Steve's '86 Jetta GLI

[SteveXs2]

CarDomain Site (http://www.cardomain.com/id/stevexs2)

Quite the W.I.P. By next spring it should look much nicer with the repainted hood and new rims/tires.

Coming up:

- Working Parking Brake, will be ordering brake from local VW dealership soon.

- Working speedometer. Friend of the family is a mechanic, he's gonna take a look at it.

- Winter tires with the rims from the old tires.

[jettadude]

smoke eh? time for a rebuild. i gotta do one soon prob 2. my car was beat before i got it. but your car is nice dud. heated leather!!! im jelous

[burn_your_money]

Sweet man. :D That looks like a really clean body. How is the suspension on it?
Keep us informed on when you get more/new pictures up.

[SteveXs2]

Suspension is surprisingly nice in the front, in the back though it's kinda soggy feeling.

[MKIIVR6]

I really like this shot. Looks good. 8) Is that a set of P-slot wheels on the back?

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/2/web/710000-710999/710262_2_full.jpg

[jettadude]

yea i really like the car

[Gotturbo]

bout time you got one! Have fun with it!!! :D

[SteveXs2]

I really like this shot. Looks good. 8) Is that a set of P-slot wheels on the back?

Yessir that is a single P-slot wheel on the back there. I have 3 more in the garage. I'll be putting my winter tires on my P-slot rims and in the summer I'll be getting something cool.

[Mr_Diesel]

Dude.... Get rims QUICK.

[jettadude]

yea i agree with cody. rims is a must. i think tear drops would look good. comments?

[burn_your_money]

Teardrops almost always look good, not the best, but definitly good.

[miamiDaveGLi]

ahhh nice score man RIMS RIMS !! lol :D

[SteveXs2]

I'll have P-slots on there all winter starting tomorrow most likely. Then in the summer if I still have the car I'll get something nicer. Started snowing today and my bare summer tires weren't exactly safe so...

[burn_your_money]

LOL yea bald summer tires in the winter are a really bad idea. I almost rear ended a bus on the highway last winter....

Are you thinking of selling the car or something?

[SteveXs2]

^ Probably after the winter I'll sell it. The only reason I bought a $300 beater is just because I so desperately need something to drive and so many people owe me money. I just bought Blizzaks for this for the winter (I drive up to the ski hill a lot) with the P-Slots on it. I'm gonna do some interior work over the winter, and then in the summer repaint the hood / rear and fill in some spots where the paint is badly chipped or scratched and then resell it.

[burn_your_money]

Oh yeah, thats cool. Try and make some money out of the deal?
What do you think you will buy?

[SteveXs2]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

[Gotturbo]

make it a TDI :twisted:

[Mr_Diesel]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

Cheap and A2 VR6 do not belong in the same sentence.

[GoodDayForADrive]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

Cheap and A2 VR6 do not belong in the same sentence.

Very true, those are pretty rare...

[SteveXs2]

I've seen one for $2,500 Canadian.

[burn_your_money]

I've seen one for 3500 but it was a bucket of rust

[SteveXs2]

The new, Plexiglass, Windows

So my old windows were broken and the stereo was stolen, so... here are my new plexiglass windows, thanks to my dad for basically doing 90% of the work, all I did was get out the old glass and help him with how much to sand off, a bit of help putting them in and then cutting off the protective plastic.

http://gethyped.net/stevepics/car/IMG_1686.jpg
Cutting the plexiglass.

http://gethyped.net/stevepics/car/IMG_1687.jpg
Finished project.

I like these windows, only cost me like $20 and the time it took us to put them in, and they de-fog faster than the glass windows. Only difference is that they scratch easily, will be harder to break and they look a bit different when fogged.

[GoodDayForADrive]

Sweet, that was a good idea dude.

[SteveXs2]

Yeah, I think so too.

BTW, new plan for this car, I'm basically gonna fix up the minor problems, ie; the things I can actually do since I'm not too great with mechanical stuff.

Gonna:

(maybe) repaint the hood
(maybe) repaint the rear between the tail lights
fix / paint the door handles
Clean the interior (and I mean clean everything)
Either patch the shift boot or buy a new one
Patch the back seats
New Speedo cable
Fix ebrake

Just basic fix up stuff so I can resell it in the spring and buy something nicer.

[Mr_Diesel]

I've seen one for $2,500 Canadian.

It's hard to find just a VR6 motor for that much.

[Calabi]

The finished product looks great. Well done.

Plexiglass can be difficult to work with sometimes, though, since it melts near the blade on the saw. Look excellent on your car.

[SteveXs2]

^ My dad bought a new blade for that saw just for cutting through the plastic. But when we sanded it down in places to make up for difficulties in putting the plexiglass in it would melt very slightly but still have a clean edge.

