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Topic: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v... (Read 23208 times) previous topic - next topic

Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

With the 205 nearing completion (well as complete as any old car can be), I thought I'd resurrect the MK2 thread so as to be able to recommence it when I move over to it next...

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #1 –
Sunday afternoon, summer's over and it's drizzling outside...

Going to start a general thread on my 1992 8v that's currently sitting neglected in the garage, and has been since 2010'ish.

Every 18 months or so I get the energy to do something, but it's usually nothing major and she's still more or less as I got her all those years ago.

Too ashamed at her current state to let you see any photo's just yet. I'm probably going to regret this but publicly humiliating myself on a forum might be what it'll take to get me to remove the finger.

Hasn't stopped my wishful thinking though, that some day she'll move and I still buy bits every so often as I find them.

Anyhow these arrived on Friday, hence my latest renewed interest... hope it lasts!



Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #2 –
Had to start somewhere so for no other reason that it was sitting at the front of the parts pile I'd a go at re-texturing and painting the rear bumper cover.

Early on I decided I was going to try and do as much work as possible myself, partly because I'm tight but also to try and pick up some experience on the way.

The cover wasn't in bad shape to start with which was a big help, just some parking scratches.

The main issue was the unpainted black upper part had gone grey and no amount of dressing on it worked.

I used Halfords 'Truck bed liner paint' and even I do say so myself, it created a perfect match and came up a treat.

Difficult to get a decent picture, you'll have to take my word that side by side with the front cover it's virtually indistinguishable in the flesh.

The un-preped front cover is on the right in one of the images below

The white lower part also came up well, some more polishing and I'll be happy.

Rubbed down, primer and painted the cross-member/irons even though they'll (hopefully) never be seen again.









Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #3 –
Saying as the back bumper's ready I was concentrating on tidying up the boot area before putting it back on.

You might remember eddypeck found a guy in Germany doing replacement boot stickers and that I got some sent over -



http://www.vwgolfmk2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47591

There's another smaller 'paint inspection' sticker on the same panel. 



Had a go at replicating it myself since the original is in bad shape.

Seemed a waste of a whole sheet of adhesive paper just for a single sticker so printed off a few spares.



Looks like whoever applied the original initialed it in pen, not exact but close enough!

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #4 –
Zender fetish strikes again... Like a lot of their more mundane bits, probably made by someone else and packaged for them, but when you're smitten that's not the point!





Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #5 –
Not much in the bigger scheme of things but sorted out some cosmetic rust around the lip of the fuel tank inspection hole and replaced some of the foam bits around the boot area that had turned to dust over the years.

Just used the type that you'd find in the packing for electronics and the like, cut to shape and fixed with double sided tape.

The bit on the connector that leads to the sender on my car was wrapped around it, so I did the same. I've seen images of others that have the square pad laid flat over it, stuck to the boot floor. Guessing it depended on who originally put it on?





Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #6 –
Although my car was registered in January 1992 the boot stickers seem to indicate it was manufactured in late August 1991.

When I was sorting out the space saver and jack kit I noticed the steel rim is stamped 11/88, which seems quite a long time to be stock piling parts before use

I've no reason to doubt the wheel isn't original to the car, it's unused and there's a 'mirror image' impression of the tyre face on the underlying boot floor and sound deadening. The rest of the car is standard and has nothing missing.

I though I might have been able to date the tyre in case it was made closer to 1991 but none of the numbers on it tally with the DOT format that would allow it. Apparently it's a three digit number for a pre-2000 tyre that gives the month and year of manufacture.

It's presumably a MK2 part as it's got the 191 number.

Having said that it's 14", not 15" and even with the tyre height added is significantly lower in diameter when stood against the standard rim.

I'm guessing it's likely universal items would span different models and versions so the jack having a 155 part number, (MK1 Cabriolet?) and the brace a 171 MK1 number isn't a reliable indicator.

The plastic housing has a 191 number which the jack and other bits all fit perfectly plus there's a schematic of it molded inside that seems to match the style.

So the question is - Are the spare wheel and jack kit likely to be those that came with the car?



















 

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #7 –
The user manual's a 1991 print so should be accurate.

There's three relevant images and they're a mix of your type of jack/holder and the type I have, so looks like it's for the car OK.







The manual also lists the various bits in the kit so I'm happy everything is there but it would still be interesting to know if other models/markets had tools that went into these empty slots...





Did you notice your image shows the square foam pad that protects the connector to the sender, stuck flat to the floor... maybe it was done differently on later models?

