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Back in a Mk1 + (slight) Build

18K views 93 replies 23 participants last post by  the_mad_rabbit 
#1 ·
No one would remember me here as I haven't had a MK1 (non cabriolet) since 2003, but let's just move along with that now. After owning about 8 different vw's pre 1991 over the past 8 years, I finally found me a MK1 worth buying and, by chance, was a great deal at the same time, so I just couldn't resist another headache.

Picked up a 12/81 Diesel 4dr Jetta LS, complete with blown brake vacuum pump, busted vent controls with the heater stuck in the on position, funky (but unmolested) wiring, broken vent wings, and a paint job that had seen better days. On the plus side... rust free? Minor catch is the car was rear ended so there's a bit of a kink on the passenger side that I still need to address, however the sub-frame is straight so the car got lucky.

My goals for this build is fairly simple: OE/OEM/OEM+ . I've done my fair share of modding, adapting, fitting, building, and changing, but for once I think I'll just NOT do that and just fix it the way that it used to be.

When I first got the car from San Diego:








... and FINALLY home:





Then lowering:


Then new rims:


Then even more lowering:






Since I've owned the car I've:
Rebuild the pump (3 times now, grr)
Installed welded LCA's with poly everything
GC Coilovers + Koni Yellows + 2.5" raised MK1 struts mounts + MK4 retainers + Fox bushings + Rear poly's
Detailed as much of the crusted plastic as possible
Timing Belt + tensioner + Injection pump modded + Injection timing

I still need to:
Do a whole lot of isht, lol.

Currently in the process of fixing the A/C, amongst visual "tuning", general fixing of pieces parts, and hunting down period correct pieces parts :mad: .

Much more to come.

-AJ
 
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#4 ·
Spent the evening in the great company of beer, Iron Maiden, and the Jetta. Worked on various things, such as rebuilding the vac. pump for a 3rd time, and having it break on me (today) sadly, yet again, so I'm just throwing in the flag and going for the later vane style pump that's not a piece of garbage and actually works worth a damn... now to just find one.

Changed out the headlights finally since the outside ones had parking lights and the idiot PO didn't properly plug them up, so water got into the assemblies and ruined the reflective surface. Out with the old, and in with some better replacements :)


Got both front/rear bumpers swapped out to chromo cabriolet ones which by far has been the first, and probably last, thing that i've changed out to reduce weight. I swear, front/rear bumpers must be 40+ lbs each worth of awkward weight (I lift engines, those are heavy. a bumper shouldn't be THAT heavy, :laugh: ). Needless to say, super pleased. Just need to sit down and re-polish the aluminum and work on restoring the plastic trim (much like what I've done with the fender flares).


Messy interior shot- forgive the cup holders, but what the **** ever. They work, hold my coffee in place as a hazily waft around traffic at the asscrack of dawn, and it's better than having hot coffee fry my crotch :banghead:
Steering wheel is a Formuling wheel that a customer at my shop bought back in 1983 and I'm the proud 2nd owner :D. Along with this, factory option shift extender for sciroccos with a plane-jane aluminum weighed shift knob. I switched back to the stock 5spd one though as the aluminum wasn't visually pleasing :( Also... the fan? Make shift Conditioning of air to be cooler until I get my REAL A/C fixed :cool:


Quick messy undershot (will all be cleaned when I do my 020 ASF transmission swap)- k-brace, swaybar, seam welded control arms with the poly bushings to say the least. Handles quite decently for what its worth... the sb bushings all need replacing though... on my list of things to do as I have the parts sitting in a box :rolleyes:


Bought the car with 1769xx miles on it, now at 179+. Just to note... the clock works GREAT and holds time perfectly :D


@ keeton:

And yes... you have to trim the hood bracing for these to clear. DIY with a bit of innovation and the correct diameter metal. The guy who made mine didn't do this, so I had to grind 1/8th of an inch on the upper coils for everything to fit/work properly. It's twanging again because the springs settled down... need to clearance more :(

