Scirocco Register

As a few folks on here will know, I bought an '86 GTX just before Xmas, with 2 weeks MOT on it. My initial thoughts were that it was cheap, and if it turned out to be a basket case I'd break it, but in the end it's much too good for that. Nice and solid, original and well worth keeping going. Still has the original dealer plates and stripes from Newbourne Garages Ltd, Croydon.



Anyway, the car is pretty standard, in Flash Silver. It's done lots of miles (180k) but seems to have been well looked after, overall, and garaged most of its life. The guy I bought it from had it from the original dealer as an ex demo car, although it was originally registered in his mother's name, as he was too young to insure it. 24 years later, he has a young child and needs a bigger car. Also, he was paying garages to maintain it, and it was starting to get expensive in terms of labour costs. He believed it needed a clutch due to gear selection problems, but I think this was more likely due to the engine moving around, and worn linkage.



Step1: Get it home.

No problems... did 40mpg on the drive home from Croydon, sitting at 70mph on the M25. It felt a bit vague and wandery, sluggish under acceleration, and I could feel the engine moving around. Work to do, but no major horrors so far.

Step 2: Get it MOT'd
There were a few issues with the car, but nothing I couldn't sort out. Two new top mounts, front and rear engine mounts, adjust the back brakes, and a couple of tiny bits of welding
- Weld the handbrake ratchet locating lug back onto the floor
- Weld up a tiny hole in the battery tray (probably an acid spill from years ago).

Also the driver's seat was flapping around. It had no rubber bush on the front, or plastic bushes in the runners. Now sorted.

In the midst of driving it for the 2 weeks it was still MOT'd, the gear lever fell through the floor. A jubilee clip now holds the gear lever circlip in place, and all's well. The linkage feels nice and tight now, actually.

The car failed the MOT the first time - CO emissions too high at idle, and a loose boot on the steering rack.

A quick adjust of the mixture, checked on the road with a wideband AFR meter to check it wasn't leaning out too much at the high end., and all's well, I also checked the timing, plugs, air filter, etc. Idle mixture went from 4.7% CO to about 2.2%. For anyone using an AFR meter, that seems to be around 15.5:1 AFR at idle.

I also cleaned up and re-greased the rack, before securing the steering boot with a new cable tie.

The car is now MOT'd and I'm using it as my daily driver. With the current price of petrol, 40mpg is very attractive. It seems to be happy on standard unleaded (my other 2 roccos are modded) and it handles the speed bumps a lot better on standard suspension. I guess I'm getting old, but I'm enjoying driving a car with standard suspension, stock exhaust, and carpet on the floor.

Most of the bits I needed, I already had 'in stock' from the car I broke last year, or from previous upgrades on the track car. All I've bought so far is:

- Rear engine/box mount
- Paint, lacquer and weld-thru primer
- Wipers, spark plugs, and an air filter (not fitted yet)

Nice to see another one being saved Mike. Enjoy!

So, the car is on the road and in daily use, but it doesn't stop there, although overall I'm very happy with it. I love some of the old GTX touches, like the smaller spoiler and Scirocco script.


I bought some paint, which I used on the battery tray, and when the weather's warmer, I'll paint the scuffed sunroof panel. The driver's door has been replaced at some point as well, so if my paint is a better match, I might repaint that too.

The Union Jacks on the rear corners are gone (too many associations for me) and I'll knock out the little dent that one of them was covering up, when I get a chance.

Jobs I know about, that still need doing:

Mechanical/Engine:
- Steering column support bearing.
- 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.
- Replace the coolant temp sender that I managed to break
- 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.
- Sort out the wiring to the idle boost valve, CSV, and Air Valve.

Body & Interior:
- Find another GTX interior 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.
- 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)
- 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.

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.

Looking good Mike... nice motor you have there!

Reminds me of the Flash Silver GTX that I rescued (which also cost £100). Sigh...



I might have some rattle cans of the right colour left over somewhere. If I find them, they're yours.

excellent work Mike.

i still have the black shelf i swapped with the one i bought off you last year if you need it - its in good enough nick if you want it?

Nice car mate, very similar story with my 85 C plate GTX, in Flash Silver. Paid £205 for mine, original number plates as well.

I did a repair on my tailgate with paint made up at halfords. The guy told me there were two versions of the paint code, but only after I went back for more as the first tin was to silvery.... There is a code with, I think, a /R at the end and that was darker and a much better match. Not perfect but considering the age of the original paint its pretty good, epsecially as I used it on the tailgate so doesnt show up against another pannel.Can check in the garage later in the week if you want. Let me know if you get a good paint match somewhere else, be handy to know.

You have done well go get an interior. I ended up changing the grey/black/faded to green striped ones for black n red which I sourced front and rear from different people. Still a standard GTX interior but dif colour. Will revert back if come across a matching driver seat.

Keep us posted with the work mate.

The cunning plan for the interior is, that I have a usable passenger seat (but needs a good clean), I'm buying a good passenger seat, and have a couple of bits of cloth that I swapped for some other bits before I had this car, with the intention of giving them to a mate who has an early Mk2 golf with similar trim. By swapping the cloth around between the seats, I should end up with something decent. Worst case, I'll end up with a passenger seat cover on the top half of the driver's seat, and have a spurious hole for a non-existent tilt handle on the inside. I reckon that's a reasonable compromise, if needed.

Any donations of old rattle cans would be gratefully received. I think the colour I've got might be too silvery, so I may have to get another one done for the sunroof. It's fine for tidying up in the engine bay though.

Much as I like this car, I have too many, and the way I'm going I really need to buy a tow car and a trailer (Audi 80 Avant diesel has a certain appeal), so I'll probably keep tidying this up and fettling it, run it for a few months, and flog it in the summer. The price will be a bit more than £100, but it'll be a much better car by then. It's already quicker than when I bought it, because the engine was running rich and a bit coked up - probably also suffering from too much pootling, and too much town driving. These old thoroughbreds need to be galloped regularly, you know ;) It revs cleanly to the red line now.

the edmundator wrote:Reminds me of the Flash Silver GTX that I rescued (which also cost £100). Sigh...



I might have some rattle cans of the right colour left over somewhere. If I find them, they're yours.

That looks lovely, Ed. What became of it?

I bought it with the same ideas as you, and also ended up fixing rather than breaking. I had a Scala as well at the time, so sold the GTX once it had an MoT and was tarted-up a bit. A student in Truro bought it, but I've no idea what happened after that.

Well, you did your bit then...

BTW, are those the correct wheels for a GTX? I know mine are from a Passat 16v.

MikeH wrote:Well, you did your bit then...

BTW, are those the correct wheels for a GTX? I know mine are from a Passat 16v.

84/85 models = avus
86/87 = p slot
88 = castellets

gtxtra geekdom......

Thanks! Just proves what I already suspected... that you have a bit of an obsession with shiny wheels ;)

MikeH wrote:Thanks! Just proves what I already suspected... that you have a bit of an obsession with shiny wheels ;)

you have know idea how bad it's become Mike!

Took a run down to Salisbury tonight, to pick up a set of seats, door cards clocks (might need spares) and a few other bits 'n' pieces. Thanks Mark!

Next job is to make a tidy interior out of the various bits I've got.