretty frustrated that it's taking so long since he still needs the car for a couple of days after it's back to make sure everything is adjusted properly. I saw Laki this week and he promised to get right to it...no really, this time he meant it! Oh well, a good job shouldn't be rushed. Hopefully by the end of next week, it will come home.

Final touch ups!

I had a pretty busy work week and didn't have a chance to stop in since Monday when I'd stopped by to drop off the new speakers for the front. I didn't stay too long as Frank looked pretty frustrated at having to replace the brake lines. Apparently the old ones broke when he was trying to reconnect them to the new master cylinder...oh well, new lines! The biggest surprise today was showing up at Bero and seeing that "red" was no longer on it's usual perch and that it was nowhere to be seen on the premises! Andy said that it was now back with Laki for any paint touch ups, colour sanding and final polishing. Very exciting stuff! It was great to see the car wearing it's proper BBS "shoes"...really completes the look. Having a windshield and seats also helps! There are a few side molding and trim pieces that need to be attached, but only once all the paint sanding/polishing is done. Once it's back in my care , I'll be putting the refurbished emblems back on. But...I won't be picking it up for another 2 weeks. The whole family is off to France for a holiday on Monday so there is not enough time to get things organized to get "red" home before then. Besides, Andy and Frank want the car back so they can test drive it and make any necessary adjustments before signing off on it. Stefanie will have a nice treat when we come home from Europe.

Beers and brakes

Brought the boys at Bero a few brews to toast the amazing work they've been doing on "red". They were in the middle of swapping out the brake master cylinder. Turns out that the one originally on "red" was for an automatic pedal cluster and didn't work properly with the pedal switch from the manual set-up. So out it went. Frank put the little VW Motorsport wing on the back...love it! Picked up another set of the Alpine SPS-400 speakers since the front ones moved onto that great speaker retirement home, aka the trash.

Dash and radio...

It's been a couple of days since I stopped in to see the progress; work and play got in the way. On Tuesday I spent the entire day at Mosport International Raceway running my Porsche on the track. It was a private trackday organized by a friend of mine for a group of Porsche enthusiasts from rennlist.com. I had every intention of stopping by on my way home from the track, but after logging more than 300 kms of track time, I was pretty exhausted. I highly recommend to anyone with a modicum of automotive fever to sign up for some track days at some point in your life. I've done several now, and I learn more and more every time out. If you're reading this site, you've got gasoline in your veins and owe it to yourself to have fun with your car away from the ridiculously crowded and slow public roads.

But I digress...back to the build project.
The dashboard is in!! It makes the car looks so finished now. Frank powered up the new stereo for me to hear and to notice that the front speakers are toast now too. They've died of old age...the rubber ring that holds the paper cones have quite literally turned to dust. Oh well, back to BestBuy.
He also went through the operation of the alarm system and remote keyless entry system. A very cool feature is that the dome light will glow when you unlock the doors now and once you open them, the light goes full on. Pretty fancy for an'82-'87 VW!
You probably see the fire extinguisher on the floor there. Well, "white" had this extinguisher mounted in the trunk before...completely useless location. If your car is on fire, I don't think you want to be spending lots of time getting it out of the trunk; it's got to be within reach of the driver. Frank found the perfect place on the hump behind the e-brake. Looks cool too. In my Porsche, I have one installed permanently on the front of the passenger seat. It's a Porsche Club of America requirement for the track, but I also like knowing it's there in case of emergencies on the road.
We hit a bit of a snag with the re-installation of the seats. The seat slider locking mechanism changed sides between '82 and '87 because the latter cars had a seat cushion tilt feature. So, George is going to have to re-skin the seat bottoms again! Well, it will feel like an upgrade with the new tilt/height feature on "red".
Air horns are installed, fog lamps are wired and working and the rest of the fender flares are on. A few more days and the car will be back at the bodyshop where Laki can work his magic on the finish.

Spoiler...

