I registered on this site quite some time ago and I believe it would have been around that time that I acquired a Mk1 1.3 Golf Driver from my brother, supposedly with 55bhp under the bonnet running through a 4 speed gearbox. I previously owned a 1.2 L Nova 
, also bought from my brother as my first car, the interior was immaculate and only had 80k miles on the engine, however the rot was evident in the usual places; rear arches, bottoms of the doors and the front valance. I had a go at patching these areas up and I came to selling this at the time my brother purchased the aforementioned Golf.
The Golf feels like my first car, one of those cars that I don't think I would ever sell. So it's here to stay.
Anyhows, I acquired the car back in 2005, standard driver spec which gave a few touches from the GTI, such as the rev counter, arch trims, twin light grille... *cough* the red trim around the grille is in fact red tape!
The only modifications I did when it was in it's standard form was to fit the VDO gauges as seen in the GTI models and replaced the poor working Solex carb (hole in the base plate) with a Weber replacement.
A couple of years ago I was in a position to go ahead with an engine conversion, choosing the engine from a Mk2, a 1.8 16v (KR). Me being me, I like a bit of a mechanicla challenege and to learn more, so I went a step further and also wanted to convert over to fuel injection, K-Jet in Volkswagen terms.
KR engine:
Looking at it's new home:
The robust and quite over engineered 1272cc VW engine:
GTI parts (020 short ratio gearbox, GTI gear linkage and GTI steering rack with bracket to mount linkage)
Parts receiving a lick of paint (inc. GTI wishbones (anti-roll bar holes), GTI engine mounts and verious gear linkage components, along with newly fitted poly bushes for wishbones and front and rear engine mounts):
1.3 engine nearly ready to be removed:
16v engine nearly in!
... and relax:
A little bit of wiring to sort through from the Mk2 loom:
GTI oil cooler to go on after a bit of a cleanup:
Out with the old (small) in with the new (bigger):
Ashley Competition, Mk1 16v conversion 4 branch manifold:
Ashley Competition exhaust system:
OMP strut brace and freshly painted GTI wishbones with polybushes:
A front lower strut brace is a must for any Mk1 Golf owner, you have to have one, it makes a big difference to the way they handle.
Pretty much complete (apart from the grille to go back on):
A big 28mm Neuspeed rear anti-roll bar:
Front anti-roll bar is a standard GTI item, the brakes are of the Mk2 16v size 256x20mm using similar aged Audi caliper carriers on the Mk1 hubs, a 9" servo and 22.2mm master cylinder also from a Mk2 16v.
I pretty much ended up replacing all bushes, nuts, bolts and even washers when I built it all back up. Slightly costly but it all should come apart more easily in the future if needs be.
Results from a local rolling road gave a healthy 142bhp @ 6038rpm and about 126lb/ft at 4400rpm with none of the usual K-Jet tweeks that can be carried out on these engines (which maybe could have seen 160+).
Last year I acquired a Mk3 Golf TDI to commute with and so now I this should enable me to develop the Mk1 further for track use, which is where I enjoy driving it the most. I have done 3 trackdays at Donington Park over the years and hope to do a few more this year.
I also did a silly thing at the end of last year which was converting back to carbs and the engine now breathes through a pair of twin 45 weber's!
More images to follow as I've not got around to sorting out the recent carb work, also some video clips pre and post carbs out on track.
Cheers,
James.
, also bought from my brother as my first car, the interior was immaculate and only had 80k miles on the engine, however the rot was evident in the usual places; rear arches, bottoms of the doors and the front valance. I had a go at patching these areas up and I came to selling this at the time my brother purchased the aforementioned Golf.The Golf feels like my first car, one of those cars that I don't think I would ever sell. So it's here to stay.
Anyhows, I acquired the car back in 2005, standard driver spec which gave a few touches from the GTI, such as the rev counter, arch trims, twin light grille... *cough* the red trim around the grille is in fact red tape!
The only modifications I did when it was in it's standard form was to fit the VDO gauges as seen in the GTI models and replaced the poor working Solex carb (hole in the base plate) with a Weber replacement.
A couple of years ago I was in a position to go ahead with an engine conversion, choosing the engine from a Mk2, a 1.8 16v (KR). Me being me, I like a bit of a mechanicla challenege and to learn more, so I went a step further and also wanted to convert over to fuel injection, K-Jet in Volkswagen terms.
KR engine:
Looking at it's new home:
The robust and quite over engineered 1272cc VW engine:
GTI parts (020 short ratio gearbox, GTI gear linkage and GTI steering rack with bracket to mount linkage)
Parts receiving a lick of paint (inc. GTI wishbones (anti-roll bar holes), GTI engine mounts and verious gear linkage components, along with newly fitted poly bushes for wishbones and front and rear engine mounts):
1.3 engine nearly ready to be removed:
16v engine nearly in!
... and relax:
A little bit of wiring to sort through from the Mk2 loom:
GTI oil cooler to go on after a bit of a cleanup:
Out with the old (small) in with the new (bigger):
Ashley Competition, Mk1 16v conversion 4 branch manifold:
Ashley Competition exhaust system:
OMP strut brace and freshly painted GTI wishbones with polybushes:
A front lower strut brace is a must for any Mk1 Golf owner, you have to have one, it makes a big difference to the way they handle.
Pretty much complete (apart from the grille to go back on):
A big 28mm Neuspeed rear anti-roll bar:
Front anti-roll bar is a standard GTI item, the brakes are of the Mk2 16v size 256x20mm using similar aged Audi caliper carriers on the Mk1 hubs, a 9" servo and 22.2mm master cylinder also from a Mk2 16v.
I pretty much ended up replacing all bushes, nuts, bolts and even washers when I built it all back up. Slightly costly but it all should come apart more easily in the future if needs be.
Results from a local rolling road gave a healthy 142bhp @ 6038rpm and about 126lb/ft at 4400rpm with none of the usual K-Jet tweeks that can be carried out on these engines (which maybe could have seen 160+).
Last year I acquired a Mk3 Golf TDI to commute with and so now I this should enable me to develop the Mk1 further for track use, which is where I enjoy driving it the most. I have done 3 trackdays at Donington Park over the years and hope to do a few more this year.
I also did a silly thing at the end of last year which was converting back to carbs and the engine now breathes through a pair of twin 45 weber's!
More images to follow as I've not got around to sorting out the recent carb work, also some video clips pre and post carbs out on track.
Cheers,
James.
pipe:
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