Yup, the Gol platform (Fox) was definitely built to a third-world standard... but we learn to love and live with it.
I would be careful not to lump Mexican and Brazilian build quality together. Brazil was/is MUCH better than Mexico, hands down. I know many of folks with worse electrical problems in A2s and A3s made in Mexico. This Fox of mine has had comparatively few wiring issues. I still think nothing compares with German quality, of course. And I'm more than glad to be replacing Brazilian parts with German ones.
Prospectus (copied from the vortex thread):
Still have to do the front and rear main seals and carrier gaskets, the cam seal, intermediate shaft seal and o-ring, check the oil pump gear lash (possibly also run a plastigauge under the bearing caps for peace of mind) then button up the oil pan, install the vac pump and seal, water pump and seals, thermostat and cover and seal, wire up the glowplugs, install injection pump and new fuel supply line, new heatshields for new injectors (that's a new wrinkle), fuel return lines, fuel hard lines, reference boost line from the intake to the LDA, install the exhaust manifold heat shields, the turbo and it's gasket (w00t!), the turbo hard oil supply line and soft oil drain line with their seals, install the crank sprocket and pulley, intermediate shaft pulley and water pump pulley, injection pump sprocket and cam sprocket, timing belt, set initial timing, sort out an acceptable alternator mounting and belt arrangement, front mount (another wrinkle), install the essential coolant hoses (some fox, some quantum), steal the oil deflector from the fox, install the pilot bearing, flywheeel, clutch, pressure plate and THEN start thinking about fitting this mess into it's new home!
That's not even mentioning stripping out the old motor AND transmission AND fuel system AND fuel tank and replacing it ALL, finding a place to wedge the new fuel filter, possibly cleaning/painting the engine bay, altering the bay wiring, building the glowplug system, routing the cold start cable, deleting A/C and EGR systems, swapping in a new radiator and coolant reservoir and all hoses and rad ducting cardboards, sorting out a downpipe and mating it to the existing exhaust, installing the intake filter and hoses, cleaning/draining/refilling/installing the 5speed transmission with it's new throwout bearing, starter bushing and 5speed linkage (with new bushings, of course!), new clutch cable, new mounts all round, the starter, AND finally working out the inevitable kinks and stuff I forgot along the way.
What the hell was I thinking when i started this??
I'm planning to take some time off work, maybe 4 days straddling a weekend (so 6 days total) to practically live at my uncle's garage to get the lion's share done. This diddling around for only a few hours at a time is costing me a fortune in gas, but I have no TIME!