VR6 Turbo Pumpkin

[jaystone]

Bare with me, it might take a little while to upload all the pics

Some of you might know me, some of you probably don't. I've been a dubber of sorts since I was born. First car I remember was my parent's 1979 VW Dasher wagon. Dad (US Army) cooked the stock motor on the autobahn while we were stationed in Germany circa 1981-ish and swapped in a euro spec Rabbit GTI motor from a junkyard.

Fast forward 30 years and 10 VW's later. I've owned other cars, but always end up back in a VW.

It's been a few years since I sold my 1991 Golf VR6. I always told myself I'd get another, but it would be something that I didn't have to drive everyday. I didn't want to have a project car that also served as a daily. I've got a little experience with brokeswagons, some with turbo stuff, and a bit with fabrication.

Which leads me to this project. Some folks probably know this car...back when it was red and later on when the OG owner decided to take it to the next level. Hopefully I can do the car some justice and get it back on the road better than it ever was.

Enough with the talk; on to the shenanigans! (sorry for the ishty cell phone pics)


Danger Ranger dub hauler deluxe


new home holding down the pavement


lots of wires


some disassembly of the engine and the shaved bay


potential


more potential

[jaystone]

Drivers side mirror put together with orange cover. Repainted black on front bumper, will do rear next (clean up minor nicks and such). Cleaned up and coated the ATP manifold and the hot side of the turbo. De-polished the turbine housing (I'm not a big fan of shiny stuff). Going to order powdercoat to do wheels and misc charge plumbing soon. Going on vacation end of next week, so not sure how much progress will be made over the next few days.

[jaystone]

Found a guy sellimg some new old stock Optimas that were made in the USA before shipping their manufactiring to Mexico.

Battery is going in the trunk, so it will be hidden.

Welded the wastegate dump to recirc into the exhaust. Have had good luck in the past without using a flex/slip joint to accomodate for heat related expansion.

[jaystone]

Found and sorted the headlight wiring harness. Need to figure out the fan harness and then run the wires through the drivers side frame rail.

Going to plate the factory pan (el jefe mod; did one for Hardey and one for Kevin).

Running slammed for a while wears out some stuff...which is why the OG owner picked up an awesome skidplate.


old vs new oil drain bolt

[jaystone]

Well, since no DATR, pace will be a bit more even instead of rushed, which is a good thing.

First afternoon back after a good vacation and an easy day of work was productive.

Got some miscellaneous nuts in from AutohausAZ. Got powder from 'Powderbuythepound.com' to do the wheels and some charge plumbing. Got battery ordered and in the mail. Got the recirc port on the charge pipe welded closed (not needed running MAP sensor instead of MAF).

Photos of a little progress. Going to dismount tires tomorrow so I can powdercoat the wheels. Repainted the black on the rear bumper finally. Car is going to get uglier for a while. Will work on pretty later

Going to try and pickup good inner taillights and a grill this week.

[jaystone]

UPS delivers.

NOS Optima Red Top, tested/charged/warrantied. Guy I picked it up from has pallets of them. Some from when they were still made in Aurora, some from after they shipped manufacturing to Mexico. Half of what a new one costs.

[jaystone]

wheels about ready to sand blast for powdercoating


undercoated and cleaned up


ready for wetsanding

[jaystone]

FedEx stopped by today.

[jaystone]

started straightening fins on the intercooler, going to either paint or powder coat it black. What a PITA. Bottom 2 rows started, working my way up.



Heading down to P-town in about an hour to pick up some parts (VW related) and meet with a few folks (non VW related).

[jaystone]

Project Grill. Going to need a thorough restoration, but it's got good 'bones'

[jaystone]

Got the dent hammered out, sanded, and then primed the metal trim piece. Fiberglassed a couple small cracks in the grill, will worry about restoring the finish this week. Blacked out the VW emblem.

[jaystone]

Got a couple of good coats on both the grill and the metal trim. A little light sanding on the trim and I'll be ready to clear coat it. The grill itself will get a light scuff to matte the gloss a bit. McMaster Carr delivered some sheet aluminum and steel for some fab work I'll try to start later this week.

[jaystone]

pretty happy with the grill. clear is drying on the trim now, will need to wetsand and polish any goofs out before it's done, but I'm fairly pleased with how it all came out.

[jaystone]

Got some of the PermaShine stuff from Urethane Supply Company. Pretty impressed so far, we'll see how it lasts. Got it sprayed on the front bumper lower spoiler, rear bumper lower trim, textured rubstrips (before and after below), and europlate tub. Also got the grill assembled and the drivers side of the car mostly wetsanded (1000, then 2000, with a few spots to go back over) Getting sidetracked on the cosmetics, need to jump into the intake manifold and oil pan here soon, as well as powdercoating the wheels. Also need to pickup a few parts from the junkyard here shortly (specific hardware/clips/trim).

