All Things Mk5 > Members Rides
LC5F's Graphite Blue GTI - Pilgrimage to Caffeine & Machine
LC5F:
So the wifes dead car finally got picked up and I could dive into the Golf, the plan was to just to do coilovers, rear control arm bushs and brakes:
Seems I have the Seadweller edition, everything is crusty, everything faught me:
I tried undoing the Drivers ball joint and 2 out of 3 nuts sheared off and the base plate was so corroded it took a dozen hammer hits to split it from the control arm - after that I just got busy with the angle grinder:
Biggest problem is the 16mm control arm console bolts, 3 out of 4 sheared - I tried backing them in and out and lots of lube they still sheared. After getting them off I even tried chucking them in the oven melting candle wax - they are just stuck in there:
This is the point where it turned into a full front end rebuild-
Ordered replacements off ebay - unfortunately they are both being couriered by Hermes who seem to be more useless than normal-
Drivers side has spent the last 4 days sat in Liverpool, the passenger side has been sent back to the sender....
Ended up ordering another passenger side and got it next day, now wishing I got both sides.
Passenger side CV decided to split itself as the strut came out - turned out the spring clip was worn, not installed properly, so not me pushing too hard, Drop links were completely seized, had to cut them off and grind off the nubbin sill in the ARB:
CV grease was really dry, so cleaned it out and got a new boot, weird thing was there was even rust in the joint:
With the Passenger subframe side delivered, there was no reason not to install my Chinese dead set kit, only one insert wasn't going home, just opened out the hole and its now good:
This also brought forward TT Alloy control arms and after some wrestling I managed to get a corner done:
Still waiting on Drives side subframe, I swapped out the rusty steel T20 arch liner bolts for Audi stainless ones, cleaned out the lower wing - not the biggest deposit, but pretty impressive compost:
agmac:
Great story here - keep it coming though some of the pics not filling me with joy - I too live in Edinburgh, so the same crap roads and weather. I must get the wheel arch liners off to have a proper look underneath and could fairly do with a set of those front headlights - the standard headlamps are so bad they are unsafe in winter.
LC5F:
--- Quote from: agmac on June 15, 2020, 08:48:50 pm ---Great story here - keep it coming though some of the pics not filling me with joy - I too live in Edinburgh, so the same crap roads and weather. I must get the wheel arch liners off to have a proper look underneath and could fairly do with a set of those front headlights - the standard headlamps are so bad they are unsafe in winter.
--- End quote ---
Hey fella - glad to find another Edinburgh roads sufferer! -
I found the Golf on Gumtree in Aberdeen, the PO used to park right down near the docks, lots of see air + not much mileage = everything just got crusty
The Drivers side subframe turned up today, after 9 days without a car my house was running low on provisions (read that as Beer for me!) - I used that as motivation. After a quick wash of the new part I assembled the control arm, the same bolt hole had to be opened up and I had opted for PSB bushes instead of Super Pro:
Drivers side was a lot more difficult to align up the 3 main 18mm bolts, took a lot of adjusting but they all finally bolted up. The scrap pile got a bit bigger:
The debris field was pretty good too:
After a big shop this evening - the beer mountain has been reinstated - I now feel brave enough to dive in and do the rear springs, shocks and the dead set bushes - but first thing I need to get an alignment done - my aligned by eye it wasn't bad, steering wheel only out by 5 to 10 degrees.
LC5F:
Weather picked up and I tackled the remaining rear end stuff
The springs and shocks were installed without issue
My rear Left arch liner is a bit baggy - is that normal?
The rear dead set kit was really easy to install... 2 bolts on each side and a bit of levering - front ones would have been even easier if I had done it with the spring and shock off.
This is how its sitting, desperately needs a wash
LC5F:
Got my chance to give the Golf its first hand wash and polish, got the washer out. first pass was TFR and a pressure wash, second pass with dodo juice snow foam:
A deep clean with the suds and then rinse, then 2 bucket method with Mer shampoo and followed by Mer polish with buffer - I need to upgrade these - Wheels then got a clean, dug out some Dirty Jok's wheel cleaner I've had for years and got busy, last thing I did was rainex glass cleaner -
Exterior wise the last thing is the exhaust tips that had been developing some really crusty bits:
I found a really good solid cleaner for chrome and aluminium called Vistal, Autosol is good but this stuff works quicker
+ it cleans and leaves a protective film - this is after a rinse, the beads are the film doing its thing - first pass - more work required:
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