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#1
Ongoing Projects / Re: Hayesey's red G40 restorat...
Last post by hayesey - December 17, 2025, 03:50:22 PMAnother update, I am still making progress even if it is very slow!
The engine bottom end is cleaned, painted and rebuilt with new bearings all round and new piston rings:
Next up was the wiring looms that go in the engine bay. There's three sections of loom, one is the main engine/ECU harness that connects to the ECU and all sensors. The longest loom is mostly connecting to the lights, fan etc... and then one connects various other bits and pieces such as wipers, heater blower, coolant sensor for the dash etc...
My process was to strip all the old loom tape off, remove a load of horrible sticky insulation tape that had been used to re-wrap part of the loom in the past (note to anyone reading please don't use insulation tape in an engine bay!!!!). Clean up all the wires with IPA on a rag to remove any sticky crap.
Remove all the connectors using the relevant pin removal tools, cleaned all the connectors in my ultrasonic bath. Here's one of the looms in progress of being cleaned up:
Yes, in the front room as you need a large clean space to work on it (and an understanding wife).
Then carried out some repairs where wires were damaged as is very common on old looms, damage typically like this where insulation has become brittle and cracked, leading to the copper inside starting to corrode.
That's the connector for the black temp sensor for the dash, still working but that damaged wire is a failure waiting to happen.
The only proper fix is to cut back the wire 50mm+ back from the furthest damage from the end so you get back to clean and shiny copper. Connect new wire (I bought correct sized and correct colour coded wire from ebay) and then crimp a new JPT terminal on the end, or whatever terminal needed some are just spade connectors - you need a specific tool for the JPT terminals.
For connecting the new section of wire I use solder joints. I know lots of people say never use solder to join wires on a car as it'll fail with vibrations but I've never had any issues many years. I've been repairing wires in looms like that for a long time, including on my track car. I think a well done lay-to joint with clean copper and good quality solder and correct size heatshrink after will give a good join no more likely to fail than a crimp joint. A good quality, temperature controlled iron with a selection of bits & 30+ years of soldering experience helps too!
After that, I re-wrapped the looms in proper TESA tape designed for high temp engine bays. I found amazon the best place to buy this, 2 rolls is probably enough but have 3 to be on the safe side.
The looms are all fitted into the engine bay now.
Next I have cleaned up the heater blower casings. Carefully take it apart making sure to not break any of the plastic clips holding it together and then it went in the dishwasher to clean it up.
I put a new heater matrix in since they're not expensive anyway.
That just left the fan motor itself. Mine worked OK but looked a mess and the metal motor housing was corroded. I initially attempted to pull it apart to re-plate the housings but the way it is pressed together just means I couldn't get it dismantled without damaging it.
I found someone on ebay selling a replacement motor kit consisting of a new motor which isn't the same as the original but looks decent, then some 3d printed fitting parts to make it fit into the blower housing. I was sceptical about it as I've not been impressed with the finished quality of a lot of 3d printed things I've seen but I took a chance on this. I think the results are very good, the 3d printed parts fit very well, are strong and look good quality. Kit came with good instructions. You reuse the original fan blade, drill it out and use some special plastic nuts with the kit to make it fit:
Here's the finished thing, I had it connected to my bench power supply and ran it up to 12v to make sure the fan span with no noise or scraping. So I'm very happy with this:
I need to remake those 2 wires as they need to be longer, the kit came with some crimped wires but I'm not using them as I want to make wires that look like the originals, just longer.
I'm also working on the wiper mechanism, for the motor, you can just buy them new for not a lot of money so I've got a new motor/gearbox assembly for that rather than trying to clean up the old one.
Ideally I would re-zinc plate the mechanism but it's just too big to fit into my replating tanks so I've had it blasted and am spray painting it. I'm yet to decide if I'm happy with the results or if I need to do something else, I'll update once I'm happy with it!
That brings me to yesterday when there was a major milestone, all the body panels are now back on.
Steve (of did all the bodywork and paint fame) kindly offered to come round and help me fit the panels and get them all properly lined up. So we spent a few hours doing that yesterday and this is how it now stands:
I'm hoping to get the glass back in over Christmas period. You might also notice the gearbox casings in that photo, they've been vapour blasted so need a lot of cleaning out and then I'll get the box back together as well.
The engine bottom end is cleaned, painted and rebuilt with new bearings all round and new piston rings:
Next up was the wiring looms that go in the engine bay. There's three sections of loom, one is the main engine/ECU harness that connects to the ECU and all sensors. The longest loom is mostly connecting to the lights, fan etc... and then one connects various other bits and pieces such as wipers, heater blower, coolant sensor for the dash etc...