Neighbor dropped by for a minute (completely oblivious to what the car is) and made a comment that it's really neat to drive by and see what is new/different. I guess that means I'm making progress

[jaystone]

Just for comparison sake...I think I'll post a before/after of the grill by itself.

[jaystone]

quick polish on the drivers side. not bad. ran out of compound and need a new pad for my porter cable.

[jaystone]

I didn't feel so hot this weekend; caught some kinda summer cold (WTF?!). Not much accomplished.

Got the oil pan plated today. Still need to weld in the oil return. A bit rusty with the TIG (or maybe my hand wasn't so steady due to a beer or two), but got into a little groove on the last 6-8 inches of weld. Cleaned up nice enough. Will sand blast again and powder coat to match the charge plumbing.

[jaystone]

Started on the intake manifold today. Got it cut up and gutted pretty good. Rough shape plates made, will need to fit to manifold. Loaded up/chipped up/burned up a cheap carbide burr I had. Also ran out of flapper discs for my angle grinder. Last 2.9 klone manifold I did used 2 flapper discs and 2 cut off discs, but the last 2.9 klone didn't include chopping in half and removing the spark plug holes.

So...the photos are in progress and a little blurry because my hands were numb from grinding.

I'll end up re-powdercoating when done.





Was a crazy week, not much accomplished. Got the drivers side polish finished (or would that be got the finish polished?! ). Started on the intake manifold. Pardon the cell phone pictures; it's just way easier than using my digital point and shoot or DSLR.

[jaystone]

Got a test piece of charge plumbing powdercoated. Going to see how it matches the rest.



Got the trunk and passengers side polished tonight. Have a couple of places that need touching up, but overall the paint is at about 95% right now. Still need to do the hood, bumpers and roof.

Need to pick up the pace a bit and get the oilpan, wheels, and intake manifold done. Then onto the wiring I'm thinking. Going to try and get all the dirty cutting/grinding/welding/polishing/painting done while we've still got good weather!

[jaystone]

Factory fresh sideskirts. Baller



Stripped more paint off the D90's. Porsche used some serious filling epoxy primer and paint. I thought I was down to metal, but was just through the silver OEM finish.

Finished straightening the fins on the intercooler. Pics of new tie rod ends too.

[jaystone]

Manifold getting there.




Teaser.

Going to have to plate the valve cover to match the height of the intake manifold (extra 3/16 of material really throws it off.)

But that's a project for another day. It's beer:30 now!

[jaystone]

Got the front end test fit. Wrapped the downpipe. Finished up installing the catch can, just need hoses now.






More front end test fit

[jaystone]

Just finished cleaning up the garage after welding the oil return fitting into the new oil pan. Going to try and powdercoat a bunch of stuff tomorrow. Realized I need an air filter, oil pressure/stoich/boost guage trifecta, hood struts, and other misc stuff. Like brakelines from the caliper to the hardline.

The devil is in the details. BTW...motor internals look good.

[jaystone]

Summbeach...went to re-install the textured side moldings and found out I need 12 more of the clips on the right (the shorter ones...old and busted on the right, got a bunch of the new hotness on the left). Pretty sure the P/N on the bag is for the taller clips (look close at the height difference). Going to need to do a little research on this one.

According to my research, the part numbers should be:
1H0 853 585 ~ clips for ends of molding
1H0 853 585-B ~ middle clips
1H0 853 586 ~ rubber grommets

Back end put together

[jaystone]

I need to adjust the trunk latch alignment (mis-alignment of the lights can be seen in the photo above) Also got the side molding clips in.



Powdercoated a few things today; boost plumbing, center caps, and oil pan. Got some aluminum cut up to finish the valve cover and intake manifold. Received the K&N filter and brake lines. Got some work to do; just hope I got the right brake lines!

[jaystone]

As usual, sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures.

Oil pan is installed. Trunk is aligned better. Got the serpentine belt installed. For some reason the alternator pulley wasn't aligning up with the ribs from the tensioner, ended up machining 6.5mm off the back of the pulley to align the belt (have a spare pulley if it doesn't work out right).

I also put on the sideskirts after having to bend out the body seam under the rockers. Need to scrounge up some more screws/plastic nutserts to finish up.

The plate for the underside of the intake mani got fit today, going to weld it up tomorrow.

Lastly...popped the top on my latest batch of homebrew IPA. What can I say, I like to do things myself

[jaystone]

Intake all welded. Ready to cleanup and powdercoat.



