Part 7 - More miscellaneous updates

   Labor Day weekend turned out to be very productive indeed.   After a long layoff to get his house ready for the imminent arrival of his new child, Bob decided that he needed to get the roll cage in the rally car done...now.   I spent most of Saturday up in East Hartford, brainstorming on where to put certain tubes, keeping the car from catching fire, and generally helping out. 

   I did leave for a while in the early afternoon to do a "panel swap" with rally driver and fellow dubber Ray Johansen.  Ray saw a message I posted on a VWVortex forum about my $300 special.  Ray was parting out a Tornado Red '92 GLI, and offered me the deck lid.  Since the $300 special came with a leaky trunk-mounted luggage rack, I took Ray up on his offer. 

   The final swap was a Tornado Red passenger side fender and deck lid with GLI spoiler for two charcoal GLI fenders and a charcoal GLI rear door.  This worked out for me in a couple ways; I got some parts from behind my parents' shed, and I got body parts that I didn't need to paint first.

Ooh!  Its all shiny...

   After concluding the panel swap, and bolting the new deck lid on my Jetta, I headed back up to Performance Centers.  In the short time I was gone, Bob welded in the remaining cage mounting plates, fabricated the plates for the strut towers, and ran support bars from the top and bottom of the main hoop to the strut tower.  Rather than get in his way, I decided to tackle polishing the Jetta.  Although the deck lid did match the rest of the car, everything was severely faded; the red now a faint shade of pink.  A little Mother's Safe Cut compound and some wet paper towels (this is the $300 Special) and the car came out much shinier than its probably been in years.   After polishing the car, I decided to replace the distributor, which was seized into the block, preventing timing adjustments.

   By this time you're probably asking yourself, "What does this have to do with Project Golf?"  The answer is simple.  With two other projects going on concurrently, The Big Swap didn't happen this weekend. I've done some prep work, but the swap will have to wait until next weekend.  In the meantime, I did get a couple small things done to Project Golf. 

Ah, the sweet smell of progress
(Taken Saturday night)

 The biggest update is that the Votex-style console insert arrived from SWG Motorsport on Saturday, and I installed it today.  The installation went smoothly, with a few minutes with a saw and a slide knife followed by four sheet metal screws, the insert went right in.  SWG did a really good job with their reproduction of the classic Votex console.

   With the console installed, I swapped over the Volkswagen Motorsport shift knob/boot and trim piece from the blue car, along with the ashtray I replaced several years ago.  Now I can install the stereo head unit down where it will be away from prying eyes.  In its place will be a trio of VDO gauges.

   One thing I want to look into is mounting an in-dash CD changer in the console.  I've heard from several sources (mainly VWVortex) that there isn't enough room because of the A/C.  I'm going to do some digging around back there to see if I can make it work.

 In the mean time, my Blaupunkt Colorado will inhabit the bottom opening in the console once the Heidelberg head unit comes in for the $300 Special.

Slowly but surely the interior is shaping up...

   Last but not least in our miscellaneous updates, I finally got around to installing the 16v chin spoiler I picked up from Virtual World Parts last year for the Jetta.  Really adds to the look of the car. 

   In non-photographed, but none-the less-important news, I solved the broken exhaust manifold stud problem.  After mulling over installing an Autotech cam-equipped big valve head on the car, I decided to keep that head for the rally car and go another route.  I have another GX head sitting around from a car we stripped last Summer, and with no broken studs, it will make for an easy swap.  In what will be Part 2 of The Big Swap, I will install the head and exhaust system while I'm swapping over the alternator, A/C compressor and radiator from the blue car.  While I've got everything off the front of the motor, I'll paint the block, which should be the final touch for a really clean engine compartment.  I also scored a new fuel injection distributor and lines that are in far better condition than what's in the car now. 

Now all I need is that Recaro interior.

   I'm also working on getting the steel wheels color-matched to the eventual color of the car (sure they're silver now, but they could be more silver.)  The previously mounted Hakkapeliita 1 snow tires were taken off and sold, to be replaced with some high-performance rubber.  A second set of steel wheels with the proper size snow tires will be purchased at a later date.  The ATP Spas currently on the blue car will be sold off as well.

   That's it for Part 7.  Hopefully Part 8 will detail The Big Swap, as the brakes and suspension are finally pulled from the blue car and installed on Project Golf.   Stay tuned!

Gettin' badder and badder each day.

Back | Home | Next