But yeah, the back window the plexiglass is a tiny bit too small, so far no leaks though.

[MKIIVR6]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

You can have mine for $4000.00. Maybe.

[Mr_Diesel]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

You can have mine for $4000.00. Maybe.

Dubbaya tee eff mayte?


(side note: How's that......... New GLI going for you?)

[MKIIVR6]

^ Yeah, I'll really clean it up and try and make a half decent profit on it.

My next car will either can an A3 Jetta or Golf or I'll try and find a cheap A2 with a VR6.

You can have mine for $4000.00. Maybe.

Dubbaya tee eff mayte?


(side note: How's that......... New GLI going for you?)

I'll post up some pics soon. :lol:

[SteveXs2]

^ $4000, wow, that's a super sick price for your car. Is that with or w/out the stereo? I'm assuming w/out. But.. hmm... I'd probably spend loads on freight & such so i dunno, if you still have the car next spring and are interested in selling it i might get it off you.

[2002maniac]

(side note: How's that......... New GLI going for you?)

Yeah we wanna see pics! Sam told us it was pretty nice

[burn_your_money]

I like the window's man. If you ever want mine again, the offer still stands.

[SteveXs2]

More Updates:

This weekend I painted the front of my hood "Nissan Charcoal Pearl" which is almost an exact match to the blue-ish colour of my car. If I have an extra money I'm likely going to get the colour of my car mixed at this local place which will last pretty long, and do the entire hood, and trunk. I'm also going to do all the bottom parts of the car which are super chewed up from rocks, I might do it flat black, not sure yet.

I also armour-alled the plastic pieces on the car during actual good weather, so it should hopefully last longer now. I'm contemplating taking it all of, sanding 'em down a bit and painting them the colour of the car.

Next up, I might be re-upholstering the back seat, 1/2 black leather, 1/2 other black stuff. If it turns out well, I'll take out the passenger side and do that, then stick that one in the driver's side and re-do the driver's side.

Next, one of my back doors now works. I managed to get the bolts off the lock on the rear-left door and soaked it in WD-40 for a while. Then I put it back on and it worked! I'm hopefully going to get the rear-right door done next, but the bolts are jammed in there tight. Have WD in there for now, hoping for the best.

Finally, I'm painting the door panels, or will be soon. Just need to find the right primer for it.

To sum it up, my car looks much better. I don't have the money for any performance stuff but I'm going to clean the engine and, depending on if I decide to leave town for University next year, I may spring for a cold air intake.

[SteveXs2]

Again from the same day:

A set of old speakers from my house were too old for our home audio setup (turn 'em up loud and they'd cut in an out and frap), so the woofer is a bit disintegrated in one of them, but I was interested to see how one of 'em would sound hooked up to my deck, so I did it...

HELL YES!

I've finally got some chrisp, clear bass in my car. I've got the vertical offset set to -5 with fade at -8 or so, so a lot of the power is going to the speaker, so the 5 1/4s I have mounted in the dash aren't stressing like before when I turned it up.

I've got both sets of wires that were going to the back speaker now going to the new speaker, so I'm not 100% if it's even really effective but it still sounds great.

The speaker is one of the big, old home audio ones, like 1970s or so. It's got an 8" subwoofer, approx 4" mid and approx 2" tweeter. The mid and tweeter are in great shape and the sub is decent.

I'm thinking, if I get some money, I might get a cheap dual channel amp from canadian tire and get two of these old speakers and set them up in the trunk, so I'd basically be running 6 speakers.

I'll get some photos when I'm done with the interior of my car.

[MKIIVR6]

I am looking forward to seeing the pictures. :)

[jettadude]

wow. nice :lol: you rock :D

[SteveXs2]

http://www.cab9.net/sp/jetta.jpg
Updated Photo ^ (May 17, 2005)


EDIT: Moved Photo

[GoodDayForADrive]

I can't seem to see the pic :-\

[SteveXs2]

I cleaned out my nasty headlight today. I wasn't even planning on doing this but some time in the last couple days one of the bulbs in my headlight blew up, so I figured, since I was going to replace the bulb and would need to go down to my parts car to get the bulb, I may as well just take the headlight itself out and clean it up.

Here's a before shot:
http://www.cab9.net/sp/jetta/hl01.jpg
You can see the line of water looking orange because it corroded a screw in there.

Here's the headlight after I got it open:
http://www.cab9.net/sp/jetta/hl02.jpg
Gross...

Here's the final result:
http://www.cab9.net/sp/jetta/hl03.jpg
I didn't pay attention while taking the photo, but one headlight is in full shadow while the other isn't. If the light were even you could see that the driver's side light is better than the passenger side now.

Looks like I've got something to do after work tomorrow :P

[sausageburner]

looks a hell of alot better!

