[Bx V-dubber]

Hello to all reading this thread. I don't bash people & have been around for a bit helping out. With that said, if you haven't had something you cared for in your life I feel for you. I know there are better routes for this car (like junking it & getting a better chassis). That's not the point of this build. This build was/is the fulfillment of my word & intention to this car. To finally give the power,look & response that it deserved from day one.

I bought this car way back in 1998 with intentions of making it into a SCCA type of weekend racer. Life got in the way & this became my daily driver. I had other vag cars which ultimately met their end with a few bottles of nitrous. A few turbo cars were made & sold after tiring of them. In the long run this car was always there & dependable for me to get to work & make my money. A couple of years ago after getting into my first house I decided to finally go through on my word. I was so dedicated to this that I even talked my brother into garaging this car for me in his house while I still lived in apartments. My mk4 became my daily driver & I began sourcing/gathering parts for my build. Spoke to a couple of individuals in the mk3 scene back in the day as well. Even though I was told to slap a VR6 in it & call it a day, I decided to go another route. I decided to build a 16v turbo engine. At the time a vr6 turbo was the best thing in the states, but overseas their ass' got whipped by 16vt & to some extent the highly modified 8vt. What follows was 1-2 years in the making. It is still a unfinished project but because my other build is about finished I decided to begin this post since I will start on this project again very soon.

This is how she sat when I first got her to the house about the end of 2012.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Got the usual run of the mill goodies from reputable vendors.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

This sticker was very important to maintain since the vw dealerships couldn't get one for me. I also asked a few people to copy it for me with intentions of reapplying it to the hood. My intention with this car is to make it a high HP daily driver. For emissions inspection purposes I really wanted this sticker.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Summer of 2013 I began removing the engine & setting it up for tear down. This is how she sat in the engine bay at that time. Mind you she wasn't run in years. I towed her home.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Engine was out & in the garage ready for tear down.

After removing certain items & storing in ziplock bags I eventually ended with this on a engine stand.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Did some remodeling to the house, other things came up & this project was put on the back burner for a long time. Eventually I sourced a 16v head. It was the winter of 2013 going into 2014. I finally had time to get all my engine components together & send them out to the machine shop for over boring,new valve guides, decking, fluxing,honing. I was pleased with the progress the shop took because it allowed me to finish up another incarnation of my mk4. I would check up on the block from time to time to see progress.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

All of 2014 I began slowly disassembling the interior.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

removed fenders & doors

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Pretty good progress in the warm months.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Started on the front/engine bay area too since the weather was warmer & I could open the garage door at that time. Began removing seam sealer & grinding rusty areas to see how far gone metal was.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Pulled out some more carpet in order to check for sheet metal cancer (rust). Gotta love vw for their plastics & carpets. A lot was concealed.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

More rusted crap

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Only good news around fall 2014 was that my engine was completely machined & assembled.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Went back into the golf only to find more rust
So I started cutting out the unsalvageable rusted areas on the floor pans. Amazing that I can find floor pans for every other vw except a mk3

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Got my engine back home & set up on stand to dress it & make some needed adjustments.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Decided to finish removing interior parts in body & pulling through all wires from engine bay into drivers area.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

It's starting to get cold again at the end of 2014. Sourced out 1.8t engine components & sent to machine shop to over bore & check clearances. Did I mention my daily driver is a mk4? While all this is getting done, I decide to start cleaning up engine area & undercarriage. Also started filling up holes with the mig welder

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Continued on by chopping off the rain tray.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Forgot to mention earlier but removed the entire front suspension at once.

 

[Bx V-dubber]

Late night moving cars around in a 1 car garage gets annoying after a while, especially if you have to reinstalled removed items from a car to get it to move. All of this because I had to check the condition of my mk4. It turned out that the "head gasket" job I originally thought it would be wasn't. That said I need to hurry the shop for my short block & AEB head back for my daily driver in the morning. Until then I continued progressed with this build.