Mk1 G40 Turbo

[dubstar]

Hi guys,

I've been meaning to start a thread for a little while now, but as I'm not that far on it won't be too hard to catch up! Let me give you a little background info. Basically, I've spent a year building a decent workshop with having another project car in mind. Workshop was complete just before Christmas, and so the project began! I've had a couple of VW's in the past, a Mk3 Polo GT which I loved, and a Mk3 Golf VR6 - which I also loved. There was a point where I had the VR6, my Bro had a Mk2 Golf Driver, Dad had a Scirrocco and Mum had a Mk1 Golf! It's safe to say i'm a VW man, even though at present i'm rocking my girlfriend's crap Fiesta. Needs must. I've still got some other toys too, so it's not all bad  

So last year my Bro left for New Zealand with a one way ticket, leaving behind his Mk1 Polo in storage. The long & short of it is that I told him I was taking it and if he wanted it back he's have to come & get it! Now he's quite attached to his Polo, but he's an easy going sort of chap so now it resides in my workshop, in bits! When I had the Mk3, I always fancied doing a G40 swap but the timing was never right. It is now though  

So here's the project outline:

I want to build a car for everyday use, something different & retro with enough poke to worry the latest crop of hot hatches. Nothing too race orientated although moderately uprated suspension is on the cards, and reliable. I (contrary to popular trend) like the pin-sharp braking feel of modern cars, so it's got to have bitchin' brakes. With all this in mind, here's a bulletpoint list of what I've got in mind. I could expand on each point, but i'm sure that'll happen thoughout the build. Obviously there is a lot more to each point than I'll go into here.

1979 Mk1 Polo
Seam welded engine bay & boot with chassis legs reinforced (mainly due to massive power hike)
Golf GTi brakes all round + Mk4/5 master cylinder & brake servo (with a nice large assistance ratio)
G40 front ARB & rear axle
Dropped 60/40 on uprated shocks but using OEM G40 mounts & bushes for a little compliance
G40 engine turbocharged using a K03 - all usual running gear & parts needed for this (aiming for 175bhp)
Complete Mk3 wiring loom change with Mk3 dashboard
14" steel jetta rims (the ones with the round holes)
Decent stereo (but nothing too brutal - I'm passed that stage in life now!)

That about covers it for now. On with the build.....!

(I'm not sure exactly how to attach pictures and get text underneath so there's going to be a little experimentation here!)

Anyway - check it out - here's the old girl's first glimpse of daylight in 18months when we pulled it out of storage from a barn in deepest darkest Lincolnshire! Then we lobbed her on a trailer, Manchester bound....



I don't know how to insert images like everyone else does. My strengths lie in building cars, not web based forums!! somebody help me out here??

[Etches]

Sounds like you've got it all planned out, a mk1 polo in yellow is my dream car I've never seen one before!

[G40 AD]

Liking the write up, looking forward to seeing this progress Ross... Think.I have a G40 arb in the unit... yours if you want it, 5speed arb will be required to get round the bell housing on a 5 speed box.

Ad

[grungeisdead]

Woop Woop! Nice to see a thread on this Ross, now moar pictures!

[Andy]

How do me ode, good to see you finally stuck a thread up! Need to bang some of your Facialbook pics up here too methinks.

[dubstar]

Cheers boys, still experimenting with adding photos here so bear with me until I get into the swing.

so I threw it in the garage, pulled the bumpers off it & shiz then hit it with a wire brush on a grinder and it turns out the tin worm was worse than I thought. It's mostly passenger side, but it needs quite a bit. Sill, rear valance, A pillar patch, inner wing top patch, both front inner wings (where lights mount) outer wings both need patching and the front panel's shot. Great. Still, I'm not a stranger to a weld set or fabrication so that makes it a bit easier.





So the original plan went something like this - car the car in the workshop, pull the donkey out, launch a PY in and do a dry build cutting & shutting panels where I needed to before pulling it out and finishing the bodywork before I paint the boot & the 'bay and I get the outside professionally blown over. It's not quite gone like that, and as with all builds - the plan was altered. Pulled the donkster out - cheers for the crane lend Adam! (a Coupe S 1.3 & 5 speeder my Bro & I threw in the other year the sh1ts & giggles)



Sold that for a few quid and bought a low milage PY and some ancilaries from Saf, and a ATV 'box from Winston. Cheers boys!





Then got side tracked by the new bits & started an inspection strip of the PY, after finding out my MIG set (which had been in storage) now didn't work properly. In the knowledge the lump was a 62k 'er, I didn't want to rebuild the bottom end unless it needed it. Taking the head off revealed nice clean bores with hone marks still visable and whipping off a main cap showed pristine journals, so after a trip to the cleaning tank with the oil pickup, it was declared fit with a clean bill of health.

After a chat with Andy, the ode 268/268 Newman badbay was ordered, and I took the head a friend of mine (who happens to be a competition engine builder) and used his workshop to skim the head... (luckily, the one really jammed in spark plug came out leaving the thread it tact with a little heat & persuasion...)



I cleaned up the valves, to find that the exhaust valves were a bit slim shady where they seat on the head (a bit concave)



so armed with new exhaust valves, lifters, stem seals & turbo cam build it back up.





she's a MINTER. Thorough inspection showed no cracks in that head at all - lucky eh?

While this was going on, I was hacking about at lunchtimes patching up the best of the two wings. I've got the other one to do which will be harder as there is no corner left so no datum!





Right - got the hang of the whole pictures thing now, nice one. I'm a little further on than this so i'll grab the latest pics and update tomorrow with a bit of luck. Thanks to all that responded with my plea for web help!

[dubstar]

so in the last few days i've been trying to find the engine bay..... 33 years of grime had other ideas.



Half a tin of thinners and some high times in a non-ventiated area later, things were becoming clearer although it'll need to be much cleaner than that for paint!



Mum & Dad were up this weekend - Mum's good at sorting the garden out & entertaining my good lady which meant Dad & I spent some quality time in the workshop putting the head on & timing up the PY. The old crankcase breather was pretty asthmatic, so got another one from GSF for £11 and ended up making a tool to put it in with as I didn't have alot of success without it.

The timing markings on the crank pulley from the Coupe S (which I robbed before I sold it) were different to the twin Vee pulley from the PY so I marked the PY ones on it too. When we put it together, apart from having no dowls between the head & block (which confused us a bit and wound up in various phonecalls before marking it up central & torquing it down - as it seems most people do) true TDC, buy measuring the piston top to deck height ended up being pretty much bang on between the Coupe S & PY marks, so we slipped the belt on with it there. In fairness, with the cam pulley dot lining up with the cover mark, the crank is at true TDC exactly. All was well when we wound it round by hand, so job done! (unless you guys tell me any different?)

[samg40]

Hardest bit of that to me sounds like making it feel like it has modern brakes! 

I'd leave the Mk1 dash in if it were me. Far more old school.

Will be awesome when you've done it though and it looks like you are doing a proper job.

[PeteG40]

never seen a mk3 head with dowels in it!

[Yoof]

Ow do Ross- you should stick some pics up of your Mini, if that's anything to go by, this should be a minter 

[dubstar]

Cheers Yoof, nice of you to say.

Yes, I built a Mini from the ground up a while ago (which I still have) which has a full race 1380cc lump in it, pulling 126bhp @ 7200rpm, and fully adjustable suspension & all that jazz. It now sports a full carbon fibre front - which it didn't have when these pics were taken! It's a hoot to drive, although it's mega cammy with all that power. Throttle is more or less a switch - but at 625kg, she's a little giant killer! High days & Dry days car really - needs a good thraping at Oulton, but haven't got round to it yet. The time will come.

See my cheeky little GT in the background!



(It was only a pikey set of leads until the real deal came through!)




So anyway, back to Wolfsburg's finest. Have made a little progress. Bought some various bits & pieces to grease the build - a nice GT/G40 steering wheel came up so had that (although pretty low on the priority list at the moment!) and I happened upon a set of Bosch greens which i've been on the hunt for for a while, so snapped those puppies up too. They'll be off to PPP at some point in the near once they arrive for a clean up & flow test. Ordered a lower front panel piece to aid in the resurrection of the front panel too, as that's the only part you can get hold of unless you want to deal with Germany and get robbed for the privilege.

I torqued up the head to full tension the other day giving myself a nice big bruise on the leg to show for it, lifted it off the bench and started bolting on some of the cleaned up ancillaries back on it. It's looking pretty good - i'm pleased. A friend of mine, Mat, at http://www.thedubdepot.co.uk/ hooked me up with a Mk4 dizzy, and a pair of rear stubbies of a Mk2 Golf GTi too, so that was a fruitful visit. Bought a new cap & rotor arm and after a trip to the parts washer got it fitted, she's a beaut.




So with the lump ticking along nicely, and knowing my good lady is going away with the University for a couple of weeks at the end of March, my attention has turned to getting the body ready for some hardest-core fab 'n' weld action. My thinking being, while she's away I can pull some late nighters and try and break the back of the bodywork without stopping to 'put a wash on' or 'vacuum upstairs' - BONUS.

Popped into work this weekend and knocked up four axle stands. Yes - I could of bought them from Halfords for 40 quid - but where's the fun in that? Anyway, some suppliers gifted me the material so 40 quid saved gets spent on the Mk1!



So today was spent hoisting up the Mk1 to new & untold heights for easy access for putting the new sills on & such.

SORTED!


Then, thinking logically I smoothed a quick list together and set about said list.



Removal of the exhaust & tank saw me getting a better look at what's going down underneath. I knew one side (passenger side) was a lot worse than the other, but getting under there with a torch & big bits removed showed that the rear chassis legs at their lowest point have been patched on both sides - it's not a bad job, if you're Stevie Wonder. In fact, the back of the rear sill where it meets the wheel arch is all patchwork & bog too. She's had a good few patch jobs over the years! No matter, I'm gonna cut the lot out & do it properly. Back to basics styles.

Then it was Sunday beer with the boys o'clock. If I pull my finger out and get some of the other repair panels before next weekend, I might start some some cutty-cutty weldy-weldy grindy-grindy action in next weekend....

[dubstar]

Got my panels, sorted a MIG set and some scrap sheet steel, borrowed some joggle pliers & other bits & pieces. First off job was to complete the dismantling list. During the week I dropped the rear axle and front suspension assy so i'd have a head start this weekend.



Then I turned around and couldn't move for all the stuff in the workshop, so spent a while clearing out & re-organsing before moving said axles & pulling out the interior. I'm leaving the dash in for now as the bulkhead, battery tray & front valance (if that's the name of the panel below the windscreen - I should know really) are sound, and when I swap it for the Mk3 item I want to do it in one go so I don't forget how it all goes together (or how the original did) Anyway, I've nowhere to store it, so be rate where it is!



I've got a sill and an arch for this side - I wanted a inner wing top repair panel (which was in stock on their webshite, but wasn't in reality) so I'll have to fab a piece up for that. The first picture below is looking at the front edge of the rear arch, where it meets the sill, N/S. The second, of the rear edge.





Not great. The Nearside is a proper patchwork, the offside however, is as near perfect as you could ask for a 33 year old vehicle.

I could of stopped there for the day, but my battery drill was on the floor winking at me so I cracked out the spot weld drill and starting unpicking a few along the top edge of the sill. Moments later it was joined by close friends such as Mr 4.5" angle grinder & Buzz, the pneumatic saw and we has ourselves a bit of a party. Turns out the inner sill is rusted through too in places, so I'll have to sheet some pieces up for that too and remember to brace the floorpan tomorrow before I cut all the strength away!



Bodywork. Deep Joy.

[Andy]

Good effort! As you saw on Facebook - I'm taking the easy way out!

[Etches]

That mini is incredible! Do you have a build thread for that? Polo looks good mate, my eyes will be pinned to this if its to the same standard as the mini great job

[dubstar]

Thanks guys. Etches - No, I've never done a build thread before so I'm afraid the finished product is all you get with that. Appreciate your comments though.


Well, i'm going to cut to the chase - she's pretty damn rotten. You know when you're cutting good metal away to get to the bad metal behind it that it's not going to be plain sailing. In fact, (although being very cautious and making sure I've not cut all my datums away) i've cut SO much out it's a bit depressing. Turns out both arches have had the lips replaced & filled at some point too, so they'll both need doing again (to make it spot on.)

Outer sill was obviously knackered - standard. Inner sill: patchy at best, Floor: will need a small patch along the edge, Chassis leg (off inner to sill to rear axle mounting): New one required. OK, I know people have tackled much worse, but in honesty this is stretching my capabilities. It doesn't help at this stage looking around the rest of the shell and only seeing loads more nightmares. Anyway, one thing at a time eh? So here's how far I've chopped back - it's the minimum I could get away with.



This next picture is halfway through the cutting process - see the 'knacked inner sill & floor and inner rear quarter before I cut the rust away to find clean metal



I looked at the patched chassis leg and umm'ed & ahh'ed and thought sod it, it's not a bad patch and it can't be seen, so i'll put some better welds on it and let it be - until I hit it with a grinder to find metal and it went straight through. Balls. So that came off too, but not before I put a datum hole in along the inner sill, made a long contoured patch to reconstruct the inner sill flange back to the start of the arch and tacked what was left of the original leg to it. Then I copied my contoured patch onto some thicker 16swg zintec (a coated steel) so I could make a new leg at work.





So as you can see, forward of where the axle mounts we have roughly sod all at the minute.



At present, I'm halfway through making the new leg. As it's looking now, it'll lap over the axle mount plate so I can turn my MIG set up to 'Chernobyl' and muller in a couple of decent welds on my nice thick 16swg to keep it all in check. No point in having a rear ARB if the whole tub's moving around!! Should be ok, I just went in thinking I was putting on a new sill and now i'm doing loads of structural stuff - bit of a shock that's all. Need to keep up the momentum as I can see me getting a bit bogged down by the whole situation if I'm not careful. I want to get into the fun stuff later on in the build, now!