My process was to strip all the old loom tape off, remove a load of horrible sticky insulation tape that had been used to re-wrap part of the loom in the past (note to anyone reading please don't use insulation tape in an engine bay!!!!). Clean up all the wires with IPA on a rag to remove any sticky crap.
Remove all the connectors using the relevant pin removal tools, cleaned all the connectors in my ultrasonic bath. Here's one of the looms in progress of being cleaned up:
Yes, in the front room as you need a large clean space to work on it (and an understanding wife).
Then carried out some repairs where wires were damaged as is very common on old looms, damage typically like this where insulation has become brittle and cracked, leading to the copper inside starting to corrode.
That's the connector for the black temp sensor for the dash, still working but that damaged wire is a failure waiting to happen.
The only proper fix is to cut back the wire 50mm+ back from the furthest damage from the end so you get back to clean and shiny copper. Connect new wire (I bought correct sized and correct colour coded wire from ebay) and then crimp a new JPT terminal on the end, or whatever terminal needed some are just spade connectors - you need a specific tool for the JPT terminals.
For connecting the new section of wire I use solder joints. I know lots of people say never use solder to join wires on a car as it'll fail with vibrations but I've never had any issues many years. I've been repairing wires in looms like that for a long time, including on my track car. I think a well done lay-to joint with clean copper and good quality solder and correct size heatshrink after will give a good join no more likely to fail than a crimp joint. A good quality, temperature controlled iron with a selection of bits & 30+ years of soldering experience helps too!
After that, I re-wrapped the looms in proper TESA tape designed for high temp engine bays. I found amazon the best place to buy this, 2 rolls is probably enough but have 3 to be on the safe side.
The looms are all fitted into the engine bay now.
Next I have cleaned up the heater blower casings. Carefully take it apart making sure to not break any of the plastic clips holding it together and then it went in the dishwasher to clean it up.
I put a new heater matrix in since they're not expensive anyway.
That just left the fan motor itself. Mine worked OK but looked a mess and the metal motor housing was corroded. I initially attempted to pull it apart to re-plate the housings but the way it is pressed together just means I couldn't get it dismantled without damaging it.
I found someone on ebay selling a replacement motor kit consisting of a new motor which isn't the same as the original but looks decent, then some 3d printed fitting parts to make it fit into the blower housing. I was sceptical about it as I've not been impressed with the finished quality of a lot of 3d printed things I've seen but I took a chance on this. I think the results are very good, the 3d printed parts fit very well, are strong and look good quality. Kit came with good instructions. You reuse the original fan blade, drill it out and use some special plastic nuts with the kit to make it fit:
Here's the finished thing, I had it connected to my bench power supply and ran it up to 12v to make sure the fan span with no noise or scraping. So I'm very happy with this:
I need to remake those 2 wires as they need to be longer, the kit came with some crimped wires but I'm not using them as I want to make wires that look like the originals, just longer.
I'm also working on the wiper mechanism, for the motor, you can just buy them new for not a lot of money so I've got a new motor/gearbox assembly for that rather than trying to clean up the old one.
Ideally I would re-zinc plate the mechanism but it's just too big to fit into my replating tanks so I've had it blasted and am spray painting it. I'm yet to decide if I'm happy with the results or if I need to do something else, I'll update once I'm happy with it!
That brings me to yesterday when there was a major milestone, all the body panels are now back on.
Steve (of did all the bodywork and paint fame) kindly offered to come round and help me fit the panels and get them all properly lined up. So we spent a few hours doing that yesterday and this is how it now stands:
I'm hoping to get the glass back in over Christmas period. You might also notice the gearbox casings in that photo, they've been vapour blasted so need a lot of cleaning out and then I'll get the box back together as well.
#2
Engine and Transmission / Shift Finger
Last post by chenderby - November 21, 2025, 06:17:56 PMFor anyone needing to replace the "shift finger" - casting and plastic ball that goes onto the gearbox selector shaft (the plastic disintegrates after many years...), I can report that its extremely easy to replace even after ~20 years since the last time! There is a single bolt holding it onto the shaft (which may be on with loctite - depends how much the last person used....), but its not a close fit on the shaft, so after the bolt is out it comes off very easily - and putting the new one on is easy without having to remove anything else (there is plenty of play in the gear linkage).
Part number is 191 711 233.
VW heritage have a pattern part which isn't spot on tolerance wise but isn't bad and seems to work fine:
Link
VW Class still has some original ones, but takes an age from Germany.
