Seeing as it’s now a bit of a panic to get the Golf on the road I took another half day from work! It got me away from audit stuff as well which was definitely a good thing!
As soon as I got home I had some lunch (a beef, cheese and mustard bagel if you’re interested) and then headed straight outside to crack on. First thing was to get the rear suspension swapped over. In a moment of thinking ahead the other day I had drenched the lower shock bolt in plus gas to help it free off. It worked and they came undone pretty easily
I had a couple of scary moments where HUUUUGGEEE spiders suddenly appeared while I was tucked up under the wheel arches but otherwise it all went nice and easily
With those fitted I decided to get the rear arch trims off and see what horrors met me underneath. They came off with a little persuasion and I was pleasantly surprised that the arches weren’t completely rotten. They are slightly crusty but a quick going over with a wire brush and some rust converter will sort them out ready for the GTi arch trims to go on
There was plenty of double sided foam tape and black sealant stuck to the arches so the heat gun came out and slowly but surely I got it all scraped off. I will admit it doesn’t look pretty but it’s all going to be covered up again so it’ll be fine.
The next job was to replace the rear light clusters. This took a whole five minutes including cleaning all the curse word off the body behind the old clusters
Once they were changed I got the back wheels back on and dropped it on the floor. The rear suspension needs to settle a bit but I’m very happy with the height
Another job I got done was to replace the front lower window seals. It was starting to get dark at this point so I forgot to take pictures, but I can promise you all that they look good and I’m happy with them haha.
Finally I got the front end up on stands, removed the front wheels and chucked them in the back of my BMW ready to take to work tomorrow. I’ve had two new tyres sitting there for a week and kept forgetting to take the wheels in so tomorrow is the day. Once they’re fitted the car can go for an MOT and see what else is required
As soon as I got home I had some lunch (a beef, cheese and mustard bagel if you’re interested) and then headed straight outside to crack on. First thing was to get the rear suspension swapped over. In a moment of thinking ahead the other day I had drenched the lower shock bolt in plus gas to help it free off. It worked and they came undone pretty easily
I had a couple of scary moments where HUUUUGGEEE spiders suddenly appeared while I was tucked up under the wheel arches but otherwise it all went nice and easily 
With those fitted I decided to get the rear arch trims off and see what horrors met me underneath. They came off with a little persuasion and I was pleasantly surprised that the arches weren’t completely rotten. They are slightly crusty but a quick going over with a wire brush and some rust converter will sort them out ready for the GTi arch trims to go on
There was plenty of double sided foam tape and black sealant stuck to the arches so the heat gun came out and slowly but surely I got it all scraped off. I will admit it doesn’t look pretty but it’s all going to be covered up again so it’ll be fine.
The next job was to replace the rear light clusters. This took a whole five minutes including cleaning all the curse word off the body behind the old clusters
Once they were changed I got the back wheels back on and dropped it on the floor. The rear suspension needs to settle a bit but I’m very happy with the height
Another job I got done was to replace the front lower window seals. It was starting to get dark at this point so I forgot to take pictures, but I can promise you all that they look good and I’m happy with them haha.
Finally I got the front end up on stands, removed the front wheels and chucked them in the back of my BMW ready to take to work tomorrow. I’ve had two new tyres sitting there for a week and kept forgetting to take the wheels in so tomorrow is the day. Once they’re fitted the car can go for an MOT and see what else is required
)