Id always wanted one of these before I even knew VW made them!
A friend of mine had even drawn a sketch of an offroad Golf way back in ’98 (more like a Mk1 in his pic, but thats what he knew how to draw). Fast forward to Edition38 2010 and whilst selling a few things at the autojumble, I was approached by a chap trying to sell his broken Golf Country project, but as interested as I was, I had to decline due to already having 3 cars. A few weeks later and i was window shopping with beer fuelled assistance and I stumbled on the For Sale thread, and I was hooked by what I saw in the pics. It wasnt the prettiest, but worth chasing up.
So as you can see, quite a lot of potential, but where were the other Golf Country parts??
After a few emails and phone call, I arranged to go and see the car in person and as I had been assured that all the original parts where there, i was quite optimistic. Sean had fitted a new detailed TSR 2.1l engine with a stage 2 Ggo head, but due to the cheap crappy pistons they used at that time (its been taken over since then so this is not a reflection on the current TSR), part of the piston crown had seperated, fragmented and taken some ring sections with it whilst lightly scoring the block and severly damaging the head. This is the reason Sean gave up with it. He had alreay fully polly-bushed the front end, bought a new radiator (stolen for the Jetta GT), Vibratechnics mounts (stolen for the Golf Syncro), fitted a cone filter, samco hoses, Mocal oil cooler, Eibach strut brace, new genuine VW front shocks, rebuilt the gearbox and transfer box, fitted detailed G60 brakes with grooved discs and EBC Greenstuff pads, painted no end of parts and powercoated quite a few more.
Im sure theres loads more too. Anyway, money changed hands, the Jetta 16v was loaded up to the hilt, and a transporter was organised. A week later and it was at my home
Heres a few pics of the underneath etc
The 2.1 engine and a replacement engine had been brought back earlier with the other spare parts in the Valver, so i had a big hole and a load of parts and not really much idea where some of it went
the easiest job to organise was getting the original wheels refurbished. Id already used Gareth from Wheelshine, so a quick call was made and a deal done. A couple of weeks later and I had them back fitted with the tyres that came with the Country on the 5 spoke wheels
Now the hunt was on for a front seat to repair the badly damaged/ jean patched drivers seat
After a few false starts and plenty of Babelfish, I managed to find someone who was prepared to send a seat from Europe, and in the end West of Berlin! This was only a passenger seat, but the material was in great condition. An easy sway you say- not so! The syncro tilt adjusters are higher up in the seat due to the higher transmission tunnel. So a quick call to MJ and everything was falling together. All told it cost me £150 to get the seat, ship it and have MJ swap some panels around- by god I love it how mates can sort you out!
Now it was the turn of the bloody great big hole up front. I had 2 bare engines and loads of bits- this was gonna be fun! The aim was to make it for Early Edition and to meet up with Junior for a brew or 2. Over a weekend, Rob and I built up the engine, and hoisted it it and finally had it runny and plumbed in by half 9 at night
Credit where cridit is due for Rob. He is a mechanic by trade and I would have been royally buggered without his help and knowledge
[:y:]
Another bonus was it was already MOT’ed, so all I had to do was tax it. BTW a word of warning here. I bought the Country on a SORN, and the stealing gits fined me as I didnt declare a new SORN when I bought it! Barstools!!!!
Off to Early Edition I went and bugger me backwards! Id only been invited into the showground! I did feel a bit guilty as Id fitted my 1552 Snowflakes with a wee bit of stretch as a bit of a micky take. Mind you, I did have the largest tyre to arch gap there, but sadly no prizes (ta for the couple of pics ive pinched from elsewhere)
To be fair, it wasnt the most attrctive combo but it make me giggle- its good to be a bit immature from time to time. A pic of it was even in Ultra VW and PVW
The longest hunt was for a towbar. As the Country is quite a lardy ol’ girl, it has the towing capacity of 1500kg! So its the only Mk2 you can tow a Mk2 with (legally). The hunt was on for a long long time and only one turned up on ebay.de, which i lost. These towbars were an optional extra, and the main towbar costs 800 euro! A load of babelfishing and Id found a chap in Hungary who restored these and had a few parts (at a premium) and I chose the VW one at the top for a cost of 325 Euro posted.
The block basically fits into the rear subframe and the towbat itself it quick release and resides in the spare wheel well with the rest of the tools
Now all I need to do is sort the electrics and a towing I will go
Concours competition anyone??
Ive also bought a set of Passat winter wheels and fitted then with Dunlop mud/snow tyres ion 175/65/15. I went narrower to get through the soft mud and this profile is only 2% different to the standard 195/60/15’s
What, Daily driver, Daily driver indeed!!! [:0]
You must live on a different planet to the rest of us, [
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or most of us then, [
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or at least some of us, [
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or quite possibly just me! [xx(]
I have 3 places to work on my Syncro,
1) In the street outside my house, or for engine/gearbox/axle size parts, in my shed.
2) At Edwins garage (120 kilometers away by the German border)
3) At Pascals garage (300 kilometers away (in the opposite direction) by the Belgian border)
life can be a bugger! [
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yes its my daily driver that I use to go to work, the shops, trips out and anything else I need a car for. The Jetta GT is the only other car I have insured and thats far too pretty to drive daily, so the Golf Country gets those duties
Its just been shot for Golf+ too this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled
Im on the hunt for more greenlanes- this is only a short one for a couple of miles, but I do plan on a Fording day out when it gets wetter. Come along!
Hmmm, I like your Jetta as well, whats the bodykit?
I wonder what you will do when you get your GTI RE2000 Syncro back on the road?
You will be really spoilt for choice then[]
An old friend came back from Oz in 2010 for a visit and had to sort things out in his mums loft, so i inherited his 3 VW matchbox toys that he played with as a kid. They all resided on a shelf until the Country arrived and now the Rompin Rabbit has pride of place
