HERMAN THE GERMAN! '91 Scala 20vt

[treefingers]

hi! bought my first rocco this week as a project to learn on and to build a quick car that handles great. Owned two vws before, a mk3 8v and a mk3 16v, still got the 16v to drive about while I work on the rocco. posted on here this week and everyone seems very friendly and helpful which is very nice :) looking forward to meeting some more rocco owners..

here's some pics of her just after I picked her up:

91 rocco scala, 151k but no rust and in pretty good nick. got her for a great price too.


was insured on it for a couple of days so been blasting it, i am loving the handling. such a fun car! insurance has run out now so she'll be on the drive for a few months. the plan is new engine, suspension, brakes and possibly respray. never done an engine change before so this'll be a fun learning curve.

only bit of rust was weirdly a scabby hole in the passenger door. luckily I was given a spare door in the same colour

mad max anyone? both doors are dropped tho, think I need new pins.



started stripping the engine ready to sell. got radiator and some tubes and wires out today before it got too dark.

[Risocco]

Nice one mate, good luck with the swap.

If your doors have dropped, you can insert a washer in the hinges. Works fine.

[treefingers]

thanks man. I did try a washer but i think I need a slimmer one as it pushed the door too high.

been at it today stripping bits from the car

off with the exhaust (had to cut it off as the mid pipe and down pipe were rusted together!


started pulling out looms

I'm gonna need a haynes manual for this later on!!

and electrical looms out! less daunting when it was done! one thing I'm not too sure about is separating the lighting loom that I need to keep from the engine loom that is going.


getting closer to removing the engine now. gonna need a hand with disconnecting the transmission from the wheels. just been told I can't keep the car at my house so gonna have to tow it down the road to my work. hopefully my boss will let me keep it there. at least there it can be inside, with a concrete floor instead of stones.

finding more rust patches in the engine bay. the more I think about it te more I want a full respray. got the front anti roll bar off too, the rear bolts were rusted in however so I'm going to have to drill those.

end of the day..

[mark1gls]

If you do move the car make sure you leave the drive shafts or CV joint in the wheel hubs as it can wreak the wheel bearing if they are removed but you might be changing the hubs or renewing the bearings so might not be a problem.
Keep at it and update the thread, see to many cars where they get stripped with the intention of doing something and they never see the road again

[treefingers]

thanks for the advice.. my brother gave me the same tip! pretty new to all of this so all help is much appreciated.

and don't worry about updates or finishing this off.. plan to pour all my time and cash at this over the next few months..

good news today. in allowed to move the car to the yard at work which means I have acces to welders, a spray bay, more tools and most importantly shelter! :) worked out pretty well not being allowed to keep the car at home then! gonna tow it up the road later today then I can look at getting that engine out.

I'm definitely going to go for an ABF now, had a look at the other options such as 6a, ACE and 9a but the ABFs are plentiful and I like the stock management. i think the downpipe will be the only issue, not unsolvable however. going to stick with stock gearbox and clutch. after the engine comes out I'm going to treat the rust in the bay and give it a spray.

[treefingers]

phew tiring night but cracking on...

car now moved to the workshop where it'll live for the next few months :) rain and cold no problem now!


getting the 8v engine out tonight. tried the engine crane..


but it hadn't been used for 6 years and didn't work :( so forklift it is! got my twin bro to help me tonight.



driveshafts and the first two engine mounts came out no problem, so far so good. final mount on the left was a right b-stard though. the bolt had seized to the bush. after numerous breaker bars we finally got it turning but couldn't get it out of the captive nut, it was at the end of the thread but wouldn't come out. cut through the middle of the bolt, no good. tried unbolting the mount from the engine but the bolts were inaccessible even after sacrificing my only 6mm allen key by chopping it shorter. after much fretting and even discussing taking off the head I managed to drill it out at an angle. wish we'd thought of this at the start! Finally all mounts disconnected!

here's the remains of the bush..


started dropping it down when we realised i hadn't disconnected all of the gear linkage, whoops. got some good learning in tonight




chocked up the jack and rolled her out..


bye bye 8v!


next job tomorrow is to remove the brake servo and lines, then begin bodywork in the engine bay ready for a spray up in the same colour. gotta remove the gearbox and clutch from the engine as they'll be staying but the DX block and KJET will be sold. bought a haynes yesterday from ebay. hopefully it'll come tomorrow so I can be a bit more clued up as to what I'm doing. definitely in the deep end now, no going back! seems a little daunting at this stage. looking forward to getting it all stripped and the bodywork sorted so i can start putting new bits on!

[GTXTRA]

seen this?

http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?2 ... everything

[treefingers]

seen this?

http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?2 ... everything

That is exactly what I need! and for the price I want, damn though I can't afford it this month after buying the car! I'll have to wait for another to come up.

