[greenraVR6]

I finally was able to buy one earlier this year that I plan to keep for many many years to come. Over the years I have bought, sold, flipped, wrecked, swapped and parted more vw's than I can even put a number on but for whatever reason none of them have been a white mk2 gti. I had actually been trying to buy this car for nearly 5 years when last february my buddy decided this car may just sit unfinished on the back burner forever and he was ready to part ways with it. A deal was struck for only about $2k out of pocket for me and I drove it home a happy man

1990 wolfsburg edition gti...came on 13" steelies but I swapped em out with some flyers from another car I have as soon as I got home

seats and door cards appear to be from a montana green unless I'm mistaken? Really dirty but should clean up pretty good until I find some recaros one day

battery relocated to the back although the cable size is pretty small so I will need to upgrade that. My buddy more or less put in what he had laying around his shop to get the car running and that's about as far as that got

brand new coilovers, I think he said they were JOM or FK or one of the cheaper brands. The car is slammed so it's a bit bouncy but for as low as it is it doesn't ride all that bad. He did say it has all new control arm bushings and I believe he said a mk3 subframe but don't quote me on that part. I really have not done much investigating under the car as of yet

lay flat mono wiper that he built. It wipes the entire window and returns to the normal parked position on the passenger side. It's a little slow to wipe that much window so might have to figure out a way to upgrade the motor. I've always been a big fan of mono wipers so I think it's pretty sweet. Needs a better solution for the driver side wiper hole though

oh yeah and it's got an AEB from a '99 audi a4 under the hood. I actually sold him this engine about 6 years ago. It's all stock except for a front mount intercooler (extremely stealth install as this is a factory non AC car so it fits great in front of the radiator) and he fabbed up a custom turbo back exhaust for it. In such a lightweight car it actually scoots along pretty quick. Much better than the 8v that used to live in here no doubt

Now all that is great but she's got her fair share of issues that need to be addressed as well. The biggest issue is the fact it was put together with a mk3 o2o tranny that in addition to being a little weak for this engine has no reverse gear either. The good news is I am parting out a mk4 1.8t jetta and am keeping the o2j and related parts to swap into this one. I've got a corrado pedal cluster and non abs brake booster bracket lined up and plan to run a g60 flywheel and vr6 clutch. Gonna try to get that done this winter if time allows.

Also need to find a replacement driver side door. The one that's on there is junk and has been replaced at some point so the paint doesn't match the rest of the car. I'm pretty sure the rest of the car will buff back to looking decent again but not this door, it's got some funky peeling clearcoat on it that looks awful. And I'm missing the actual GTI trim from this side of the car but that shouldn't be too hard to track down.

Other than that it's just small stuff like adding a stereo and speakers, cleaning up the wiring under the hood, taking a heat gun to the plastic trim and stuff like that to make it a little more presentable. It's not a daily driver and never will be so I've got nothing but time to make it how I want. Maybe even try my hand at some bodywork and paint, who knows. Anyhow, hope you've enjoyed the read and I'll update this thread every now and again as things change/improve. It's been years since I've posted anything on vortex other than classified ads, but after reading some of the other gti builds/restos on here figured I might as well share mine for anybody that's interested.

 

[bayareaA2]

Bump, subscribed, gonna keep an eye on this one. I have a soft spot for white MK2's! :beer:

 

[petethepug]

I have power Recaro foam, power recline back rest and base if your going to build them yourself.

I took the long road and sourced oem leather Recaro skins, oem foams and power bases. I’m selling my doubles imported from EU. After wheeling and dealing parts for a decade the overall cost was about $550 for the set of oem heated, leather, power height/recline Recaro goodness.

If I can help, lmk.


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[Spray Junkie]

Well I'll be damned. Always wondered if you would get back in a mk2 someday.

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[dviking mk2]

I'm in for more updates as well. Those green/blue seats did come stock in Alpine White and Montana Green Gti's. I currently have the same fronts in my 87.

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[greenraVR6]

I have power Recaro foam, power recline back rest and base if your going to build them yourself.

I took the long road and sourced oem leather Recaro skins, oem foams and power bases. I’m selling my doubles imported from EU. After wheeling and dealing parts for a decade the overall cost was about $550 for the set of oem heated, leather, power height/recline Recaro goodness.

If I can help, lmk.

