'97 AHU into ’81 Rabbit LX

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
This has been slow going. I started by buying a rear ended '97 B4 on Easter Sunday 2013. Had AAA tow it home from MD. Finished the part out and disposal on Labor Day 2013.












Big Blue is working....




The plan was to put the engine and driveline into Big Blue. After I thought about how little I drove the truck, I reconsidered. Very cramped and factory non ac.

I decided that I wanted another 2 door Rabbit, but this had to have factory ac. I started the search for a clean, unmolested 2 door.... this took longer than expected. In the meantime, I sold SnoBunny (4 door Rabbit) in 08/14 and kept searching. This car only got driven when it snowed.

In 06/15, I found a car in DE that seemed perfect. It looked to be a clean body, complete (filthy) original interior, and the owner said it had a rod knock. Looked it over, bought it without hearing it run and had AAA tow it home.




More to come.

-Todd
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Nice Mk1. I was going to say that your B4 project looked like it was missing some parts at the back of the car...lol.

Steve
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Yeah, my neighbors don't get me. They've seen 2 or 3 cars get cut up; I try to do it quickly.

I was supposed to get a Jetta TDI, that was to be parted a couple months ago, but the seller backed out on the day of delivery. Probably for the best.

-Todd
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)







A couple weeks later, I finally got around to getting the engine running. I heard what the PO was talking about. I decided I wanted to drive the car for a couple months, so I yanked the engine, pressure washed the bay and Big Blue donated his engine. He was getting a AAZ, so he didn't mind. His bay got cleaned up, too.

Later that night, I was questioning if what I heard was rod knock. I started thinking that it may have been a bad injector. Oh well.... I'll revisit, later.

It's worse than it looks. Dog hair and stains everywhere.








Pulled the interior to pressure wash and scrub.








-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Uh oh.... Floors looked good from underneath. Factory applied undercoating hides the truth once again...












Decided to investigate the slight bubbling around the windshield.






This is going to take longer than expected. A friend and I assembled a shed for parts storage. Interior has been in there, since.




-Todd
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Yes, factory coating hides a lot of bad news. They always take longer than you think. I remember when I first took delivery of my B3V in October 2014 and I was telling friends that it would be done by spring...hahaha..yeah right.

Settle in for the ride, you'll be at this for a while.

Steve
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
So true. This car was way worse than expected. Not quite as bad as my truck, but definitely my worst Rabbit, and I've owned many.

Started the metal repair. These are some of the repairs, but there were many more. It seemed every panel I removed, revealed cancer. I spent my summer and fall doing rust repair.






















This is where I probably should have stopped.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
The interior repairs were done, so I had my glass guy install a new windshield. Need to keep the water out.




At this point, I should have bolted the car back together and started driving it. I removed the rear stainless arch trim and spats and saw rust. Started correcting that, then moved to the rear pan repair.










After I finished the rear, I stepped back and my once decent looking car looked pretty haggard. Both rear arches and the rear pan were covered with repairs. I wasn't going to be driving this anytime soon. I pulled the GTI lower airdam off and saw the lower apron was pretty badly damaged. It wasn't going back on, so it needed to be fixed. The only late Westy front clip I had was pretty beat, but I had a decent Cabby clip.






Scribed and cut both pans, then welded them together. Prior to attaching the pan to the body, I cut the core support to accept the A/C compressor.








-Todd
 
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annieneff

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Location
Seattle
TDI
1983.5 Westfalia tdi (afn), with flipped 5 speed V6 (dvz) transmission
Subscribed. Beauty work, and lots of it! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Andrew
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Thanks. I hate seeing rust, but it's actually pretty interesting to start peeling the car apart, and seeing how it's put together. How each panel meets the next is pretty neat. I've learned on several Rabbits that seeing flattened pinch welds pretty much means floor rust. That pinch weld is 3 layers, where the rocker meets the floor.

I stopped by my local body shop and asked the owner's recommendation about installing the front pan. Should I plug weld it or use panel adhesive? He immediately said adhesive. He was going to give me what I needed, but we decided on a night and he came to my house and helped me glue it on.




The weather was starting to get cooler and I asked if he'd be interested in doing all of the bodywork and painting. We've done this in the past with other cars. Otherwise, I'd be building a plastic booth in my backyard and pissing the neighbors off. I just bought a gallon of single stage and other supplies, but he only wanted to use my paint and hardener to edge the panels and he'd use his stuff for everything else.

He wanted me to pull the glass, strip the roof to bare metal, then drop it off. We'd work after hours and on weekends to get the car finished. His shop had a lull and expected to have my car back in 2 weeks.

