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Finished off the boot cables - drilled the bolt hole in the right side of the chassis, the cable end holes in the boot grp, and the cable holes in the boot latch brackets. It was all then put together and tested out, and it seems ok.
The rear light cables were then tidied and wrapped up for extra protection.
6/4/2003
Polished the body between the roll hoops, and fitted the domed
stainless bolts to stop it moving around, after adding in some extra
packing rubber as it seems that its all moved a bit. Also polished the
windscreen frame and scuttle next to the windscreen.
Finished off the starter circuit wiring, as there were a couple of little bits left to sort out.
Sanded down the front left wing with 800 to 1500 paper.
Rubbed down and polished the platic drainpipe front indicator mounting blocks (which really improves the finish), and polished the front inner wings.
8/4/2003
Started rubbing down the front left wing with compound, but found that
there were still a lot of scratches left from the sanding, so I re-did
it all with some new 1500 paper which definitely improved things when
I did a bit more with the compound.
9/4/2003
Finished off rubbing down the top of the wing, and did around the
headlight.
12/4/2003
Sorted out the brake warning light with illuminated symbol, which is
fitted on the left side of the dash next to the headlight switch. I
don't know for certain that it is needed as well as the plain red
warning LED, but its certainly easier to sort it out now rather than
later. The mounting hole was drilled in the dash, and it was wired in
and tested using the handbrake switch.
As the finish on the dash still isn't quite right even after rubbing it down with some interior car polish, I tested a bit of diluted black gloss paint on a bit that won't be visible to see what it turns out like. The problem is that thick paint would probably end up filling in the leather/vinyl pattern in the gelcoat, so its more of a thin black covering that is needed.
Polished the right rear wing and fitted the filler neck.
Cut and glued bits of rubbed onto the front inner wheelarches where I had to cut sections out to give clearance to the wishbones.
The wooden blocks that were cut to use as clamps to hold the carpet in place under the dash got in the way of the relays when they are fitted to the dash, so the middle clamp was chopped up and shaped to give better access to the relays.
Rubbed down the bodywork around the front left indicator.
13/4/2003
Wound up the front spring platforms after they had been slackened off
to change the lower wishbone bolts, fitted the wheels and dropped it
to the ground for the first time in yonks. It happens every single
time, but you never realise how low it is until its on its wheels.
As the plan is to get the engine running again next weekend, the now fully assembled coolant system needed filling. As it has been left dry for well over a year, and some of it has been left open for a while (though I had tried to keep all of it covered up), I wanted to flush any rust/dust/etc. out first, so filled it up with plain water and left it to soak for a few hours.
As the paint seems to have worked alright on the dash, I painted the whole lower section, and filled in some bits on the bonnet where the gelcoat is very thin or not there. I also painted the engine number white and then rubbed it down so that its much more visible.
Wheeled the car outside, drained the coolant system by undoing the large hose from the water pump, flushed it through a few times, and then filled it back up with proper coolant.
The alternator and heatshield were fitted again, and foam strips were applied to the edges of the airbox to create an airtight seal.
Fitted the airbox backplate (with some blue Hylomar around the carb mounting faces) along with 2 of the trumpets. These are very awkward to fit due to them being fully radiussed and very short, so there isn't much space to fit and tighten up the nut. The 3rd trumpet was even more hassle, as the lower stud ended up turning with the nut, so had to be removed and put back in with some more threadlock.
14/4/2003
Finally managed to get the 3rd trumpet fitted after a huge amount of
hassle, and then the 4th one went on no problem. Checked that the
airbox still fits on, and trimmed the lower edge of it where it is
folded under the front carb to give more chassis rail clearance.
15/4/2003
Painted the rest of the dash with diluted paint, and then had a look
at the front of the engine as there were a few drops of water on the
floor. It turned out that these were coming from around the thermostat
housing, which ages ago had been put on using some instant gasket
sealant as well as the paper gasket provided with the new
thermostat. I tried tightening the bolts of the housing to see if that
would make it stop, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
Further investigation with a mirror and light (as the chassis rails in front of the engine get in the way of having a decent look) showed that the water was oozing out from around the edges of the housing, and it also looked like there was a hairline crack above the lower bolt that was leaking as well. Without removing it its pretty much impossible to tell exactly what is wrong, but it will need to come off to reseal it anyway...
16/4/2003
Drained the coolant to the level of the thermostat housing, and then
removed it from the engine and the 2 hoses. Well, it definitely is
cracked just above the lower bolt, which means I'll have to get a
replacement. It doesn't go all the way across the casting, but it does
go all the way through to the water which is the main problem. I don't
remember it leaking the last time the engine had water in, so its
either just got worse since then, or got cracked since then.
18/4/2003
Finally decided what to do about covering the insides of the
windscreen surround - bits of alloy shaped to fit the uprights and
riveted to the tubular supports, and a hacked up version of the
kit-supplied grp insert for the top. Due to the shape of the grp and
the position of the support pipes, the left side panel could sit flush
against the pipe, but on the right side the grp sticks up past the
pipe near the bottom, so a small bracket has to be used as a spacer,
with the bracket fitted to the pipe and the panel fitted to the
bracket.
The boot catches were fitted to the backing plates with threadlock.
19/4/2003
Another trip to the scrappy to pick up a replacement thermostat
housing, along with some spare indicator flasher relays. Early Golfs
were the only cars that I could find a 3-pin relay in, so they are
either hidden or done totally differently for all other cars.
