Rocco's Modern Life by jcpahman77

17 minute(s) of a 96 minute read

Rocco's Modern Life

Compliments of jcpahman77 @ www.michiganvw.org

12/6/05

The farther into this car I get the more I find it needs. I'm not ready to give up on it yet so I'm making it a project car. A lot has been done to the car since I paid $50 for it, but there is much to go.

This spring, as every spring for a few years, I will be looking forward to a sizable tax return. Most of it is earmarked to pay back debts, but I always take a chunk to put into a vehicle for the repairs I would otherwise be unable to afford. This year the 'rocco's card came up.

For those that have been following along my short time with the group so far you already know that the car has gotten a rebuilt motor and transmission as well as (soon) corrado seats. Also new are the radiator and front brakes including the brake lines. For the most part I am happy with the way the car runs and feel it is fast enough for me at this time. What it needs now is more chassis and suspension related. As well as a few crack pot ideas that I'll let out of my head as time progresses.

Short term (like next week hopefully) it'll be getting new front wheel bearings as well as ball joints and an alignment. Ideally tonight I'll have the corrado seat nightmare straightened out (although I'm sure it's my own fault for starting so late at night).

What I need advice on as far as how to proceed is in fixing some holes I have found in the car. I have known that the running boards were going bad, but now I am finding holes in the floor pan. I have no problem with putting new metal into the floor of this car. I don't have a welder but I did some in school so I may be able to handle the work if some one has the machine. Where I'm most curious is at what point should I just say F'it and put in a full cage? Yes this car is my daily driver, however, I've already removed most of the interior rear of the front seats so stripping it further doesn't bother me. Also does anyone have experience with possible connecting the front and rear sub frames for further strength/rigidity? I don't intend on having this work farmed out (I don't think I'll have quite that much money this year) but as I am inexperience in this I would like to know how best to proceed.

Once the holes are fixed and I'm satisfied that the car is for the most part solid I have someone who will paint the car for me for just the cost of paint. Also I'd like to do something about the worn shocks/struts but the body work is the priority. After that new rubber both for the 13's I have for winter and the 15's I have for the summer is in order, but I'll worry about that later.

I'll entertain any other ideas for this car, but I'm not letting this one go into that good night just yet. There aren't that many Sciroccos on the road and I feel that I need to restore this one (call me crazy).

Oh almost forgot, I'm anticipating having $400 to use this spring (500 if I don't go to gingerman, but yeah right, I really wanna drive on a track). I know it's not a lot, but this way you know what I have to work with.

I was only thinking of the cage in terms of structural rigidity not for racing (although it would be a nice side effect). Naturally I didn't think about the possibility of smashing my head into it in the case of an accident. As for difficult to get in and out, we crossed that bridge 7 months ago when I bought the car, I'm 6'6" it's not, every day is an adventure getting in and out :p. As for sourcing the floor boards, these are S2's at u-wrench-it? And then what do I need to get the boards, a torch? Also would you know the approx. cost?

12/8/05

I keep forgetting to get pics of the seat swap and the hole so the rest of you can weigh in on how bad/hard it's going to be to fix. The car is parked for a little while as the wheel bearings have finally gone bad. The parts will be here Monday, hopefully I'll be able to get it all done in a day or so (the person I know with a press is in Muskegon). After that I begin shopping for struts and/or springs and main caps. Inexpensive is key I'm poorly funded but hopefully I can get all four corners done springs and struts. Then strut braces, then onto gingerman. After all this though the car won't be too bad, except for paint, and I have something lined up for that too.

1/3/06

Ok a small update from me. The wheel bearings are in and the front end feels much better -- surprise. Got it to run with a coil from Pete, also put in new plugs. It's alive again and pulling very strong. Now a new question arises: I had a friend following me to make sure it didn't die again, and he said when I use my turn signal all my taillights dim when it comes on. The alternator belt is tight and I think I remember having it's output tested, maybe not. On the same note my headlights have always been so dim I can barely see in front of me. I've just assumed they are old, as mentioned it was a $50 car. Now that I'm being told the taillights dim with the turn signal I'm wondering if there is a correlation. For discussion's sake lets say the alternator and voltage regulator are ok, I'll have them tested tomorrow to make sure.

3/28/06

t's been a little while since I've made an update and things are coming along nicely. This car never fails to impress me, both in it's performance and it's ability to piss me off. This round of updates includes an exhaust AGAIN this time fully welded so nothing can go wrong *jynx*, as well as new tires. I'm also going to finally take pictures of the corrado seats since both are installed now. The exhaust sounds very nice and in gear acceleration has increased dramatically, no more downshifting to accelerate on the highway. The tires will be better appreciated Monday when I have the car aligned. The seats just f'ing rock. Let no one tell you corrado seats aren't worth every penny. Pics tonight, I'm off to Wal*Mart.

