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.today’s little project was to rip the lower valance off the front big bumper. bit more ground clearance and I think it fits the lines of the car better.
also I tested whether there was any way to fit the towbar along with the big bumper and there really looked to be no way to make it happen without modifying one or the other.
So I ended up cutting a chunk out of both the rear bumper mounts/”prongs” and welding the frame of the bumper to the towbar, then refitting the plastic bumper skin. It’s ended up quite a hefty bit of kit and good luck anyone who runs into it since the towbar is on a nice solid 40x40mm box section which sits just behind the “big bumpers” frame.
Surprisingly I only needed to cut a little section our of the plastic to let the towbar through which was a welcome bonus.
I’ve welded nuts to the topside of the towbar so I can bolt it in from the bottom but then it got dark so I don’t know if they’re in the right places. should know more tomorrow.
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So 2 of the 4 bolts fitted, I had to grind the other 2 nuts off. It wasn’t anythign I’d done wrong though, just 2 of the actual towbar holes needed tweaking by a few mm, re-welded nuts on and it all fitted nicely.
In the pics the sides are drooping a bit because I’ve not put on the plastic fittings which hold the sides aligned. REar quarter panel also hasn’t been properly welded yet, mig torch gave out halfway thru.
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Got myself a new mig torch and I’ve just finished getting the rear quarter panel properly welded up and tidied. It’s now *done*.
It’s now painted with a thick coat of electrox which will protect it till it’s ready for proper painting. pics to follow
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Been trying to figure out the wiring and this thread seemed quite helpful. I screencapped it on my iPad (attached) just in case it disappears since so many results have patchy/missing images
http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=modifications-and_2%2F1-8-16v-kr-on-carbs
Still got the ISV wiring to figure out yet but have already fixed a couple of issues so am hopefully making progress..
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have temporarily plumbed in the +vw black to an ignition-switched lead and it seems to work fine. Will attach it permanently next time.
Engine now starts, runs and idles as you would expect a 16v to. It was hunting a bit but that seemed to be to do with the overrun valve which kept switching. Will investigate in due course but for now I disconnected the overrun valve/switch thing and it seemed to run perfectly after that.
We also now have oil temp/pressure sensors (I think)..so no more no-oil-buzzer.
I’m now waiting for a coolant temp sensor off ebay to modify my non-sensor tank. I guess I must have used my original syncro tank on one of the other golfs in the mean time.
There’s a bit of exhaust/smoke coming from somewhere near the downpipe, suspect dodgy gasket so will replace that and see if that helps.
The rear lights seem to be permanently on as soon as the battery is connected, so have yet to figure out why that is but I think there’s only that. a lick of paint and a rear brake service left to do before we could potentially start thinking about going for an mot. which is awesome.
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Following on from the country bull bar conversation (https://forum.vwsyncro.co.uk/forums/topic/country-bull-bar/) I’ve been experimenting with electrical conduit and actually managed to get some decent looking bends. I started mocking up one side just to see how it would look and then stumbled across a plan.
So as to remain legal I think I’m going to use the frame of the bumper as a base to work from and mount a centre section out of thicker pipe, then protection for each of the lights out of 25mm conduit. I was planning to do the “wraparound” bit like on the country bars using slice-and-weld since there’s no way I can produce bends that tight but as it turns out the bends I can make are almost exactly the same radius as the headlights and it looked like it would actually fit better without the wraparound bit, plus I guess it’s a little less drag too.
The bumper itself is a wee bit flimsy for my liking, especially as I would like to add a lower section too to protect the sump etc, but I’m thinking if the frame rails are the same distance apart at the front as they are at the back, I might be able to use the ‘girder’ part of another mk2 golf towbar minus the actual towbar bit and mount everything onto that, inside the metal part of the bumper. That should solidify things nicely at the front and provide a secure mounting for upper and lower sections of the bars too.
With this design the bars will not protrude further forward than the actual bumper and there’s no sharp bits whatsoever, plus the “wings”, whilst providing pretection from shrubbery and stuff offroad would collapse back in case of a collision (e.g. with pedestrian or bike), likely even providing a softer & rounder impact than if one were just hitting the bumper/wing.
I *love* how the central section looks too, and that should be continued down below the bumper, turning into a plate/section which flushly mounts up to the front of the subframe…protecting the sump, pas pump etc from kerbs, rocks etc when venturing off the tarmac.
Re the pics – some imagination needed to see how it’ll all fit together but all looks surprisingly doable, and as long as the fit is nice and tight, using my new tig welder should mean I can do subtle, neat welds.
Does anyone happen to know if the frame rails are the same spacing on the front as the rear? I’d rather not have to take the rear bumper off again just to check.
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towbar for the front has been obtained, seems like the chassis legs on the front are a little bit closer together than the back so will need to chop and re-weld it a bit but that’s lots better than if they’d been wider. It’ll need the actual towar bit chopping off too. Time to test out the plasma cutter I think 😉
the towbar is a bit on the heavy side so might see if i can fab up some sort of more lightweight reinforcement for the bumper instead but don’t currently know how possible that is. I’m still trying to figure out the lower half before hacking anything up.
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towbar for the front has been shortened and adapted to fit to the front, actually looking like it should fit nicely inside the existing bumper. So far it’s just tack welded in place with the mig and will stay that way till I’ve got all the underside/sump protection mocked up too, then will take it all off and tig weld it up properly.
The underside bit looks like it will be a bit of a challenge but should be doable. Need to get a few more bits of metal first though.
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Pics of the (w)underbar in progress. It’s only tacked together at this point and the front “prongs” won’t protrude beyond the cross beam as they do now, and there will be a couple of cross beams to strengthen it but hopefully you get the idea from these. It mounts/locates onto the front wishbone bolts and will hook onto the subframe so that in the event of a hard impact the two bolts don’t bear the full brunt of it (or you’d be walking home!). The bottom half should be hardly visible under the regular big bumper skin (tho it has the lowest bit removed for clearance)
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