Plug wires are still a bit thick under the manifold to the back 3 spark plugs, going to have to figure something out there.

Otherwise the plating of the valvecover really cleaned things up.



Wheels ready to powdercoat. Let's see if I end up with a roller this week.

[jbigs268]

This is awesome. I like the orange

[jaystone]

Installed the 3 good door handles I've got with new rubber seals. Worked on some interior stuff. Thinking about yanking the headliner, this one is vintage 1995 gray with 16 years of dirt. Picked up wire, connectors, heat shrink, flare tool, bender, and battery terminals. Ordered a battery mount for the trunk. Hoping to powdercoat the manifold, valve cover, and misc boost tubes this weekend.



After looking at the door handle, I saw the broken piece of my drivers handle was removable. The picture below shows the two handles, my repaired one on the bottom and the one I picked up this week disassembled on the top. very cool that it was an easy fix.



Valve cover and intake manifold ready to powdercoat. Detail work on the intake to valvecover alignment near the oil filler/throttle cable recess done. Had to do a bit of work on the valve cover and underside of the
intake to not squish the plug wires. The insulation is a lot thicker than OEM wires.

Going to powdercoat today I hope.

[jaystone]

Got a couple bumps and issues I need to address, but it's all coated. Wheels are the last thing now!

[jaystone]

Extended the headlight harness. Rough idea where it'll go (no radiator in place yet). Re wrapped the harness as well. Need to secure it in place now.

[jaystone]

So this is what I'm working with. Need to identify what kind of connectors these are so I can get some new ones to extend the harness properly (first one is one connector, second and third are the front and back of the same connector). I think they are the male and female Weatherpack connectors, but not sure of the part number (if any?).

Also a shot of where I'm running the harness in the wheel well. After it gets wrapped, loomed, and wrapped again, they will get secured under the fender liner. The shot below is of the engine harness on the passenger side, the headlight harness is the same on the drivers side.

Lastly, got the manifold and valvecover cleaned off ready to sandblast and powdercoat again. Going to try and get those parts as well as the wheels done sometime this week. Need to refill my bottle of Argon shielding gas, and drop by the Bosch tool store to get a new battery for my 18v drill...tomorrow will be a lot of running around. Also need to pickup an 11mm flare nut wrench, brake fittings, and some other misc stuff to finish the rear brake lines (fronts are done)

[jaystone]

Returned the double flare brake line tool I purchased...and got the correct BUBBLE flare tool. I wasn't paying attention when I picked it out. Also ordered a bunch of metric tube nuts to fab the lines, nobody carries the correct ones in stock (tried every FLAPS within 5 miles).

Guy I work with might be able to source some gauges and weatherpack connectors for me (used to work at PFI in Fort Collins)

Battery tray, weatherpack connectors, and other wiring stuff. Time to do work as Big Black would say.

Got both harnesses secured under the fender liners. Need to finish extending the connectors for the engine harness. Lighting harness is pretty close, might need to extend individual connectors. Still need to run some power for the cooling fans; also need to see if I can get the SDS EM4 to control them; pretty sure the one in this car doesn't have that 'option' (don't know if the ECU is different or if all I need to do is add a wire to the harness).

Benefit of being an electrician...don't have to purchase rolls of 3M super33+ electrical tape!

[jaystone]

battery tray powdercoated. going to try to get it in today.



Wiring is going slow, kind of tedious. Got the MAP sensor wiring done and mounted. Got the water temp sensor wiring done. Still need to do the coil pack and fuel injectors. Also need to try and find a Bosch air temp sensor; didn't look like one was run before.

Opened up the SDS ECU to see if adding the fan controller would be something as simple as a jumper and a pin out wire. Need to get in touch with SDS and see.

[jaystone]

Emailed SDS about the fan control relay from the ECU; just need to add a wire to the harness and I will have adjustable on/off switch points based off water temp from the thermostat housing. Might run that or might just run factory thermoswitch.

Traded the Depo smoked long turns for a set of OEM fogs and turns. Need to get glass for the fogs. Turns and dummies were painted black, so I wetsanded and polished them. Disassembled the fogs, cleaned them, and then painted the inside flat black.

Gotta get with Dan to try and maybe wrap these with smoked vinyl wrap.





Got a couple things done today. Decided to clean up the garage, it was a helluva mess.

Heat reflecting film applied to the firewall ($28/foot). Good stuff though, requires a minimum air gap of 1mm, reflects 78% of heat, good for up to 675F. Turbo manifold installed with new hardware. Picking up brake unions on Friday, should get brake lines done this weekend.

Two steps forward...one step back.