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Author Topic: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.  (Read 5239 times)

Offline woahnowboys

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woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« on: April 05, 2014, 06:21:35 pm »
I thought you guys might wanna see the reason I slack so much on spending on my MK5. :signLOL:
So here's my '87 MK1 cabrio, as she looks today. :)


The car has been in the family since August 2004, but still needs a lot done to her before I'm fully happy!
My dad bought the car in 2004, and drove it only in the summer.
This is how she looked back then. :confused:


There aren't any photos of her then, until January 2009!
The Golf had been lowered 40mm, had crystal headlights, pressed plates and a debadged grille.. :fighting:


At this time, I was 14 years old, and my dad had promised me the car for when I turn 17.
This also explains some of my styling choices. :signLOL:
The paint was looking pretty tired by this point, so she was given a blow-over.
With that came the crystal rear lights.. :stupid: and the Le Castellet wheels.


The old, cracked, mouldy hood and headliner were replaced with a new mohair one, and the new stainless exhaust came! :) Not a fan of the tip anymore, but that'll change!  


Over a few weeks, I changed the mirrors for flags, and the grille for a single headlight badged one. :P
And then in March 2012, I passed my driving test, and finally got the car! :laugh:


I didn't change much on the car, seeing as I could barely even afford to run it!
So she pretty much looked like this up until December 2012.


In December, I decided to take off the Zender Z20 bodykit, and replace it with chrome S1 bumpers..
Part of me thinks I should've kept it, or gone for original S2 bumpers.. but I just love it the chrome ones too much. :love:
Here she is looking pretty ratty, with half a bodykit!


My bumpers took much longer to be chromed than I had first thought.. So I ran her like this for a few months.
How I never got pulled over for lack of number plates & indicators, I don't know. :drinking:


Then eventually came my bumpers.
The number plate was held on with no more nails tape while my brackets were in the post.. :ashamed:


Then I ran into some money, and treated her to new wipers, blower motor, mk2 wiper motor, infinity rear speakers, sony stereo, dynamat in the doors, cl splitter, Hella headlights, slightly tinted indicators, and proper bumpstrips for the S1 bumpers. :smiley:


Now she's in the paintshop getting new rear arches, new sills, and a few things blanked and tidied up. Here she is mid-archwork. :pomppomp:


And here is the old arch from the driver's side.. A souvenir.  :stupid:


Here's the result, fair play, the guys at Mirror Image are awesome painters. Shame they can't put a car back together at all. :stupid:


Fitted my Infinity Kappas in the front. The back had Kappas a few months before.
This was much more time consuming.. :fighting:



The speaker sticks out of the bottom.. This required soooo much cutting.
Another view..



It didn't feel great knowing that these speaker pods had lasted 26 years, and as soon as I get my hands on them, they're cut to bits :congrats:
But the sound quality is awesome, so I think it's worth it. Plus, you don't see it anyway! :)
Seeing those pictures again reminded me I need to run some foam down those gaps to seal them better.. Will do that soon!

Got myself some of this.


A sheet of brown corduroy. :party:
I did some sharpie markings.. Not the most accurate work. :signLOL:


And, the result! It still needs sewing, it's held together by hairpins in this picture, but you get the idea. :smiley:

Then a package from Crazyquiff's came, with my chrome grille trim :love:


Cleaned all the dust off her.. Didn't realise just how disgusting those wheels were. :sick:


I decided to go for a gearbox rebuild to stop all the whirring, grinding, and knocking noises :confused:
At the same time, the flywheel was lightened and balanced, had a new carb flange, new engine mount, rust hole in the back of the front valance welded up, timing belt fitted, new speedo drive gear, new crank and bearings. :thumbs:

All work carried out by 'hotgolf' from the CGTI forums, he's a well known gearbox nut on there :happy2:

Here's a picture of the box stripped down :scared:


Then I got my MK5, and the MK1 had to go away for a while.  :sad1: :sad1: :sad1:
So I gave her one last detailing session..


I found it hard to stay motivated on her at this point..
The first thing I did when she went away was to make a new parcel shelf out of ply.
Here's the old one, bent, stained, and mouldy.  :signLOL:


So I took out the staples, and washed the carpet.
The old, warped board was discarded after being used a template for the new one. :drinking:
Here's the ply one in place, minus carpet.