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #8 –
Getting to the point were I can start to put bits back on the rear end, so tried giving the tail lights a polish.

They weren't that bad to start with, more dull than scratched,

They came up pretty well I thought, big improvement for not much effort.

Before...



After...

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #9 –
Things are starting to get anal now...





Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #10 –
My good intentions came to nought yet again, and I've done exactly nothing to the car since the end of last year.

As said before the occasional new find prompts renewed interest... Got these in Poland, already had the gauge holder.

In reality the angled apertures make no discernible visible difference when the gauges are fitted.

Last piccie is from a 1988 dealers catalogue.















Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #11 –
Turning into a steering wheel wh***!

Picked this Nardi / Personal up less its badge, but with a genuine 81/85 Audi 80 hub which just so happens to also fit most small spline VW's.

Found an original Audi badge of eBay.de plus as luck would have it the VW GTI version, they're the exact same wheel otherwise.







Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #12 –
Was in the loft last night looking for something I thought might do the Pug and found this way at the back.

I'd noticed the box before, but thought it was empty and for a 'normal' deflector I've in the garage for the MK2... turns out it wasn't!

I must have bought this a very, very long time ago, possibly from a guy in Poland. He'd one of those one page websites you sometimes still find that look like they were done in the 80's for an arcade game.

It was like going back in time and finding a car factors that'd been closed for decades, but still stocked up. The NOS stuff he had was unbelievable.

Just had a Google and it's possible 'Airpress' have since morphed into the current day 'Climair'.

Judging from the sticker on the box and the cars the deflector was intended for I'd say this was possibly a mid to late 80's item. The idea behind the flaps seems sound enough, be interesting to see if they work in practice.

Definitely going onto the MK2.











Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #13 –
GTI-Engineering Dash Gauge... Originally a post of it's own, including it here before it's lost on the old forum -

GTI-Engineering offered a single dash mounted gauge to compliment some of their conversions.

Below is an image from the 1990 catalogue and another filched from the inter-web of it in someones car -







Had toyed with the idea of doing it for my own, even got some of the bits, but it involves a certain amount of cutting to the dash clock surround and I now want to keep things original.

Might buy a spare surround and finish it, you never know!

The hand brake light warning lamp's from a US spec Golf/Jetta, hence the 'BRAKE' script in addition to the symbol. Must be a version out there with the symbol only (if it's in the pics), be interesting to know.





The new gauge surround is a VDO item but intended for their marine clocks. Some come in 52mm just like the automotive ones.

Main difference is the aperture is smaller than 52mm because it's meant to be fitted over the bezel of the marine gauge, not have the gauge slide into it, presumable to help keep it waterproof, like so...



I'm guessing it's closer to 51mm so easily enlarged with a Dremmel or similar to get this...



As you only need the handbrake symbol to illuminate I took apart the whole thing and these two connections run it, the rest are redundant.

I snipped off the remainder to allow the plug to fully insert into the US housing.









They're the correct spacing and size to allow your existing plug to connect, so no cutting wires is needed.





The dash surround will be easy to modify as the area the gauge will fit into is mainly thin air anyway.

The left hand side of the hand brake light panel will need cut down to allow the gauge room, again shouldn't be too difficult.

The new surround could be fixed with screws from behind, the enlarged aperture turned out to be a snug fit and will hold the gauge without any help, but you could also use the normal 'U' bracket if it's loose. I've just mocked it up here to give you an idea...

Re: 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #14 –
Clock surround arrived today and seems to be in excellent shape, with the added bonus of having the red symbol panel.

I tried to take images as I went along, but not having two pairs of hands it meant some of the stages didn't get pictured, however I'm sure you'll get the idea from what is there.

I used a combination of a very fine toothed modellers saw, a Dremel with the cutting disc attachment and various small files plus some fine sand paper, so nothing unusual is needed.

The red panel face comes away from the white body when you remove the 8 x fixing points on the rear. They're just the ends of the pegs from the red part, melted flat into recesses in the white body. Being brittle plastic they'll snap off easily but still leave enough of the peg to later re-position the red face correctly.

Made working on the two bits so much easier when apart.

As before, it's not difficult but very, very easy to break something you didn't want to.

There's probably variations on how to do this but this way seems to preserve the rigidity of the clock surround and symbol panel.

The last remaining tang on the panel body is enough to hold things tight but I'll likely add a blob of adhesive to the other end where it slips into the clock surround.

Next stage will be fixing the VDO gauge surround, it's just mocked up at the moment... leaning towards small screws from the rear, but we'll have to wait and see, Saturday night's Bacardi night and a steady hand's needed!