1995 Golf Sport AKA: Brokeswagen

This has been my side project for a little while now. I'm using the write ups from a little while back in GRM as my template of how I'm going to modify the car. I probably won't go as far as coil overs, though.

I picked it up for a pretty inexpensive price because it had a faulty heater core and a completely worn out suspension. The Forester XT was instrumental in dragging it out of the field it had been sitting in since 2008 to a spot where we could load it on a trailer.

So far, I've:

• changed the heater core (not fun)
• replaced the suspension: springs, shocks/struts and control arms with stock equipment. (about $400 total)
• I ditched the stock 14" alloys (free to whoever wants to pick them up) and put on a set of 15" BBS Basketweave wheels from a BMW 325ix. Cost: $0 as I had them laying around from the car when I sold it.
• replaced the annoying little plastic piece on the seat that holds it in the track ($0)

Maintenance items to be tackled:

• I have to replace the starter and fix some weird electrical problems.
• It needs paint, most of the clear coat has flaked off.
• Needs new battery
• Fix the fuel gauge (always reads empty)
• Brakes- the ones on it are fine, for another 20k miles or so, but I want new rotors front and rear and new, more aggressive street pads to replace the cheap looking ones on there now.

Future Plans:

• Put on the Neuspeed front and rear sway bars I got for $50 for the SET. I love being in the right place at the right time. He posted up on Craigslist as part of a "I'm cleaning out my storage unit" kind of deal. He was getting out of the VW game (I should've taken this as a hint).
• Follow the GRM example and put on a header and intake.
• Get a chip for the ECU
• Get rid of the fartcan muffler on it. I've got no idea what I am going to replace it with, but I'll need something, because it is loud and sounds like crap.
• Tires. I had cheap all-seasons on the BMW before I sold it. I'm going to keep those for daily driving, but I want a dedicated set of summer tires as well. I've got a set of rims of an Escort GT that I found in the local pick-n-pull. A few minutes changing the center bore of the rims and they now fit on the VW just fine.
• Lug nut to stud conversion. If you're going to change tires more than "almost never" these are a must-have.
• Possible 5 lug conversion. If I can find a cheap, broken VR6, I'll do the 5 lug conversion and possibly upgrade some suspension components again. I understand that the VR6 suspension had better geometry.

Then I'll drive it and use it as an autocross car.

Pictures to follow once I get all of the leaves off of it. It's been a little neglected of late, and there are giant oak trees all over.

OOOO... sounds like fun buddy... keep your eyes open there are a few people who can burn you some chips vs buying some name brand ones ;-) PM me if you want info.

I'd recommend also buying a vagcom cable and downloading the free ross tech software... it can save you a lot of frustration for 20 bucks.

I'm building my rally car out of a 95 Golf Sport, they are a ton of fun! cheap and easy to work on.

Good luck with her Dave

Ok. I just got a new battery for the car. The last one was charging up to 6 amps on the trickle charger, and the starter was just clicking.

I hooked that bad boy up and now... nothing. The dash comes on, but the charger won't even click now. Looks like I'll be investigating that tomorrow.

I also picked up an AEG intake/valve cover/fuel rail for $40. Maybe I'll do that conversion sometime after I get it running.

Percussive maintenance worked on the starter motor, but the Golf still won't start.

I spent a few hours putting the dashboard and interior kind-of together again.

Techtonics sells good exhausts. If you are going to upgrade to VR6 suspension, there is a stock swaybar the same size as the neuspeed one. If you do that I would suggest selling the neuspeed set and getting a shine racing rear bar and a stock vr6 drivers edition front, its a better setup than the neuspeed ones. I havent heard much that a header and intake are a good use of money, but who knows. Poly bushings in the front suspension wear out really fast, its much better to get the audi tt ones. Also, the ground control camber plates (the ones that you can put in without cutting) are well worth the $350 or whatever they cost, my friend has used them for 70k miles on the street and they work great.

What did you use to increase the center bore of the Escort wheels ?

Travis_K said: *snip* Also, the ground control camber plates (the ones that you can put in without cutting) are well worth the $350 or whatever they cost, my friend has used them for 70k miles on the street and they work great.

Outstanding news. I NEED these...
(After a long list of other crap...)

I increased the center bore of the Escort wheels using two hole saws nested in each other. I forget the exact sizes.

Absolutely nothing has happened with this car. As soon as I'm motivated, I'm going to slap the tow strap on it, drag it out of where it is sitting and take another shot at getting it operational again. If that fails, I ran into a guy that works at Black Forest Industries at the supermarket the other day, and I think I'll send it to them. I need another operational vehicle so I can work on my Forester, and given the work I have to do around the house, it is going to be a long time before I can string together more than an hour or two at a time to figure this out.

It sucks, but house > car.

Well, it got dragged out into a workable area after... 2 months, hey.

It won't start, apparently we have a no-spark condition right now.

Still really torn if I want to keep this or sell it. If I sell it, I'll probably get an automatic Focus or something.

The real question is if I want to sell the car plus spares or list the spares separately. The spares include a freshly machined .20 overbore block, several heads, brand new Wiseco pistons and a bunch of maintenance items.

Maybe let everything go for $2013 and see what happens?

Now for sale.

All funds to go towards the RX-8s.

I actually drove this thing off to get inspected so I can get a plate on it and either sell it as a runner or just use it for rallycross and commuting to work. As long as there are no bulbs blown out, it should pass inspection, since it is just safety.

There are going to be a ton of things to fix if I decide to keep it. For example the brake pedal is mushy, the driver's side CV boot is torn, the AC doesn't work anymore, and so on. We'll see which way it goes.

I wish I could find one of those up here. Rally-X car it would be.

You could have bought this one! Heck, you still can!

Brett_Murphy wrote: You could have bought this one! Heck, you still can!

Too far - I am in Canada.

I'm never going to get my money back out of it, but I have considered driving it to my parent's place in Vermont and listing it on Craigslist up there, since it is completely rust free. I figure I could get my gas money and airfare back, visit my parents and make somebody up there really happy.