[oldskool1963vw]

Hey all. so I have been meaning to create this thread for many months now but just have not had the time. I actually don't see this as much of a build thread since I don't plan on changing too much more stuff on the car. This will be more of a "keeping track of what I have done" and "sharing is caring" thread than anything else.

But first, a little history on the car.

December 2011 -After getting T-boned in the first GLI we built, Billburt buys this GLI from a guy up in Pennsylvania . Its a low mileage car with not one single door ding! It was also already bagged with Accuair (thank goodness we didn't have to tackle that task again) and whoever did the air ride install did a pretty good job. I only wanted to make one change. More on that later.

February 2012- My cousin started a DIY/build thread for this car. Billburt, His brother, and I (along with a few other local guys) did all the work on this car. You can see all the work we did in his thread here:http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5594065-Billburt-s-DIY-build-thread

September 2012- Billburt sells the car to Jason in Atlanta. He adds tint to the windows and a speaker box in the trunk. He also put a vinyl wrap on the roof.

SOWO 2013 and 2014- I see the car and speak to the new owner both years. He only put about 1500 miles on it in the two years he owns it. At the 2014 SOWO he tells me that he is thinking about selling it and he would prefer that it go back in the family. I tell him to give me a call if he is serious.

August 2014- He calls me. I buy the car. I fly up to Atlanta. Jason picks me up from the airport in an uber clean 90's dually. I drive the car back from Atlanta.

Here is how the car looked when I got it (these two pics are actually from SOWO 2014

^Photo cred: Ant

From here on I will just keep adding to the stuff I do to the car. some post will just be general info and some may be actual DIY's.

POST #1- Vinyl removal and Recaro bolster fix
POST #2 - Trunk set up
POST #3 - AGN Valve cover
POST #4 - Intake Manifold
POST #5 - Clutch replacement
Post #35 - Powder coating your alternator
Post #49 - New exhaust tip


VINYL REMOVAL
The first thing I did when I got the car was remove the vinyl wrap. I actually thought Jason painted the roof when I saw it the first time. I really didn't look at it that close. The vinyl looked kind of cool but its really not my style, plus it scared my kids. So my #2 and I removed the vinyl once the car was home.

RECARO SEAT BOLSTER REPAIR
The next order of business was to fix the bottom bolster of the drivers seat. The interior of this car is a 9.7/10. The only issues with it are the fabric on the door cards is just starting to fall (I will be fixing this soon) and the bolster on the seat was crushed. This is a pretty common problem with the Recaro seats. I did a full DIY on it with pics. you can find it here:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?7050892-DIY-GLI-Recaro-seat-bolster-(bottom-cushion)-refresh

And here is the finished product

And a couple more pics of the car to round out this first post.

at Fixxfest 2014

Billburt's back yard

The Gathering at Reeves Import Motors.

And a cold start video for S&G

 

[oldskool1963vw]

The second thing I tackled was the trunk set up. As I said before, most of the air ride install was done proper. the only thing I wanted to change was the trunk set up. Whoever did it with the install went the easy route and just mounted the tank and the two pumps on top of the trunk floor. You could see everything. I wanted the pumps to be hidden under a false floor. This was partially because I wanted a little more sound deadening for the pumps but I also wanted a hidden compartment

So the first thing I did was rip out the trunk set up and redo all the wiring for the pumps and the air lines for the tank. I built two separate boxes. The rear box would house the tank and pumps.

While I had everything out of the trunk I lined the bottom with sound deadening material. Its actually roofing material. I was looking for sound deadening online and found that some hot rodders use this roofing material instead since its a LOT cheaper. Figured I would try it out. Seems to work pretty well so far.:thumbup:

I installed hard lines from the pumps to the tanks. This was my first time bending hard lines and they turned out ok, but I may change this in the future.

I did two separate boxes for a couple of reasons. One was that I wanted to still be able to easily access the spare tire. With this set up I can pull out the back (smaller) box and get to the spare tire.

I also wanted to attempt to keep the original trunk carpet. I carved it up to fit over the cover that I made for the boxes.

Here is the finished trunk

And my current usage of the rear box

I still need to finish the boxes themselves. Not sure how I am going to do that but they need to be covered or painted or something to cover the raw wood.

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Next up was the valve cover.

Billburt had an AGN valve cover sitting in his garage. He never got around to installing it when he owned the car. After i bought the car he gave it to me.
I did a little bit of research on them. there are a few threads here on vortex that you will find. Some ppl say you need to bore out the hole for the coil and others say you can just shave down the coil or just shove it in to make it fit. It seemed like a bit of a tight fit, and I didnt really want to start cutting up the coils so I decided to bore out the hole a little. I am not exactly sure how much you are supposed to take off...but its not a lot. What I did was just take it to a machine shop and left him a spare coil that I had and told him to bore out the hole "just a little" to make the coil fit snugly. This worked fine other than that he cut the notch for the coil in the wrong orientation. I wanted the coils facing the other way but it still worked anyway.

