Franko's Garage: R32 daily driver rescue
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Updates will be coming and thanks for the interest
Just got with the times and realised Photobucket might be the way to go, so looking at putting pictures there.
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Haven't you already got the one in your signature?
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Great thread Franko í ½í±
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Great Thread Franko í ½í±
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Ay up Alfie, wouldn't have been right to short cut it, I'm not OCD, but it would have bugged me. If you look back at the headlining bit you can see damp on the removed headlining and water on the inside of the rear passenger window, so had to sort it.I didn't realise you put this much time and effort into her! All worth it in the end though![]()
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Hi mate, its not actually that car, that's another story all together
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Good read so far pal. Keep up the good work lol
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So I sourced a set of OEM R32 xenons, which were in half decent condition not as bad as some garbage I've been sold before, but I wasn't entirely happy with them but there weren't many available at the time. They were pretty clean but had been allowed to get some condensation in them which had pooled slightly and left some little water marks on the inside of the glass. Not terrible though, no dust/flies inside them.
What did need doing was to replace the rear sections with the wiring in, I've seen this a few times before where the plastic cracks due to the clamping force from the metal retainer. The plastic gives up, the hooks can crack and then theres barely any clamping on the rear cover and all sorts of rubbish gets into the headlights. I repaired these, but in reality I knew to keep looking for some better ones that hadn't had the condensation issue (OK a bit OCD with this one).
So some of the common places the backing on the R32 headlamps fail, mine were fractured.
The left 'ring' on the pic below shows another place where they can crack, which stops the cover from clamping on.
Fitted the new rear covers to both headlamps
Didn't know what state the OEM bulbs were in, but assumed they might be past their best. Philips X-tremeVision H7 and Osram Xenarc D2S bulbs went in.
Done
What did need doing was to replace the rear sections with the wiring in, I've seen this a few times before where the plastic cracks due to the clamping force from the metal retainer. The plastic gives up, the hooks can crack and then theres barely any clamping on the rear cover and all sorts of rubbish gets into the headlights. I repaired these, but in reality I knew to keep looking for some better ones that hadn't had the condensation issue (OK a bit OCD with this one).
So some of the common places the backing on the R32 headlamps fail, mine were fractured.
The left 'ring' on the pic below shows another place where they can crack, which stops the cover from clamping on.
Fitted the new rear covers to both headlamps
Didn't know what state the OEM bulbs were in, but assumed they might be past their best. Philips X-tremeVision H7 and Osram Xenarc D2S bulbs went in.
Done
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Thanks Aaron, it's not a full nut and bolt strip down / power coat job as I'd decided from the off to build a decent daily to take over from my 200,000+ mile 1.8T, so I couldn't go that far and then mess it up with the UK weather/roads.
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So finally we come to the Engine, this was happening alongside some of the interior work on the car, I'd sourced an engine fairly early in the build.
CONTROVERSIAL
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4 coil packs? 4 cylinders?
OK yes, the R32 was going to recieve a 1.8T - shock, horror. Why? Because I wanted to replace my current (at the time) 1.8T daily which had well over 200,000 genuine miles on it with a "new" but similar daily. I already owned a V6 weekend car. Some people might ask "why not put a 3.2 V6 back into it?" but then why do this at all? If I wanted to do that then I could just go and buy a straight used R32 and save a lot of messing about. The AUQ 1.8T I was still driving had served me well as a daily for years, so I just wanted a "better" 1.8T. I had been looking for a Golf 4-motion to do this conversion to, but most I found were too rough and the R32 is a much better base to start with, having superior suspension, brakes, and steering rack and also from daily driver point of view pretty good safety for a 2003 car with the curtain air bags etc. I'm wondering how many grumpy comments this 1.8T is going to get
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, but remember this car would have been scrapped anyway if I hadn't taken it. Another way to look at it, this build is creating "the Golf R that never was" on a mk4 platform, a 4 cylinder turbo MK4 R model, using the engine VW would have used in 2003 had they built this car as OEM (1.8T BAM).
Engine goodies: oversize "Badger 5" Turbo inlet pipe. This picture is misleading, the black TIP is much bigger than the standard item at the top, much more capacity to flow.
Engine goodies: a few forge hoses to uprate dodgy rubber breather hoses which would eventually perish and split. Had no choice but to get that red one, at the time Forge didn't offer a black version, forcing me to buy a McDonalds car park chav red special. Gits.
