Build Thread: Victoria, my 1990 Jetta GLI

[Volkswageneer1990]

i'm not feeling the red ra's...i like the stock silver look of them on any color mk2...

Thanks

car looks great!

Thank you good sir!

polished lip & charcoal greyish centers

Is that the original color of the RA's? Charcoal greyish centers? Or is that a color reccomendation?
I agree on the polished lip

OK. Update Time!!!!!

I went out and blackened the rest of the side moldings to make it look uniform.
(Sorry if you're thinking "this is an update?" but small stuff is all I can do right now before I find out how to take out the engine. Or anything else big)





And then while I was at it I blackened the grille



I took off the GLI badge and I found out how dirty it was!





Then I put everything back together and took some nice shots:

[steveo27]

suggestion




RA's seem to look the best in 4 different guises

1 - seen above

2 - all polished



3 - polished & gold



4 - polished & black



and ocassionally, colormatch, but only on certain colors

[Volkswageneer1990]

Ok well according to all those pictures give me your opinionated choice:

1. All polished (what I'm leaning to)

2. The first picture, polished lip and charcoal grayish mesh

3. Or polished lip, and white

What do you think?

And thanks for the pictures

[Volkswageneer1990]

Ok well I don't have much to update on. There wasn't much to do today.

I got some cluster light bulbs in the mail today from my man in the U.K. so I'm planning to install them tomorrow.

I'll post pics, and I hope not to bore some of you...

So Steve are you liking the polished lip and charcoal grey mesh?

[tunethtmkII]

id say polished and black. black seems to works good with tornado red.


not a jetta. or RAs but, a Tornado mk2 with black wheels

[akern2]

For a young kid, you do good work. Keep it up. And i'll see you at H20!

[steveo27]

For a young kid, you do good work. Keep it up. And i'll see you at H20!

all polished works well, so does polished and black, or even polished and gold. all look great on red

[Volkswageneer1990]

For a young kid, you do good work. Keep it up. And i'll see you at H20!

Thanks! I will be there! Just not with the car this year. I'm going by plane as a birthday present (my birthday is the 27th so I'm just going to celebrate).

Next year I believe the car should be in very good mechanical condition to go driving.

all polished works well, so does polished and black, or even polished and gold. all look great on red

I'm going to go with all polished per your suggestion. Thanks!

Now the question is, how do I go about polishing the wheels, and how do I polish the innerworkings of the mesh too?

Also, a little update. Little things but it's progress.

I changed the light bulb in the cluster as the one over the speedometer was out.
I also put in the little grommets for the inner mirror triangles. Now they won't fall off everytime I close the door

That's it for now. Tomorrow I plan to take it to get a wash and then possibly start on one of the wheels to polish it if Steve gives me tips
I'm just going to use the polishing DIY in the forums. I just have to find a way to get inside the mesh too.

[VDub2625]

Apparently I missed this thread, lol.

[Volkswageneer1990]

Apparently I missed this thread, lol.

[Mk2slow]

I love what your doing to the car, im 17 and also gotmy first car as a 1991 GLI 16V, i cant wait to see what other stuff you have in store for your car.

[Volkswageneer1990]

I love what your doing to the car, im 17 and also gotmy first car as a 1991 GLI 16V, i cant wait to see what other stuff you have in store for your car.

Thanks

Ok were here's another update that has a good and bad side

Good side: I blackened all the exterior plastics using the heat gun method. Good stuff
Pics:



Bad Side: My car won't start now.....

I looked at the CHECK engine light and did the fault codes. I get 2-1-1-2. Which according to A2 Resource means I have a problem in the Ignition Reference Sensor. And that I have defective sensor or wiring.

Ok vortex. Before I go and look at my bentley. What's wrong with my car?

Some detail to help the PI's out there:
Fuel Pump is still working, I can still hear the fuel getting to the engine.
Starter is not working from what I can tell. About the 3rd time I tried to crank it, I heard a distictive "crackling" idk how to describe the sound.
If I hold the starter down for at least 4 seconds the tachometer goes crazy and bounces.
Also, when the key is in the A/C position (battery power) the little indicator lights on the cluster now show the Coolant tempterature bulb on and the Oil bulb too is flashing. The alternator (battery) bulb is no longer flashing like it always does. Idk if this is relevent but why not throw it out there.

