HERMAN THE GERMAN! '91 Scala 20vt

[Mr Funk]

reminded me that i'm doing this for enjoyment!

This is what it's all about.
Got a spare rear top brace if you want to use it as a pattern. Proper one that sit in between the towers and bolts into the chassis.

[treefingers]

Thanks man I appreciate that but I've literally just made a rear brace! And when I finished it I was searching for designs of front lower braces when I came across the OMP rear brace which joins at the rear top mounts rather than to the sides of the turrets. I think this looks a lot cleaner so was thinking of remaking.. Not sure which design is more efficient!?

Here's the brace I knocked up that will bolt inside the turrets


and the omp one that sits on the top


I've had a long old day today. Set my alarm early with the plan for today to finish smoothing the bay. Frook me I didn't realise what a task it was! Began by putting way too much filler on so spent the day sanding and sanding and sanding. Put a lick of primer (I actually have a can now!!!) and it's shown up so many imperfections, particularly on the P/S turret. I realised today that I don't like filler. It's going to take a fair bit of patience to get this right..




Today I also reshaped the crossmember brace to look a little prettier.


Home now. I need some dinner. I need sausages.

[treefingers]

more filler tonight... ill sand that off tomorrow.

set to work on making an upper strut brace for the front. our gas torch had run out of has so I couldn't heat and bend the tubing, I had to weld the bends. im not even sure if you can bend hollow tube with a gas torch? anyway I got a but tired. doing things like looking for the grinding disc I just got and it's in my hand. duh! anyway I didn't pay enough attention to the joins, made some crappy welds then welded too hot so it won't fit. just as well, I need to make one that looks better. I like the design though, as close to the top without touching the bonnet so nice and out of the way. back home now, sausages in the oven, Stella on the table. all is well again..

[treefingers]

so a nice chap on here came across my thread who used to own the car! he had her for a substantial period of her life and he kindly sent me some photos of her in her former glory. looks really nice.. and it used to have a black leather interior! that's what's brilliant about forums, such a great way of connecting.



I'm still getting on with bits of bodywork. I didn't realise how long this takes and how much work is required to make it look good! I've had a good chat with the guy who runs the body shop and is doing the respray and he's given me lots of advice re grades to use when sanding and techniques of applying and taking off filler. I'm so excited to get this thing sprayed up! I can afford the respray now I'm just waiting on arch panels from Europe for the rear quarters and I can get the car into the spray booth. Think I'm going to take time of work to give him a hand with all the less skilled work. Should keep the costs down, I'm quite looking forward to it too. So some photos. More work on the engine bay. I'm going to delete the expansion tank holder on the turret. Apparently there's a MK1 golf radiator with one on the side so Ill go for that.. or one from a BMW.






Thought I'd try and make something look good so I stripped the wing and filled the edge where I did the repairs. I was convinced it was going to look great when I primered it but there were so many imperfections! So frustrating but that's learning I guess.

more filler for the arch lip. this'll all be easier now I've had some good tips and a sanding board. sanding by hand I was just sanding out what I'd put in.

underseal to protect the rear.


attacked the lip of the drivers side arch to match the other also. I cut off and welded the tab holes for the bodykit.


I made a new upper strut brace from 3mm plate. Plasma cut and drilled to size..

it's only 3mm but these arcs should give it strength.

and welded up..


gotta work out a colour scheme for this car, I'm thinking black and red detailing? red strut braces would be nice. or I know someone who can chrome them. may be a bit too bling though!

ideally I would have made this with the engine in but I didn't want to weld over a freshly painted bay! I researched a few different design braces and they all seem to sit at the height of the top of the scuttle.. if it doesn't fit I'll cut it up and change it. prob gonna add some adjustment too. I'd be interested to know how much to link the lower brace I'm going to make to make it fit around the 20v's gearbox. maybe I'll have to wait til the engine's in.


and the elevation of the bar..


the next plans are to repair the rear arches when they come and get this bitch sprayed up!

[treefingers]

Finished the brace tonight, looks a lot better I think! I love working with metal.


And these arrived today finally :)


It's early now but I've been researching and I think I'm getting a good picture of what I'm going to use for the conversion. All I want is a really fun car I can use as my daily, take to tracks, the alps, the nurburgring.. around 200-220bhp will be more than enough, most importantly it needs great handling.

So I'm thinking:

Engine:
AGU engine. I was going to go AUQ which is 180bhp standard but I've decided on an AGU because it'll be cheap, they're plentiful, and it has cable throttle. Think I need bigger injectors?
Upgrade to K03s turbo. No need to go for K04 as I don't want to push for that much power. Can make up a downpipe easily enough with some pre-bent pipe. Then a 2.5" single tip exhaust, probably Jetex or similar.
MK3 diesel 02a box, CTN os ASD. Haven't decided which one. I've read a lot that many people find the ratios pretty good and 5th is quite cruisy. I'll choose whichever box is going to make the car more fun. :) Will need to fab an engine mount on this side. Undecided on an LSD at the moment. Don't know if I'll need one? Need to find out if this box is cable shift?
BMW E30/E36 radiator to delete the bubble expansion tank.
Not sure about intercoolers. I know I need a big one but that's it!
And not 100% what I should do for management. I want cheap and easy.. I was thinking megasquirt for easy but an AGU ECU de-immobilized for cheap? I know the wiring is going to be a PITA anyway. I'd quite like to keep the rocco clocks however.

Chassis:
Front upper strut brace, front lower subframe (need to make this), crossmember brace and rear uppper strut brace. These'll all be red. So it'll be black car, silver engine and red details.. :)
Eibach anti-roll bars
Polybushes all round.
Some decent adjustable coilovers, need to research which ones. If I can get a decent second hand set for somewhere around £6-700 that'll be a good way to go. if not some nice new ones :)

Brakes:
Astra GTE front calipers with 256mm discs
Stock rear drums
Braided hoses
Wheels? who knows yet! They'll be the last thing!