A decade's worth of hustlin to put together some seats? That's some serious dedication and they sound pretty sweet! Last weekend I actually came across a pretty decent complete set of gti recaros: front, rear and door cards. Made a run down to Seattle and scooped em up. Cig burn here and there but the bolsters are good and there's no separated seems or anything too bad. They are a decent starting point and will be better than what's in my car now. Obviously need a better pic but that's all I got as of now.

Well I'll be damned. Always wondered if you would get back in a mk2 someday.

What's up man, long time no see. You should know I couldn't stay away forever. Pretty much had the mk2 bug itching as soon as I sold the calypso jetta 6ish years ago. Still got a decent pile of parts from that hoard I bought off you a few years ago too. A few of which will probably find it's way onto this car.

I'm in for more updates as well. Those green/blue seats did come stock in Alpine White and Montana Green Gti's. I currently have the same fronts in my 87.

As it turns out the guy I bought the Recaros from was also selling a montana green gti that said interior will look right at home in. I paid his asking price and towed it home as well. It's kind of a turd but has all kinds of goodies I will end up stealing for my white car. I have not fully gone through everything yet but some of the notable stuff that jumped out at me are a set of front 16v/g60 flares, the matching driver side gti trim my car is missing, momo steering wheel with hub adapter, Hella smoked tail lights and the cool looking yellow crosshairs. It's also been converted to 5 lug (mk3 "widetrack" setup) with all new brakes, VR6 conversion (nowhere near complete but came with everything to finish it if I wanted to do such a thing) and a rather ambitious start of a MK5 dash swap. It's on some kind of coilovers and the tires are brand new on those bbs wheels.

 

[Spray Junkie]

We should kick it soon. I'd probably be into swooping a thing or two out of that hoard, and I'm sure I have some junk you'll need. After all that stuff left, I sold the Manx and the Jetta, and swore off vws altogether. Fast forward 5 years, I have my OG 16v gti back, the Jetta back, built an Overland GTI for the Gambler 500, and have a jetta coupe. Currently have a 10x30 full of mk2 **** to the ceiling with my 16v in the back.

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[greenraVR6]

oh ****, I thought I had a lot of parts...I'm sure you got more stuff I need

 

[Spray Junkie]

oh ****, I thought I had a lot of parts...I'm sure you got more stuff I need

Yeah, I dove back in. There's 30 totes full on the wall. The rare stuff and valuable stuff is at my house in the attic. Currently sitting on 6 or 7 mk2s worth of parts. We stripped them all bare to the shell over 6 or 7 weeks last year.

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[greenraVR6]

so my transmission swap basically is still in the planning stages as I recover from a surgery I had in October that basically has left me unable to do anything other than search the web and play PS4. I have both an o2j and an o2a and most of the associated components from each but not sure which way to go...

o2j swap from 2000 1.8t

PARTS I HAVE:
-transmission
-shift box/cables
-starter
-o2a front and rear mount brackets (can steal from o2a I have but then can't install that tranny in another car)

PARTS I NEED:
-100 mm axle flanges
-new clutch kit (clutch from parts car was slipping)
-speedo cable from o2j to mk2 cluster

OR

o2a swap from 1998 TDI

PARTS I HAVE:
-transmission
-shift box/cables
-starter
-clutch kit (stock tdi setup) but not sure if it will be ok after I chip the car, should end up somewhere around 200hp
-already has needed front and rear mounts installed
-already has 100mm axle flanges

PARTS I NEED
-speedo cable from o2a to mk2 cluster

Obviously both would require basically the same amount of work to get done (install hydro clutch pedals/clutch master bracket, shift box, etc...) but it looks like I would need to source more parts to go the o2j route. I have read the o2j is maybe a little stronger tranny but that the mk3 tdi o2a also works well with a 1.8t and lowers the rpms at highway speeds quite a bit. I'm not looking to build a race car, just a nice driving mk2. I like doing 3rd and 4th gear pulls more than hossing off the line so maybe the tdi would be better.

