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7 years and a Callaway GTI later

133K views 762 replies 70 participants last post by  Hoffa 
#1 · (Edited)
7 years and a Callaway GTI later

After a long hiatus (I never really left but was VW-less too long), I finally have a GTI. I have been hunting for a good GTI to do a full restoration/restomod on for the last 8 years but never found a good candidate. I have met a ton of people on here and in the community along the way and about 7 years ago made contact with a local guy from a Craigslist ad. He bought the car new and put a ton of time and money building what was to him the ultimate GTI. It was so clean with 51k original miles I finally got it together and took it home. Last registration was 1997! My wife thinks I am absolutely insane but to me it's like coming home!


My story
My first car @ 16 was a 1979 Rabbit purchased dead with a hole in the side of the block. For reference that was 30 years ago! On a starving student budget, a subscription to VW and Porsche magazine for motivation, and no mechanical experience I slowly transformed it with a scirocco engine, a diesel 5 speed transmission conversion, a used Bilstein kit and a GTI interior. I had to learn how to fix things myself (sometimes twice!) and believe me I had to touch just about every nut and bolt on that car. I had a ton of fun and converted a few American muscle car friends to the VW side after competing in non-sanctioned street hill climb events! After selling it I went American for a change but immediately regretted it. Then just before college I lucked upon a really clean 83 GTI from the original adult owner but with a blown head gasket. I purchased an almost brand new cabriolet that was rolled from a tow yard and swapped out the engine in the driveway.



That GTI was really something and I had untold life experiences including meeting my girlfriend & now wife (coincidently she owned a 1980 Scirocco S at the time so you can start to see the power of the VW influence on me). By buying and fixing up broken MK1's and2's it helped pay for part of college and gave me some great life skills. This attachment to old VW 's baffles my friends a bit and seems immature in some respects, but I don't care and have found kindred spirits here on VWV. I can relate well with Mr. Spratt, vdubspeed, echassin, racerlance, scirocgvnr, and just about everyone else here in some way so excuse me for the babble as I get to the next chapter on my new GTI.

The GTI
The original owner was in in the SF Bay Area VW scene showing this car in the late 80's to 90's and I'm certain I crossed paths with it a time or 2. It is ultra clean with 51k mi, has a perfect body, zero rust, a mint full Recaro interior incl door panels, Callaway Stage 2+ with intercooler and Microfueler, oil cooler, Koni's, Neuspeed, Zender, Hella, Momo, etc.





Basically it's a time capsule of all the period performance parts you could want back in the day. I want to be respectful of it's past but make it my own. Outside of the maintenance of recommissioning a car that's been off the road for 15 or so years, the first changes I want to make include ditching the 16" wheels in favor of some 15" RML Snowflakes, ATS's, or Zender Phase1's. Mid-term I'm debating going back to stock on the body and removing the Zender kit. I know that seems absurd to some but I'm more of an OEM plus guy and love the stock Westy look. I'm gathering parts to accomplish this (thanks Leo, Ron, and Shawn!) and so far have picked up NOS badges, amazing original front and rear seats, an air dam, stock VDO panel, and a bunch of small items.



I'll update my progress as I get it sorted and legal. I can't wait to get this roadworthy and hit the coast and mountains this summer.
Hoffa
 
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#579 · (Edited)
While final torquing the last exhaust manifold stud it spun in the head. A little research led me to heli-coil repairs so ordered a kit and a little encouragement from @Butcher and did the repair today.
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break the tang off and done!
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Now on forward!
 
#591 · (Edited)
I had a great weekend making progress. I DEI wrapped the wires at the firewall with metal zip ties, resurfaced the flywheel, installed the clutch, trans and pan (next time I’ll final torque the pan before before the trans goes on!). This is what happens when you reach a certain age and things have been apart too long! At least I remembered the cover plate before installing the clutch. I put the engine at TDC, confirmed pulley marks on the ps side cover and dot on the VC, lined up the flywheel on the two dowels (early cars apparently have 1 dowel pin and late 83+ GTI's have the Mk2 style 2 dowel pin flywheels) and the TDC mark is in the window so I think everything is close timing wise. I’ll need to pull and drop my distributor as that is not in the right position. Also prepared the junkyard score TT turbo short shifter to try out and popped a spare bushing on my Neusppeed for storage. My son comes home this weekend so hope to have the engine in and fired.🤞
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#646 ·
Looking at the classifieds, the 427 Cobra was "only" $50K in 1979 and at first I thought "what a bargain!"

But then I did some checking: $50K in 1979 is $200K today, definitely not chump change. Then I ran that $50K from 1979 through an S&P 500 calculator and it comes out to $4M today, which is about what a 427 Cobra is currently worth.