Packed the body panels in/on the car and drove it a half mile to his shop. He got the car in late October.






His shop got busy... a month went by and not too much happened with my car. My car was stored indoors, so I didn't really care.






We scheduled a Saturday for me to come and start prepping the car for the edging. I decided that I wanted to pull the engine and have the bay sprayed. Drove it home, pulled the engine and pushed it back to his shop. I've put maybe 2 miles on this car driving it around the block and up the street and 2 engines have been pulled.




A few more nights and weekends and the bay, panels and all jambs/openings were edged. Car was reassembled and panels gapped. Some more bodywork occurred. Waiting on Rocker Schultz, sealer and paint, now.










-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Found more pics of rust repair, prior to the car being dropped off. There was plenty more, not documented.














Spent a Saturday with the DA sander, sanding blocks and scuff pads. Wiped it down several times and called it quits.




Sunday, we cleaned the car several more times, taped the lower panels off and shot the Rocker Schutz...




Sealer, then base and clear. The car was kept its original LE1Y paint code.... Sandstone Metallic.






Tuesday night, we roped in the windshield, rear quarter lites and hatch glass. All new seals were used. We used Gojo with no pumice. This was what Pete, the shop owner, uses and it was way easier than using soap and water, glass cleaner, etc.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Thanks. The car was in the body shop for 4 months, but I think it turned out great.

-Todd
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
I've been slacking. A few weeks ago, the car was pushed back home. I needed to start getting the car watertight. The door hardware, window regulators, taillights, etc were bolted onto the car.

Pulled the doors off to install the new door seals and some butyl sound deadener, inside the doors.





The car hasn’t been cut or buffed yet. The PDR guy came out today to fix some of the small stuff that was missed, but it was too bright out. Spoke with Pete and said when I get the car running to bring it back and the PDR guy will take care of it at the shop. I personally didn’t see much until it was pointed out to me and would have been happy with the way the car sits. This is what the shop owner wants to do… who am I to say no?

While the glass was out, I had everything tinted with Suntek 70% CXP. In the pics, the main door glass is untinted. I plan on pulling the door glass again, to install power windows and don’t want to risk scratching the tint. I kind of wished I’d done 80%, all around. Bought some fixed glass to replace the vent windows and I will likely get the door glass retinted 80%.












I went through the box that the Passat wiring harness was stuffed into, when the donor car was parted. I spent about 2.5 hours untangling the huge mass and only broke one clip. Labeled what I could and labeled and bagged some branches of the harness to keep it organized. This is where I’m currently at. From what I’m seeing the CE2 fusebox will sit in the A1 bracket, but the fuse box will need to be mounted upside down… not sure I like that. I think I kept the fuse box bracket from the B4.






That's it for now. Anything from this point on will be new work. Need to get remotivated....

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
I haven't been too motivated to work on this recently... baby steps.

I pulled the pedal cluster, brake booster and steering column, to work on the hydraulic clutch setup. My tank of shielding gas was empty, so that didn't go far.

I was on the fence about what wiring setup to use at the column. If I used CE2 stuff, I read that I would not be able to use the stock Rabbit clamshell. I'd need to use the later clamshell, which would mean I'd need to start cutting up the dash.

The other option would be to run CE1 stalks and ignition switch, and splice everything at the column. Not too keen on splicing, if it can be avoided.

I wasn't really a fan of either of the above, so I took a different approach.

I like the look of the late A2 big stalks, so I started by attempting to dry fit the Rabbit clamshell without the stalks. The locating tab was cut off the column and will be rewelded, later.

Had to grind/cut a few areas on the ignition assembly and clearanced/drilled areas of the clamshell. Once the clamshell snapped on, I installed the stalks and clearanced/drilled areas of the clamshell, again.












At this point it's time to glass. Resin won't eat green floral foam and it's incredibly easy to shape. CA the foam to the taped off column and rough shaped with a strip of 100 spray glued to a paint stick. Final shaped with my finger.






2 layers of 1.5 CSM were applied and rolled out.






Packed it in for the night, waiting for the resin to kick.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Sanded the cured glass with some 36 and smeared on some short strand, then some body filler. Final shaped it and it needs to be textured and sprayed. I doubt anyone will notice the extra curvature, unless it's pointed out to them.












Realistically, the hole for the bolt may not have been needed. Unless you're under the dash, the holes on the bottom would never be seen. Only the 2 rectangles on the side would be visible.

