1982 VW Mk1 Golf Project

Further Dismantling

I've had the last week off work and have spent the last 3 and half days working on the car. I'm not sure whether the amount I expected to acheive was unrealistic, but I certainly havent been able to do as much as I would have liked.

Braking System
This was simple enough. I removed the pipes from the master cylinder, caught the break fluid that dripped out and removed the master cylinder from the servo. With the linkage arm unbolted from the servo and from the bulkhead where the pedal is, and the servo unbolted from inside the passenger footwell, the servo came off with a bit of pulling. The whole set up has quite a bit of surface rust on it, but should clean up alright.

The Doors
I mentioned in my previous post that I didnt expect the car to come out the garage for a while... I hadn't taken into account getting the doors off. There wasnt enough room to open the doors fully so I had to push the car out the garage. Except I couldn't cause the brakes were totally seized. My Valver came to the rescue and towed the Mk1 out of the garage. Took an aweful amount of pulling. I half expected the brakes to suddenly release and the mk1 fire itself at me. Luckily that didnt happen. The brakes were still stuck on however and would need to be sorted before I could push the car back in the garage.

The Front Doors came of easily, held in place by a nut at top and bottom. The back doors were another matter. They are held in place by 4 hex key bolts (the type that take an allen key). With the correct sized bit from my socket set I tried everything, including an impact driver and really long lever. I didnt get to try heat because by then I had 8 circle key bolts, totally rounded off. That left me with no choice but to drill the things out, which to my satisfaction worked out ok, and I have been able to remove all but one of the studs from the car. The remaining one is loose, but was wound in by the drill bit when I was drilling it out. I just need to drill a pin hole and glue a something in there to let me undo it. No bother. I do need 8 rear door bolts however!

The Fuel Tank
Another reason for taking the car out the garage was to safely remove the fuel tank. That was a bit of a unpleasant job, mainly due to the dust and stuff constantly falling into my eyes (I've bought some goggles now). The fuel filler pipe and the exterior panel where it fits are corroded and are going to need replacing/repairing. When I came to lowering the rear cross member one of the bolts rounded off. However I couldnt grind it off as I had a fuel tank with all its pipes disconnected sitting next to it. I bought a nut splitter from machine mart (see pic). Blooming marvelous thing and not very expensive. Put it over the bolt and wound it in. I didnt split the bolt completely as I wanted to make sure I didnt damage the stud it was on, but it was enough to release it so that it could be taken off.

With the rear cross member released and hanging of the flexi brake pipes the fuel tank still wouldnt come out, so I had to cut the pipes (no problem as they are all going to be replaced any how) And then, finally, the fuel tank was out.

Rear Brakes
Before I could get the car back in the garage I needed to sort the brakes out. I decided to remove the brakes from inside the drum, that would stop them seizing! I then found that I couldn't actually get the drum off. Even though I had lifted the adjusting wedge on the inside of the drum to release the mechanism, no amount of hitting, prying (with a long screwdriver) and WD40 seemed to do it. The brake shoes didnt not want to let go of the drum. They weren't stuck to it as I was now able to spin the drum freely, but the thing would not come off.

This got really annoying. However after a good nights sleep and some advise from the golf mk1 owners club forum, I approached the problem with renewed enthusiasm (and a bigger hammer, a longer pry and an awful lot of pentrating oil). After making sure everything was shocked free with the lump hammer I was able to use the longer pry bar to open up the side of the drum. This meant I could directly spray the pentrating oil between the shoe and the drum. Once I had done that it came of relatively easily. Then I approached the second one, and knowing what I now know, it came of really quickly, even though it was just as stuck.

The whole of the brakes, the drum, the backing plate and the mechism are totally rusty (click on the pic to get a better look) and will have to be replaced. I wasnt planning on a rear disc conversion, but maybe I will...

With the mechanism removed and everything put back together the car lightly rolled back into the garage. It had been outside for the best part of three days! and I had been working on it pretty much solidly. I've learnt alot, and if I had to do all this again I now know how, and its built my confidence up. I just wish it hadnt taken so long!

Now I need to turn my attention to the front brakes, the retaining bolts of the calipers seem totally solid...

posted by intraclast @ 7:38 AM