91 ABF Track Project........Six weeks in

[mr.brown]

For history see this

http://www.sciroccoregister.co.uk/carfo ... =19&t=6185

I hope to be updating this daily. First, some catching up...

Day one.

Car was delivered late Friday night. Stuck a new battery in on Saturday morning and after a few goes it fired into life. Happy.

[mr.brown]

Day two.

Not so happy. Checking the car over I noticed the coolant expansion tank was empty. I poured some antifreeze in and discovered a missing core/freeze plug.

[mr.brown]

Day three

Bit of home refurb. Took two sets of lights to make one good one - with all adjusters intact. Haven't decided on the front set-up yet so have left the inner lights off.

[mr.brown]

Day four.

Up-to-date now. Had to get some bits - to fix hole in Day two



to attach headlights



Postman brought two of these

[mr.brown]

Day five

Changed my mind about the headlights.



Gratuitous engine bay shot

[filmidget]

Welcome back! ...again.

I approve of the number of valves.

[mr.brown]

I approve of the number of valves.

I would have been happy with 8 but not complaining about the extra

Day six.

Too cold right now to do much so just a little update on the general condition - "needs a clean" would be accurate. On the whole nothing too major . Besides which, the interior is only staying for the MOT, after that it will all get ripped out and the sunroof "modified" to allow more headroom. Similarly, I could care less about the paintwork - it ain't for show, it's for go.

[mr.brown]

Day seven.

Sun's out so with a few minutes spare I decided to break out the tools. I removed the washer bottle (to be relocated elsewhere later) and the induction kit (might try and modify an ABF airbox to fit). In a bid to modify the coolant and breather plumbing I removed everything in the way. The good news is that all the nuts and bolts decided to play ball.



Bad news, however, is that ice in the rad is never good news

[mr.brown]

Day eight.

Out all day so no work on car. However, I managed to pick up a little something - just in case this doesn't turn out to be a track car

[mr.brown]

Day 9

Luckily, one job I've done so many times I can do it even after a few beers. The hardest bit was finding the nickel...

[mr.brown]

Day 10.

What to do when it rains? Why, make a start on the sunroof of course. The headlining comes off pretty easily when this is what's underneath -



Flora or fauna?



Have grinder (tool not app) will grind

[mr.brown]

Day 11

There's been some investigation going on over on CGTI and it turns out there's not actually that much difference between the oem ABF airbox and an induction kit. Might have a problem fitting it though - as it's bloody huge!

[mr.brown]

Day 12

Postie brought more goodies, courtesy of VWH and B&B (aka tierod69 on eBay). Standard DX upper and lower rad hoses and standard mk2 thermostat housing.



The idea was to make a more straightforward coolant routing than the previous one -



Et voila!





The lower hose is pretty much spot on. The upper needed some shortening and still has a slight kink but nothing that will affect the flow too greatly. Oh, and I also moved the rad over to the left - making use of the extra factory holes/captive nuts.



.

[mr.brown]

Day 13

Unlucky for some. Certainly unlucky for those bolts that decided to mess with me earlier

Anyway, the car is finally up on axle stands - which means I can get on with stuff. Mk2 Golf hubs off for a start

[mr.brown]

Original complete hubs + BFH + sockets = "wheel bearing housing"

Backplate bolts left to soak in oil