Here's a great example of stupid small things that I wanted to find as part of this build... a customer of mine had an extra one- I hooked him up with a discount on some parts for his MK2, and he hooked it up with a buck FREE :)


Spent the evening also detailing the interior again with a nice layer of meguires back2black. All I can say is the stuff works GREAT and my interior plastic is pretty damn wasted :laugh:

Only 5 hours in the garage in 1 night.... a record since I stopped working on cars :beer:

-AJ
 
#5 ·
Just made some 2" drop plates at work, re-built my vac pump one last time after finding out that the retaining plates were missing in the pump itself, and will be cleaning up the engine bay some more toight. Have a nice vac. canister sitting at home to add to the "OEM" looks :D

Just needs a LOT of cleaning... more pictures to come tonight.

-AJ
 
#6 ·
Happy 4th of July everyone. Today's agenda? Swap that damn FN tranny out for an ASF and replace the busted Axles that are currently on the car.

Started off with finding out that my drivers side axle had 3 balls drop out of the inner joint. This resulted in about 1 hour worth of cursing, swearing, throwing things around the shop, then calming down, having a few :beer:'s, and re-assessing the situation, then completing the task. Good OEM used axles from my last mk1:



The ASF transmission before....:


...and after some cleaning:


3.67 with a .75 5th (that will be swapped out for a .71 in the future) = good times on the freeway.

Just staring at my engine bay made me hate my decision for the day. 1st, I hate doing transmission swaps. 2nd, I hate doing transmission swaps. 3rd, i hate axles... and doing transmission swaps.



Thankfully, an hour later, after installing some new shift bushings, and cleaning up some of the grime and grunk that was underneath the car, the ASF is in:



Time for more beer and getting my arse back into the garage :sly:

-AJ
 
#7 · (Edited)
Chugging along here slowly. Transmission is in, freeway driving is SO much better. Fabbed up some 2" drop plates with a slight offset just for ****'s n giggles. Just needing to finally go out and get the hardware needed to bolt everything back together again :laugh:

Aside from that, just enjoying the car, driving it all over the place, and being happy that I've found a station selling diesel for $3.99/gallon :cool:

Though, with that said, my current battle of figuring out why the hell my stereo wiring isn't getting any power is my next point of attack (specifically today during my lunch hour at work).

What I got to wake up to as I sip my fine coffee at work :banghead::


And a new project to add to the diesel:


:sly:

-AJ
 
#9 ·
Thanks! Managed to figure out what it was with no lights- traced all the wires, and found nearly all the bulbs blown- all replaced. Found that 58 pin out gray/green from the light switch was actually putting power out to the rest of the car, no ground breaks, no pinched wires. Track #1 from T14 to the back of the cluster was receiving power too, traced it to bulb #1 and found no power. Hmmmm.... track break on one corner. Folded the track back and soldered, all patched up:


I can't wait to drive the car at night now with functioning lights for once! :)

Along with that, found a nice jem- power wire out from Emergency Flasher switch to stereo (factory) was bare, chilling right next to #31 ground :eek: :banghead: . May explain why that fuse was blown when I first got the car... Fixed that.

So far things are progressing well and I'm still VERY happy that the wiring is unmolested. Once I get the stereo in, I'll be a VERY happy camper :D

-AJ
 
#11 · (Edited)
Thanks man! :) Trying my hardest to address the smallest things, and to keep the build as period correct as possible (aside from the exhaust and some other small components).

UPS came by the shop today to drop off an Autotech order... most of which were for a customer/re-stocking pieces parts that we've been out of since forever. Part of that order included some fun things for me too ;) :



Now to wait for my borla muffler to come in along with my headers... then I can start piecing together the rest of the exhaust. Whole setup will be a 4-1 header, 57mm front to back with a 610mm cherry bomb as my resonator, and blah blah blah. Should be a fun build- need to brush up on my welding skills as it's been a while :(

-AJ

P.s: Also finding period correct options is becoming more and more interesting, haha. Now looking for a center console as I'm undecided weather I will run triple gauges or something else.
 