Engine goodies: OEM Heatshield
Engine goodies: 3" down pipe and Sports cats. Didn't take photos of these, but got brand new PipeWerx items which were spot on, no issues at all.
Gearbox (cleaned up), transfer box:
So a key part of this build, the wizard that is Gaz Jones at VAG Auto Care Services.
http://www.vagautocareservices.co.uk/
Gaz is well known on this forum but for those who don't know him, he's the "go to" guy for R32 servicing / repairs / upgrades / modifictions - HGP/HPA turbo installs, cam chain swaps, brake / suspension upgrades, fault finding, you name it. He's been doing the mechanical servicing on my cars for years now and this is not the first engine transplant he's done for me. But secretly I think this was a bit of a reluctant job in some ways, Gaz is not the biggest fan of 1.8T engines, but of course is a pro, so took this job on, but like other people was thinking "1.8T in an R32??"
![]()
Whilst I was tidying the car up and doing some interior/electrical jobs on the car at home, I'd had the 1.8T delivered to Gaz so we could get that prepared and do some work before the car was taken there. First problem was that even though the engine was a beauty (low mileage, very clean from a late MY car) the cavemen breakers and gone around the block chopping hoses prior to removing it from the source car, so we had to work out what was chopped and then start a mission to work out what was needed to be replaced and source a bunch of hoses. Fun, a lot of trips to breakers for me and the odd VW order too.
So Gaz took some of the cut hoses off so I could take them to match up with any I could find/buy.
Engine waiting for hose replacements
CONTROVERSIAL
OK yes, the R32 was going to recieve a 1.8T - shock, horror. Why? Because I wanted to replace my current (at the time) 1.8T daily which had well over 200,000 genuine miles on it with a "new" but similar daily. I already owned a V6 weekend car. Some people might ask "why not put a 3.2 V6 back into it?" but then why do this at all? If I wanted to do that then I could just go and buy a straight used R32 and save a lot of messing about. The AUQ 1.8T I was still driving had served me well as a daily for years, so I just wanted a "better" 1.8T. I had been looking for a Golf 4-motion to do this conversion to, but most I found were too rough and the R32 is a much better base to start with, having superior suspension, brakes, and steering rack and also from daily driver point of view pretty good safety for a 2003 car with the curtain air bags etc. I'm wondering how many grumpy comments this 1.8T is going to get
Engine goodies: oversize "Badger 5" Turbo inlet pipe. This picture is misleading, the black TIP is much bigger than the standard item at the top, much more capacity to flow.
Engine goodies: a few forge hoses to uprate dodgy rubber breather hoses which would eventually perish and split. Had no choice but to get that red one, at the time Forge didn't offer a black version, forcing me to buy a McDonalds car park chav red special. Gits.
Engine goodies: OEM Heatshield
Engine goodies: 3" down pipe and Sports cats. Didn't take photos of these, but got brand new PipeWerx items which were spot on, no issues at all.
Gearbox (cleaned up), transfer box:
So a key part of this build, the wizard that is Gaz Jones at VAG Auto Care Services.
http://www.vagautocareservices.co.uk/
Gaz is well known on this forum but for those who don't know him, he's the "go to" guy for R32 servicing / repairs / upgrades / modifictions - HGP/HPA turbo installs, cam chain swaps, brake / suspension upgrades, fault finding, you name it. He's been doing the mechanical servicing on my cars for years now and this is not the first engine transplant he's done for me. But secretly I think this was a bit of a reluctant job in some ways, Gaz is not the biggest fan of 1.8T engines, but of course is a pro, so took this job on, but like other people was thinking "1.8T in an R32??"
Whilst I was tidying the car up and doing some interior/electrical jobs on the car at home, I'd had the 1.8T delivered to Gaz so we could get that prepared and do some work before the car was taken there. First problem was that even though the engine was a beauty (low mileage, very clean from a late MY car) the cavemen breakers and gone around the block chopping hoses prior to removing it from the source car, so we had to work out what was chopped and then start a mission to work out what was needed to be replaced and source a bunch of hoses. Fun, a lot of trips to breakers for me and the odd VW order too.
So Gaz took some of the cut hoses off so I could take them to match up with any I could find/buy.
Engine waiting for hose replacements
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Cheers Rich, at least the first comment isn't someone getting upset about losing 2 cylinders
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