Golf GTI 25th Anniversary Daily

[martin mrt]

Let me set this up so as not to bore you too much, but I like VWs, Golfs in particular, I’ve had one in one form or another for the past 18 years. This is my latest one that I, despite my best intentions not to, will likely titivate and spend a huge amount of money on making it just so. It’s what I do, I have an illness, anyway.......

A few weeks ago Mrs MRT was running my 2002 Golf TDI 150 as her Mk5 R32 was having the clutch and timing chains done when she commented that there was a Golf “with the same seats as yours but red GTI on them” in the back car park. I knew what it would be straight away and asked her to do some digging and send photos.

These are the pics she sent.




It was exactly what I thought it would be. A 25th anniversary, in my 2nd colour choice, diesel and standard looking. Far from perfect but for a daily driver it looked not bad and in better shape than my grey one.

For me the Mk4 Golf 25th Anniversary was the best looking of the Mk4 range after the R32. It looks special but in a subdued toned down way. In silver, a lot like my C63 unless you know what it is you’d never give it a 2nd look.

I made contact with the owner (a brother of a colleague of Mrs MRTs) and arranged to see it that weekend. It checked out ok, tatty in places but most importantly all of the Anniversary specific bits are present even down to the wheel centre tool. Only things missing are the red piped mats, drivers mirror is a normal one and the grille badge as the grille is broken.

I took it home and gave it a quick wash and vacuum out, and set about a list of things that need doing. That list quickly grew and grew, and continues to grow








It’s far from perfect, it’s a 10foot car, but for what I need it’s ideal. However I can’t leave things alone and the imperfections have started to annoy me already so the list as it sits is

Knocking wishbones - Done
Handbrake cable seized - Done
Drivers door mirror - sourced and awaiting delivery
Investigate poor mpg and flat spot when cold - Camshaft- all bits for top end rebuild ordered
Seat bolsters badly collapsing - Donor seats stripped just need the snow to disappear to fit them.
Rear Axle Bushes - Ordered
Grille badge missing - Got one here
Grille broken - still to acquire
Bumper paint poor - still to rectify
Some corrosion on arch and wings - still to rectify
Wheels need refurbished - still to rectify
Rear callipers need painted - still to rectify
Fit 4 new Michelin PS4 tyres - be done with the refurb.

Going by the list above it’s mostly common Golf “issues” it has, firstly it’s having the camshaft, timing belt, waterpump, injector seals and loom, rocker cover, aux belt etc done, at the same time it’ll get a new thermostat, CTS, MAF etc too. The PD is a great engine when it’s right but dire when it’s not. This one isn’t right sadly.

Once the engine work is done my plan is to use it and improve things along the way. I say the next bit as I look out the window to snow but as the weather improves use of the C63 will increase and the Golf will get more attention to bring it back to a better standard. These are becoming rarer everyday as many are being broken up, this one will never be mint but i feel I’m doing it some justice by breathing some life back into it.

It will never be a true GTI for some, myself included due to the somewhat numb chassis and Diesel engine, but I like the car for the job it needs to do. I currently have a red Mk5 GTI that’s undergoing the same treatment as this but is in the bodyshop.

Thanks for reading

Edited by martin mrt on Tuesday 6th April 08:10

Edited by martin mrt on Tuesday 6th April 08:17

[Moz_BLY]

Nice car, will be a great daily. looking forward to updates.

[spaceship]

Looks great. That’s an excellent project! Looking forward to the updates.

Do you still have the grey one? I tried to email you a few weeks ago. Any ideas what happened to the red one that I used to own?

[martin mrt]

Thank you, I’m hoping the next big update will be when it’s not running like a bag of junk and it’s all fixed.

As it is I started it today and it’s now “popping” through the airbox and you can hear it through the exhaust so it’s in a grim state.

Joys of old cars I guess.

Spaceship I’ve sent you an e mail

[AJB88]

Nice, I looked for an anniversary for a while but ended up getting a Leon FR+ PD150.

[martin mrt]

AJB88 said:

Nice, I looked for an anniversary for a while but ended up getting a Leon FR+ PD150.

The FR+, are they the ones that look like a Cupra R but have 17” wheels rather than 18” ones?

Anyway, yesterday I had a bit of a productive day on this as I was home alone and Mrs MRT was at work. The weather forecast was predicting more snow in the afternoon, it’s April FFS so I got up early to make most of the sun that was shining.

I collected a box of bits from VW no Friday afternoon, staff prices through both being an ex employee and Mrs MRT being a current one helped out with that. Still hurt a little none the less. That’s everything neededexcept the rear axle bushes which are at the post office and will be collected tomorrow.



First job of the day yesterday was to relieve the car of it’s odd mirrors, it had a normal drivers mirror fitted and a correct smaller Anniversary passenger side. I bought a pair as I couldn’t find anyone selling them individually



my

Feeling motivated and with the sun still shining I attempted to repair the utterly destroyed outer lower bolsters on each front seat. I have done this job in the past on a Mk4 Recaro with a new lower foam but as they are now over £150 each I decided to try and get creative with some old Mk4 Recaros I found on marketplace.
I cut the inner bolsters off the donor seats and used these on the opposite sides of mine respectively. I admit I was dubious about how successful this “bodge” would be but I paid £40 for the donor seats so it was worth a try in my eyes.
I don’t have any before pics but they were absolutely trashed, the worst I have seen even the passenger side was the outer cloth resting on the seat seat frame and little else in between.

It’s only gone and bloody worked, I’m delighted with the results. Both are now firm and comfortable to sit in.




