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What did you do to your mk1 today?

1M views 11K replies 1K participants last post by  Seomobster 
#1 · (Edited)
What did you do to yuor mk1 today?

I have seen this thread in the sciroccos thought it was neat,but yet a thread was not over here.
I straighten out my roof and removed surface rust.Added a little primer.Stage one.

Hope this catches on. I will add pics but I need to get my lap top on line.
Happy Dubbn.:cool:
Nice to see that this thread is going on strong.:D
 
#10,014 ·
Took mine out for the first time with the frame and new Toyota leaf springs. And battery relocate behind pass seat.

All I can say is wow.
I had flushed and fully drained coolant, so of course it overheated when I tried to drive it.

Vapor locked coolant

That was fun. I mean genuinely. Haven’t had that much fun in years.

Purged it. Topped with water.

Really REALLY enjoyed my rad-fan- bypass switch to cool things off.

All I can say is W. O. W.
I no longer feel the need to feather the throttle when returning to idle.

So smooth.
A true joy to drive now.

Now, I need to get on with evolution #3 of my vnt turbo controller.
She is ready to get serious now.
Been limiting myself to 5psi and delayed onset of boost.
I think I can rearward myself with 9-10psi and throttle actuated actuator. :)

I still need to make passenger seat mounts, I was wanting to get a new seatbelt because the Mk5 belt I got from the junk yard was damaged by some ass-hat with a cutting torch.

Salvage yards won’t let me into the yard with smoke here in pnw
And they aren’t letting employees pull parts.

I want to order online but a hold got put on my card and they take 15 business days after faxing in confirmations to lift is...
It’s like the world doesn’t want my passenger to be safe.

I’ll just let my gf think It’s still too rattly to drive ;p

I love my mk1 truck

Also still need to re-seal my topper
 
#10,017 ·
I had to make a back plate that was the design of the oem.

No factory board. The gauges came with all their own wiring and harness. All I did was take that wiring and wire it up to the mk3 fusebox.

This isn’t what I used. It was more of a mock up to see if my idea would work. That was a very thin piece of aluminum and bent super easy. But that’s basically how I fit them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#10,021 ·
Pulled the topper for a correct seal.

Anyone who is considering it.
On a caddy,
Never use sealer to affix your topper.

Not only was it removing some factory paint upon removal i was lucky to get the topper off in one piece.

I feel stupid for ignoring, then forgetting how much my fiberglass was rotten.

Now to add to my to-do... fiberglass patches on the mounting rails. ....

The lists. Just. Get. Longer.
 
#10,022 ·
Well, pulling topper for seal turned into major fiberglass overhaul. ...
And of course in washing off dust it’s obvious windows leak,

Had siliconed my sliding windows shut in frustration after a rain storm.

And now I got it working right, slider is free! :)
I will have fresh air in the bed again.

The problem was the window frame... where it was joined, it just had a small spot weld, allowing water to seep into the wood beam that it mounts on the bed. ...
Rotting it to dust....

But hooray!
My window came back from the dead.

And I didn’t even break any glass... knock on wood.

Also used some leftover fiberglass to reinforce some weak areas of the topper.

Now just gotta put it all back together,
Seal the top with resin,

Scuff,

And paint.

Planning on a slightly different tan- Close to body color.
Mojave beige
 
#10,023 ·
Work on getting the Motronic 100% happy is on hold until new knock sensors arrive early next week. Same on the early rear brake lockup, waiting on new Caddy-length parking brake cables, also early next week. So today I decided to replace the timing belt and tensioner. Got most of the way done before my lower back told me to take a break. The new belt is on, and the plastic covers are in place. Just need to get the alternator and power steering belts installed.

 
#10,025 · (Edited)
I'm a round light kind of guy. If it didn't already have rounds, I probably would have converted it.

But I'm torn on the red. The truck started life silver. The red color change happened many years (>12) ago, and is strictly middle-school quality. Part of me wants to bring it back to silver, but it would be a lot less work to stay with red.
 
#10,028 ·
Yea I’m hoping it’s just an airlock but more likely the new oil cooler is still blocking too much of the rad for it to function effectively. Right now the oil cooler is sealed to the rad so any air passing through the oil cooler has to go through the rad. I may try removing those baffles to see if that helps.

I created baffles for the sides and top of the rad so all air is being drawn from through the grille.

The problem of course is that summer is over and I don’t think I’ll be seeing any triple digit days for stress-testing til next year.
 
#10,030 ·
I let my cooling system drain 100% over the course of 3 weeks.

Upon filling I burped the coolant for half a day.
Drove it, overheated.
I ended up having to remove the upper radiator hose until coolant began to flow out.

The reservoir was FULL but no amount of driving could purge the bubble.

Just a little story of my efforts.
And I have a big radiator and stock fan bypass (fans were little help)

And my truck has always been cool as a cucumber.

I took it through Death Valley on a 120f day and unless I idled for significant time, the rad fans didn’t even kick on.
Stayed right at the thermostat rating.

It was exciting to overheat.
I hadn’t had a single problem in- forgot when.
 
#10,031 ·
No problems at idle. Gets hot cruising around town at low boost unless I turn on the heater fan at max speed and fully open the heater matrix. Which makes me think it’s not an airflow problem at all but limited heat shedding capacity. Does that sound right? If so then the fan was unnecessary.
 
