Well boys and girls sit down while I tell you a story here goes.
Once upon a long long time ago a 2 door MK2 8v GTI Alpine white was first registered here in sunny Northern Ireland, to be exact 22nd May 1989 yes the old girl is 20 years old.
I bought her in 1992 with 47000 miles on the clock and some VW history, since then she has been my daily drive and now sits with 231598 miles! Wow.
Over the years I have given her some tweaks,
Magnex stainless down pipe, Full Scorpion stainless system.
Blue Igniter leads
K&N panel filter, then K&N cone filter with stainless induction pipe.
Various cross drilled and grooved front discs and various pads.
VDO gauges from an Audi coupe.
All the normal MK2 issues have also arisen over the years rear callipers, stripped and rebuilt until it became a real pain, so put new MK3 ones on and had no further issues.
Recall for heater bypass valve carried out by VW.
Drivers seat bolster and back stripped and rebuilt from a spare drivers seat from a 5 door so now good as new.
New front wish bones fitted with poly bushes. Rear top mount poly bushes
Custom leather gear stick gaiter made from the inner thigh from a pair of my then
girl friends (now wife’s black leather trousers) sweet!
Chrome gear surround. Alloy heater controls. Replaced water pump, oil pump.
The car was serviced every 10000 miles then every 5000 miles always new VW filter and VW oil and new sump washer new brake pressure valve, replaced brake pipes.
Goodridge stainless brake hoses all round.
Cam belt every 50000 miles by VW.
To many other things to list.
I have every MOT, Tax disc and receipt for anything that was ever bought for the car, a big fat file, scared to add it all up.
Now you may ask yourselves where is this all going.
Well the old girl is really showing her age and she has not been my main car for the past 2 years although Mot and taxed so I could still take her out for a burn.
She needs some body work
New front wings and front valance, New tail gate ( yes rusted like all early mk2s),
Rear wheel arches, Sills both sides, Rear back panel ( have new VW one stored away)
New repair panel around the fuel filler.
Repair to the door bottoms both sides. New panel under battery. Rear bumper iron.
So really looking at a glass out respray and a lot of TLC to get her right.
However the pound signs look like rolling up to get her right.
The car has an mot to mid June and taxed for 6 months so need to get her sorted before it is to late.
So I need some feed back on any good body work firms who could do the work with out sticking the arm in. I have already contacted some from the various VW clubs but as yet have not taken the car to be priced, so sorry to any one I have been in contact with, just need to get off work so the car can be looked at and priced. If any one has good panels hidden away or know where to source them give me a pm,
So here she is in all her glory. What would you do after 17 years?
Slippy8v













Well after a lot of ringing around and searching E-BAY I picked up the first big panel
I was going to do the sill, rear wheel arch and fuel panel, (60.00+ for these 3 panels) then all the cutting and welding, but after speaking to some body work guys they felt the best option was to try and get the full quarter panel, not an easy task and was looking at serious money.
Having already picked parts from the van at Quiggs thought I might as well give them a ring, after a few phone calls, they turned one up buried under a lot of other panels in one of their sheds, so got a price and straight down after work to check it out.
Well pleased good condition only some very light surface rust on a few patches and it looks like the proper VW sticker, can any body confirm this from the photo.
So did the deal and headed home well pleased no turning back now, other panels on order.
Will have to start hiding the parts from my wife.

What would you expect to pay for a full VW quarter panel? Answers please see if I got a bargain?
I know what VW wanted!








New front wings and repair panel for under battery and drivers side sill already bought
Another update on the old girl some more nice new panels arrived today
Pax sill, rear pax arch repair panel and front lower panel.
A bit early yet but also picked up a new rear VW badge.

Just waiting for the front cross member
(may not need it but want to have once the car starts to get stripped, just in case.)
And waiting for a new rear small bumper complete.
Also ordered all new screws and bolts for the front wings and panel.



Managed to get another tailgate from a white GTI (needs a good TCUT and polish) so a quick swap and at least she looks like a GTI again, the first replacement from Quiggs is in better condition and this will be used once the rest of the car is sorted.



Still looking for a driver and passenger doors in white with no rust or new (no chance)
Unless some one has them squirreled away.
Any body have these drop and e-mail to
geoff@nadeina.wanadoo.co.uk

Slippy8v

Welcome to VAGdrivers Geoff

That's some story you have just told, and there is a lot more to come by the looks of things.

The car should be as good as when it rolled out of the factory 20 years ago by the time you are finished

Best of luck with the work and be sure to keep us updated

Welcome, nice looking car there.

fair play, lot of work going on there

Some story is right

great to see the interest you have in that car after doing all those miles

best of luck with the work ahead

17 06 09
Another new panel today front cross panel(may not need this but would hate to have the front stripped only to find it needs replacement.
New screws + washers for the wings and front valance all from VW.
Still looking for doors, so joined Vagdrivers to give a bigger search area, and have been contacted by a bloke in Wexford who says he has 2 very clean white doors, and is willing to meet me half way if I want them.
I have asked him for some photos, and any bad points, they will have to be very clean to make the trip, no price as yet!
Will post any updates.
Slippy8v

new screws and washers for the front wings and front panel


Front cross member

Nice new rear VW badge

Just a quick update.
had been getting a low oil pressure light on the dash over the past few weeks when i had the old girl out for a spin,the vdo oil guage also showed very low pressure at idle and 8o degrees of oil temp,checked all the conections from the sender but they where all fine, and it was clear some thing was about to give.
so,straingt down to German and Swedish for a new oil pump 28.00 +vat cheap fix and sump gasket, spent fathers day under the car, drained her of oil,dropped the sump, screwed out the old pump on with the new and primed with oil, new gasket back on and screwed the sump back up,refilled with new oil and fired her up, bloody hell flashing lights and buzzers untill the new pump picked up the oil, ran her up to 80 degrees and then back down to idle no warning light and the gauge showed 1 bar of pressure just as it always had done. May change the oil again after speaking to Alan at AMG he said with any engine with big miles and where there was oil pressure issues he would use 20w50 oil, i had always used VW synta 15w40 semi, so will change to the 20w 50 to see if the pressure increases.