So to summarize: a 427 Cobra doesn't perform any better than the S&P 500 :p
 
#670 · (Edited)
The new VDO sender and provided copper crush washer is in and pressure readings are the same between 90 cold idle and 30 hot and driving range between 30-90psi. No more oil or smoke out the exhaust with the catch can setup. I'll run it in a while longer, source a diff VC oil baffe and then swap to the Callaway VC and see if anything changes.
 
#685 ·
The piece that fell out is part of the rear guide. It cantilever's out toward the center of car and is held by a plastic piece and mini leaf spring.

First photo is for general orientation...sunroof assembly upside down.


Next photo focuses on left side with sunroof headliner removed. The rear guide is in the back left corner.


Next photo is a close up of the rear guide area and the mini leaf spring. If you look close you'll see that piece toward the back of the leaf spring.


Next two photos show different views of the rear guide and guide rail. That piece slides into a plastic portion of the rear guide. The plastic portion gets pried by design, so it's very possible it has failed...and either needs to be repaired or replaced.




Last one...this shows the crank mechanism and rear guides installed in the car. You can see the sunroof headliner tucked away...but the rest of the sunroof and guide rails are still out.
 
#711 · (Edited)
I agree switching over to the Zender Turbos is a fitting match for period correctness and are a better offset. I was totally shocked at winning an award considering how many other amazing and perfect cars were there. A couple of RADWood staffers stopped me driving in and on the way out with compliments and love for the Rabbit. I’m assuming they are suckers/sticklers for completeness of period mods rather than perfection/condition and overlooked the missing center caps, paint chips and sagging headliner. I’ve been battling a kidney stone the last 3 weeks and had no garage time to prepare anything except popping on my black lug nut caps and Patlew vent. I didn’t even have the energy to wash it beforehand so I used my Griots waterless car wash and speedshine after I parked.

I left the 1991 VW and Porsche magazine on the dash and at least a half dozen guys recognized “Ricks“ GTI from back in the day and sparked lots of conversations. I texted him when I arrived and hoped he might make over but he didn’t.

Yes oil pressures with this mid-HD oil pump stayed high 25-80 even under the intense heat and high RPMs of freeway driving. It is definitely flowing the oil. The drive home on tons of traffic was a little nerve racking with all the giant SUVs tailgating me and dive bombers taking away the buffer space in front of me. It seems that’s how it is on the freeway wherever I go these days in any car. Have to drive defensively with offensive moves here and there!
 
#713 ·
I agree switching over to the Zender Turbos is a fitting match for period correctness and are a better offset. I was totally shocked at winning an award considering how many other amazing and perfect cars were there.
I mean... I predicted this way back in 2003 that Turbo Wheels would come back and be the star of the show :D
 
#721 ·
@Hoffa thanks for reaching out today....it's been several months since I've checked in on your thread and it looks fantastic! Love everything that you've done with it and the Zenders are a must in my opinion. Your award was well deserved in my opinion and was probably the most period correct modded car in the bunch I would imagine, which is why you earned it!

Hopefully the link to the oil restrictor will do the trick for you...definitely want to get those higher rpm pressures down if you can so you don't blow the seals in your fresh rebuild. Mine ran all day with that one at 15 psi and all of the CIS boost tricks that I could throw at it including meth injection (all on a stock bottom end). When I sold mine, the buyer took it to the dyno and did a few extra tweaks on the rollers...was running 175 hp and tq at the wheels from 3800ish-6k+. I did do a mild cam in mine so it would definitely rev out higher than the stock by about 1k and was usually in the low 12's for AFRs for reference. A pocket rocket for sure by old school CIS standards...

Keep up the good work and feel free to reach out anytime! Even though I'm out of the VW (and now Audi) scene, I still enjoy following and contributing whatever tidbits I can to help out.

Peace....
~ Eric
 
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#727 · (Edited)
Ha ha I understand what you are referring to. Minis are ticking time bombs of repair bill purgatory. They are known for valve tensioners letting go leading to catastrophic engine failure, blown head gaskets, typical BMW eroding plastic cooling systems (which also lead to blown head gaskets and guaranteed warped head), and EXPENSIVE CLUTCHES. Like 15 book hours and $2k parts expensive clutch job. Luckily mine was a low mileage, 1 owner Copart donation marked as a bad clutch. I figured how hard can it be to change the clutch- it’s front wheel drive like my GTI. My son and I took 25 hours to replace that clutch and all the other things you must do while you are in there. We did other easy maintenance and had a few years of fun driving the backroads and multiple Mini Club group runs. The “R53” Supercharged Mini Cooper S is a load of fast fun and as close to a Mk1 GTI you can get in something newer. I’m told the turbo cars have even worse reliability! Participate at your own risk and with your eyes and wallet wide open.
 