And carpeted. Looks muuuuch better! :jumpmove:


Got around to taking her to her new home.
This was a little less graceful than expected :signLOL:
« Last Edit: April 05, 2014, 06:50:22 pm by woahnowboys »

'87 MK1 Cabby - To be 20vT'd.
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Offline woahnowboys

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Re: Woahnowboys' MK1 Cabby
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2014, 06:24:33 pm »
Sorry for the double post, it keeps crashing when I try to post the whole thing. :signLOL:

And this was her new home for the next 7 months :sad1:


Got the tyres fitted and wheels on, took the number plate off, and chopped the springs, just for motivation's sake..


The sun was out majorly when I took that, and it made me realise how much nicer the car looks with some reflections in the bonnet, which was my worst panel by far..
So off came the bonnet.
I took it up to my bedroom, as I wasn't liking the idea of doing it in a cold garage, and gave it 3 hours of machine polishing..
It's still not great due to a terrible respray job on this panel in particular, but here's the paint before polishing & waxing:



Notice how blurred the shape of the light bulb is, and how dimpled the paint looks :confused: And after..



It's still badly dimpled, but I couldn't get it much better than that.
To put the difference into perspective, here's the difference in depth of reflections, before:


And after.


Gave it a coat of wax and fitted it back.


Then my new sill trims from Crazyquiff's arrived, as I was missing the trims after taking off the Zender kit.


And some genuine Hella side repeaters to replace my clear, cracked, leaky ones.
Machine polished the wings while I was at it.
Before..


And after..


And genuine Hella front indicators to replace the old ones which I had tinted red.


Then came coilovers.
Fitted the fronts, but the backs were seized on.
Here's some clearance porn. :signLOL:


Then, after taking out my inner arches to stop any rubbing, I was faced with a hanging repeater cable..


Trying to suss out how to sort this out in a non-bodgy way, with sealant or drilling holes took me a while..
I then came across a little cable bracket that came off a Boeing 777 in work.. So I borrowed it..


Played around with it until it looked like this..


And I used the existing wing bolts to fasten the bracket between the inner and outer wing. Here's a little shot to show you what I mean.


Got a red bulb for my rear fog setup, which I finally got round to sorting out.
And got her started and tested all the electrics.. Everything works perfectly, such a relief!
Still need to change that exhaust tip though. :confused:


Then I finally got her home after 7 months of garage life. :love:
These pictures are before the rear coilovers, so it's raked quite heavily. :signLOL:




Got the rear coils on, but the helpers won't compress, so it's still sitting a bit high for my liking..
So they'll be coming out after the MOT. :laugh:


Quite like how the fronts fit :smiley:


More of that control arm clearance :happy2:


And sump..


It will be going lower once I get some raised top mounts from Coltech. :party:
Washed all the garage filth off.. Excuse the Instagram pic :P


Then I took her for an MOT. Happiest drive of my life.. I forgot how much fun this thing is to drive, I had a smile on my face all day :signLOL:
..But she failed. :signLOL:
Emissions and braking imbalance. :rolleye:
Only one advisory though :happy2:

:signLOL:

But hey, I couldn't stay mad at her for long. :love:


So I stuck her back in the garage, and will be taking her for a carb set up this week, and then more MOT fun. :drinking:
Until then, I threw on some parts I'd gathered.
New spark plugs.. The old ones were soaked in petrol. It's running seriously rich. :stupid:


And a new scraper seal, as mine flew off on the motorway a while ago. :signLOL:


That's it for now! Hope you've enjoyed the long read :signLOL:
Wish me luck for the MOT. :party:

'87 MK1 Cabby - To be 20vT'd.
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Offline woahnowboys

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2014, 02:48:38 pm »
Insured the car, and dropped the car off to sort the emissions and get an MOT on Tuesday morning, he told me it'd be done at 2pm.

I decided to take it to a much stricter garage, hoping they'd give it a proper looking over and sort everything that needs doing.. Wish I'd never bothered.

They got the emissions sorted temporarily by disconnecting one of the lines, telling me I need a new carb to sort it out properly, even though the weber that's on there has done only a few thousand miles, and I know I can get parts for it. :mad:

Then he called me saying he couldn't do an MOT without the key to the fuel cap, so I drove down and dropped it off that day.

