So, background, this was my first "project car," it originally ran with a 3A bottom end, shaved/cam'd head on CIS with a 2.25" exhaust, intake etc. It got a respray in the factory Alpine White during this build and a bunch of interior changes, including a cow pattern headliner. It ended up totally grenading that motor, so I tried to and failed at an ABA turbo conversion. Then the plan changed again when I became briefly obsessed with "stancetard" cars and at the same time found 3/4 floor pans totally missing. So I built a rotisserie for the car, fixed the floors, stripped the engine bay and... let it sit for 5yrs.
That brings us up to about a month ago.
I moved home after living in Maryland since ~2010 with plans to start on this car again. Plan was a quattro conversion, but after going to my first auto-x since before I put this on a rotisserie and got rehooked on motorsports and decided I want to go fast again, no point trying to build a fast street car if you never get to use it :3gears:
Plan is to finish it soon, get to a few auto-xs and hillclimbs this year and run the entire NEHA hillclimb schedule next year by which point it will have received a full DOM cage.
Current/Planned build spec:
OBDI ABA bottom end
1.8l 16v cylinder head with a few backyard "tweaks" by yours truly
Factory in tank and main fuel pumps
-accumulator deleted
Megasquirt Fuel/Ignition control
Stitch welded front strut towers
Seam welded rear towers
MK3 front control arms/rear beam, adds ~1" of track width
-Control arms were seam welded and recieved R32/TT factory upgrade bushings, stock (old) front CA bushings
MK3 front axles
Full front MK3 spindles/brakes w/ brand new wheel bearings + rotors (10.1" rotors and bigger single piston calipers
-EBC Yellowstuff track pads
MK2 rear disc setup on MK3 beam w/MK4 AL calipers and best condition used wheel bearings/rotors I had
-Stock pads (trying to keep front to rear balance)
One coil cut MK3 rear springs (pretty stiff)
Stock MK2 front springs, will change to MK3 or VR fronts
Whatever shocks came from the TDI for the rear, junkyard new(ish) Blauparts front shocks
Factory MK2 front sway bar (teeny tiny)
MK3 front sway bar custom mounted on rear beam
Need/undecided on:
16v exhaust manifold
16v intake manifold
rest of the exhaust
Original "snowflake" alloy wheels
Set of used but good shape Hoosier R6 in 205/50/14 flavor
So on to some pics. I've spent a hellacious amount of time cleaning, degreasing and painting stuff. Almost everything you see here was part of my (way to large) parts stash, was bartered/got for free from friends, or purchaced in the junkyard. I should be <$500 event ready without a cage. I still need a few key parts but it's getting far enough along I figured I'd throw a thread up.
The track-width-widening donor, many thanks to Dana:
Bartered a day's work for this baby:
Floors finished, will get white paint:
Getting stitch welded:
Back in primer:
Hubs before/after:
Hubs sand blasted:
... Well, lots more has been done, car is currently a roller again but my phone is refusing to send emails right now so when they finally go through (probably tomorrow... ugh) I'll throw some more pics up of the progress. I'm working on wiring now, hoping to have what will remain of the factory harness back in place tomorrow day so I can start building the custom half from there. Should be fun building a race dash, I have lotsa ideas
Thank you for reading along!