Also not sure about fuelling, I guess I can use the standard rocco injection setup. What have I missed?! Don't know yet. But anyway that's the plan!

[Mr Funk]

Looking good buddy,

Engine management wise I was looking at the qpeng kit. Proper plug and play and eliminates the arsing about.

Suspension wise 6/700 will get top of the line. A fair few of us use Weitec adjustable coileys and they're gorgeous. Less than your estimations as well.

[treefingers]

Looking good buddy,

Engine management wise I was looking at the qpeng kit. Proper plug and play and eliminates the arsing about.

Suspension wise 6/700 will get top of the line. A fair few of us use Weitec adjustable coileys and they're gorgeous. Less than your estimations as well.

Cheers man. Just had a look at the Qpeng site. Looks like a good kit, and looks like it saves a lot of hassle! A bit steep for me though, if I was going standalone I had budgeted for about half what they want for a kit.

Good to hear re suspension! I'll look into Weitec..thanks

[Tim_R]

A 20vt mk2 golf I knew of being built a couple of years ago had the standard ECU unlocked and chipped by jabbasport iirc. A friend who was doing the wiring got it all working with the standard mk2 instruments although that wasn't straightforward. He spent a lot of time on clubgti to get the info.

For about £700 you can get a set of Weitec hicon TXs from Venom Motorsport new. Mr Funk and Gtxtra use and like them a lot. I'm using some but finding it a tad oversprung on some of my local back roads. Main roads, motorways and speed humps are not a problem though.

Edit: beaten to it by Mr Funk.

[dozzum]

Might wanna do some research on brakes and getting it all balanced right, weight transfer and bias etc.

Some basic explanations here http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/br ... Brakes.htm

Im definatly no expert but all the changes you are making to the car are going to drastically change the braking performance.

Probably best putting an adjustable bias valve in allowing you to use trial and error to get it right.

Its sounding like its gonna be awesome.

Keep the updates coming.

[Mr Funk]

Forgot to mention, you're pretty spilt for choice on brakes as well.
I went mental and fitted a complete Willwood 288mm kit, never looked back. Mainly because the brakes are so good I'm completely unable.
Where are you based fella? If you're close you're more than welcome to have a ride......
Giggidy.

Tim - we're southerners. It's all motorways down 'ere

[treefingers]

Might wanna do some research on brakes and getting it all balanced right, weight transfer and bias etc.

Some basic explanations here http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/br ... Brakes.htm

Im definatly no expert but all the changes you are making to the car are going to drastically change the braking performance.

Probably best putting an adjustable bias valve in allowing you to use trial and error to get it right.

Its sounding like its gonna be awesome.

Keep the updates coming.

some interesting reading there.. thanks for that. from what I gather the guy is basically saying make sure you balance your brakes for the balance of the weight of the car. i guess to do it properly I'd need to finish the car, weigh each end and adjust the brakes accordingly? I can't see that I can make the brakes any worse however, they were awful before! With bigger master cylinder, servo and front discs I hope I will be ok.. maybe 256 won't be big enough but I'll see. with some good discs and tyres it should help.

cheers man will do! :)

[treefingers]

Forgot to mention, you're pretty spilt for choice on brakes as well.
I went mental and fitted a complete Willwood 288mm kit, never looked back. Mainly because the brakes are so good I'm completely unable.
Where are you based fella? If you're close you're more than welcome to have a ride......
Giggidy.

Tim - we're southerners. It's all motorways down 'ere

sounds good.. what size wheels are you running?

I'm based in middle wallop near andover. that'd be wicked to go for a ride! (Gig) where abouts are you? I've only been out in one rocco, this one!

[treefingers]

Arch repair tonight. The repair panels will work but I'm not 100% happy with the quality, the lip is less sharp and the inner rim was all bent up on one when I received it! Filler and the whacking stick methinks!



Cutting out the crap




Note how the lip is more curved on the panel Also the arch line doesn't match up. Maybe these are just meant for going on top? Still I'm happy to have them. I'd be screwed without em. I spent so long working out how to position the repair patch.. A bit too long!





Slapped some primer on.. Other side tomorrow night.

[treefingers]

Feel buzzing tonight. Think it's because I'm basically one wheel arch away from getting the beast into the spray booth..

D/S arch was a bit more rotten. You could get your hand inside the inner wing! So chop chop choppidy chop


A bit of rear end air conditioning?



Used the remains from the offside rear arch to build up the inner arch..

I'll seam weld underneath tomorrow. Used weld through primer for the first time today. Gotta make sure I seal everything up good!


More repairs, nothing spectacular I'm afraid! I think I'm slowly getting somewhere. I actually chilled out tonight rather than going flat out and I enjoyed it! It's important to enjoy the process. Once this thing's complete i know I'll miss it!

[treefingers]

I got the outer arch welded tonight. Sprayed weld through primer on the inner arch then bought some Upol seam sealer from Halfords and brushed it between the inner and outer rims. I'm not sure how they seal these from the factory because you can't weld through seam sealer? I'd have thought they'd use some sort of sealant there.

I tacked at these intervals, then the same intervals between the first tacks and so on and so on and so on until..


and these came today :)


I'm just thinking aloud here.. trying to work out if there's any area I've missed to improve the handling and make a really fun responsive car? Good quality coilovers, uprated arbs, full polybushes, upper and lower front braces, crossmember brace, rear upper brace? I definitely don't want a cage, that's outside of where I want this thing to go. Perhaps I need to look at wheel and tyre width next. Any ideas greatly appreciated.