35 celcius in the shade today and humid...feels like 42! I felt sorry for anyone having to work outside today; what a smelter! It wasn't any better over at Bero with hot exhausts and oil to deal with all day. Frank was still plugging away at "red". The front bumper came off and the BBS front spoiler was attached which necessitated putting the front fender flares on as well. With all those parts being made very light and/or flexible, it's kinda like trying to build a house of cards made of Jello!...but it looks damn good!
The trunklid is on and the remote locking for the doors and trunk works now. Frank is keeping the dashboard out for as long as possible to better access all the wires...but the day is fast approaching when the interior will be done. Hopefully this heatwave will break soon and make working outdoors a little more pleasant.

Trying it on for size

Stefanie called me at lunch and asked if we could go visit her car. No problem since I had to drop off the extra door actuator for the trunk and it got me away from some of the dreary online review work I've been doing this week. I think her smile says it all; a very happy young lady who can't wait to get her car back on the road.

Frank and I discussed how to wire the front Hella foglamps and the rear single fog as well as the auxiliary driving lights in the grill. "White" had 3 separate switches controlling all the lights which was a bit ridiculous. What I decided is that the grill lights should be wired as extra high beams since this is the only way I ever used them previously so they won't require a switch. The Hella's will use the 2 position vw foglight switch; first position for the rear only, second position for both front and rear on.
I played around with the shifter and I must say that it feels great with the shorter throw."Red" is going to be an awesome car!

Suspension part 3

Well the Sachs front struts went in and then came out again. Andre and Frank weren't pleased with them and felt that the shocks would be too soft and not match the performance of the Tokico shocks in back. As luck would have it, Andre acquired another cabriolet (1985) in white ironically and although the car looks pretty rough, there are some good salvageable parts. The right front strut was taken from it and my Tokico shock cartridge was inserted along with the Eibach springs; happiness at all four corners!


Here's a picture of the re-skinned driver's seat (forgot to take a picture yesterday). It will need a good steam clean when "red" gets home. Speaking of cleaning, Frank tries to get all the parts as clean as possible before he drops them back into the car. The carpets look amazing, rich and black. Well, it turns out that he sprayed carpet cleaner on them and power-washed them before installing them...he's really going above and beyond the call of duty on this.

The dash will be going in soon once all the alarm and stereo wiring is done. Frank decided to add another remote actuator for the trunk! Stefanie will now be able to lock/unlock the trunk with the fob...not bad for an '82, er '87.



The plan is to get the driver's seat installed and drive it back to the body shop for the remainder of the cosmetic work. They know that the interior will get dirty again so they want to minimize the eventual clean up a bit.

bumpers, lights and interior

Wow, what a change! I didn't have a chance to stop in on Monday, but I figured that there wouldn't be all that much visual change since Friday with Frank still working on the wiring. But today the transformation was remarkable; the main electrical problems are sorted and the car starts and runs properly which allowed Frank to start to button up the interior and trim. The power door lock actuators are in so the door cards went on. The back seat is in along with all the seat belts. It's great to see the euro bumpers back on, but best of all is seeing the red Gti trim of the grill...like the ghost of "white" shining through. The driver's seat had been severely damaged in the accident from the force of the impact of Stefanie's body being thrown hard in opposition to the hit. Good thing the seats are so well bolstered and held her in instead of sliding out and hitting the door. Anyway, the guys stripped off the seat fabric and slipped it on the donor seat from "red"...great job! Up next: the dash, cluster, etc...on the interior and on the exterior: spoiler and trunk before it goes back to Laki for a full colour sanding and polish. Lots of dirt and dust on the trim parts from sitting around for the last few months. It will be great for Stefanie and I to spend time detailing it and "bond" with Red.
I better stop in everyday from now on or I'll miss some significant milestones.

Suspension and brakes

The front struts are in and the brakes are now installed. The rotors got a little rusty sitting around for the last couple of months, but after a few brake applications, they should be good. Mechanically things are progressing quite well. The electrical harness still looks like a dogs breakfast and would cause Frank to pull out his hair if he had any! The center of the radiator support has been painted black so that it doesn't "shine" through the grill later on. While I was there, I grabbed the emblems off the parts pile so I can refurbish them. The "Volkswagen" , "Golf Gli" and "Karmann" badges are no longer being produced so you really need to try and restore them. On VW enthusiast site www.vwvortex.com, I found a number of suggestions on how to go about restoring the metallic finish to these badges. I'll probably try the silver paint pen technique first.

