My 1988 Helios blue GTX

[Mikeyb]

Hi all, this is my first proper post so lets hope I get it right! I bought D-ream's GTX a week or so ago and I'm loving driving a Rocco again (had a 1984 CL back in the early 90's!).

Those of you who know the car will know it's in really good nic as it is and this was the reason I wanted it, I don't have any time to spend under the car restoring it (Getting married later this year, work is mad and fixing up the house & restoring a 1972 VW Type3 Variant!!) so it was an obvious choice. I do plan to do some work on it though but mainly this will be general stuff not a wild custom job (car is in to good an original state for that as far as I'm concerned).

I'm going to:

Look at the stereo and replace the speakers (original spec).
Replace the tailgate dampers.
Replace the under bonnet soundproofing.
fully clean and detail the engine bay (it's pretty good as it is tbh!)
Clean and de-crud the underside/wheel wells (again it's good already)

Not much I know, especially when I see some of the great work some of you chaps are doing to keep your fantastic cars on the road.

I'll post pics up as I do stuff, I'm hopefully gonna keep it a great car and one I'll be proud of for many years!


Here's some pics I took yesterday up on the moors above Ilkley:







Thanks for looking, hope to see you all soon.

[Funky Diver]

Sure is a very nice motor...

[markh]

Very nice, GTXs rock !!!!

[ianaudia4]

Seen your car twice, it is mint!

Speak with Tony (Mazallan), reference underbonnet soundproofing, he hs just replaced his.
Alpine do some great 150w speakers that fit in the standard holes without cutting - I know I have them in my cars!
A company called SGS do replacement boot struts, I paid about £30 a pair and they are powerful.

[Mikeyb]

^^^ Wow, thanks mate! that's answered everything. I was looking at the main dealer for proofing and struts, but these should cost me a LOT less

[ianaudia4]

You dealer struts I think I was quoted £57 each! But they are on back order so no time frame. The SGS ones are great, look original and really powerful.

[Mikeyb]

Got a few of the little jobs done on the car this week; one of them was after i put the Aeriel down (I was parked in town and didn't fancy the coat hanger look) and it promptly disappeared into the inner wing! so off came the wing liner to find out the problem and the bottom of the Aeriel was missing so I crimped it back up and all was well. as I had the wheel and wing liner off I decided to give it a good clean and check on the condition of the front running gear (didn't take pics of the nearside but got some of the offside) it was basically pretty good for a 1988 car however I think the disc's and back plates could do with changing:



I cleaned the mud and grime off and was pleased to see the original paint shining through!



Everything went back together OK and the next job was one of the front fog lights had a rattle, so I took the lens off and found that the beam deflector had come away, so a repair was in order:



I drilled out the lamp holder to accept a 3mm pop-rivet and with a bit of bodgery (had to file a flat onto one side of the rivet so it went in square):


Re-attached the deflector:



reassembled and tested, all OK!



Next job I think will be to check out the rear wheel arches.

[Mikeyb]

A few bits and bobs done since my last update, nothing spectacular but good non the less!

The speakers were starting to get on my nerves they were rattling like a big rattly thing, when I took them out I could see why; great big holes in them!



So I changed them for these:


Direct replacement (they are a little taller so I made some spacers for the rears but not much of a problem).


Fitted to the front

I also need to use my phone whilst driving for work so I fitted a Parrot handsfree kit; this was surprisingly easy, I thought I would have all sorts of problems with an older car but no the 88 Rocco had an ISO loom connector so it went in ok.



Next on the list was to fit a SCIROCCO rear decal, I've always liked these (don't think it was ever a factory fit for the 88 GTX but I like it!)



That's all for now! see you soon!

[Funky Diver]

Looking very nice mate...

[ianaudia4]

I have the same speakers in both of mine, quality gear and an awesome sound.

[Mikeyb]

Well it been a while, sorry i haven't been around much (read at all!) for the last few months life has been busy shall we say! but that doesn't mean I've abandoned the car, oh no! I've done a few bits and bobs and put it though an MOT (it passed, just needed a exhaust rubber).

So since the last update I've replaced the front disc's:


easy job trouble was the first set of pads from VW were too thick for the ventilated disc's so had to swap them,


I was surprised that the disc's were available from the main dealer and that they were quite a good price too!

Next job was the rear arches, I've gone down the 'ignorance is bliss' road as far as this job was concerned I know that the body kit can hide all sorts of horrors and then there's the fuel filler pipe too! But as the weather was good this last weekend I thought I'd best investigate so off came the wheels and I had a good look around and clean up of the arches, They were very dirty and the top lip if the arches were caked with 23 years of muck (all to be expected TBH) but with a good clean they were both OK under all of that! I was so relived as I was fearing the worse. Next on the list was the filler neck, I was on the list to get a stainless one made so I left the original alone not wanting to disturb what could be a nightmare! But again I was pleasantly surprised, it had some corrosion and flaking rust but nothing a good dose of POR-15 couldn't sort out.





Next was to paint in zinc primer then paint again with VW rubberised seal:



Good stuff this and well worth having a bottle to cover over any under body repairs.



Then a coat of black smooth Hammerite to finish it off.



I also repaired a few small spots on the bottom of the rear wings where it meets the body kit and gave a top coat of mixed Holt's duplo-color in Helios blue from Halfords (quite a good match).

Keeping my baby on the road!