#740 ·
21 tooth Odometergears.com replacement simply due to age crack. It was stopping randomly. I’m thankful someone still makes these! I remember replacing this on my silver Gti 30+ years ago because I didn’t know you were not supposed to hit the trip reset button while driving.
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#339 ·
I had my GTI's wheels done by a wheel shop for $700 when this service first became available. The wheels look great, but not perfect, and I learned some things for others to watch out for:

1) Make sure they cut the faces in one pass. On my wheels, the CNC lathe did one pass starting at the outer edge and another starting at center, and where the two meet in the middle, there is a slight ridge.

2) Any powdercoat where the tire bead rests needs be smooth as glass to get a good seal. Mine have dry/rough areas so my wheels will need sealant.

3) Make sure they don't lay the powdercoat too thick on the faces. On my wheels the cast numbers near the bolt holes can barely be discerned, and the clearcoat has some hazing/fogging on some of the the machined areas.

I wish I'd waited a bit for the industry's skills to mature a little more. I'd like to have mine redone again someday, but I don't know if there are rules about how much metal can be taken.
 
#430 ·
Even if the mount has failed, with no tension on the rubber, the bolt eye should be below the center line.
When the mount fails and sits long enough with the engine's weight on it, plus repeated heat cycles, the rubber will stay like that and appear upside down.

In any event, whether the old mount pictured or upside down or failed, the point is moot because it needs to be replaced either way. At that time, make sure the bolt hole is low in the ring with the mount bracket in the installed position.

People really struggle with this and there's no reason for it: the engine bears down on the ring, the bolt holds everything to the car's frame, you want the ring to start high so the engine's weight enters everything.
 
#439 ·
I’d call and verify if TT has the right HD mount in stock... I think they’ve been out for a while. I wasn’t aware there’s a HD left mount.

I considered BFI poly, for the sides, being that I didn’t want to mar my plated mount brackets. I decided against it, thinking it’d be too rough. I’m running TT HD right and rear, stock left and a Prothane front. I have no issues with the front poly. I also run them in diesels.

-Todd
 
#449 ·
If you don’t preload the poly, you shouldn’t have an issue. It’s almost a perfect fit in the cup, so it’s hard to leave any air gap.

If you want the rubber HD front, I’d call TT. I recall Collin telling me they had those made. I remember getting a TT HD from GAP, and it was marked HT (Hamburg Tech). I called TT and inquired... I was told they were knock off, and GAP likely had no clue. The others, I believe they just source; ie, the V HD is FEQ. You use what you can get...

Apparently, I don’t know right from left... I have the right S2 16v mount... been lazily looking for a left.

-Todd
 
#452 ·
Got the manifold and turbo separated. Turbo had more play than it should and can see the hot side wheel has just kissed the housing a bit. I’m thinking and Gavin agrees my babbitt in the oil was most likely from the turbo journal bearings. Otherwise the turbo was very clean minimal coking. Will send off for a rebuild likely to Rotomaster in AZ. Ordering new engine bottom end bearings, oil pump, water pump, seals and gaskets. Considering adding a mk3 aba wind age tray or a TT baffled oil pan with windage trays to keep the oil where it should be. Anyone use these or is it overkill?
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#463 ·
There are so many things, that comment could be linked to. I had a set of 15x8 ATS Cups in my cart, at tuner shop. I opted for the 7s, because I didn’t want to deal with fitment issues… I’d get the 8s, later. Shortly after, the mold broke and they went NLA.…

-Todd
 
#464 ·
Parts are starting to arrive. Love to see the delivery truck with unique stuff like this core support from David @fastbunnymetalwerks! Slim profile and HD; should fit perfectly with the intercooler without modifications.
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#470 ·
More cleaning today. Put in 5 hours cleaning up the trans and all the motor mounts and misc engine compartment items. Coming up really nice no painting needed so far. The only thing I might do now is get the exhaust manifold and downpipe blasted and coated with something.

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yes I’m cleaning all the bolts up; can’t just leave it 🤦!
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will be installing HD mounts even though all but the PS look fine.
 
#472 ·
More cleaning today. Put in 5 hours cleaning up the trans and all the motor mounts and misc engine compartment items. Coming up really nice no painting needed so far. The only thing I might do now is get the exhaust manifold and downpipe blasted and coated with something.

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yes I’m cleaning all the bolts up; can’t just leave it [emoji1751]!
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will be installing HD mounts even though all but the PS look fine.
Looking good!
 
#474 ·
On the trans I use Chris Fix method with Soapy Wooder and a brush then I follow up by blasting carefully with a pressure washer. I was very tempted to dust the trans with silver paint but decided to leave it natural. My car has very low miles so most things clean up well with just a bit of elbow grease or a wire wheel on the drill. On my M81 I soaked a lot of small dirty or rusty stuff in Evaporust which works really well but needs coating/painting or it will usually rust again fairly quickly.
 
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