This is kind of a long story. Lots of pictures.
It began with my 1990 4 Door Jetta (1.6TD MF, KKK K24). This was my first diesel car and was my daily driver for two years. It was mechanically solid and had a decent body, an overall great car.
I had a blast driving this car, it had enough power to have fun, but slow enough to allow driving at the car's limit without getting myself into trouble. Coming from a MK3 VR6 daily, this was surprisingly more fun. It felt more nimble and could be driven at the limit much more often without being dangerous. Most importantly, 1000km-1300km every tank.
I also love the styling of the MK2. I've never owned a car that looked good from every angle (all my prior cars had some sort of noticeable body damage). Don't get me wrong, this car was far from perfect - but it looked pretty damn good from a distance.
Unfortunately, this didn't last long. A little over a year of ownership, I was caught up in an accident during a cruise. A mountain sheep ran out and my car was never the same again.
The accident took place about 350km away from home. Luckily, the damage was only cosmetic and I was able to drive home without any issues.
The hood, headlight, bumper support, outer fender, inner fender, and bumper were damaged. The bumper support was bent as well.
My friend had a MK2 parts car laying around with all the front end parts that I needed.
However, the inner fender and bumper support were also bent. Since these sections were a part of the chassis and could not be bolted off, I had to cut donor sections from the parts car to weld onto mine.
I saw that the battery tray was rusting as well, so I welded in new metal.
The repair went very well and all the panels lined up better than I had expected.
The car drove the same as before and I continued to daily it for another year.
Even though the car drove the same, I didn't feel the same about it.
The crash caused a dent by the sunroof (it crumpled down from the compression), the door was a bit damaged by the hinge, and the panel gaps were no longer perfect.
Due to these noticeable imperfections, I didn't feel the same way about the car anymore when I looked at it. I used to look at my car all the time after parking it, admiring its styling. After the crash, I just felt sad whenever I looked at it.
Since then, I began looking for another MK2 chassis to swap my engine into. I searched the classifieds almost everyday, looking for a suitable candidate.
I wanted a MK2 Golf because the lighter chassis would net better fuel economy. I would also have the convenience of a hatch, which is a plus for a daily driver.
My criteria for a candidate were as follows:
- must have no major rust
- no body damage
- clean title
I thought my criteria was not too strict. The condition of the engine and transmission did not matter, since I was going to swap my 1.6TD in.
I was open to either manual or automatic candidates. The mileage didn't matter either, insofar as the body was good and car was rust free.
However, the ideal candidate was much harder to find than expected.
I personally went to look at many MK2s where the owner had advertised it as "rust free", only to find rocker or underbody rust.
I know that it is difficult to find a rust free candidate for a car this old, but if I can see rust formed to the extent that it rips through the undercoating and reveals itself, then there is going to be much more than the tip of the iceberg.
I also know that there are MK2s out there without said extensive rust.
After about a year of searching, I found a suitable candidate.
Not a Golf, but I had to widen my criteria because having a clean chassis was more important.
A non-running 1992 Jetta Coupe with 1.8L 8v, engine code RV. Previous owner had recently repainted the car and didn't finish putting everything back together.
I brought my paint depth gauge with me to make sure all the panels were okay and didn't have any bondo'd repairs.
The underbody was pristine, no visible rust at all. The pinch welds were perfect, it looked like they were never used as jacking points, which is quite rare.
The paint job was by no means perfect. There were some runs and orange peel, but there was also plenty of clearcoat to work with to remedy these issues.
The windows and trim were removed for painting, suggesting that an attempt was made to properly paint the car.
My sedan had a beautiful shift boot and e-brake boot, so I swapped them over to the coupe. I think they were from a MK2 GTI.
I pulled the gasser engine from the coupe.
I installed new e-brake cables, new drum shoes, and swapped the Bilsteins over from my sedan to the coupe.
I pulled the fuel tanks and fuel lines out as well to swap from gasoline to diesel.
I might have been able to just drain the tank and lines out, but it wasn't much work to remove them. I didn't want to risk introducing gasoline into the injection pump and causing wear from reduced lubricity.
After I removed the tank, I found some rust by the fuel door, rear strut tower seam, and the half-circle shaped section where the filler neck bolts onto.
These areas trap water and have a propensity to rust. I wasn't able to catch these areas during the inspection, since it's not visible without removing the fuel tank.
The rust at the filler neck was tricky to remove, there was very little space and I couldn't fit my cut off wheel. Luckily, the air saw had a small blade that made quick work of it.
It took a while to fabricate the pieces to weld it, it has an odd curve to it. Welding was a bit difficult because visibility was poor.
I couldn't get my head very close with the welding helmet on; space was very tight under the wheel well.
I scuffed up the area with sandpaper for better paint cohesion, and applied some phosphoric acid for further etching and flash rust prevention.
After etching, I wiped down the bare metal completely with acetone in preparation for POR-15 application.
The same process was repeated for the other areas.
I wire wheeled the seam until it is free of rust.
Welded the seam.
Etched, wiped, and then painted.
Same for the half circle where the filler neck bolts onto.
I applied PRO FORM's Urethane Seam Sealer on afterwards (forgot to take pictures
)
I removed the engine, transmission and wiring harness.
So dirty hahahaha!
Got everything I needed from the sedan and sent it off to the scrapper.
Farewell!
Updates to come!