[treefingers]

Right so tonight was a bit of experimenting with soda blasting to clean the engine and various parts. Cleared tesco's out of bicarbonate of soda!


I've seen loads of videos of people doing it on ebay. It's great because it takes off much instantly and is chemical free and is water soluble. It took us about an hour to work out how to do it though. Lessons learned - mixing with water doesn't work, and throwing it at the engine doesn't work!


In the end we modded some piping on the end of an air hose and created a venturi effect, sucking up the dry power and mixing it with the air, firing it out. We actually used up all the powder at this point, but at least I know how to do it. 5KG of bicarbonate of soda ordered from ebay for £12!

You can see the difference here, the cleaner parts are from a split second of blasting. Gonna be very useful, and cheap too! I'd still love to hear other peoples preferred methods of degreasing and cleaning though.


Brake servo off to make way for MK2 servo & cylinder.


Calipers off to make way for bigger discs and (ahem) Vauxhall callipers..


Here's a shot of me enjoying myself!


And a tough bolt... YOU MADE ME BLEED MY OWN BLOOD!!


Blood and sweat so far. The tears will come from my third eye when it's finished!


The guy behind where I work has a body shop business, I'm definitely going for a full windows out respray, I think I've just decided :) May as well go all the way with this.

[The Autoad]

Good to see you getting stuck in!

[treefingers]

Thanks man :) I'm just grateful I have the facilities to be able to!

[treefingers]

Brake lines off today. The car's going to be completely stripped before I begin the bodywork.

Started stripping the body kit off it today but it's being a right pita. Every screw is seized in and rusty so I have to drill each one but they're so hard they just blunt my bits. Agh!

Then the arches etc are stuck hard to the body and whatever adhesive they used, it's like it's welded on, it's stuck so fast. Does anyone have any tips?

[MacColl]

Great enthusiasm here, Nice purchase.

I'd be keeping the original engine as injections are rarer, loads of GT's to mess with and I'd keep the brown interior, think you said you thought it was an old mans colour somewhere lol. I think it is retro cool but I am getting a bit of an old fart. However if we were all driving standard cars it would be boring.

What I would say though is please see this project through. I'm guilty myself with a Golf I just scrapped but there have been the odd projects that start with great energy and seem to grind to a halt.

Tip: Buy a Dremel/or similar and use the small cut off wheels to cut a slot into the rusted bolt heads. Then you can get a big flat screwdriver to remove them. Saves damaging the plastic fixings. Bit of heat can help with the cement they used for bonding the kit on and careful use of a stanley blade or single sided razor blade.

[treefingers]

Great enthusiasm here, Nice purchase.

I'd be keeping the original engine as injections are rarer, loads of GT's to mess with and I'd keep the brown interior, think you said you thought it was an old mans colour somewhere lol. I think it is retro cool but I am getting a bit of an old fart. However if we were all driving standard cars it would be boring.

What I would say though is please see this project through. I'm guilty myself with a Golf I just scrapped but there have been the odd projects that start with great energy and seem to grind to a halt.

Tip: Buy a Dremel/or similar and use the small cut off wheels to cut a slot into the rusted bolt heads. Then you can get a big flat screwdriver to remove them. Saves damaging the plastic fixings. Bit of heat can help with the cement they used for bonding the kit on and careful use of a stanley blade or single sided razor blade.

thanks man.

the DX was nice but I've got my heart set on a 16v! I am going to clean it up and sell it on so hopefully it will live on for many rocco years..

the seats are so old man!! some may like them but they're not my thing. again I hope they'll go to a good home!

I've got no plans whatsoever to halt this project, I've been wanting to do this for so long!

and you are an absolute legend re the advice on the trim screws.. used a 4.5" grinder to cut a notch and the screws came out a treat! saved so much work (and drill bits) cheers

[treefingers]

long night tonight, it's 20 to 1 and i've just got home..

done a lot of stripping so far, i wanted to make something look good today! so i refurbished the 239mm calipers that i'll be selling in favour of bigger brakes.

Before:


Sanded and primered..


and finished in a nice bright red :)


I was so happy with the finish i was considering staying with 239mm discs.. but i'll find them a good home and refurb some bigger ones.

More stripping! arches (FINALLY) off!


when this car is finished I'm not putting them back on. I think the scirocco is such a square car it needs some curves to give it some contrast! will need to find something different for the front and rear though. forgot to take photos but i'm going to need to do a little arch repair. toying with the idea of welding some wider arches on..


rear beam dropped.. and fuel tank and lines out!


and how i left herman tonight. 4x4 or what.