By: John-Joe Vollans

Our feature editor’s MkII Golf is getting plenty of new parts and with progress helped by some dry weather and the end of show season, the build finish is in sight.

My Cars:
1975 Hillman Super Imp
1991 Golf MkII Driver (track car)
1990 Mercedes-Benz 190D

Progress since my last report has been rapid and surprisingly easy going. Since settling on a new shell last time - and recovering the tidy black ’91 Golf Driver from t’North - all manner of go faster bits have been bolted on.

First up was a fully polybushed and reconditioned front subframe, complete with new tie rods and balljoints. Thankfully the one already fitted, which had been a cause for concern, dropped out with ease thanks to a lot of All in One penetrating spray. Popping in the reconditioned frame with the help of a trolley jack went well, despite having to drop it a couple of times to line up the steering rack. Finding out too late that my donor MkII Golf’s steering gear differs from that of the GTI subframe I was trying to fit. So I had to lower the subframe a second time and replace the bottom steering column section with the one from another MkII GTI sitting on my drive in a semi-stripped state.

ALL COMING TOGETHER

With the frame at the front in place, my attention turned to the back of the car. In order to put off the serious work no doubt! I decided to work my way through the chassis from back to front. Small bumpers on the MkII Golf suit the shape of the car much better than the later big bumper alternatives, they retain the look of the MkI and in addition, the rare VW brake-cooling vents and front splitter sitting in my shed, can only be fitted to a small bumper GTI. This meant of course twinning the front small bumper with a rear of the same design.

The only problem was finding a set of small bumpers with a red stripe in decent condition. I eventually tracked a pair down in North London so trekked down in the Mercedes, which proved again how completely inadequate it is as a parts fetching wagon, I really need an E Class estate. Despite struggling, the bumpers were returned to base and given a good dose of bumper shine, and came up like new.

Next on the list (which currently stands at a full page of A4 with 28 things still ‘to do’) was to fit my GAZ Gold coilovers, again starting at the rear axle. The only drama here was undoing the rear suspension to discover that a pair of collars illustrated in the Haynes manual were nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, my other shell came to the rescue again. All that was left to do was attach the OMP rear upper strut brace between the rear top mounts and torque everything up.

Another rare part that I had kept in my shed from yet another old MkII Golf was a rear lower strut brace that fits across the chassis just in front of the rear beam. This steel piece bolts into some pre-machined threads and really improves the handling. One of the threads on the new Driver shell was bent and needed some gentle heat and re-working to bring into line, but after that it was all fitted and the rear of the car is now suitably stiff.

This little box of tricks will transform the sloppy feeling and sharpen up the gear changes in any Mk2 Golf.

SELECTING SYMPTOMS

The previous owner had told me that (prior to popping its head gasket) this MkII Golf had trouble getting into gear on occasion. Without any hesitation, I bought the popular bush repair kit and weighted shifter from the MkIII Golf to cure the problem. Without the engine or gearbox in the engine bay and with the car now supporting its own weight on its new race specification coilovers, it was simply a case of fitting the alignment tool to the gearstick to make sure it all goes back correctly and unbolting the linkage.

Each of the links in the gearchange mechanism is located by hard plastic bushes, which wear with age, but thankfully are easily popped in and out of their apertures at the joints or on the gearbox casing. A further two softer plastic bushes allow movement to be transferred from the shaft linking the gearstick to the box. Finally, one large orange bush, which takes up the majority of the wear, allows the linkage to cross the gait from neutral, 1st to 5th etc. The majority of the OE bushes weren’t in a particularly bad way, but this orange one was completely shot, in fact it had tore itself into two parts, which had to be fished out with a screwdriver before the replacement could be eased in place.

There’s still a lot to do before the car is a runner, the engine needs fitting along with the gearbox, driveshafts and clutch, a Facet redtop fuel pump and associated wiring and pipework need plumbing in and of course the twin 45 Dellorto carburettors but at last there is less to do than has already been done…