Next I had the valve cover powder coated. I can't remember the name of this color but I got it from Prismatic Powders

I also wanted to use AN fittings to connect the valve cover to the IE catch can that I got and the oil filter housing. Billburt had an 034 Motorsports can on but I switched to the IE can so I could use AN fittings. I got the AN fittings and the adapter for the oil filter housing from Urotuning

I had to tap the holes in the valve cover. the size 10AN fittings called for a 1/2NPT14 tap.

And here it is with the AN fitting installed.

And the valve cover installed. while I had everyting apart I also redid the wiring for the coils so that I could wrap them in something called techflex. Got this idea from Ant. (although his wrap looks a lot better than mine) :thumbup:

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Intake Manifold

This one was pretty simple. I removed the intake manifold and had it powder coated. The only thing I didn't think of when I started this was the injector cups. The factory cups are plastic. They will need to be removed before you powder coat and 9 times out of 10 they will break when removed. You could replace them with factory plastic ones, but wheres the fun in that.

Shot of the factory plastic cups

I chose to replace the plastic ones with billet ones from Verdict Motorsports.

Here is what comes in the kit from Verdict. These are high quality and I have not had one issue with them!

Pic of the cups installed into my freshly coated intake. I asked Billburt to tell the powder guy to do satin black. I ended up getting gloss black. Still looks good though.

I also went ahead and gave the throttle body a little polishing.

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Clutch

I have heard maintenance is paramount....

Fun story about this years SoWo trip... My slave cylinder crapped out on me while we were at Anna Ruby Falls. I had to drive the car back to the cabin without a clutch and then rent a truck/trailer to get her back to Tampa

I noticed when I bought the car that the clutch pedal felt a lot heavier than my TDi. I just figured it was due to it just being a different tranny/clutch/etc... After speaking to a friend here in Tampa that owns a shop, he tells me that a heavy clutch pedal is sometimes a sign that the slave is on its way out. So, with 86K on the clock, and since you have to pull the tranny to replace the slave on the O2M, I figured I might as well replace the clutch too.\

I will not go into the whole DIY here since its been done several times before (use the search button on vortex), but one thing that I did do that most DIY's don't say is remove the entire sub frame. There is really only like 14 bolts holding everything in. And with the sub frame out of the way it is a LOT easier to get the tranny out!

Some of you might recognize this garage:

Billburt's brother cleaning up the tranny case for me. And my boy Kody keeping an eye out for the haters.... Thanks for the help :thumbup:

New rear main seal installed.

New slave/throw out installed. I also used the Nothing Leaves Stock O2M Shim Kit

New flywheel, clutch disk and pressure plate installed. I used the Stage 1 Kit from Urotuning
This kit comes with:
- Replacement Single Mass Flywheel (22 lbs)
- Clutch Disc (240mm)
- Pressure Plate
- Release Bearing/Slave Cylinder
- Flywheel Bolts
- Pressure Plate Bolts

Almost done

 

[Billburt]

Good to see it back in action

 

[Andrewrg]

:beer::beer::beer:

 

[Eric!]

Looks good:thumbup:

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Good to see it back in action

If by "back in action" you mean sitting in my garage and only being drive about 4 mile per week....then sure:thumbup::laugh:

 

[Dave Bro]

Good stuff.:thumbup:

 

[Billburt]

If by "back in action" you mean sitting in my garage and only being drive about 4 mile per week....then sure:thumbup::laugh:

I've been no better with mine lately. I don't even think it's getting started this week. Whats next? did you get the Alternator cage in?

 

[oldskool1963vw]

I've been no better with mine lately. I don't even think it's getting started this week. Whats next? did you get the Alternator cage in?

Nope. Cage is still sitting on my work bench. Maybe this weekend...

 

[subisan]

Glad to see this car is still being cared for! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Glad to see this car is still being cared for! :thumbup::thumbup:

yeah buddy :thumbup:

 

[oldskool1963vw]

She hasn't moved in over three weeks. :facepalm:

 

[sommersprossen]

^^ why not? ^^ I've got some serious for this car

sent from my Atrix HD

 

[Vamped]

:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[oldskool1963vw]

^^ why not? ^^ I've got some serious for this car

sent from my Atrix HD

Well for one, it has been raining like crazy down here....but also I just have not had the time to drive it. Too busy with work and kids.

 

[sommersprossen]

Psshhtt I'll come drive it for ya

sent from my Atrix HD

 

[oldskool1963vw]

Psshhtt I'll come drive it for ya

sent from my Atrix HD

lol...pass