Carsnz123

Another Mk2 3 door came up for sale in Nelson with straight(ish) panles and as every panel on mine is dented I jumped at it. It was a wreck, 1.6 diesel manual with a run big end. A few bits had already been taken including the trans and front guards dammit. My brother and I went for a road trip with the car trailer to get it. There was a few unexpected goodies in the diesel including factory central locking, powersteering and A/C. Those might make it into the 1.3. At some stage a resonator had been added to the exhaust system but the car still sounded weak so in the spirit of stupidity the back half of the exhaust and the muffler were cut off and replaced with 2” pipe. Now it sounds good. The interior gutting continued with nasty carpet lifting which revealed damp and mouldy sound proofing. All of which was promptly put in the bin cause weight reduction bro.

The front struts were shot, there were no exterior door handles and the only key I had was for the ignition. There is a fantastic website https://www.vwheritage.com/ which sells genuin and repro parts for old vdubs at very reasonable prices. So new front struts, locks and door handles came from the UK.

“I have no idea why why i'm doing this, it was a good idea at the time.” The story of this project begins with a little 1.3 Mk2 golf 3 door with a 4 speed manual delivered to MR J.G. Morton of London on the 4th of April 1984. The car was then imported into New Zealand in 1987 with 23000 miles on the clock. It enjoyed regular servicing and maintenance right up until a couple of years ago when someone decided the car was totally worthless and used it as a piss wagon. They drove it up a beach path and into a tree. It was green stickered, dereged and stuck on facebook for $300 which is where I come into the picture. I bought it to nab the trans and make an auto 1800 Mk2 golf a manual. When it was bought home we had a good look and realised the engine blocks were different. Wrong box...shit. A few bits were taken off it to make the auto pass a warrant and the little 1.3 was parked at mums and forgotten about for six months. Now I want to get it on the road. So, are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then we shall begin. First step was to clean the inside of the car out as it was foul. I picked up The seats and door cards out of a GTI off trademe so that saves me getting the originals fixed but the rest of the interior still needes work. Ill get to that later. Discussion is here //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/53908-carsnz123s-1984-volkswagen-mk2-golf-3-door/