'86 GTX Rolling Restoration - Project Timewarp

[MikeH]

Had a busy week at work, and a busy weekend, but I managed to make some progress. Did another couple of hundred miles this weekend... the more I drive it, the sweeter and smoother it gets.

Jobs I know about, that still need doing:

Mechanical/Engine:
- Steering column support bearing. BOUGHT - DONE
- Driveshaft boots are a bit perished, but still in one piece - need to replace at some point.
- Investigate the vibration at motorway speed. Might just be wheel balance, so will start by swapping rims around. DONE - Front Discs & Pads
- Replace the coolant temp sender that I managed to break - DONE
- Fix the flappy gear lever where it fell through the floor - circlip is now clamped in place with a hose clip! DONE
- Check and tighten the rear wheel bearings - was an advisory on the MOT - I guess I didn't quite do them up enough when I adjusted the brakes.
- Check the cambelt and tensioner, and probably replace them, and do a plugs/filters/oil service while I'm in there. Service DONE
- Sort out the wiring to the idle boost valve, CSV, and Air Valve. DONE

Body & Interior:
- Find another GTX interior DONE and make one good one out of two - there's a corrado seat on the driver's side, one of the door cards is a bit tired. I've found an interior with the right cloth, so hopefully I'll pick that up this weekend, and build a tidier interior.
- There's a bit of a leak into the rear passenger footwell. I re-attached the door membrane on the passenger's side, and hopefully it's that, rather than the sunroof. I'll probably take the carpet out so I can see any trails of water, if it happens again. DONE - No more leaks
- The sunroof (another potential source of a leak) needs investigation. It doesn't quite line up properly, and rattles a bit. Anyone know anything about adjusting tilt & slide sunroofs? It also sticks out a bit, so I could get EVEN MORE MPG if that's sitting flush.
- Paint the sunroof, re-black the bumpers, knock out the little dents & dings, where I can.
- Get all the polish residue (see the white marks on the pics) off. The previous owner was 'smothering the car with turtlewax lurve'.

Electrical
- The heater fan works some of the time, but is a bit temperamental.
- The indicators work most of the time (and were fine for the MOT) but sometimes the right indicator puts the hazards/both sides on. I'll start by changing the flasher unit and see if that fixes it, then on to the column stalk or check for damp in the wiring / fuse box. (Update: Not the flasher unit. I think it's the column stalk) DONE - column stalk was at fault
- The odometer in the speedo is a little bit temperamental, and some bulbs are blown, so I'll be checking that out and getting it all working again. I found a 'how to' link to rebuilding them on here. Thanks to whoever posted that. The thread it's in is called 'odometer fix' or something similar. DONE

All the pics so far were from the seller, I'll update with some of mine soon, including some of the work I've done.

[MikeH]

I've done nothing to this in the last week, other than change the wiper blades. I was using it as a work horse at the weekend - up to my mate's place near Daventry. He has a tyre changer, so I managed to fit about 12 wheels and tyres in the car for the big swap around (all the seats except the driver's were removed first). The car ran without a hitch and returned 40mpg, according to the MFA.

On the way up there, I stopped at a mate's local to have lunch with him. Francis Tuthill (Porsche 911 specialist and tally type) and David Sutton (of VW Audi Rally Cars 'fame') were in there having lunch, along with another guy whose face I remember but couldn't put a name to.... I thought it was Andrew Cowan, but I just checked and it's not him...

Anyway, 'nuff waffle. Need to get my butt in gear later this week and do some more work. I just painted the floor at the front of the workshop, so no entry in there for a couple of days.

[MikeH]

Haven't done much to this for a few weeks, due to messing with Mk1s and getting them back to the man cave. I did a 1200 mile round trip to Scotland in the car, and it was great - 40+mpg and didn't miss a beat. However, the week after I got back it started making a rattle from the gearbox. I've dropped the 'box off, and was hoping the clutch was the cause, but it looks like there's nothing wrong with the clutch, so I think I've got a duff gearbox bearing. I guess it's done somewhere near 200k miles, so it's probably outlasted its design life by a long way.

Anyway, for the last couple of weeks I've been laid up with a bad back, but I was going stir crazy, so time to get back to the cars today. I cleaned up the flywheel and replacement clutch, ready to go back on, and set about changing the steering column bottom bearing, which involves stripping the column down, ignition lock off, etc. I couldn't get the inner column back onto the UJ, due to the resistance of the spring, so I ended up dropping the outer part of the column off as well, to give me some more free movement. An old school valve spring compressor might have avoided doing that, but I didn't have one kicking around. It's just about back together now though, so I'm making some progress - just need to put the lock, stalks and wheel back on.

Provided my back is OK in the morning, I'll head back down the barn and get on with refitting the 'box.

[MikeH]

Gearbox now changed for the spare from my track car, and went all the way round the M25 on Sunday - fine economy motoring :D

EDIT: I was visiting people - I didn't just drive round the M25 to admire the scenery!

I also changed the bottom bush on the steering column, and swapped the clutch, which is now much lighter than before. I think the pressure plate was still original to the car, and had work hardened a bit after 200k miles and a million heat cycles - much easier on the back now.

[MikeH]

Minor Update: Front discs and pads done. Vibration from warped discs now eliminated Oil and filter change too. I'm off to Wales this weekend on a car run with some mates. I'll be going in this for a bit of 40mpg cruising, while their MGBs, TR4A and Triumph Vitesse do about half that.

I also took the ding out of one of the back corners - not 100% but a lot better...

