History:
I figured I would start my build thread with a little bit of personal history, to hopefully explain why certain parts of this build get done the way they will.
About me:
I’m 20, a full time college student pursuing product design engineering and am currently employed as an engineering intern. I am new to the VW scene but not new to tuning “hot hatches” my first car was a 00 ford focus with all the boltons and some street friendly cams. Being the first car I ever modded I just sort of threw parts at the car as I found them. Overall I liked the car and it handled pretty well but I wasn’t satisfied with the straight-line or cornering capabilities for the amount of money spent. Last August that car was totaled and I picked up another focus (this time a 5speed instead of the atx and vowed to do things differently. I wound up with a stiffly sprung supercharged focus that I managed to do pretty well auto crossing. This car was much more fun for just about the same amount of money. However I had sort of rushed the build of the 2nd focus from a financial stand point and wasn’t really happy with how my finances looked heading into the start of my 3rd year of school. I’d been looking for a cheap clean well running mk1-2 golf/gti for the last year or so ]when I saw this threads star pop up on craigslist. It was listed for a bit out of he price range I could afford at the moment, but after looking at it and seeing how clean it was I determined to try and get it. I wound up getting the car for a little more than half the asking price so work began to sell all of the aftermarket parts on the focus and make it a nice reliable DD while I fixed any problems the golf may have then sell the focus. And DD the golf, however as I am never content to leave well enough alone and I do thoroughly enjoy autocrossing and hanging out with local car clubs on the weekend it is mandatory (to me) that my car still be a quick sporty handling little ride………awww heck I’m not fooling anybody this car will be my pseudo DD/track car
Goals:
SPECS:
Alright lets talk about what I’m starting with:
I wanted to get this started before this weekend as I have the following parts sitting in the garage or en route to my house ready to get this build kicked off right!
Thanks again for reading this short novel!
On to the pics!
What I'm working towards:
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Chilling in an abandoned Parking Lot
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Some Chipping Paint A goofed up bumper we can fix those!
![Image]()
Rear view complete with some bondo and rust
![Image]()
Chilling out and about
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Yep Door Panels Need Some Work
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Stay Tuned hopefully I will be able to update the thread by the end of the weekend or early next week with new parts going on the car
~Brad
p.s. I promise neve to write this much in 1 post again!
I figured I would start my build thread with a little bit of personal history, to hopefully explain why certain parts of this build get done the way they will.
About me:
I’m 20, a full time college student pursuing product design engineering and am currently employed as an engineering intern. I am new to the VW scene but not new to tuning “hot hatches” my first car was a 00 ford focus with all the boltons and some street friendly cams. Being the first car I ever modded I just sort of threw parts at the car as I found them. Overall I liked the car and it handled pretty well but I wasn’t satisfied with the straight-line or cornering capabilities for the amount of money spent. Last August that car was totaled and I picked up another focus (this time a 5speed instead of the atx and vowed to do things differently. I wound up with a stiffly sprung supercharged focus that I managed to do pretty well auto crossing. This car was much more fun for just about the same amount of money. However I had sort of rushed the build of the 2nd focus from a financial stand point and wasn’t really happy with how my finances looked heading into the start of my 3rd year of school. I’d been looking for a cheap clean well running mk1-2 golf/gti for the last year or so ]when I saw this threads star pop up on craigslist. It was listed for a bit out of he price range I could afford at the moment, but after looking at it and seeing how clean it was I determined to try and get it. I wound up getting the car for a little more than half the asking price so work began to sell all of the aftermarket parts on the focus and make it a nice reliable DD while I fixed any problems the golf may have then sell the focus. And DD the golf, however as I am never content to leave well enough alone and I do thoroughly enjoy autocrossing and hanging out with local car clubs on the weekend it is mandatory (to me) that my car still be a quick sporty handling little ride………awww heck I’m not fooling anybody this car will be my pseudo DD/track car
Goals:
- BUDGET! HARD! my last 2 cars had close to 8k in mods each and being a full time student and spending that sort of money on cars (at least in 1 summer) just doesn’t fly with me (trying to make it through school debt free)
- Do it right the first time: I know this seems to directly contradict the above statement but budgeting and taking the cheap route are not the same thing, it just means I will have to build the car a little slower as opposed to huge sums of money at once
- Be Practical: to an extent since this is to be my DD and I want to take some road trips, go camping, mountain biking etc it wont be show quality, but I still want to be able to scrape my oil pan, take it to hang out with other car friends or take highway on ramps at 3 times the suggested speed. So don’t expect a pansy stock re-store build.
- Now that the boring stuff is out of the way how bout a couple fun goals?
- No turbos or superchargers the upkeep is to expensive on this and I want it to be a budget car
- Sub 2000lb curb weight (via race seats lighter wheels gutted hatch etc)[
- 1hp for every 14lbs (or better) this was the power/weight ratio of my supercharged focus (2800lbs without seats in the back and 200whp) however it should be easy with a 2000lb car since I’ll only need 143hp
- Keep the A/C! my last 2 cars had it deleted and it sucked no more of that non sense for me!
- 30mpg highway cruise capabilities (as I said I would like to do a few road trips next summer
- Exterior: “feels” completely period correct, this doesn’t mean it will look exactly like its out of 1991 but I want it to feel like it would be at home in that year.
- Engine: Ditto the above
- Interior: I want it to have the ability to make pilot/passengers feel as if their in a newer car but with the ability to strip down to race status in a matter of an hour
- Low maintenance I don’t want to be doing oil changes every 2500 miles or re-greasing bushings every 500 miles because they squeak etc. I still plan to take extremely good care of the car I just don’t want to have to take care of it every time I want to drive it.
SPECS:
Alright lets talk about what I’m starting with:
- 1991 VW golf
- 1.8l 8v
- 5speed
- Air conditioning (still blows cold!)
- Cruise control
I wanted to get this started before this weekend as I have the following parts sitting in the garage or en route to my house ready to get this build kicked off right!
- Round Headlight Radiator Support
- Quad Round E-code’s
- Quad Round Grill
- New Door Handles (more on this later)
- 16v Fender Flares
- 16v Sideskirts
- Pioneer DEH4900 deck (from an old car of mine)
- 14x7 A.R.E. Fat 5 twisted wheels
Thanks again for reading this short novel!
On to the pics!
What I'm working towards:
Chilling in an abandoned Parking Lot
Some Chipping Paint A goofed up bumper we can fix those!
Rear view complete with some bondo and rust
Chilling out and about
Yep Door Panels Need Some Work
Stay Tuned hopefully I will be able to update the thread by the end of the weekend or early next week with new parts going on the car
~Brad
p.s. I promise neve to write this much in 1 post again!
