SCIROCCO GTI
Welcome to my homepage that will show my VW Scirocco GTI.
I bought the car in august 2002 and since then it's been constantly upgraded,
The goal is to make it a fun trackday racer and small country road car.
This page was updated 061228 (c) Mats Karlsson 2004
Build Diary 2, from September 21st 2003 to present date
Sunday 21/9
The car sits on jacks in the garage, the hood, front fenders are removed. Time to remove some icky brown rust!
Thursday 2/10
Took out the engine and gearbox, took out the windshield, rear seats, front seats etc.
Started to make drawings for the flip-over cradle.
Saturday 4/10
Started to build the front part of the cradle, I hadn't bought enough steel tubes so I couldn't quite finish it.
But now I know what it's gonna look like and hopefully it'll work too.
Monday 6/10
Finished the front cradle stand and started on the rear one.
Wednesday 8/10
Almost finished the rear cradle stand
Thursday 9/10
Finished welding the rear cradle stand and emptied the fuel tank as much as possible.
Saturday 12/10
Put a weld on the front cradle stand that I'd forgotten about. Cleaned up alittle in the garage.
Jani came by and helped out with taking off the doors and rear hatch.
Then we started on the dash, got that out and then after alot of fiddling got the whole electrical system out too.
Tuesday 21/10
Put the car up in the flip-over cradle and it worked like a charm! :-)
Sunday 26/10
Dismounted the brake pipes, fuelpump, fuel accumulator, rear axle and fuel tank
Started to clean the inside floors from sound dampening carpets.
Monday 27/10
Started taking off all the undercarrige sealant.
Tuesday 28/10
Continued taking off the sealant untill my angle grinder died.
Sunday 9/11
The last few weeks alot of time has gone into overhauling the undercarridge. Front wheels suspensions,
steering gear, gear shift linkage has been removed from the car.
Sunday 4/1 2004
Mymymy, I've been really bad at updating this diary the past weeks. But luckily there's happened
quite alot in the garage even if I havn't written about it here. The undercarridge is completely cleaned
and painted, the engine compartment and front wheel houses has also been cleaned and painted.
A few minor rust holes has been fixed, the spare wheel "tub" has been cut away and been replaced by a
box that will hold the battery. The rear axle has been stripped and painted and new bushings has been fitted.
On the left front fender I've welded in some new steel where the old had rusted away.
The steering gear has been taken apart ad been cleaned, new bushings has been fitted. One steering arm and
both the P-ends has been exchanged. The fuel lines has been cleaned and painted. Completely new holders for
the fuel and brake pipes has been welded to the undercarridge. The fuel tank has been cleaned and painted.
Thursday 15/1
The last few days alot of small stuff's been done. Front wheel suspensions and rear axle are back on the car.
I've fixed alot of small rust stains around the windscreen. Welded up the badge holes on the rear hatch.
Next week I'll trailer the car around 150km south to Gunnarsjö Svets och Smide where it'll be fitted for a
complete roll cage. We'll also stop by the Dalhems store to try some racing seats.
Saturday 17/1
Mounted the filler tube, fuel pump and fuel accumulator and the rear brake pipes.
The new brake pipe holders work great. Got some help from the human carjacks Jani and Stefan
to get the car down from the cradle. Feels like I'm quite up to speed with the car now.
Monday 19/1
Stefan helped me to mount the doors, rear hatch and hood. Thanks !
Tuesday 20/1
Made sure the handbrake works and prepared to load the car on the trailer tomorrow.
Wednesday 21/1
Put the car on the trailer and covered it up. The trailed fitted in the garage with about 10cm (4") to spare.
Thursday 22/1
At 06:45am we left Trollhättan, it was around -15 degrees C outside and we headed south with the intention of
arriving at Gunnarsjö around 9:00am. The trip down went fine and the roads were mostly snowfree. We arrived
about 9:05am and was welcomed by a biting -19 degrees C. We had some breakfast in the car while waiting for the
guy who was going to make the roll cage to finish his breakfast. We uncovered the car and then Ingmar started to
measure alittle on the car and after about 45-60 minutes the cage was fitted and all the steels pipes were cut up.
Ingmar was incredibly skilled at bending the pipes to get an exact fit, and he's also a really funny guy to talk to.