[jettadude]

yea very nice. do they work better?

[MKIIVR6]

That is cool you can clean those up. Those new from the dealer or parts stores here are around $140 american bucks. However I've scored one on ebay for around $40.00.

[SteveXs2]

A little more updateage:

Since the Jetta went kaput, I've been trying to decide whether to sell it for parts or fix it up, and after driving my Laser around for a while I've decided I want to fix up the Jetta while trying to sell the Laser.

So... as a start, today I:

- Removed the Radiator
- Removed the Rad Support
- Started pulling some plugs & labelled them with masking tape
- Got a book from the library
- Drained all the coolant.

With any luck and spare time (I've got lots right now, school's out and I'm working my old job until my new one starts in two weeks), I should have the engine of the car out sometime this week. It'll probably just be sitting in my driveway. We've had great weather lately, but I'll have to find something to cover it up while I work on it.

Anyway, should hopefully find out what's wrong and.. if that can't be fixed, a new engine will need to be found.

I'll post more stuff as I near completion. This is in the making:

- Custom Door Cards up front
- Paint... everywhere. Total repaint with that Tremclad roller method
- New windshield
- Low profile tires on (possibly) polished P-slots
- (Possibly) new exhaust from the downpipe on

[burn_your_money]

What exactly happened to your engine?
The easiest way to remove an engine is to remove the head first. It gives you lots of room to get to the CVs

[SteveXs2]

The story was a leak started one morning, seems to be around where the oil filter screws on. Anyway, because my car never leaked oil there were no spots on the driveway or anything to give a hint of a problem, just one cold morning it started to leak without me knowing it.

So, I pulled out of my driveway (still clueless at this point) and drove over to my friend's house to pick him up and go skiing. So... about 10 minutes later we're on our way out of town when my oil light comes on and stays on. So, having never had this happen before and knowing my oil was topped up, I pulled over to the nearest gas station and bought a litre of oil and poured it in. There was no oil where I parked so I was guessing the sensor was just buggered.

Kept driving, oil light came on later but the car was not losing power, not getting really hot, and the lifters weren't clicking and more than they usually did. Made it to the top of the ski hill just fine.

Later in the day, my parents showed up (they don't ski/board, so it was weird) and my dad had 4 litres of oil for me and said that my friend's dad called to say that I left a big oil spot in his driveway. So, we went out to my car and saw no oil in the snow but still poured oil into the engine until the dipstick said full and figured because I made it up, I should be able to make it down.

Drove down the ski hill road, onto the highway, noticed a huge loss in power which sketched me so I pulled over to see oil coming out in a steady, thin stream and the lifters clicking like mad. I poured in a bunch more oil and got off the highway and pulled over for good and called my dad.

At this time, the engine was still fine. So, my dad showed up and I fired up the car (after putting more oil in) so he could get a hear, then when I went to move it it started having this real sharp clunking noise like someone beating on it with a wrench, so I pulled it over for good and towed it home.

When I get the engine out, I'll see what went wrong with it. If it's not something that can be replaced then I'll likely be on the hunt for a new engine.

As it is right now, I got a call from a guy who's very interested in my Plymouth Laser and I figure he'd be a good guy to sell it to because he knows his ****. Only problem is that I'm probably going to lose MORE money because he didn't read the sign on the back of the car where it states the sub & amp aren't included in the price ($300 extra) but saw that they were there and I didn't really get the chance to butt in and say they're not included.

I don't work at all tomorrow or thursday morning so I'm hoping to get some progress. If things are looking good engine-wise, I may go and find the stuff I'll need for that $50 paint job :D

[SteveXs2]

I'm hoping someone is reading this because I don't want to start a new topic:

Can I run a digifant II engine in my jetta while still using CIS-E?

http://www.vintagewatercooleds.com/tech/Techtips/Timbotechnotes/Enginetable/Engines.htm is the site I'm using for engine codes, and my car is an RD engine code, while the junkyard I went to today only has a 1.8L engine with RV engine code which is in an '88 Jetta.

The engine specs are very similar, so what kind of things make the two engines different? I don't know anything about fuel injection specifications, but assuming the engines have the same connections, what's to stop one from being compatible on another?

If anyone can shed some light on this situation; thanks in advance.

[burn_your_money]

I remeber your story now. I think you'll need a new engine.
As far as digi to cis-e I think the only differance is the sensors and the ECU. Just use whatever sensors are currently in the car and install the new engine. I don't think you'll have any problems.

[SteveXs2]

Awesome, if I can pull the engine out of my Jetta (bolts are soooo seized) I'm going to see what the junkyard wants for that '88 engine and maybe take it home. I know the owner of the junkyard a bit, he's a friend of mine's dad, so I'm assuming he'd give me a good deal. He towed my '88 golf I had for parts for free as well as didn't charge me to take it because I took some photos of his daughter's dance thing and, well, this saturday I'm off to take more of those dance photos. He's a good guy so I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.