The housing was cleaned up and degreased, then filed/sanded/polished the lower side where it sits close to the fanbelt. The casting on this one is much lumpier than the duff one (which wasn't spotted until now), so it wasn't possible to get as smooth a finish on it, but it should be good enough.
The mounting face on the head was cleaned up, removing all of the engine paint around the area, and the remaining bits of old gasket and sealant, and the thermostat was fitted in the housing.
Tested the flasher relays and it was all ok, including the original one. The battery was used this time, so the problem might have been overloading the fairly small power supply I was using last time. It was fine for the 4 brake lights, and one side of indicators, but the 6 at once must have just been too much for it...
Tried to work out fitting some springs to make the bonnet pop up when released, but nothing obvious came to mind and I didn't find any decent springs in the scrappy anyway. Ground out more from bulkhead bolt head recesses on the back of the bonnet, as its still touching a bit which makes the bonnet stick after its released.
21/4/2003
To try and improve the fit of the insert in the top of the windscreen
surround, I spend a while scraping off the lumpy edge on the rear of
the surround, and then sanded off the paint so that when the inserts
are glassed in they have something to stick to.
22/4/2003
Cut and shaped some wooden blocks which were used to support the upper
windscreen surround inserts, as neither the surrounds or the inserts
are flat and they don't sit flush by themselves. The blocks were then
stuck to the inserts with some resin, left to cure, and then stuck to
the surround with more resin. The front of the insert was glassed
over, as it sits next to the flat edge that supports the glass.
The thermostat housing was fitted with a new gasket and some blue hylomar, just to make sure that it doesn't start leaking this time. The coolant was refilled, the engine was turned over with the plugs out, but it turned out that the battery was almost flat and struggled to turn the engine over at all when the plugs were put back in. So, on with the charger, but this only wanted to trickle charge the battery (which was down to 12.3V). Its all a bit strange, as I put the battery on the charger for a few hours before it was fitted, so it was just left on charge overnight anyway. Fitted the boot catches to the chassis. The left petrol tank made it awkward to fit the left catch, so I should have fitted it before the tank...
23/4/2003
I checked the battery just before going to work, and without the
charger attached it was 13.4V, but in the evening it was down to 13.2V
even though it had been left to charge all day. The engine was turned
over a couple of times, but it was very slow like yesterday, so I
checked the battery again and it had fallen to 12.5V which isn't a
good sign. Tried a few more times but it never turned over quick
enough to start and was slowing down anyway, so it looks like I've got
a knackered battery unfortunately.
When I bought it (fairly cheap), my brother got one at the same time for his tin-top (same make, but different size and shape), which stopped working about a year ago. His was used on a regular basis, so the fact that mine has sat around a lot without doing much (though I have charged it up every few months or so) probably doesn't help either.
A second layer of glass was put on the right side of the upper windscreen surround.
24/4/2003
Put the front of the car back on axle stands, removed the front left
wheel, and took out the battery. It had managed to get up to 12.6V
after being left alone for a day, and the fluid levels in it were
fine.
Marked and drilled bolt holes in the alloy windscreen pillar covers for the wing mirror bolts, and started to figure out whether its worth glassing over this bit underneath the alloy covers to add a bit more strength.
25/4/2003
Tried the battery again but it was no better. When it was put on
charge again it accepted 2A, so maybe it just needed a couple of
charge/discharge cycles to wake up properly.
Drilled holes in the lhs windscreen pillar cover to go over the rivets which hold the flat metal plates to the top of the windscreen support tubes, and marked and drilled the mounting holes in both covers.
26/4/2003
Drilled out matching rivet holes in the top of the rhs cover, and then
marked/drilled the mounting holes in the support pipes. To hopefully
increase the strength of the windscreen pillars, I decided it was
worth glassing over the tubes so that they are more firmly attached to
the grp, so the paint was rubbed off the grp and tube before it was
glassed over twice with some woven matting.
As the previous coat of paint was just a bit too thin, the dash was touched up in places with a thin application of undiluted paint.
The header tank and crankcase breather hoses were loosely attached to the rocker box clips with some sticky backed foam added to help protect them.
By the evening, the battery was still charging, but down to 1A, so it had taken quite a lot in.
27/4/2003
The battery was down to a trickle in the morning, so it was fitted and
managed to turn the engine over much quicker this time. I tried it a
few times (with the fuel pump disconnected) to see if slowed down
much, but it stayed alright. It was put back on charge and accepted 2A
straight away, which went down to a trick in a couple of hours, so it
seems like its recovered.
Further shaping of the alloy covers to fit over the new grp that was added, and then they were both fitted. I ended up having to remove the left cover to drill a bigger hole behind lower alloy spacer bracket, as the rivet was just a bit too long and ended up being stuck in the pipe as well as the bracket.
Paper templates were made for carpet around the windscreen frame. Cut and shaped the side carpet sections to fit, and shaped the rear edge of the top section to fit into groove between the bodywork and the grp insert.
29/4/2003
Finished shaping the top windscreen carpet section.
30/4/2003
Ground and chopped out some of the grp insert next to the central
mirror mount, as there wasn't enough clearance to fit the carpet and
the mirror. Finished marking and grinding out bolt head recesses in
the rear edge of bonnet.
Total hours this month -
70.0
Total build hours -
1799.5
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