1984 Rabbit GTI restomod

In reply to stuart in mn :

I could, but there is not a lot of room.  By the time I move far enough for the fuel pump, I would need a really small muffler. The Borla I have now is actually pretty nice and maybe  8 inch diameter? 7? I would need a supertrap and those are lousy on the street. I guess I could replace my resonator with a cherry bomb, though.

Matthew

Reach out to Colin at Tectontics Tuning.  He can probably help you out random unobtanium parts, specific tools, and general VW guru knowledge.  He is one of the last of the gurus and operations that really knows the older watercooled stuff in the states.

I was working on placement of the fuel pump, and it occurs to me that I don't want anything running into anythin else, so I finished prepping the rear beam components and put the rear beam back in.  The bar is not attached in the photo; trying to get a photo under the car is tricky, since I don't have a lift yet.

So many more things to still attach to the beam, but one step at a time...

Matthew

There is a trick to removing a blind bearing.   If you can destroy the bearing, remove the inner ring and the balls or rollers, then all you have is the outer ring stuck in the housing.

   The trick to get the outer ring out, weld a bead of weld on it, then while it is still hot from the welding, hit it with a wet rag.  Careful of the possible steam!   It will shrink and fall out...

    Careful planning, and some welding blanket is a good idea.

Love this.

I had a 1982 Scirroco (Single wiper still) with an '88 or '89 16v in it. Ended up trading it even for a 1975 CJ-5.

Now everything I own except for my pick-up is a VAG product.

I tried to put parts on, honest I did.  I normally have three sizes of fuel tubing on hand; which one do I need? The one I am out of, of course.  Okay, an order to FCP Euro, with cough cough a few extra things. Bam, there go a couple bills.  Next up, I need a good way to mount the fuel pump - order some well nuts.  Those are cheap, at least.  The spare will never really fit, so lets puts some storage in the floor - another bill.  I know, I'll build a nice triangulating brace set for the rear beam.  McMaster actually has good prices on parts like that, but that is $250 of $10 parts...  Grrr.  I have not pulled the trigger on that last one, yet.  That one can wait a while, at least.

I'm waiting on a couple orders from FCP and eeuroparts.  I guess this virus is slowing everything down.  I normally have my FCP orders in a couple days...

I was able to make a little progress.  I am still trying to mount the fuel pump, but I need to make sure there is room for everything.  It looks like I will need to get the parts for the rear beam triangulation to make sure everything can work as planned, but in the meantime, here is what I have.

My exhaust is aluminized, but over 20 years old and starting to show some surface rust.  I cleaned what would come off easily and painted over everything else.  Two coats of 1200°F black. It does not come apart because way back when I did not know about exhaust system goop, so I squeezed the U-bolts until I could pass smog.  Needless to say, the exhaust does not come apart anymore. The "tip" is stainless.

I dropped the rear suspension again to fit the exhaust above it.  I am out of exhaust hangers (more bits to buy), so it is tied up with cord to fit-check everything else.  With the exhaust in, I could cut floor holes to place some storage.  I am sadly picking up about 10 pounds with the storage, but I will still have some crumple zone, a place to store tools, and for when travel localities require it, separate lockable storage compartments.  I have done most of the cutting; there is a little trim/grind work still remaining.  I will tie the boxes together for additional structure and put in a small beam down the middle.

The fuel pump will be in the "empty" corner.  I was originally going to mount it to boxed sections of "frame" with well nuts, but now it is getting higher out of the way.  There needs to be a boost pump to feed the surge tank from the top, regardless, so the safer location is nice.  If you are not familiar with well nuts, they are rubber rivet nuts.  They can be handy for isolation, as well as tooless instalation of fasteners that you can't get to the other side of.  You can't holt high loads and they don't last forever, but still are handy. There is a brass insert that acts as the nut.

The lathe is running (sort of, it is still flexy), so I modified a couple 3/4" nuts. Before on left, after on right.

The modified nuts were then welded to the adjustable braces for some triangulation on my rear beam.  I have these mounted in close enough that they actually run between the anti roll bar and the beam, so there is no loss of ground clearance.  I know that does not help losing camber to high cornering loads very much, but it will help a little and also with toe changes.  I like playing in the dirt, so the more traditional method of welding an upside down tower to allow a pickup at the bottom of the wheel was not going to work for me.

I welded tall nuts into the underside of the beam to take the outboard pickups and found a buggy shop with shock pickup brackets for the inboard.  The inboard joints are regular Heim joints with rubber boots added.  The outer joints are ball and socket, so they do not need a separate bolt or pin.  They are in rubber boots, also.  All four boots have a few squirts of waterproof axle grease in them to help prevent corrosion.

The beam is finally back in the car (which feels good).  It had to come out after figuring out where the fuel pump is going to go so that I could weld the brace bits to it.  I will soon have picks of that with stub axles, spacers, and new/newish brake parts. The paint is currently drying on the splash guards and the little pile of parts is waiting for that.

The anti roll bar is a hollow Autotech model, but it has to go on after the shocks are attached to the beam.  Urethane bushings are in on the beam and for the anti roll bar. Those are a little bit more visible in the pic from the earlier post.

Shiny bits installed.  Stub Axle (on spacers) out.  The caliper carriers are my older carriers from when I swapped to discs way back when.  The calipers are now Mk4 versions as they are 2-3 lbs lighter, each.  They are also larger pistons, but that is no real effect since I am redoing the whole brake system.

Next up is figuring out how I want to modify my rear fenders to accommodate the 20mm spacers and the fact that 205/50-15s rubbed before.  I will be checking spacing with existing wheels/tires, I can step up a little with the 205/50-16s from my Fit, and I may buy a cheap oversized wheel to make sure I have wiggle room.

Hey look at all the  droop I could get if I work out longer springs and shocks!