GolferGraeme
Member
- Messages
- 44
- Location
- Huddersfield
I'm about to attempt a full restoration on a mk2 Golf GTI I bought around 15 years ago. I'd always wanted one ever since my dad had one back in the 90s. The car came from Fleetwood near Blackpool. Black, 8v, small bumpers, it had around 100k miles and 3 owners from new. I paid £750.
Then around 3-4 months after getting it an old boy ran into me at a junction and damaged the front wing and bumper. We swapped details but he ******** off to Malta on holiday for 3 months without informing his insurance. 6 months later I finally got paid out, repaired the car myself and bought a lumpy cam and nice exhaust with the change.
But not long after that someone tried to nick it, not by simply lifting the lock with a bit of wire like any sensible car thief but by prising the door open with a crow bar. They didn't get the car but they did do lots of damage and as the car was no longer driveable it sat down the side of my parents house ever since.
Then around 3 years ago I finally got around to putting up a garage to fix it in. I'd collected up all kinds of nice bits for it over the years including a b-pillar cut from another Golf. I posted on here looking for advice ( https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/advice-needed-is-it-fixable.122713/ ) and received a great response, but the general consensus was that I was best leaving the b-pillar to an experienced welder and just tackle the less structurally significant stuff myself. I didn't much fancy my chances of welding upside down so I bought a roll over jig but I struggled getting it to spin in the garage. At this point I lost heart and sold the entire project off to a lady who knew the car when it was mint and had the skills and a unit with a proper compressor to fix it.
3 years on she's still not got round to doing anything with it, I'm pining for another mk2 to run as my daily driver and so she very kindly offers to let me buy it back AND use her unit to do the welding and painting. And I've since got friendly with a local chap who welds up and paints old cars for a living.
So stars aligned, I'm back on with it. First job, get all the underseal off. Which was every bit as much fun as everyone says it is. The good news for me is the car is 95% as solid as the day it left the factory. Lots and lots of little bits here and there, but mostly solid.
Given the age of the car and the fact that it's sat neglected for the last 15 years I think it's pretty impressive how well it's held up. Apparently mk2 Golfs are made from superior quality steel to mk3s, which is why mk3s tend to rust more even though they're newer and (mostly) share the same floorplan. In terms of the floor there's some rust crept in around the drain holes and studs, and a bit a damage from some malicious jacking. But the sills are very solid.
The worst bit are the (aero?) flaps that trail off the back of the floor pan. And around the nearby studs that can be deleted out; they're for a crossmember that sits under the exhaust in case it falls off but it's long since disappeared and I won't bother replacing it.
The boot area as also really solid. There's some jacking points/brackets that sit behind the wheel arches that are pretty bad but they can also be deleted out as they sit too tight to the rear valance to get a trolley jack on them. The bracket in the centre of the wheel well is for the fuel tank straps and VW still sell them for £15 so I'll change that. Lots of little patches here and there but thankfully it's mostly simple shapes.
There are a few areas that I'm not looking forward to though. Starting at the back, the area around the petrol filler cap - a notorious weak point on mk2 Golfs - being tucked up inside the arch and a less straight forward shape makes me think it will be tricky. Luckily VW Heritage do the bracket so that helps.
Then around 3-4 months after getting it an old boy ran into me at a junction and damaged the front wing and bumper. We swapped details but he ******** off to Malta on holiday for 3 months without informing his insurance. 6 months later I finally got paid out, repaired the car myself and bought a lumpy cam and nice exhaust with the change.
But not long after that someone tried to nick it, not by simply lifting the lock with a bit of wire like any sensible car thief but by prising the door open with a crow bar. They didn't get the car but they did do lots of damage and as the car was no longer driveable it sat down the side of my parents house ever since.
Then around 3 years ago I finally got around to putting up a garage to fix it in. I'd collected up all kinds of nice bits for it over the years including a b-pillar cut from another Golf. I posted on here looking for advice ( https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/advice-needed-is-it-fixable.122713/ ) and received a great response, but the general consensus was that I was best leaving the b-pillar to an experienced welder and just tackle the less structurally significant stuff myself. I didn't much fancy my chances of welding upside down so I bought a roll over jig but I struggled getting it to spin in the garage. At this point I lost heart and sold the entire project off to a lady who knew the car when it was mint and had the skills and a unit with a proper compressor to fix it.
3 years on she's still not got round to doing anything with it, I'm pining for another mk2 to run as my daily driver and so she very kindly offers to let me buy it back AND use her unit to do the welding and painting. And I've since got friendly with a local chap who welds up and paints old cars for a living.
So stars aligned, I'm back on with it. First job, get all the underseal off. Which was every bit as much fun as everyone says it is. The good news for me is the car is 95% as solid as the day it left the factory. Lots and lots of little bits here and there, but mostly solid.
Given the age of the car and the fact that it's sat neglected for the last 15 years I think it's pretty impressive how well it's held up. Apparently mk2 Golfs are made from superior quality steel to mk3s, which is why mk3s tend to rust more even though they're newer and (mostly) share the same floorplan. In terms of the floor there's some rust crept in around the drain holes and studs, and a bit a damage from some malicious jacking. But the sills are very solid.
The worst bit are the (aero?) flaps that trail off the back of the floor pan. And around the nearby studs that can be deleted out; they're for a crossmember that sits under the exhaust in case it falls off but it's long since disappeared and I won't bother replacing it.
The boot area as also really solid. There's some jacking points/brackets that sit behind the wheel arches that are pretty bad but they can also be deleted out as they sit too tight to the rear valance to get a trolley jack on them. The bracket in the centre of the wheel well is for the fuel tank straps and VW still sell them for £15 so I'll change that. Lots of little patches here and there but thankfully it's mostly simple shapes.
There are a few areas that I'm not looking forward to though. Starting at the back, the area around the petrol filler cap - a notorious weak point on mk2 Golfs - being tucked up inside the arch and a less straight forward shape makes me think it will be tricky. Luckily VW Heritage do the bracket so that helps.
- but a lot quicker than spending years rebuilding every single panel - and being disappointed when 5 years later rust returns, but hey ho everyone's different 
