My new jetta project

Hi guys, I'm new to the site but thought I'd share my latest project with you all

Basically I was running an E36 BMW 323 coupe Which was thirsty to say the least but I wanted to get back into a VW so I did a swap with a lad I know for his 1990 1.6 Jetta GX, The bodywork needs a bit of attention but mechanically it's pretty much spot on. It's had more new parts thrown at it than you can shake a stick at. Stuff like New weber carb, new water pump and cambelt, new coilovers, new ATS cup wheels and new brakes front and rear plus numerous service items replaced. Only thing thats required is a clutch (which he has supplied) and a new heater matrix which I'm now on with replacing.

So I set about taking the dash board out as it's easier to change the matrix that way I find and also pretty much all the interior needs cleaning as its been leaking in both sides and it's been used as an ashtray pretty much

I'm glad I did remove the dash board because the wiring loom for the headlight switch and the heater switch illumination was in a right mess, possibly caused by higher wattage bulbs being fitted with no realy to power them.

The car in question, I'll get some better pictures once I've sourced a big front bumper

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Dash board out and carpet removed. To say it smells under there is an understatement

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The rather burnt wiring

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Heater box removed

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New gaskets have replaced this manky piece and also on the leaf catcher as it was leaking in there.

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The heater box is now back in and plumbed up just waiting on a fresh dash wiring loom arriving as it'll be better than repairing this one.

Also have a black carpet out of a mk2 gti in the garage awaiting a good hoover and shampoo before it goes back in with plenty of new underlay.

And I'm picking up a full corrado interior tomorrow with a view to carrying out a rear bench conversion and then its on to the body work.

Thanks for looking so far, will update it as I go along

Rick

Welcome Tricky Rick!!

Looks like you went right to work on her too!!

That wiring looks bad! Surprised it worked at all!

I love to watch the good old stuff be brought back to life!

Also.... Nice name! From another Rick...lol

Thanks for the welcome Rick,

Not had chance to do a great deal to the Jetta this weekend but it has been outside on water test and all seems dry inside which means I can now start rebuilding the interior safe in the knowledge it isn't going to end up smelling awful again

And another plus note I picked these up today

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Only cleaned the drivers seat in that pic which is why one looks darker than the other.

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Cant wait to start fitting the rear seat

Will get some more updates next week.

keep on posting mate looks great .

Your jetta looks sweet, i love the ats cups.

Cheers guys, the photo makes the bodywork look a lot better than it is.

It's going to be getting a home respray in the new year and the small bumpers will be coming off if anyones interested in them?

Got the Jetta in the workshop after work tonight and thought I'd crack on with the interior. Got the black front half of the carpet fitted with some new foam underlay to replace the rather wet and smelly original stuff, amazing how much of a difference having the carpet fitted makes to the overall look of the interior.

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And as that went in so easily I thought I'd set about ripping the old seats and rear section of the carpet out. Was still a bit damp under there so I've left it to dry over night.

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Then took the old seats home and stripped the rear seat back down to size up how I'm going to fit the corrado rear bench. It looks like it should fit quite easily with a bit of welding along the bottom in places and fabricating some sort of bracket for along the top.

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And the original foam will get the side bolsters cut off and covered in the original fabric to pack out the sides of the rear bench.

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Quite a productive couple of hours really

Im still watching and its looking goooood

The Raddo seats look like fun to fitt i was gonna try it but chickend out lol have you got to addapt much on the car itself?

I spoke to a guy on scene38 who posted a picture up of his old jetta with the rear seat conversion. Turns out all you need to do is bolt some flat metal lengths across the top, middle and bottom of the rado seat and then use the original jetta seat back frame to bolt to the metal lengths.

Sounds simple in theory so we'll see how it goes

well defo keep us posted buddy sounds interestin and fun

Will do mate, and if I get enough photo's together I'll do a little "how to" if anyone's interested?

Defo mate sounds great

Yep how too's are always good i would be interested aswell

Quick update, My new dashboard loom arrived last week so come the weekend I set about removing the old damaged loom. Wasn't too bad to do as it's all just plug and play stuff. Also made sure it was all nicely tucked out of the way ready for the dash going in. A mate gave me a hand sliding the dash into place as it can be a bit hard work on your own and fitted the dash clocks and a few switches to check they all worked ok which all but the fog light switch worked fine Turned out the one plug which I was unsure on was the feed to the fog light switch which plugs into the relay plate side of the fuse box so after a bit of trial and error the fog lights now work perfect (this plug wasn't fitted on the old loom which is probably why the last owner had fun trying to get them to work for the MOT.

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Also had a go at trial fitting the Corrado rear back rest to see where abouts the sections needed to be mounted to the frame. Looks quite good even if I do say so myself

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And finally I picked a large front bumper up from a lad in Northamptonshire when I was on my way to Milton Keynes for a course last week which saved me using my own fuel so it really was a bargain. It needs the plastic part spraying black as it really is beyond saving with any plastic trim products but all that will be done along with the arch trims etc when I spray the car in the new year.

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It will be going a touch lower too as I've got a spare splitter incase I lose one

Thanks for looking

Quick tip instead of spraying the bumper black try using a blow torch on it then Autoglym bumper care the one in the green and white bottle trust me on this one it works a treat.

Cheers mate I'll give it a try, I bought a litre bottle of that autoglym bumper care from our autoglym supplier a couple of weeks back as I knew I was getting a mk2 based car which no doubt would need the plastics sorting I did the splitter with it and that came up mint but the top part is just too far gone at the mo.