Link
You will need the plastic bush that goes in the housing (191 711 209) - the old one came out easily from mine so could reuse it, otherwise Spanish pattern part available here (NB this is definitely not the OE part whatever it says - not bad but a little short and slightly larger ID):Link
Its listed on their website, so presumably you could register and maybe get it direct (3RG 24794):link
Hope this helps someone!
Part number is 191 711 233.
VW heritage have a pattern part which isn't spot on tolerance wise but isn't bad and seems to work fine:
Link
VW Class still has some original ones, but takes an age from Germany.
Link
You will need the plastic bush that goes in the housing (191 711 209) - the old one came out easily from mine so could reuse it, otherwise Spanish pattern part available here (NB this is definitely not the OE part whatever it says - not bad but a little short and slightly larger ID):Link
Its listed on their website, so presumably you could register and maybe get it direct (3RG 24794):link
Hope this helps someone!
#3
Ongoing Projects / Re: Hayesey's red G40 restorat...
Last post by hayesey - August 18, 2025, 10:37:45 AMquick update, this weekend it's back on suspension and 4 wheels
and now I can move it around easily on the wheel skates, it has it's friend in the garage to keep it company:
and now I can move it around easily on the wheel skates, it has it's friend in the garage to keep it company:
#4
Wanted / Re: Wanted: G40
Last post by Zeeuk1 - August 06, 2025, 05:27:42 PMI have an Alpine white one
#5
General Car Chat / Re: G40 Blistein y
Last post by Malazuerte90 - August 06, 2025, 04:16:34 PMQuote from: hayesey on August 06, 2025, 02:14:25 PMthey're all talking about different shock absorbers on different cars though, I would ask wherever you bought them from.
The front polo bump stops are just these:
https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/861412131-front-suspension-strut-bump-stop.html
I can see no harm in just using them as well assuming the piston rods on your B12s are the same diameter as normal polo shock absorbers.
Those are the OEM bump stops
My supplier told me that as far as they know, I don't need to put bump stoppers bc the suspension has its own bumper stoppers inside the suspension (as far as they know doesn't look very reliable lol that's why I asked you)
Also the people say in the URL the same as my supplier, that they have internal stop bumpers
The thing is that I already installed them...so putting a stop bumper is a lot of work...
#6
General Car Chat / Re: G40 Blistein y
Last post by hayesey - August 06, 2025, 02:14:25 PMthey're all talking about different shock absorbers on different cars though, I would ask wherever you bought them from.
The front polo bump stops are just these:
https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/861412131-front-suspension-strut-bump-stop.html
I can see no harm in just using them as well assuming the piston rods on your B12s are the same diameter as normal polo shock absorbers.
The front polo bump stops are just these:
https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/861412131-front-suspension-strut-bump-stop.html
I can see no harm in just using them as well assuming the piston rods on your B12s are the same diameter as normal polo shock absorbers.
#7
General Car Chat / Re: G40 Blistein y
Last post by Malazuerte90 - August 06, 2025, 10:06:50 AMQuote from: PeteG40 on August 05, 2025, 01:21:14 PMYes you really do need bump stopa
Hi Pete,
Thanks for answering
But look what I found
https://www.e30zone.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=277417&utm_source=chatgpt.com
And this
https://g42.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1225899&utm_source=chatgpt.com
Here people say that the front suspension has the internal bump stops
What do you think?
#8
General Car Chat / Re: G40 Blistein y
Last post by PeteG40 - August 05, 2025, 01:21:14 PMYes you really do need bump stopa
#9
General Car Chat / G40 Blistein y
Last post by Malazuerte90 - August 02, 2025, 09:47:00 AMHi guys, how is everything?
I have just upgraded my G40 with a Blistein B12 suspension kit and I have one question
In the front side, do I have to put bumpers? I mean some kind of rubber bumpers in the suspension?
Bc the kit doesn't come with bumpers and I don't know if it doesn't need bumpers or do I have to put them?
Can anyone help with this?
Many thanks in advance!
Javier
I have just upgraded my G40 with a Blistein B12 suspension kit and I have one question
In the front side, do I have to put bumpers? I mean some kind of rubber bumpers in the suspension?
Bc the kit doesn't come with bumpers and I don't know if it doesn't need bumpers or do I have to put them?
Can anyone help with this?
Many thanks in advance!
Javier
#10
Ongoing Projects / Re: Hayesey's red G40 restorat...
Last post by hayesey - July 31, 2025, 11:02:11 AMWhat I didn't say in the post above, all the progress in that post after the brake lines, was in the last few weeks. In March I fell off my bike and broke my wrist quite badly, it had to have metal plates put in. So for a good few months I was unable to do any work on the car and even now I have to be careful with my wrist, doing up the stub axle bolts was painful.