Note to self: Must wash it and take some pics for this thread.

[MikeH]

Pics to follow from the West Wales trip. Awesome roads, scenery, and lots of sunshine. The GTX was great!

[MikeH]

Time to revive this thread! With the sale of the Black ABF'd Scala, it's time to recommission the GTX as the backup daily and usable classic.

I pulled it out from under the tarpaulin where it's been for 2 years, re-fitted the fuel feed pipe I'd borrowed for another car, and stuck a battery on it.

I turned it over without the fuel pump relay for a minute, until the oil pressure warning light went out, then I put the relay in and turned it over some more to feed the fuel through. After a bit of cranking it started, spluttered for a few seconds, and then ran very nicely. Good oil pressure, fan cuts in and out, and the hydro tappets went nicely quiet after a minute- the car currently has a Golf GTI Mk2 Digifant lump in it, as the original DX from this was very tired, after nearly 200k miles.

So the plan is:

1. Take off the body kit, tidy up the panels a little bit and give it a full respray.
2. MOT it and get it back on the road.
3. Fit a 2.0 engine I've got kicking around, with a lumpy cam I bought a while back, and some 256mm front brakes I got from Mr Brown when he was in the states.
4. Refurb the Scala Alloys to go on it
5. Enjoy it for a bit.

The car is a couple of different colours, so it's going to need paint all over I think. The front end is better, but the paint is worn thin on the front corners of the wings (either from lots of polishing by the previous owner, or leaning on the wings to work on the car).

[MikeH]

Body kit is now off, and starting prep for paint. Pics to follow when I get back from a weekend away.

[The Autoad]

Nice to see this one back! Looking forward to progress.

Did you get the sunroof tweaked?

[MikeH]

Never touched the sunroof yet Ant.

I'm currently sat outside the workshop drinking tea, covered in sanding dust.

Pics to follow later...

[MikeH]

So... a bit of a quick progress update:

After mucho work sanding and prepping, with a tiny bit of panel beating and a few skims of filler - especially where I'd previously welded up the rear arches, the car was ready for paint.


The workshop is a tad short for painting all the way round a car, so I decided to do it from the back, all the way round to the front of the doors, and up over the roof. That gives a nice clear panel gap line to lose the join of the paint. As the body kit is going back on, I haven't painted below the line of the body kit, except where there was a repair to seal up.

After the first part of the paint job, most of it came out pretty well,


but there was a reaction on the rear quarter - think I loaded on too much base coat at once, and the thinners ate through some of the old paint below, causing a reaction.

The roof came out nicely though.


I waited a couple of days to let the reacted bit harden properly, and did the final prep on the front end while I waited. The bonnet in particular, took loads of prep. There were a lot of DA sander marks from the previous job, and some small dents and stone chips which needed a tiny skim of stopper (very fine surface filler). In the end I took all the lacquer off the bonnet, and went down to the base coat, or through it in places to the old primer.

Then I sanded back the rear quarter right through the reacted paint, added a think skim of stopper (helps to prevent reactions) and re-prepped for paint.

When I came to paint the front end, and repaint the rear quarter, I was advised to spray a few thin 'dust coats' of the base coat, and let them dry, to minimise the chance of another problem. This means the job takes a bit longer, but it's worth it when it works out. About 8 coats of base coat later (6 dust coats and 2 normal ones) then a final 'drop coat' to give an even coating of metallic flake, and then on with the lacquer... no reaction as yet so all looking good. Then I went for a thin 'tack coat' of lacquer, and 3 full coats. Most pro painters only put a tack coat + 2 of lacquer, but I like to add a third coat - it uses a bit more paint, but it gives a thicker finish, and means there's more to flat off if you have minor issues to take out.

Anyway, came up nicely in the end... The last pics are after a bit of flat and polish, but there's more to do to take a couple of small runs out, and machine polish it up to the best possible shine.

Straight off the gun






After a bit of flat and polish










Overall it's got a few faults, but I'm pretty happy with it. It's all the same colour now (was a few different shades before) and I've taken out a lot of the faults from the previous bits of paint that had been done. Painting a car is a load of work - 75% prep and a couple of days to paint, then flat and polish - but when you get a good shine and a much better result than before, it gives a great feeling of satisfaction. Silver is one of the hardest colours to get right, so I'm relieved at the way it turned out.

... and no reaction this time!!

[mark1gls]

From looking at the pictures all that hard work seems worth it, it looks fantastic!

[MikeH]

So, since all that last lot I've been busy with other stuff, but I got round to a few jobs, including painting the body kit, mirrors and bumpers. There was a bit of scuffing in places, and the bumpers were very faded, so needed a freshen up with black 2-pack paint, as 2 pack will stick to just about anything. Anyway, the satin black came out a lot shinier than I wanted, so I gently flatted them back a little with ultra fine scotchbrite to matt the finish a bit.

Here are some pics of it put back together. I'm sure I took some of the painting, but can't find them. Terrible pics too :D









Badges painted matt black. Original dealer number plates back on.


Next up, I'm just re-flatting and polishing a couple of bits of the paint, and giving it another go-over with the machine polisher, now that the paint has fully cured and settled a bit... after that the side trims can go back on, and I *think* it's ready for an MOT....

[eefy]

looking good Mike :)

[GTXTRA]

That does look very smart indeed mike.

I got copies of my original Brm number plates made up if you check my thread out. The sticker guy from mk1golf oc forum would be able to help you out if you wanted to retain period font etc etc