Setback...

I dropped off the alarm system and the power door lock actuator parts today and Andre had a bit of bad news. The close ratio transmission that he sourced earlier is toast. Frank fired up the engine yesterday and the transmission sounded like a bucket of bolts. Solution: in order not to delay the project too much, the original transmission is going back in until Andre can find a good Gti transmission. It's possible that his supplier sent him the wrong unit... so we'll see.
Front strut update: going with Sachs instead of Bilstein. Still going to use the Eibach springs.

Fuse box, cooling system...

Stopped in with my wife to take a look at the progress since Friday. The engine is looking like it's ready to fire up and Frank was going to be doing that this afternoon.


The fuse box is in and the new rear speakers are also bolted in...easier to do this before it's all sealed up. Tomorrow, I'll bring over the alarm system and the door lock actuators so that Frank can get those in and put the door cards back on.

A unexpected (not really) extra expense is that the right front Macpherson strut is damaged beyond repair and the Tokico gas strut cartridge inside it is also dimpled. While it's not leaking, it probably would fail in short order.
The difficulty is in finding a front strut in decent condition as most are rusted to within an inch of their lives. Andre and I decided to just go with a whole new set of Bilstein HD...ah , it's only money, right?

Alarm system

Just picked up this alarm system locally for $100. It does everything I need; starter disable, shock sensor, visual and audible confirmation, and it comes with 2 keyless remote fobs. I added 2 options to it:
1-door lock actuators ($40) so that the car will have keyless entry not so much for convenience, but so that I will know that the alarm is being set every time my daughters lock the doors with the fob!
2-infrared proximity sensor ($45). Being a convertible, this will make the alarm sound a warning chirp if someone gets too close or tries to stick their arm inside with the top down. If they linger too long, then they get the full blast.

I also have a Bluetooth handsfree kit that I will be adding later. With all that, "red" is moving from the '80s and into the 21st century.

Engine is in.

There are always some interesting cars at Bero Motors when I stop in. For a car guy it's like being a kid in a candy store; you could spend all day watching them work on Volkswagens, Audis and of course, Porsches. Today was definitely "Porsche day" there, so our little project car was in prestigious company. Andre certainly has some neat cars on his lot: Audi quattro coupes, 911sc's, 944's, 928's, etc... But back to our little cabriolet.






Progress continues at breakneck speed. Frank, got the engine and transmission out of old "white" and into "red" in less than 24 hrs. That includes finishing up with the electrical harness removal too. While he was busy bolting up the Gti transmission, he noticed that the clutch was pretty much done...so a new clutch kit went in. I watched him install the short shift kit in less than 5 minutes. The kit is adjustable with 2 settings of throw reduction: 30% or 50%. We'll start out with 30% for now. It also features a weighted shifter linkage to take some of the slop out of the shifter.

Interesting to find out from him that this isn't his first transplant but rather his 3rd. Back in the day, his own vehicle was a 1981 Rabbit convertible with an Audi 4-cyl engine...apparently it was quite the little monster. Another interesting cabriolet transplant for a customer involved a diesel engine...hmm, pretty unique!



Frank admitted that he just loves this kind of project and it shows in his meticulous workmanship. The most frustrating part of it was not having both cars stripped down at the same time. Now that he's got the parts from both laid out on the floor, it's more like putting together a puzzle or building a model where he can pick the best parts from both.




The HVAC unit is in as well which necessitated installing some of the carpeting. The carpet starts to make the project look more and more finished. It's nice to see the clutch pedal and manual transmission shifter in there too.

The wiring loom certainly looks daunting, but one of the fringe benefits of this is that lots of extraneous wiring has been removed from past installs of various radios, fixed cellphones from the '90s and the remote/stealth radar detectors of the '80s. Of course, the various installers would leave the old wires in place and layer on more cables, fuses and various connectors for their installs...what a mess. Hey, maybe the car will weigh less now!

Old "white" is pretty much done giving up its organs now. It's sad to see it in such shape, but at the same time I'm happy that its soul will live on in "red".