When he was done with my roll cage he started on Jani's and around 11.00am they were both done, the cages loaded into
the Scirocco and cover back on the car.
We then headed further south to Dalhems, a quick stop there to try some racing seats. I liked the OMP Eco seat alot.
We had some lunch and McD in Falkenberg before heading home again.
A quick stop at Biltema and MH Styling in Gothenburgh on the way home
Thursday 29/1
The latest week it's been mostly about assembling the roll cage. So far the main arc and the A-pillar arcs
and door intrusion bars are done and fitted. Today the small wall separating the engine compartment from the
"aquarium" (the small compartment that holds the wiper mechanism and fresh air intake) was cut away to make it
easier to weld the front strut reinforcements into place.
Saturday 7/2
The roll cage is almost done, only the rear crossbrace is yet to be fitted and welded, the front strut reinforcements
have been quite finished either. The battery shelf in the engine compartment was torn out the other day. Turn your back
on Jani for a few minutes and he's totally out of control. ;-)
A new chassinumber is punched into the right side of the engine compartment.
Sunday 8/2
The roll cage cross brace is welded in place and the right side strut reinforcement is done.
Sunday 15/2
The rollcage is done! The "aquarium" is painted. The left door is stripped of all the glas and gaskets, door
mirrors, exterior door handle etc. The C-pillars are stripped of the glued-on insulation.
Monday 23/2
Loaded the car on the trailer and took it to the guy who's going to give it a
complete respray. I'll have it back in about 3 weeks.
Tuesday 24/2
Started sorting out the electrical system and cleaned out some non essential
wires such as, rear window heating, luggage compartment lights etc.
Thursday 26/2
Cleaned the rust of some heat shields for the exhaust and took apart the spare steering gear housing that will be fitted with
a new rack and pinjon to give it a 2.5 lock to lock steering ratio.
Thursday 11/3
Havn't updated alot lately, still waiting for the car to be painted. Cant wait to get it back !!
Sunday 14/3
Assembled a new heater pack with the heat exchanger and fan from my old pack and the casing from one
pack that Stefan had laying as a spare part. Uploaded the new english version of my homepage!!
Tuesday 23/3
Still havn't gotten the car back but at least it's moved into the paintbox at the paintshop so any day now...
Yesterday I got my new OMP seat that I ordered from DemonTweeks. Today I took apart the headlight assemblies and
cleaned the parts and put some new paint on the large bracket that holds the twin lights. Also testfitted my new
clear headlights and they fitted ok.
Wednesday 24/3
Got the car back ! Looks Great !! *very happy*
Thursday 25/3
Started painting the roll cage grey/silver. Mounted the twin light brackets. Also got my steering gear back from Jani
He's modified the housing and pinjon so the TAS Motorsport 2.5 turn lock to lock rack and pinjon will fit. Thanks Jani !
Saturday 27/3
Mounted the new clear headlights, painted some more on the roll cage, made a new hood release handle bracket.
Mounted the rear hatch locking mechanism
Sunday 28/3
Mounted the brake booster and the heater package. Made a list of parts that needs to be bought.
Tuesday 30/3
Went about 200km southeast to buy 4 Integral A2 rims, one of them was badly scracthed so that'll
have to be fixed before I can get them powder coated white.
Wednesday 31/3
Mounted the new steering gear and fitted the gear linkage and lower stress bar. The local upholsterer couldn't
fix my old steering wheel so I'll guess I'll have to get a new one.
Thursday 1/4
Put the engine and gearbox into the car.
Sunday 4/4
Put the windows and door handle back on the right door, started on the left door. Lots of misc. small work done too.
Wednesday 7/4
Ok! So far the doors are done, just some interior trim left, most of the electrical system are back in the car.
Friday 9/4
Dismounted the fuel pump, fuel lines and brake lines and lowered the rear axle to mount the fuel tank heat shield that
I had forgotten when I mounted the stuff on the car last time. Put all the stuff back again. Mounted the rear light clusters
and connected the rear electrical loom. Got the rear hatch lock to work. Started looking into getting the headers onto the engine.
Monday 12/4
Got the headers in place, just need to borrow a small enough torquewrench from Stefan before it's all done.