#10,035 ·
If was an air lock in my overheating problem.

I flushed my coolant out recently. (Again)
As it got really murky.
Filled and run then drained until it came out clear.

It took 5 flushes.

After having a fresh system my coolant temp never goes above 2/5.
And if I turn the fan on I can actually make the engine go cold again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#10,034 ·
Made some magnetic curtains for the inside of the topper.
So when I leave it at the head of a trail people can’t look in and see.
Also working on a padlock for the tailgate. Previous. When I needed to be “secure” I have a chain that chains to the bumper and over the topper handle.

But mostly got frustrated spending too much time tinkering. I only got one curtain done.

I’m ready to take this beast to the road.
Instead of thinking of all the things I need to do. I spent time thinking about all the little jobs that I nailed. And how much better she is going to be on the road.

Send good vibes out to mokoosh down fighting fires! Starting my journey this weekend.
Fingers crossed we still get to cross paths.
But it warms my heart thinking about all the caddy’s sailing around the west coast.
 
#10,041 ·
Made some magnetic curtains for the inside of the topper. So when I leave it at the head of a trail people can’t look in and see.
I've always pondered on locking my Caddy. It looks like a POS, certainly worst than most around here. There is no dash, no carpet, no headliner, or interior pieces [except for door panels]. If I lock the car, people will break in and only find there is nothing inside worth taking. If I leave it unlocked, they may look inside and see there is nothing worth taking. The only difference is I got less broken parts.

The only time I ever thought it may be taken is when I spent a few hours at Mt Rainier on my bike. I parked on a forest side road and after a 100 miles journey and 10k feet of climbing, it was still there. I dreaded thinking if it was not there that I would have to ride another 70 back home.

When it comes to overheating, I learned a long time ago, make certain the temp gauge is working properly. The one and only time I had an issue with the voltage stabilizer at the back of the cluster, the coolant and fuel gauge were running on 12v vs the proper 10v. Both gauges read slightly higher. I thought I had an over heating problem for at least 5 years.
 
#10,047 ·
Painted door jambs, hatch jambs, trunk floor, tops of the rear shock towers and cut in the tops of the front fenders and hood jambs. Finally ready to drop the car off to have the outer body sprayed.

Here is a before and after of the engine compartment. With the bolts undone, I was able to pull the fenders an inch away from the body to get decent separation between the fender edge and the black engine compartment. Very happy with it - especially being this a driver, not a show car.

Really pleased with the slam panel too. The radiator is unattached/tilted back as the paint was still tacky when I took the pic.





 
#10,048 ·
Took Mokoosh’s suggestion and found a diesel crank pulley to overdrive the water pump (and alt). Just realized this is the exact opposite of the performance adding underdrive pulleys so... I guess there goes 5hp for the sake of better cooling.


Here’s the difference in diameter.


Diesel pulley (left) has a slightly higher offset than the original.


Here’s why. The crank and wp pulleys actually overlap. The belt seems straight but I haven’t run the motor yet. Good thing we are heating up again this week so I can do a little more warm weather testing.
 
#10,049 · (Edited)
Took Rabbit on its first substantial drive since the May track day that started the whole coolant overhaul. Went through the mountains with a couple of nice folks from The Car Lounge.

The Good
- No fires
- No breakdowns
- Made it home under its own power

The Bad
- New crank pulley sporadically fouls on the WP pulley and makes a horrible grinding screech
- Car still overheats, especially on steeper inclines, even in spite of the cooler weather
- The recently replaced CV boot puked a bunch of grease all over again. Need to take a closer look to see if the boot split or if I didn’t do up the other clamp tightly enough. Maybe I overfilled it?
- The exhaust started making an air-cooled putput sound
- Reverse lights stay on
- No power or boost in 5th gear
- Front end clunk under hard cornering; discovered my front control arm bolts were loose so hopefully that resolved it

I keeping thinking back to those Geico print ads that say “A bad day on the road beats a good one off.”

Gotta keep things in perspective though, Bad Habit Rabbit (the early Westy) had oil pressure issues and had to be towed.


Two 8v turbo Rabbits with very different executions


Greasetastic


I circled the control arm bolt. You can see the light between the brace flange and frame horn SMH. The driver’s side flange was flush but I still got a couple of rotations with the breaker bar. Serves me right for being lazy and gentle with fastener tightening.
 
#10,052 · (Edited)
Brake flex hose is right above that front part of the beam mount. But I don't think that's brake fluid. If it is, you have issues judging by the color.

My bet is its fuel. What's that kinked hose held up with a bungee?? :eek:

Also the outer CV looks like its puking out the big end. Gotta keep the booty and CV clamping surfaces clean when putting them together. Also dont know what you are using for a clamp tool. I have a Proto branded version of this KD tool, PN: KDS3955. It presses down on the clamp as you squeeze it. Flattens the pinch, as it pinches it.


 
#10,053 ·
Don't think it's brake fluid, had the wife pump the brake pedal and didn't see any additional leaking. Pedal pressure remains consistent also.

The bungee'd fuel line was an attempt to avoid kinks in the extended fuel line for the inline filter. I still cannot figure out a good way to run it.

The dark stuff is way thicker than fuel and there are two separate puddles on the ground I should have taken pictures of.
 
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