Ok, well sad day for me...But at least my car looks better.

[VDub2625]

Sounds like your alternator might not be working and the battery's too dead to start itself.

It'll still run without the ignition reference sensor, so that's not your issue.

[Volkswageneer1990]

Sounds like your alternator might not be working and the battery's too dead to start itself.

It'll still run without the ignition reference sensor, so that's not your issue.

Thanks, it was the battery. The car broke down about 300ft from my house, and fortunately there was a little spot to sit it at while we went to autozone to get a new battery.



We got the new battery in and on the upside, I found that my battery tray wasn't rusted badly at all. Just a little surface rust that I can sand off.

In the mean time, I got to work on my M3 Style Tails and my All-Reds using Steve's awesome DIY thead to him!

Prepped:


Painted with 7 Coats waiting to cure:



And at about 3 PM today I am going to sand them down again, then apply some clear coat. The can says in 3 hours it cures so I am just playing the waiting game...

[Volkswageneer1990]

Ok Update TIME! I had fun doing this update so, I hope people enjoy it!

I finished up the 2 sets of tail lights I was painting. I ended up waiting 6 hours after I finished applying the red to sand and clear coat. I think they came out pretty ok with the exception of a couple blotches.

Trust me when I say this, they look more blood red (darker) than they look in the pictures. I like the darker shade to them.

Pictures!!

[akern2]

I'd love to have those white/red ones. Good work! Keep it up.

You make me feel like i'm slacking.

[VDub2625]

All that and no installed pics

[Volkswageneer1990]

I'd love to have those white/red ones. Good work! Keep it up.

You make me feel like i'm slacking.

If you find some cheap all clear ones (pricewise, I got these for $25) send them my way and I'll do 'em for ya for the price of shipping!

All that and no installed pics

Patience, young grasshopper. Tonight after I take my stock ones off (I sealed them using silicone caulk) Ill put these on, just for you

[Volkswageneer1990]

All that and no installed pics

Just for you Jason,






And then a wierd mixed one:


I decided to stay with the all-reds.

[Volkswageneer1990]

On a seperate not so good note,

I am starting to think that my alternator is not working, or that something is stealing juice from my battery.

Reasons:
Radio is not turning on (which in turn means the amplifier isn't either)
When I turn the Hazards on, the interior lights flicker as the hazards are blinking.

And the part that scares me the most:
When I turned on my parking lamps, the car started to choke as if it were about to stall. When I turned off the parking lamps, it stabilized back to normal. It also seems to be working a bit more when starting.

I think I'm going to take it to a trusted mechanic over the course of the week and see what he has to say about it. He isn't VW specific but he knows some stuff.

Before I do that, anybody wanna help me figure out what's going haywire?

Thanks

[Volkswageneer1990]

Ok, I went out to move my car for the mail man in the morning and it wouldn't start. AGAIN

I now seriously suspect the alternator after finding this:



If you look closely, you see a plug that goes into the alternator, that has a cut wire.

What plug is this? And is it causing my problem. FYI the battery is BRAND NEW. I bought it thursday.

[16v2a2vr6]

that for the ac compressor not the alternator check the blue wire from the alternator to the battery

[Juzzo92]

Link to taillight DIY?
Awesome car btw

[steveo27]

glad my DIY worked out for ya. they turned out well

search my name for the DIY

[Volkswageneer1990]

Link to taillight DIY?
Awesome car btw

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...DIY%3A+Tinting

Thanks I just wish it was running right now...

glad my DIY worked out for ya. they turned out well

search my name for the DIY

Thanks man, it was a great write up, I owe you one.

[tunethtmkII]

just realized your 15...

another fewllow youngin' haha.

[Keithcar]

nice jetta man!

[The Janitor]

I'd seriously suggest getting it polished, it looks more like pink right now. Trust me, you'll almost sh*t yourself when you see your paint renewed to og.

