It was early December and I'd been carless since July at this stage and tbh really felt like I was taking the p*** with borrowing my Dad's car. The problem was that I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy and budget was pretty tight. I'm not a diesel fan but I saw an ad for a very cheap '03 CLK270 with quite a bit of tax which was being sold "trade". I had never owned a 5 pot and diesel Mercs are meant to be good so I made another great bad decision and bought it with an exhaust leak, battery drain, and the infamous black death. It was, however, in remarkably good condition with very little rust, clean interior and had new tyres.
I drove it straight to the workshop as the fumes in the cabin were horrendous and saw that the black death was pretty bad. Luckily I had an injector puller from a mis-step with the only dead Volvo D5 in the world and the job wasn't too bad. In the end, I put on a new exhaust, new brakes, fixed the black death, full service and pressed it into service as a new daily. We were now up to 7 cars, but 1 worked - great success!
Now that I had gotten the CLK on the road, and the welding done on the Golf, my mojo was high so I continued with the Golf, I cut out the rear beam bushes which were original and rotted in there so it was a massive pita and was a huge relief when I got them out without damaging the beam and offered up the new ones:
My press had arrived but it was clear it would be no use for this. So I rigged up this contraption made from: old strut mount, remains of control arm bearing, some box section, old brake pads, some m12 bar, bolts and washers:
It worked like an absolute charm from just scrap I had lying around the shed. Small things like this are a real mojo boost for me.
While I was doing this work, it dawned on me that I hadn't ordered any brake parts. As it was completely clear that the MOT had been bent for years on this car, I decided as well that the brakes needed to be completely updated so another order went in for pretty much all new braking system:
Brake Power Reg
Rear discs pair
Front discs pair
Front pads
rear pads
brake hoses
Rear Calipers
New brake lines
Front caliper rebuild kit
Another mojo boost is fitting new parts! Cleaned up the beam, painted it and fitted the new brakes to the beam ready for fitment:
And the shocks were built up
While the beam was out, I primed all the areas that needed paint so it all looked nice and shiny when it went on the car:
New shocks and brakes onto the front:
The car was pretty close to ready for an MOT at this stage so I ordered some new plates:
I got on with various other parts of the mechanical refresh, none of which I really took pictures of but in addition to the lists of parts above I ended up fitting:
-new CV boot
-new wheel bearings
-new battery
I ended up faffing trying to get 2 of the electric windows working that were not, and found that the PO had used sticks to hold up the passenger side window - excellent.
Then I finished the painting
Work sort of exploded then for me and it was really difficult to get over to work on the car. Early March, it finally left the shed for the first time in 14 months:
I took it for a proper shakedown, during which I discovered that the heater matrix was absolutely gone, so time for a new one, which annoyingly turned up bent but I managed to straighten it OK
The GTI uses quite a strange clamp design on the downpipe and one had snapped due to corrosion. Apparently this needs a special tool but I just used an old exhaust clamp:
The car was now functioning, so I took it for a spin to get an alignment and ready for the NCT test which it failed with flying colours:
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The small rust hole was welded up and I sprayed the complete bottom half of the door, only have a pic of the damage after grinding, a little harsh I felt:
I removed the steering rack and rebuilt it:
The wheel bearing related fail was because I'm an idiot and hadn't tightened up the wheel bearings properly. It required me to change the stub axle on one side and replace the bearings, then all was well!
Eventually in July 17 and threw it in for another test:
18 months after buying it - I had a road legal car, due to how stupid the system is in Ireland I only got a 7 month test:
To celebrate I replaced the non-working original radio with a Blaupunkt I'd had sitting around for 15 years which I think fits well:
Driving the car over the next few days I realised a couple of things:
1. Like it probably was in the 80s, I kept feeling it was going to get knicked
2. Even with all new suspension and upgraded shocks and springs, the handling didn't blow me away - it still felt pretty wooly and I was struggling to see the appeal.
Overall, I really didn't gel with the car which was gutting after all the work I put into it, I was definitely into it for more than it was worth...
I drove it straight to the workshop as the fumes in the cabin were horrendous and saw that the black death was pretty bad. Luckily I had an injector puller from a mis-step with the only dead Volvo D5 in the world and the job wasn't too bad. In the end, I put on a new exhaust, new brakes, fixed the black death, full service and pressed it into service as a new daily. We were now up to 7 cars, but 1 worked - great success!
Now that I had gotten the CLK on the road, and the welding done on the Golf, my mojo was high so I continued with the Golf, I cut out the rear beam bushes which were original and rotted in there so it was a massive pita and was a huge relief when I got them out without damaging the beam and offered up the new ones:
My press had arrived but it was clear it would be no use for this. So I rigged up this contraption made from: old strut mount, remains of control arm bearing, some box section, old brake pads, some m12 bar, bolts and washers:
It worked like an absolute charm from just scrap I had lying around the shed. Small things like this are a real mojo boost for me.
While I was doing this work, it dawned on me that I hadn't ordered any brake parts. As it was completely clear that the MOT had been bent for years on this car, I decided as well that the brakes needed to be completely updated so another order went in for pretty much all new braking system:
Brake Power Reg
Rear discs pair
Front discs pair
Front pads
rear pads
brake hoses
Rear Calipers
New brake lines
Front caliper rebuild kit
Another mojo boost is fitting new parts! Cleaned up the beam, painted it and fitted the new brakes to the beam ready for fitment:
And the shocks were built up
While the beam was out, I primed all the areas that needed paint so it all looked nice and shiny when it went on the car:
New shocks and brakes onto the front:
The car was pretty close to ready for an MOT at this stage so I ordered some new plates:
I got on with various other parts of the mechanical refresh, none of which I really took pictures of but in addition to the lists of parts above I ended up fitting:
-new CV boot
-new wheel bearings
-new battery
I ended up faffing trying to get 2 of the electric windows working that were not, and found that the PO had used sticks to hold up the passenger side window - excellent.
Then I finished the painting
Work sort of exploded then for me and it was really difficult to get over to work on the car. Early March, it finally left the shed for the first time in 14 months:
I took it for a proper shakedown, during which I discovered that the heater matrix was absolutely gone, so time for a new one, which annoyingly turned up bent but I managed to straighten it OK
The GTI uses quite a strange clamp design on the downpipe and one had snapped due to corrosion. Apparently this needs a special tool but I just used an old exhaust clamp:
The car was now functioning, so I took it for a spin to get an alignment and ready for the NCT test which it failed with flying colours:
The small rust hole was welded up and I sprayed the complete bottom half of the door, only have a pic of the damage after grinding, a little harsh I felt:
I removed the steering rack and rebuilt it:
The wheel bearing related fail was because I'm an idiot and hadn't tightened up the wheel bearings properly. It required me to change the stub axle on one side and replace the bearings, then all was well!
Eventually in July 17 and threw it in for another test:
18 months after buying it - I had a road legal car, due to how stupid the system is in Ireland I only got a 7 month test:
To celebrate I replaced the non-working original radio with a Blaupunkt I'd had sitting around for 15 years which I think fits well:
Driving the car over the next few days I realised a couple of things:
1. Like it probably was in the 80s, I kept feeling it was going to get knicked
2. Even with all new suspension and upgraded shocks and springs, the handling didn't blow me away - it still felt pretty wooly and I was struggling to see the appeal.
Overall, I really didn't gel with the car which was gutting after all the work I put into it, I was definitely into it for more than it was worth...