[burn_your_money]

That's good to hear that you might get a deal on it.
On a mk2 I find the easiest way to remove the engine is to remove stuff in the following order
rad support
bumper
wiring
coolant crap
fuel lines
head
CVs
tranny mount
passanger side mount
then put a jack under the engine and remove the front crossmembers etc
Raise the jack (get someone to help balance the engine), raise the jack.Push your car backwards and your engine will be removed.
Don't forget to support your cvs once they are removed from the tranny. If you get all the bolts out but they stay attatched to th tranny tap them with the butt end of a hammer and they'll pop off.
When pulling the tranny off the engine make sure you pull it straight off, you don't want to bend the main shaft.

[SteveXs2]

^ Thanks.

Today I just bought a "Northwest Buy it or Sell It" and found a 1995 Golf 2dr for $4,000obo. Considering where I live this is a pretty good price and it's located only a couple blocks from where I live so I'm going to contact the owner and go take a look at it.

The reason for the higher-than-usual price is because we didn't get a VW dealership here in town until around 1999 I think. Because of that, MkIIs and MkIIIs are very rare here because the nearest VW dealership is a 7 hour drive away so no one would buy VW because they couldn't get them serviced.

So, this is the least expensive MkIII I've seen so far except for the $3,500 stealership POS '93 Jetta. Other than that, there's a '93 Jetta with 53,000km on it (30,000 miles) for sale but it's $7,000 and I can't spend that much.

If I sell my car and buy this golf, I guess me Jetta will be sold for parts rather than get an engine.

I should be able to sell my seats to another VW enthusiast.. they're sooooo nice.

[burn_your_money]

That seems like a good price depending on condition. Did it say what engine was in it?
Since you own a mk2 I'd recommend th engine swap and sell it whole. You'll probably make more money, and learn a good bit. If you fail then sell it in parts

[SteveXs2]

Ok, so I'm sooooo stoked right now.

I went to check out the '95 Golf and it turns out it's a CL, but oh well. From what I could gather in the 5 mins I spent looking at it in the rain:

- Interior is MINT! Seat covers have been on it for the majority of its life
- 180,000km (110,000 miles or so)
- 5 speed manual
- Black paint.
- One small rust spot in wheel well, one inside the car where the door sits
- 2 owners. Lady til 60,000km, this guy since then
- The guy works in a neighbouring city so the majority of km put on this car have been going to and from there. It's extremely common for people to live in this city, and it's usually promising on their vehicles when they do becuase the highway is very tame and the climate is nice.
- Exhaust is quiet. Sounds like the car needs a tune up though
- 3/4 tires are good. Comes with winters.
- All lights are good
- Rims (Orlandos) are in good shape.
- The owner was very confident in showing me the car. He wasn't one of those guys that sounds like he's faking and trying to hide things from you, he didn't seem nervous, he was more like "yeah i'll get a day permit and we can take it out.", "you wanna check the lights and stuff?".

I'm going to look at it again this sunday and am hoping to sell the laser on monday. I need to see it when it's sunny outside to get a good idea on the condition of the paint, pouring rain hides imperfections well.

Overall, I'm soooooooooo stoked on this. I remember a couple months ago just wishing I could get a MkIII Golf because there's something about them that really appeals to me. Now, as soon as I find a potential buyer for my car I find a potential replacement car. On sunday the owner is going to get a 1-day permit so we can take it for a spin.

STOKED!

[burn_your_money]

Take some pictures for us :D

[SteveXs2]

Well, everything's a no-go right now. The guy who was interested in buying my car can't now because he has a bad hip and can't drive a standard because of that. He said he really wanted it, and if it were an automatic he'd buy it. ****!

Oh well, the Golf wasn't as special as I was hoping, either. Mechanically it was in great shape but it had some rust, the brakes were bad, it had a wobble (most likely the one really bad tire) and the door pins for the driver's side were ****ed. I'd probably still prefer it over the laser but that doesn't even matter anymore because the laser doesn't have a potential buyer!

Damnit!

[burn_your_money]

Fix the Jetta

[SteveXs2]

^ Good idea... I jsut wish I could find a very low mileage engine for this car because, to be honest, I'm worried of getting something in there that's not going to last. When I go off to school I'm go to have no tools, no garage, and more importantly, no disposable income.

What kind of things can be done to the engine when it's out of the car to help ensure it'll last when it's in the car? I can guess oil pan gasket, head gasket, valve cover gasket (can be done any time i guess) and gaskets for the intake/exhaust manifolds, but anything else?