Input/ideas/experiences/comments welcome...:beer:

 

[greenraVR6]

18 months later...nothing groundbreaking here

Swapped interior from monty gti to white gti back in spring of 2019. Sold the monty for a profit, kept the recaros and a couple other items so came out pretty good on that deal

I then sold my house and shop and moved to a farm where my extra cars are stored in an old barn. They get covered in dust and fly **** all the time so gave her a cut and buff in fall of '19. Came out looking pretty good except the driver door still looks terrible

Just before Christmas I bought a mk1 from a buddy, stole it's wheels/tires/adapters and sold it on for another small profit. Put the dials on, raised the suspension a tad but still rubs all over the place so def needs some fender rolling work so back to the barn it went. Fast forward a bit to the whole covid stay at home drama and I decided to play with the car a little more. Started with some wiring items that need sorting but lost interest in that quickly so decided just to clean it up a bit more for now

Now I'm leaning towards a wire tuck cause I hate how the wiring looks under the hood. Also bought a MSD tach adapter that needs to go in and really should install a larger gauge wire for the relocated battery. And there's still the o2j tranny that really should go in at some time and maybe a replacement driver door and trim. Possibly even a stereo and some speakers one day but who knows. I'm not exactly in a hurry on this one so could be another 6 months or a year before I really have anything else to report. I did also convert an old building on the farm to a small shop that can hold a couple cars so at least now have a spot to play with cars when I feel the urge :beer:

 

[greenraVR6]

A couple years later and I've decided to dive in again. Car hasn't been on the road in just as long and naturally when I go to move it out of the barn it won't start and both rear wheels are locked up so I can't push it either. Ended up draging it out with one of our tractors and that broke one wheel loose but the other was real stubborn. Jump started the car and did a lap around the barn and that wheel would not free up but I got her into the shop so I was happy.

 

[greenraVR6]

At this point I had 95% of the stuff I needed or thought I needed to complete converting the car over to a mk4 o2j setup so I got right into tearing her down. There's more good than bad under the hood but it looks like a real ****show so wiring will be addressed at this time as well. Besides making the car a nice driver my general thought process here is just to clean things up but nothing too over the top.

 

[greenraVR6]

After a bath with my 4K psi pressure washer and a bunch of elbow grease things started to look a lot better. I have three o2j transmissions so painstakingly cleaned one up and am quite happy with how it turned out. 100mm axle flanges on, single mass flywheel with 228mm clutch installed, o2a brackets in place and I really like the solid shifter bracket bushings I got from S&P. They look good and will actually serve a purpose. I replaced the turbo as well (mine had a failed wastegate) and the setup is basically ready to go back in

 

[greenraVR6]

Yesterday I worked on getting the o2j shift box fitted to the mk2 tunnel. I did a little research on it and jumped under there with my trusty sawzall and got rid of most of the mk2 box mounting bracket. I opted not to remove the entire thing because the rear portion works quite well to have the rear "ears" of the mk4 shift box sit against. I used a piece of the bracket I cut out and repurposed it to make a bracket to hold the rear half of the box with a couple bolts from the top. Only modification I did to the box itself was add longer bolts so I could bolt on the frontside through holes I drilled in the cars tunnel. Used a couple nuts as a spacer (if you bolt the box up too far the shift cables will be pinched against the tunnel) and I think it turned out ok. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but the box is solid and I was able to get it done with stuff I already had so I'm calling it a win

 

[she]

looks good! hopefully it can be back on the road soon after the 5 year wait.

 

[greenraVR6]

Next up was the Fabless hydro clutch conversion kit install. If this kit had come with any kind of installation instructions I think I would have installed it in about 20 minutes flat. I spent a little over an hour on it as I'm a very visual learner and wanted to find some info on it although I basically failed at finding anything online so I may do a write up about my experience with it in another thread. Anyhow here it is...

 

[greenraVR6]

And now it's on to the wiring part of things. This car was fully operational (drove it quite a bit when I first got it) so I'm really just cleaning up and improving the looks of things. Only things I'm adding are a fog light harness and need to figure out where to hook up the wire to get my msd tach converter to work. My plan is to run most of the body and engine harness through the frame rails. I stripped down the body harness and found several exposed wires and sketchy looking crimps so this will be time well spent cleaning that stuff up. My plan is to strip both harnesses, remove or repair whatever wires that are damaged or not needed then temporarily hook everything back up and make sure everything is fully operational before I do the final taping and routing of the wires. Was happy to easily find and remove the factory plug that gives you access to the frame rail so that should make things pretty easy

 

[greenraVR6]

looks good! hopefully it can be back on the road soon after the 5 year wait.

Thanks I'm pretty excited about this car again so I don't think it will be long before she's on the road again.

 

[Pacific_northwestern]

Hey nice. One stop shop as I’m just about to start putting in the 02A goods. I didn’t get instructions from fabless either and wtf? Whose lack of idea was that


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