For some reason then he had trouble with the full beams.. The way he was talking, it seems like he just couldn't find the full beam switch I have on the dash.. :congrats:

I've had promises of it being MOT'd every day since Tuesday, and still nothing.
I know it'll be worth it cos it'll all be right, but it's so annoying having to ring up every day for them to say "yeah ring tomorrow mate". :fighting:

At least I've got these pictures to look at when I hang up.. :sad1:
Can't wait to finish polishing and get the swage trim back on :confused:


And a quick one with the daily..

'87 MK1 Cabby - To be 20vT'd.
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Offline Leigh200sx

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.in
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2014, 05:38:47 pm »
Great read mate...

Offline George10

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2014, 05:44:32 pm »
Love this. What's your plans for it?

Offline jamieross

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2014, 11:17:32 pm »
This is lovely. The colour is  :happy2:

Offline woahnowboys

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.in
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2014, 02:56:06 pm »
Great read mate...

Thanks! Bit long winded though eh? :signLOL:

Love this. What's your plans for it?

Thank ye. I don't plan on ever selling it, so I'm sure it'll change a lot over the years.
But this year, gonna get the chassis notched and slam it some more, get the wheels refurbed, new exhaust, some more engine work and a bit of paint. :party:

This is lovely. The colour is  :happy2:

Aha thank you, glad you like it! :drinking:
I'm a fan of the colour too, it's quite uncommon :smiley:

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Offline Stanipkiss

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2014, 04:46:11 pm »
lovely, absolutely lovely. Makes me miss my old cab  :happy2:

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Offline woahnowboys

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2014, 05:13:41 pm »
lovely, absolutely lovely. Makes me miss my old cab  :happy2:

Thanks! :smiley:
Yeah there's nothing quite like a MK1 to drive IMO!
The most fun I've had in a car by far! :driver:

'87 MK1 Cabby - To be 20vT'd.
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Offline woahnowboys

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2014, 01:26:35 pm »
It passed the MOT! :party: :party: :party:
I've been driving it practically non-stop in my 4 days off from work, so much fun! I haven't even touched the MK5 since it passed :signLOL:
So I taxed it and got a few jobs done, and got some locking bolts from VW, as I know they're the right spec, and my Audi nut covers will fit over them.
Also rattle-canned the one cream wheel.. Terrible job, but looks better than it did. Can't wait for the refurb!
The only close up picture of it I have is a fish-eye. :ashamed:


Then I flipped the ARB, and took out the rear helpers, as they were uncompressed, so it wouldn't go any lower. :confused:
Looking forward to getting the chassis notched and going lower, but for now..



Gave her 2 coats of Poorboys Black Hole; I was pretty curious about how it'd work on light cars, turned out quite nicely.
And a coat of Autofinesse Spirit, which I got as a free sample, and is now all gone. :sad1:
Then it rained. :party:



When it stopped raining, I gave it a snowfoam with Autofinesse Avalanche, and a shampoo with some Dodo Juice 'Born to Be Mild'.. Not a fan of it to be honest, nothing has topped Duragloss 901 for me yet. :sad1:
And I took the roof down and went for a drive while the sun was out :drinking:



Not running too well at the moment, as the carb needs a rebuild, so that's next on the list. Hopefully will get round to it this weekend. :smiley:
« Last Edit: April 21, 2014, 01:28:26 pm by woahnowboys »

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Offline dan930

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2014, 02:22:51 pm »
Only one word to describe it"stunning"


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Offline usmangti

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2014, 02:30:12 pm »
love the colour of your car, overall looks stunning!

Offline woahnowboys

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2014, 11:51:34 pm »
Only one word to describe it"stunning"

Thanks very much! Your 6 doesn't look too bad either.. :love:

love the colour of your car, overall looks stunning!

Thanks man! :happy2:
The colour is my favourite part, just needs a bit of a touch up here and there :drinking:

'87 MK1 Cabby - To be 20vT'd.
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Offline Wardy91-ed30

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Re: woahnowboys' '87 MK1 Cabby.
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2014, 02:05:44 am »
Thoroughly enjoyed reading that. Lovely piece of kit :drinking: