Just thought I'd share my thoughts with the group My humble 85 Golf GL has been sitting in the back of my garage for roughly 15 years with little or no progress. It's been fully disassembled. I've collected parts along the way with the intention of building the equivalent of a 90-92 GTi 16V. But no progress.
Lately my work responsibilities have been fully inundated with a datacenter migration that has consumed me for the past several months. After hours has required on-call or migrations that have forced me to work remotely from home when I'm not in the office. It is those remote sessions that have me tinkering in the garage while talking on the phone with my co-workers. And it seems that during these times, is where I make the most progress on this car. What was essentially an empty VW Golf shell in December is today a rolling chassis ready for engine/transmission installation. I'm surprised at how much I can accomplish inadvertantly working on my MKII Golf while on-call after hours. I've made more progress in the past two months than I've made in the past 15 years. So far this two monthes, I've rebuilt/replaced the following Converted front brakes to 11" Corrado disc brakes Installed 22mm Master Cylinder/vacuum booster Replaced Tie-Rods on manual steering rack Installed 92 GLi rear trailing arm with rear brake proportioning valve Repiped Brake Lines/Installed Steel Braided Brake lines (6 line) Replaced front wheel bearings/ball joints/strut bushings Replaced A-arms/Audi TT Solid rubber bushings Replaced Shocks/Springs - I'm trying Raceland Coilovers (Very inexpensive) Converted rear drum brakes to Disk brakes Installed front/rear bumpers/single round headlights/coresupport/grill I've had to make a few trips to the salvage yard simply to see how to reassemble some components. It has been so long since I've worked on this car that I've forgotten how parts fit. I've also misplaced numerous clamps, bolts, brackets over the years so the trips to the salvage yards refreshes my memory and replaces those tiny parts that I've long lost in the deep dark depths known as my garage. Interior On a couple of my trips to the Salvage yard, I started to encounter partial interiors from several vehicles. As I'd pull a part, I eventually assembled a complete full interior for my GL. It is amazing what I've discovered in the nearby salvage yards. -GTi dashboard -Door cards front/rear -freshly reupholstered headliner and trim bits -pair of Recaro GLi front seats - I had a pair of black Corrado leather seats but I decided to sell them in favor of these. What I've realized about myself during this ordeal is the sudden motivation to work on this car--simply because I've been stressed out at work. Building the car gives me focus which serves as relief and therapy during stressful times. Still pending is a 1- Transmission - Hopefully one to match the Peloquin LSD that's sitting on my work bench 2-Combining the donor car 16V wiring harness to the original GL harness 3-exterior paint job Just thought I'd share. This car will hopefully be road worthy this summer. I hope the final outcome will be worthy of the cars on this list. -Les Near Pasadena California