3/28/06

I'll start in summary, Wal Mart blows, don't ever go there. I was there an hour maybe an hour and a half and watched them make about every mistake you can before getting to my car. Car 1 was an alero and while duchebag #1 is taking my info and what I need done duchebag #2 is trying to mount a tire on a rim. He made four good tries at it but just couldn't get it. He never lubed the tire, never leaned on it, I thought he was a wuss. Turned out he's a moron, he was trying to mount a 15" tire on a 16" rim, generally that doesn't work. 30 minutes later he gets two properly sized tires mounted and balanced and backs the car out of the garage. 30 seconds later the car is back. Apparently it IS important to torque the wheel down. The center caps were then installed and the customer was on their way. Vehicle two went much better, they only had to pull it back in because he forgot the hub caps. Finally it's my turn. Douchebag #1 is behind the wheel, he's pulling the car in, he gets to the ramps and stalls the car. Two more tries are made before he hands it off to douchebag #2. All the while I'm screaming through the glass "you've got it in 3rd you blind moron". Douchebag #2 only took two tries and finally got the car on the ramps. This is where progress halts. Both douchebags are now walking around the car as if it's some UFO. One finally puts the rubber blocks under the pinch rails. Still the car is on the ground. A few more laps around the car and now there is just one douchebag. He removes the blocks and makes a final lap, hands in pockets. He asks to speak to the owner (me) and I am informed that my car has no suitable place to lift, it's too rusty. I've had this car into numerous shops one just last week and not one of them have complained. I called the store manager when I got home. He's going to have the Tire Manager call me tomorrow. That conversation is going to go something like this: "You have incompetent employees. I used to change tires at the Sam's next door I know this car is in acceptable shape. Now you are doing the work at no cost because I'm going to have to make a second trip to Alpine from downtown and gas isn't cheap.

3/29/06

I'm still friggin' pissed at Wal Mart. At 2:30 when I had gotten no phone call I decided to call the tire manager myself. I explained the situation and she told me to bring the car in. So I go up and she puts my car in line. I ask her if she got the note to call me that should have been left by the store manager. She says no, but I should ask the other manager, he came in first. No note for him either. While I'm talking to him one of the kids who refused my car last night approaches me and says, "you're not signing up for tire work are you?" I say yes I am. He responds by saying, well we aren't going to pickup your car. I say in a no-nonsense-don't-piss-me-off tone of voice, YES YOU ARE. Several managers were paged and while waiting for any of them to show up the regional manager walks by. She's flagged down and the situation is explained. More phone calls are made to more managers. Finally they agree to do the work. THREE HOURS LATER my car is done and I'm sent on my way. Not before of course over charging me. I argued that what was charged wasn't what was quoted on the phone, but the guy ringing me up just shrugged. $43 and change to have 4 tires balanced and 2 resealed. ****ing Bullshit. When I worked at Sam's I'd have been written up if it took me more than 40 minutes to mount and balance 4 new tires. Guess who's getting a phone call after I put my kids to bed and eat dinner.

6/1/06

It's been a while since I've had much to update with this project, but thanks to Tom (UBRHASE) and a deal being worked out with VolkswaG60n I'll be smiling retard stylz for a while. Those who have been around for the past few months may remember Tom parting out a few sciroccos. Saturday, barring any unforeseen obstacles, I'll be getting one of those sciroccos. It has everything my 'rocco is lacking. Also coming along will be a set of billistein hd's with neuspeed springs. This will give me time to fix the oil leak on the current motor before I transplant it into the "new" scirocco. Also tomorrow I should be getting a neuspeed cam to go along with the whole package.

6/11/06

Well it was a good news bad news day for the Scirocco today. I've been battling the fish like activity the car seems to have once up to highway speeds. My suspicions were on the steering gear. After looking it over yesterday at the garage and today at a friend's house it turned out to be nothing more than a wheel bearing. This is good news because I have new bearings on the silver car. I'll simply swap the whole hub over. The bad news is we discovered a fuel leak. I just can't seem to get away from leaks. It seems to be leaking from under the passenger's seat area and the pump itself is also wet.