Got the interior ceiling in place with some new padding.
Tuesday 13/4
The headers and driveshafts are mounted. Also got the rest of the exhaust system mounted this evening.
Bought two (front) stainless steel brake hoses today.
Saturday 17/4
The intake manifold was mounted today and I started sorting out the electrical wires in the engine bay.
Had to make a new bracket for the ignition coil and relocate the electronic ignition cooling plate.
The brake system is in place but not filled up.
Sunday 18/4
Mounted the injection system and started sorting out the electrical harnesses in the engine bay.
Monday 19/4
Modified the dash so it'll clear the A-pillar roll cage pipes. Mounted the dash.
Tuesday 20/4
Filled up the brake system and made a first bleeding of the brakes. Torqued the driveshaft inner flanges.
Started to get the instrument cluster into place, had alittle problem with the speedometer wire but after
getting some help from Jani we worked it out.
Thursday 22/4
Measured up the lengths of the new + cable that'll run from the battery on the rear via the main circuit switch
and forwards to the newly installed terminal where the battery used to be. Part of the carpet is also back in place.
New pictures will come this weekend !
Saturday 24/4
Got the rest of the electrics in the engine bay connected. Put in the cooling system and started to fill it up.
It started leaking from the thermostat housing so i took it apart and luckily I had only forgotten to mount the thermostat
gasket when I emtied the engine last fall. After running the engine on the starter without the sparkplugs in it to get
the oil pressure up I connected everything and turned the key. Wrommmm ! Started without problems ! *Big sig*
I drove it around the building once and it felt ok, gotta adjust the gearlinkage tho since I cant get it into reverse.
Sunday 25/4
Investigated the problems with blown fuses for both left and right parking lights. Found no problem so new fuses
was installed and it seemed to work. Mounted the ashtray and glove compartment. Freshened up the bumpers and mounted
them. Started looking at mounting the roll cage padding.
Thursday 29/4
Got some help from Stefan with mounting the windscreen and the hood. Thanks dude! Its almost scary how much it's
starting to look like a car again. I mounted some of the roll cage padding. Changed a blown bulb for the reversing
light. The windscreen wiper arm got a fresh coat of black paint. Took some new pictures too...
Friday 30/4
Got the rear side windows back from tinting and got some help with mounting them from Jani. Thanks!
Sunday 2/5
Mounted the rear windows trims. Mounted the right and left inner door trims and windshield washer reservoir.
Finished up the padding on the roll cage. Got the bracket that will hold the battery in place finished and mounted.
Thursday 6/5
The last few days has gone to making sure that the car vill pass the SBP-test tomorrow morning. If everything works out I'll
take in for a spin this weekend to some nice location to take some new photos.
Tuesday 18/5
Today the car passed the SBP-test.
Sunday 23/5
Checked the valve clearences due to a slight ticking noise and had to adjust valve 1,2 and 3, +0.05mm.
Friday 4/6
Doh !! When I adjusted the valve clearances the other day I adjusted them the wrong way ! and tomorrows a
trackday. Hurried to change back the clearances the way they were before and put the car back together again.
Saturday 5/6
Drove the 180km's to Anderstorp Scandinavian Raceway. The clouds looked a bit threatening as we drove there
but it didn't rain all day. All in all it was a good day, the only mishap was that my throttle wire came lose
from the accelerator pedal in the middle of a lap.
Sunday 6/6
Took apart the head again to be able to get the valve clearances right.
Monday 7/6
Got the missing parts and put the engine back together again. Hope I dont have to do that again anytime soon.
Sunday 20/6
Havn't updated in awhile because I havn't done much with the car. I've changed the camshaft pulley to a
Techtronics adjustable one, changed the camshaft oilseal at the same time. I was at the big swedish
VW meeting called BugRun last weekend. Really fun weekend and the best thing was that I managed to get
second place in the RS-course!! (driving around cones like Autocross) I'm really happy with that since
I competed with cars that has much more HP's and most likely better suspension too.
We're loosing our garage this month so I've started to sort through my stuff there, lot's of old crap that's
going into the bin. I've found a new place to keep the Scirocco in but unfortunatly I wont be able to
work on her there so it'll be long between the updates from now on I guess.