Otherwise great work so far! Just keep plugging away at cleaning up parts until you can do some more complex stuff. One thing I can definitely reccomend is to completely wash the engine bay with some heavy duty degreaser, and to take off corroded parts and have them sand blasted clean.

Something down the road I'd also suggest is to redo your wiring harness, get it all organised and re-wrapped with better looming. Modify it so that the wiring can be tucked neatly into place instead of this hornet's nest they came with!

[Keithcar]

I'd seriously suggest getting it polished, it looks more like pink right now. Trust me, you'll almost sh*t yourself when you see your paint renewed to og.

+1 Mine looked worse than that when i first got it, but it polished up really good. There are a few spots where the oxidation got it down to the primer, but it still looks million x better than it did.

8 dollar orbital buffer from walmart ftw!

[Volkswageneer1990]

just realized your 15...

another fewllow youngin' haha.

Yep, if you get into the scene young, you learn faster

nice jetta man!

Thank you good man!

I'd seriously suggest getting it polished, it looks more like pink right now. Trust me, you'll almost sh*t yourself when you see your paint renewed to og.

Otherwise great work so far! Just keep plugging away at cleaning up parts until you can do some more complex stuff. One thing I can definitely reccomend is to completely wash the engine bay with some heavy duty degreaser, and to take off corroded parts and have them sand blasted clean.

Something down the road I'd also suggest is to redo your wiring harness, get it all organised and re-wrapped with better looming. Modify it so that the wiring can be tucked neatly into place instead of this hornet's nest they came with!

I knowww, I hate how it looks pink. I recently bought Carnauba (Is that how you spell it??) for the tail lights. Maybe I'll put some on and see how it looks.

Today I might be taking the car to the mechanic to check what's going on with the alternator and battery, and possibly why my battery is drained. I might just ask him to take out the engine so I can start cleaning the bay and making it look new.

Redo my wiring harness? How do I go about doing that? Where would the wires be "tucked neatly into place"? Oh and believe me, my harness looks more like a giant ant pile than a hornets nest

Thanks for all the kind words and advice

+1 Mine looked worse than that when i first got it, but it polished up really good. There are a few spots where the oxidation got it down to the primer, but it still looks million x better than it did.

8 dollar orbital buffer from walmart ftw!

Is that what you would recommend for the polish? Is it sold in cans or bottles like meguiars wax&polish bottles?

[Volkswageneer1990]

Ok well got this in the mail:





NOS leather shift boot. Can't wait to put it in!

Also, I got to looking on the wiring diagrams of the Bentley.
Here's the pages I got on A/C and the Alternator/Battery

A/C:



According to the two above diagrams, the plug that is cut is the Double T2/g located under the A/C Compressor Clutch. Am I correct?



Alternator & Battery:


In this diagram the R (red) wire is the one going to the battery, correct? Where do I check for continuity and to see if the alternator is infact charging the battery?

[steveo27]

when you turn the key to on, does the battery light come on?

the exciter wire runs from the alternator to A2/02 on the fuseblock, test for continuity between those 2 points

[steveo27]

and for restoring the paint, give this a good read

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...le-stage-paint

[Keithcar]

Is that what you would recommend for the polish? Is it sold in cans or bottles like meguiars wax&polish bottles?

Yeah, i used turtle wax rubbing compound first to get rid of the heavy oxidation, its really aggressive stuff, so use it only on paint that really needs it. then claybar, polish, then wax. I used zymol it seemed to work pretty good. plus it smells like bubble gum. i dont remember if i clayed it before or after the polish, somebody else should be able to chime in with the etiquette. dont go to crazy because there is a thin clearcoat.

[VDub2625]

The battery light will come on as steveo mentioned, when the key is switched on and the alternator exciter is hooked up properly. If that does come on (and goes out when the car is running), then I'd try changing out the voltage regulator, or at least checking the length of the bushings.

As for the AC, that brown wire is just a ground, the green wire (still hooked up) is the signal. So ground that brown wire (or connect it to the brwon wire in the sheath again) and you'll be all set.