#15 ·
Haha, sold the snowflakes a while back already. May be buying another set though, but for my other car (had an epiphany this morning).

Haven't been driving the Jetta all this week, instead enjoying my TD corrado and its ability to cruise at 80mph while driving to work, making me less late than usual, lol :rolleyes:

Still waiting on my exhaust parts to come in, so for today I'll FINALLY get around to doing an oil change and HOPEFULLY transmission fluid change to Redline Lightweight Blue Shockproof oil.
Contemplating installing my oil cooler setup, but I'm not sure if i'm up to it since I have some other work to do to the corrado (wiring :facepalm: ).

Still need to get my hardware for the drop plates I built :mad:

-AJ
 
#17 ·
What style is it? I have an extra one from my cabby, and a messed up blue one that I just tore out of the car since it never came with it (fitment was crap).

Oil change = done
Redline Lightweight Shockproof Tranny Fluid change = done
Annihilate a whole lotta beer Saturday evening with friends = done

Gawd, that ASF transmission shifts like butter now :D

Something much less interesting, but made me smile when I installed them:

Before


After


Now waiting for the rears to come in for a nice complete set. It's too bad that no one makes a trunk lock door plate... :eek:

Getting super antsy on the exhaust parts. My borla came in, but I'm still waiting on the headers. Need to plan making a trip to kragens for a glasspack that i'll be using as a resonator, and get some tubing for fabricating up the bends. I'm using crush bends, and for those who hate, who cares. It's only over the rear axle and honestly, 2.25" mandrel bends won't make a difference with a 1.6l NA diesel at that point :rolleyes:

Oh, and here's the next fun item on the list of things to install:


:screwy: :D

-AJ
 
#19 ·
No :p. I do have a few turbos kicking around in the backyard that I may play with, but for the time being... the header I ordered came in, and I'm sourcing parts for that whole setup and see how much I like it, and go from there.

Plus, with the list of chit I still need to take care of (drop plates, notching frame, finish A/C, etc) I'm far from playing with any stuff like that. :eek:

-AJ
 
#22 ·
:laugh:

Wiring is easy though, esp. if you have schematics :p - Hazards rely on the hazard switch/turn signal relay. Either konks out = nothing. Your radiator is another story :laugh:

-AJ
 
#25 ·
Wellp, blew up my engine driving to school this morning going down 680 to San Jose :banghead: :mad: :( :( :(.

Thankfully my shop is off of that said freeway so I stopped there to take a look. My oil pan got smashed in (lights didn't turn on in the dash for some reason, even though sensors are all new and supposedly functioning) and mashed the pump head. Will know if the engine is savable at around 4:45pm today (when I get out of class and drive my co-workers car back to work) as I'm in the middle of class, but a sad day for a low mileage diesel engine to die that is the FIRST diesel engine that didn't burn oil on me.

:( :thumbdown: :facepalm:

-AJ
 
#26 ·
Wellp, blew up my engine driving to school this morning going down 680 to San Jose :banghead: :mad: :( :( :(.

Thankfully my shop is off of that said freeway so I stopped there to take a look. My oil pan got smashed in (lights didn't turn on in the dash for some reason, even though sensors are all new and supposedly functioning) and mashed the pump head. Will know if the engine is savable at around 4:45pm today (when I get out of class and drive my co-workers car back to work) as I'm in the middle of class, but a sad day for a low mileage diesel engine to die that is the FIRST diesel engine that didn't burn oil on me.

:( :thumbdown: :facepalm:

-AJ

Sucks.

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td time!
 
#27 ·
It does suck

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need the td corrado to drive to school for the time being :p

If i can't save it, will slap in my old 8v pg w/o the charger on it for 32mpg goodness for the time being. Just meh... wanted to swap engines NEXT year and not smack-dab in the beginning of my final semester in college while taking 16 units :mad: :thumbdown:


-AJ
 
#30 ·
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