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Going Golfing Jun 29, 2009

The mismatched wheel hints at one of the first issues we need to deal with. The tires are what we call Maypops--they may pop at any moment. The fourth matching teardrop alloy is in the trunk. All in all, this Golf is a clean, unmolested example. Just a few issues keep it from being perfect. The engine was dirty, but we saw no major issues. Plus, it appeared completely stock.

This past Saturday, we flew to Philadelphia with a check in hand. We were there to pick up a 1994 Volkswagen Golf that is an unusual combination. It's a base-model two-door with no sunroof, making it just about the perfect starting point for a high-performance A3 Volkswagen. It weighs less than 2400 pounds and is a nearly blank slate for performance modifications.

The car owner picked us up at the airport and drove us to Hockessin, Delaware, which was about 45 minutes away. Oddly enough, Hockessin is the same small town where Per lived until he was six years old. We actually stayed at Per's grandfather's house that night.  

The Golf Makes It to Florida Jun 29, 2009

There's nothing quite so generic as a white hatchback. It almost needs a bar code down the side. The interior is very clean and shows little wear. It doesn't smell at all like a petting zoo. The Golf had a fight with a deer, and the hood has the dent to prove it. The grille lost that fight, and has been replaced with an aftermarket piece. There is some rust on the back edge of the front fender. The worst spot of rust is right where the strut tower meets the inner fender. This is a common area for Golfs to rust.

We drove 900 miles in 14 hours to get our latest project car to its new Florida home. The Golf averaged 34 miles per gallon and had no issues along the way. The tires caused some humming and vibrations--they are badly cupped--but we didn't even have a check engine light to bother us along the way. This OBD1 Golf appeared to run well and chugged along without burning oil.

Once home, we gave the car a bath and took some more pictures.  

You’d Like to Golf? No, I Said I’d Like Two Golfs. Jul 8, 2009

The 1995 looks much like our 1994--same color and everything. Because it's a "Sport" model, the car has these nifty plaid sport seats. They need to be scrubbed clean. At the moment, our driveway looks like a VW race team--or a used car lot.

Shortly after we got our 1994 Golf GL home to Florida, we saw an ad on ImprovedTouring.com for a 1995 Golf Sport that also had no sunroof. That got our attention, and when we found out the car was just 2.5 hours away from our office, we knew we had to go take a look.

Long story short: We purchased it for $1200 and trailered it home. It needs a coolant hose and a major cleaning, but it's rust free and bone stock. It even has the original struts and exhaust system.

This 1995 Golf will wind up being our official project car, and we'll be taking a few choice pieces off the 1994 before we move it along.  

Mr. Clean Jul 19, 2009

A quick bath and a coat of wax did wonders. Resolve cleaner helped bring our Golf's interior back to life. Look at those cool plaid seats. The factory side skirts do a good job of covering our dented rocker panel.

We've always heard that a clean car is a sign of a dirty mind. We must be world-class perverts then, because we love a clean car. The Golf that we're building up, unfortunately, was quite disgusting when we purchased it. The interior looked like a crime scene in a third-world country; there was a splattering of goo on just about every surface, and the seats were black with grime. Time to get to work!

We started by giving the car a bath and a coat of wax. Next we vacuumed out the interior and cleaned the insides of the windows. We dove right into the upholstery cleaning with Formula 409 carpet cleaner and Resolve Pet Stain remover. The latter really had a knack for defunkifying our Golf's super-cool plaid seats. We gave up when we got to the carpet, however; there was simply too much grunge ground into the fibers for us to make any real headway. We'll be replacing the entire carpet with a new molded set.

Now that the car was sitting pretty, we could turn our attention to some of its basic issues. Our goal is to bring the car back to decent stock condition before the modifying starts. We "fixed" the dented rocker panel by replacing the factory side skirts, which were not present. A trip to our local junkyard netted a set of the plastic undergarments for just $20. While technically they didn't repair the the dent, they completely covered it--no one will know it's there.

Our next set of tasks will focus on restoring and improving the Golf's mushy suspension for autocross and track action.  

More Cleaning—and New Steamrollers Jul 30, 2009

We started by pulling the entire interior out of the car. Most of the dashboard was disassembled for cleaning. We're backdating the car to 1993 specs, so while things were apart we removed the air bags in favor of the 1993 components. The swap saved us some weight and is legal under SCCA’s Street Prepared rules. Once things were clean in there, we installed some quality used carpet. The Konig Retrack wheel is very attractive—and noticeable thanks to the red center finish and fat lip. We really need to work on the car's suspension next.

Our 1995 Golf is slowly becoming presentable. This past weekend, we finished up the bulk of the interior cleaning by completely disassembling the cabin and replacing the carpet. We took apart most of the dashboard as well as the seats, door and quarter panels. After about five hours of cleaning, we installed some good used carpet from VWParts4Sale.com.

Our worn-out and out-of-round tires were replaced with some new rolling stock. We chose Konig's new 15x7.5-inch Retrack wheel and Nitto's 225/45R15 NT01 tire for track duty. (We'll also be ordering a set of 16x7-inch Retracks with some 205/40R16 Nitto NeoGen tires for street use.) The red finish and fat lip look great on our Golf—and will look even better when we replace the entire suspension and lower the car a touch.

The Nittos and Konig wheels were sourced from Discount Tire Direct. Their prices were good, and they shipped the wheel and tire package quickly. Want to cut out shipping costs? You can also purchase tires and wheels through one of the company's regional dealers.

Next up, we'll be tackling some much-needed maintenance and diving into our suspension work.  

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