After this I decided to retrofit the MFD1 that came out of my Grey Mk4. It’s old and dated but my Reasons for this were it looks, sounds and works better than the Gamma unit and CD changer that comes standard. It’s keeping it OEM too.

|https://thumbsnap.com/o6DtFsVZ[/url]

That took up a good few hours and the weather was threatening to change so I called it a day with what I had achieved.

I need to nip to the scrapyard for some screws and clips that are missing today. [url]

Edited by martin mrt on Sunday 11th April 09:38

[AJB88]

Yep there the ones FR+, I fitted 18" LCR wheels as well amongst other things.

[Court_S]

I like this, the Mk4 Golf is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

I know they get loads of stick, especially the GTI’s but there’s something about them that I like.

[MightyBadger]

Nice example, I like a tidy mk4.

[csd19]

martin mrt said:

/snip/

I collected a box of bits from VW no Friday afternoon, staff prices through both being an ex employee and Mrs MRT being a current one helped out with that. Still hurt a little none the less. That’s everything neededexcept the rear axle bushes which are at the post office and will be collected tomorrow.

Edited by martin mrt on Sunday 11th April 09:38

Which rear axle bushes did you go for? When I had my Leon I wanted to upgrade to the solid LCR ones, but at the time they were silly money for what they were. I found out the Ibiza Cupra ones were also solid rubber but much cheaper, so that's what went on

[martin mrt]

Court_S said:

I like this, the Mk4 Golf is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

I know they get loads of stick, especially the GTI’s but there’s something about them that I like.

Thanks, I’ve had heaps of these over the years and as a daily they make sense. Bits are cheap and readily available. I’m only going all out on this as it’s an anniversary and they still have some form of resale value.

Not the most dynamic, infact compared to the Mk5 they feel prehistoric and wooden, but I didn’t buy this to go blasting down backroads in

[martin mrt]

csd19 said:

martin mrt said:

/snip/

I collected a box of bits from VW no Friday afternoon, staff prices through both being an ex employee and Mrs MRT being a current one helped out with that. Still hurt a little none the less. That’s everything neededexcept the rear axle bushes which are at the post office and will be collected tomorrow.

Edited by martin mrt on Sunday 11th April 09:38

Which rear axle bushes did you go for? When I had my Leon I wanted to upgrade to the solid LCR ones, but at the time they were silly money for what they were. I found out the Ibiza Cupra ones were also solid rubber but much cheaper, so that's what went on

I just bought road spec poly bushes, purely for ease of install.

I looked at doing the LCR ones but in all honesty the poly ones were a bit cheaper and from what I believe easier to fit too.

[csd19]

martin mrt said:

csd19 said:

martin mrt said:

/snip/

I collected a box of bits from VW no Friday afternoon, staff prices through both being an ex employee and Mrs MRT being a current one helped out with that. Still hurt a little none the less. That’s everything neededexcept the rear axle bushes which are at the post office and will be collected tomorrow.

Edited by martin mrt on Sunday 11th April 09:38

Which rear axle bushes did you go for? When I had my Leon I wanted to upgrade to the solid LCR ones, but at the time they were silly money for what they were. I found out the Ibiza Cupra ones were also solid rubber but much cheaper, so that's what went on

I just bought road spec poly bushes, purely for ease of install.

I looked at doing the LCR ones but in all honesty the poly ones were a bit cheaper and from what I believe easier to fit too.

Always helps with getting the job done, from what I remember the Ibiza ones weren't horrendous to do but I know the polys should be even easier.

[pistolpedro]

Really like these, nice to see it being looked after unfortunately a lot seem to get broken for parts.
The ball polished wheels make them for me always think it’s a shame when they’re painted silver or a darker colour.
I had to source a driver side 150mm mirror to top tip for any other readers is the Polo 6N2 uses the same mirror cap and chassis it’s just a case of swapping the bases over.

[martin mrt]

pistolpedro said:

Really like these, nice to see it being looked after unfortunately a lot seem to get broken for parts.
The ball polished wheels make them for me always think it’s a shame when they’re painted silver or a darker colour.
I had to source a driver side 150mm mirror to top tip for any other readers is the Polo 6N2 uses the same mirror cap and chassis it’s just a case of swapping the bases over.

Yeah it seems many are being broken by the day, which is great news for idiots like myself that choose to try and rescue them and bring them back to life

Yeah I knew polo 6N2 drivers mirrors were the same, I think I may try and source one to make another pair using the one I removed. I seen a silver Anni being broken on FB so thought I’d just buy the pair whilst I could.

[pistolpedro]

martin mrt said:

Yeah it seems many are being broken by the day, which is great news for idiots like myself that choose to try and rescue them and bring them back to life

Yeah I knew polo 6N2 drivers mirrors were the same, I think I may try and source one to make another pair using the one I removed. I seen a silver Anni being broken on FB so thought I’d just buy the pair whilst I could.

I do wonder with the amount being broken, the numbered run and that fact that its 3 door only (like all proper GTI's should be ) they could be quite collectable in the future. One thing I never understood was the fact they came with polished door triggers rather than the brushed although easy enough to swap over.

[csd19]

OP, you have email

[M22s]

If you know, you know. Lovely cars, these anniversary MK4’s; super engine too!

[SteveR1979]

I had one of these back in the day. I put well over 60k on it in the few years i had it.

I used to take it to "The Phirm" for servicing. One day it shat its turbo and they put a hybrid turbo on it with one of their own tuningbox thingys.

Went like a stabbed rat and in a straight line would leave an R32 standing.

Shame I ran it into the ground really.

[martin mrt]

csd19 said:

OP, you have email

Craig you have a reply