I'm still looking for input as to how the front suspension will respond to being run without a bearing cap. The car is driving this way right now so I guess it's ok. I just seems to be abit odd. My new suspension has showed up and I'm excited to see how the car will handle with a good wheel bearing on the driver's side. The fuel leak isn't so big a deal, I'll just run all new line from the pump to the filter, the car IS 22 years old, it's plenty due for new lines.

7/10/06

WOOT!!! Update Time!!!

Made hella progress tearing into the silver car this weekend and I'm on track to getting my GTI powered Sirocco back within 2-4 weeks. Of course in the tradition of this car I can't take steps forward without taking at least one backward and that's how my Saturday went after I left work.

I'm Westbound on the I-196 showing off a bit as I pass by a co-worker. As I approach the US-131NB I notice that I seem to be running on fewer than 4 cylinders. Except oddly enough it ran fine with more than half throttle. I limped to my friend's house where I planned on spending most of the weekend anyway and began to search for the problem. I had few symptoms to go on other than it wouldn't idle or restart with the starter if it stalled but so long as I was moving I could pop the clutch and it would "run". Don't misunderstand here, the starter was functioning fine, the motor just wouldn't catch.

Now with the hood popped I noticed that the accessory belts were very loose. I tightened them up thinking that maybe if the alternator wasn't spinning it could be a source of the problem. Belts tightened and still nothing more than maybe a single fire and then just cranking. Oh and I remembered hearing the most ominous metal on metal sound when it was running that concerned me too as there were no obvious signs of trouble. Ok so back to the drawing board. I grabbed my friend's trouble light and once I figured out how to use it properly confirmed that I did in fact have spark. I could hear the pump prime after each attempt to start the motor so I didn't think it was the pump or relay but I tested by shorting power past the relay just to check. Still no go. It seemed fairly obvious that I wasn't getting fuel. I pulled a spark plug to confirm. After cranking for so long it should have been soaked, but it was bone dry.

Ok finally I stop thinking about this motor like it's electronically controlled and began to think mechanically. I take the air intake tubes off to get a look at the air plate. It's shut. Shut like no air could get by. A test, we jammed a small screw driver in to hold the plate just up. Crank the motor and it fired on the first try but there was the horrid screeching/sucking sound. Shut it down and tackle one problem at a time. After working at it for a while we got the bump stop re calibrated and located so the plate couldn't shut the airflow and fuel valves. Put all the tubing back on and did another test fire, that sound is still there but now it seems to have a location. The screw on the TB that controls the idle speed is missing. Not just backed all the way out like the silver car used to, just GONE. Sucking sound located. After finding a new bolt and wrapping it in Teflon tape everything was back to running order.

Took it around the block and confirmed the car was running well. In fact in ran damn well, run first to the red line and shift to second and the tires break loose. Have I mentioned I LOVE 4K transmissions? Anyway after all that I was finally able to begin tearing into the silver car. By nights end I had managed to remove the old motor and a few other little odds and ends I needed. Got a start on things in the morning today and separated the AUG trans and removed the cylinder head to get ready for a new gasket. I need a few goodies to finish it that I don't have but I'm going to make a wtb post for that stuff. I'm getting really excited. This build is making good progress.

8/27/06

It's update time again, and while I don't have my GTI motor in yet I'm still making progress on some side projects. Today's update features a ghetto cone air intake. Now before all of you chime in and say that the filter is right behind the radiator I'm aware of this. This is more of a test to see how the motor and air box would respond to a different type of intake and filter. I must say that so far the results have been most pleasant. The motor revs easier throughout the rpm range and pulls slightly harder on the lower rpms. Even while driving 28th street yesterday during the Metro Cruise I never noticed any adverse effects from the proximity of the air filter to radiator. The final product will involve a proper battery relocation to the spare tire well or hatch area and the reversing of the radiator fan, so that it would be mounted out front. With those things done I'll be able to run a more proper tube out in front of the radiator right behind the deleted bright lamp on the driver's side.

8/29/06

Intake progress has been back burnered. I got an R&R for my not-so-quiet exhaust last week. Finally got off my lazy butt last night after work and put some wrench time into it. I think it's good enough but I need to find a cop and have him verify. If not I have to pull the mani AGAIN and try to get out the broken studs. Of 8 only 4 are good, 1 on the top and 3 on the bottom. It's sealed, I'm not going to brag about it but I'm hoping to get by until I do the motor swap, the other head has great studs. Also I'm feeling a wobble-like feel to the front end. I've given it a good shake down and there doesn't seem to be any bad components, which is good since most of them are new, so I likely just need to re-align the toe. I still have some parts that I need to sell so if you need something 8v or A1 related let me know, I don't have much but I need to move the stuff.