Was down with Alan AMG Ballyclare tonight with my mk2 8v, just wanted to get her checked out before the rebuild no point if the engine was clapped.
Had probs last year getting the co down,Alan had her set up in no time, he also sorted a real pain of a whine, i thought a bearing was going in the altenator, and had gone over every thing I could, turns out the bottom cam belt cover was rubbing on the belt, simply when you know what your looking for.
As with the rest of the feed back knows his VW, even had a MK1 cabby infor a service while I was there.

May have got 2 clean doors from a 89 white gti waiting t o confirm
slippy 8v

nice project you have there... can i ask are you keeping the hella reflective tailgate sticker? reading on ed38 their worth a good bit of money.

...its obviously a labour of love on this car, as youve had it that long (well document tread ojn the car BTW) but fairplay for not being afraid to repair 'all at once ' the ropey panels; unfortunately I had some solid mk2 parts for awhile, a cuttle two wheel arches etc but I actually paid to dump them, as there was zero interest...
...I do the 'odd' bit of panel repacement/patching/welding etc so know what goes into it, it can be a bit scarey cutting the big stuff out but worth it in the end as you know the shell is solid... keep it up...(momentuem!!)...!

Still have the hella panel, and am in 2 minds what to do, was bought cheap many years ago with and inch of dust on the box, bloke in the shop was glad to get rid.Covered up a rusty corner on the tail gate for years.Have only ever seen one other local golf with it on and liked the rarity value of it on mine.
Its still in good nick apart from 2 small cracks where the number plate would screw through,but this was never seen once the plate was on.

Thanks for all the comments, need all the support I can get as the big spend gets closer,with most of the panels bought i am past the point of no return!
slippy8v

Some more bits for the old girl, picked up 4 dash bulbs on E-Bay, one had blown months ago and had never got around to replace it, so another job on the big list.
The rear bumper iron was rotten and the plastic cover was just about sitting on, so had been looking or an iron, and picked one up on E-Bay again 20.00 inc delivery bargain, it was marked as solid so took the chance and guess what the post man arrived this morning with a bumper shaped parcel.
Straight out with knife and removed all the brown parcel tape, look good just some surface rust, so got the plastic cover off (no red GTI stripe) and got the wire brush screwed on to the drill, goggles on and hour later, the rust was off, then out with the black hammerite and plenty slapped on, well pleased, put there was black cloud lurking!
Knowing the old iron had to come off I had been spraying plenty of wd40 on the bolt threads all last week. So out with the socket set, jacked the rear end up and started to get the old bolts out, first one not much problem so was feeling pretty pleased with the wd 40 work, then the problems started the other 3 bolts would not shift the heads are so rusted I could not get the socket on, no option but to try and drill them out or use bolt removers.
So drilled a pilot hole in one bolt and screwed in the bolt remover, then put the pressure on to get the old bolt out, yep you guessed the bolt remover snapped, ended up a with bloody knuckle . So now need to get a bigger drill bit and drill the whole bolt head off.
Or if there is any other way let me know.
Had hoped to get doors this week but was sent photos by the guy who was selling them, but they where in the same condition as my own so am still looking.
Old bumper iron still on! look at the rust on each end!
While I had her up on the jack cleaned part of the rear beam and painted it.

E-Bay replacement just unwrapped

Wire brushed and painted

Well some more work on the golf, finally managed to get the rear bumper iron off, I had to resort to a cold chisel and hammer to split the front mounting nuts, luckily I had borrowed an impact drill and got the inner bolts out.
Once of the inner panel is not a pretty sight!

The replacement has been cleaned up and given a few coats of paint.
Sitting on just to get the feel.


Also while I was under the rear I checked out the petrol tank straps and have got a new set with bolts and brackets so will be replacing them at some point, I look forward to rusty bolts again!


Not much more I can do at the rear so have moved onto the front of the car, I have loosened all the inner splash guard screws no issues (great new ones on order + the plastic clips just to be on the safe side)

Loosened all the wing screws I can get at, no issues.
Removed the front spoiler and lower valance/panel rusty where it screws to the wings
( new panel bought and new screws and washers bought)


Loosened the front cross member bolts no real problems just used the impact drill again.
Only one bolt giving problems it holds the cross rad panel to the front of the car body and wont shift, may have to drill it out and rethread it, will be able to get at the nut once the panel is cut out under the airbox. New panel bought.


Front cross panel this will be replaced.



The slam panel is very good nick so will leave in place just loosened the screws holding it in place.
The front of the battery box panel and air box panel where the slam panel screws into is rotten but I have new panels for here.
Wire brushed the front cross member and gave it a quick coat of paint.
That’s it so far, still looking for clean white doors.
The next stage will be removing the seats, inner door panels and what ever else I can screw off.