I finally got some pics of the Trophy Recaros…
As you can see they are in great shape. Note that they are reversed, the one on the left is the driver side seat, but overall the bolsters are in great shape and while there is a burn or two and need a little cleaning, you can’t beat the price! Thanks Nate!
So I had Al @ CPT order me up my short block. There was a little confusion on the price in the catalog, but it is looking like $1,400 shipped for the short block, assembled, with a warranty (of some kind). Still a better decision then me doing the work myself. I could have done the work myself and saved about $300, but I am not sure that I am a good candidate for that quite yet. Dylan and I were thinking perhaps we would tear down the motor that was in Cali before as a learned exercise. I would rather screw up that motor than my daily driver motor. And then I can honestly reset the odometer to ‘0′ and smile, knowing it should last a while. So that is ordered and should be here soon.
I also began cleaning the engine bay out and it is actually come along quite nicely. I have found VERY little rust, and the dirt and oil actually appeared to have kept the paint in decent shape. For some reason, VW put wax on the paint in a number of places. This wax, after 20 years, has begun to deteriorate, so I am removing it. It was under the areas that held the airbox and the battery. Since those won’t be there really, (battery in the trunk and the airbox replaced with a cone filter for now and eventually the individual throttle bodies) I don’t feel I need the wax.
So I hope to get a bunch more cleaned next wednesday, and I will hopefully remember to grab some pictures too.
I am excited to get the motor in. That will be a big step.
I need some lower spoiler on the front… duckbill, GTI, whatever. Haven’t decided. But sticking with small bumpers requires something there I think.
Wasn’t that hard, but man is it dirty in there. We will be replacing nearly everything you see there, so cleaning it won’t be a big deal per se, it should clean up very nicely. Perhaps a new coat of paint in there. Now I gotta get some money together and order up the block…
Dylan and I always comment on these rims… and we saw a set this evening and I was looking into them… anyone know of any pics of them on a jetta? They are kinda small at 14×5, and I am certainly not going to try to find a play to widen them (HA!)… but they are cool and with some spacers, some polishing, and some custom color matched paint, they could be pretty dope for a show set…
So my old roommate Nate called me up the other week and said he was at a junk yard and there was a GLI with the Recaro interior, did I want it? Of course! So he pulled them out and brought them into town for me, dropped them off tonight…
For $75 I got a set of VERY nice Trophy Recaros. Sure there are 2 minor cigarette burns in the cushions, but the bolsters are in pretty good shape and the stitching is intact nearly everywhere…
I need to grab some pics of them. But I was very happy. Combined with my Trophy door cards, all I need is a back seat and I have a complete interior. I am stoked.
So the plan was …
I had a 2.0 ABA block out of a 95 Golf. Engine blocks were on sale at the junkyard in Indiana, and this block was pulled from a red automatic car with unknown mileage. It is dirty but appears to be ok. So I was planning on stripping the block, sending it out to be machined, bores cleaned, etc, likely to the tune of $200-$300. Then I was going to rebuild the short block myself. This would have entailed a rebuild kit, and the cheapest rebuild kit I could find was $550 with pistons. So say with shipping and tax, we are looking at nearly $900 (high end) for the bottom end. And that is just parts, not the installation and build up, that I WOULD have to do myself. While that would be a great learning experience, it would take alot of time, which is something I don’t have a lot of right now.
So I was poking around and found an ill running 96 Jetta 2.0 that was for sale for $400. Sure the car has a pile of problems, but the thought was we could pull the motor/wiring and install it in Cali and it would be in need of some work, but it would be easier, and in the interest of time, quicker.
In all of this thinking, I called up my mechanic, Al at Chicago Performance and Tuning, and asked him his thoughts on the topic. He knows how to rebuild a motor, and he has a rough idea of what I can (and can’t) do mechanically. So we chatted about it and he point out that I can buy a new short block, with new VW parts, professionally assembled, etc. This would cost me $800 roughly, say $900 with shipping. So for roughly the same amount of money, I get a professionally build bottom end with new parts, and I don’t have to measure clearances to stupid numbers with tools I don’t have.
So… I get that block, I pull out the 8v counter flow head I already have on top of that, add megasquirt for the ECU and wiring harness… and boom. Done.
So… block…$900 shipped. Megasquirt with wiring harness shipped…$350 … I am sure that I will need some random parts. I have the oil pan, waterpump, and alternator from the old engine. I may be swapping the distributor with another VW guy for a nice 4 window distributor. I am sure there are other things that I haven’t thought of, but I will. A few gasket kits, etc, I should be ok.
So with that, I would have a virtually new motor. And it would be about $1,500 for a brand new, essentially zero mile engine (the head has some miles on it). And it should be decently fast.
I am excited… now I need to get some money together for it…
Now that the holidays are over… I am hoping to have some time to get the motor done… we shall see.. I need to get on it…
but meanwhile, I found a video, the source of which I need to learn more about… that is my current audible inspiration…
it is 13.4mb, but worth a listen… check it out
So someone stole my miata rims. Frustrating, but ok. They weren’t my favorite rims, although they were super lightweight and would have made for great track rims, but whatever, no use crying over spilt milk.
I DID get some throttle bodies though:
Up for auction off of a 2001 gsxr 600 is¬¬throttle body assembly with injectors. . IN excellent shape.¬ .¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Email any ?? and thanks for looking.
Wasn’t an english major I bet. But it was $50 + shipping.
Should be a nice little addition to cali.
Time to update the exterior…
Wheels and tires… I have wheels that I bought off of my Miata friend Sameer… they are the 7 spoke, 10.3 lbs. Cheap and with tires. They look like this:
They MAY need spacers too look better, but they are SO light. They will make for good track tires eventually. I keep seeing rims I WANT, but I won’t likely buy for a while…
I upgraded from the aeros to euro quad rounds (again, from Dylan). I wired them up via relays to the battery and put in new bulbs. MAN do they light up the road MUCH MUCH better now. I can actually SEE stuff. SO nice. I will eventually get a quad round badgeless grill. Rebecca also bought me a quad round upper eyebrow that I will put in eventually, probably after I get some paint on there.
Chris got me new front bumper, which was a very nice visual improvement on the car. I also got a GLI rear spoiler in black that I may repaint and install as well as a later GTI rear hatch spoiler with an integrated brake light. I would like to figure out a way to install that on the edge of the roof and use the brakelight. We shall see.
I also installed a roof mounted antenna, or fuba. I took the time and ran it through the A pillar as well. It works, although I should reseal it, I don’t think it is tight enough.
That is all the exterior work I have done so far. I would LIKE to eventually paint the car, although I am not sure what color I would do, and I would certainly like to clean up the dings and surface rust spots. We’ll see though, I am not sure I want to spend much money on it though. Perhaps this winter I will sand down the bad places and clean them up… perhaps I will do a coat of flat black or something. heehee.
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