I have a big cruise stalk on the way. I'm thinking I want the later A2 cruise stalk with hazard.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Worked on the pedal cluster today. Wasted a lot of time trying to have the clutch mc in the car. I scrapped the idea because I didn't think I'd get a smooth fluid flow from the reservoir and I didn't want an additional reservoir in the car.

I'm using a S2 16v booster and will be running the B4 m/c and reservoir.








Did some minor work to mount the brake and clutch switches.






Clutch pedal seems to have proper travel... I guess I'll find out once the engine and trans get installed.

I didn't want it pulling or bottoming out the piston. I left around 1/8" slack on both positions. The clip box I made is only gripping one catch. Seems to be plenty secure.






After I got the above situated and felt confident with everything, I started reinforcing the clutch mc plate. Wasted a lot of time on this because I wanted the strengthening rib flared out. I ended up using 2 pieces of metal.








Plasma cutter shut down on me, so I had to call it quits a bit early. Cutting the metal with a grinder was a long and loud ordeal. The cops would have been at my house....

Need to make the support arm to prevent firewall flexing, then I can blast and paint everything.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
I cut the clutch mc bracket off today and rewelded it. I originally had it angled down slightly because another forum member did so. He was getting binding and said the downward angle was needed. My geometry looked worse angled down, so it got straightened out. It probably wouldn't have been an issue, but the geometry is better now, with no binding.

Also added a couple gussets and added the support arms. This thing is rock solid and the firewall will never flex. Drilled the hole in the firewall to mount the clutch master. It officially fits.








Looking at the lower clutch pedal bracket that I made, I may have to reposition it. I think it's going to interfere with the steering column universal. I was only eyeballing everything with the outer tube installed... easy fix.

Started making the DBW bracket. Using a pedal from a gas A4 Jetta. From what I've read, I'll need to tweak the pedal a bit, to get more travel. I don't like the look of the plastic pedal, so cut up the stock Rabbit pedal and will be mating the two.








Setting up my pedal height. Using Big Blue as a guide, the accelerator pedal is 2.75" to the right of the edge of the brake pedal. The accelerator pedal is 1.25" below the brake.






My measurements somehow got tweaked by .25". My "between" distance is 2.5".... will need to reverify my measurements and adjust, if needed. There's a lot of slop in Big Blue's pedal.

-Todd
 
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Hasenwerk

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Location
Quesnel, BC
TDI
1982 Cabriolet (BEW|VNT17|Stage4), 1989 VW TriStar Syncro soon-to-be CR TDI (CBEA), 2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 (ALH|VNT17|R520|Stage4)
A "gas" pedal won't work - you need one with the words "Diesel" on the label.
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Another member used a pedal from a 1.8t and it worked. He said he wasn't registering full travel and he need to mod the pedal, but it worked fine. I'm hoping to have the same luck.


Finished my pedal. Unsure if my bracket was tweaked or the car's bracket was. Maybe a combination of both, but I needed to twist the bracket into position. Once that was done, I needed a 0.5" spacer. I was going to add a gusset, but it's plenty strong.

In the end, it was 2.75" between the brake and go pedal. The go pedal is 1.5" lower than the brake.










Next up was mounting the fuse panel. I mentioned I didn't want it upside down.






I installed the steering column and the lower clutch bracket was coming into contact with the column universal. This was only occurring at full travel, so I think I'll get away with clearancing it.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
We had some pretty dismal weather that sucked the motivation from me. Got a few things done, though.

I saw a patch of surface rust that the booster was hiding. Tough area to get into, but the torch, utility knife, screwdrivers and wire wheels got the seam sealer and rust, pretty well. Soaked it with acid and hopefully got all the rust. Sprayed some self etch primer and some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. Will recoat all the cracked seam sealer with new seam sealer when the paint cures.






Blasted some parts and sprayed some paint. The window channels had some deep rust at the bottoms, so they're soaking in acid.







Need to pull the steering rack and refurb it, then the wiring may begin.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
There were some light spots in the fender wells, so they got touched up. I planned to do the same with the rear fender wells, but after seeing lack luster results because of the heavy texture, they'll get sprayed black.




After the Rust Encapsulator cured in the engine bay, I went over all the cracked seam sealer with fresh seam sealer. I used an idea I saw on Vortex and painted below the frame horn belt line with black paint. The OG idea was only on the firewall, but I took it a bit further. The logic is this area is always dirty, so hide the dirt.






Took a steering rack apart, cleaned it out and regreased it. New rack bushings, tie rods and boots, of course. I had poly rack bushings, but decided to order new rubber to keep vibrations down.




Finally bolted the steering column and pedal cluster in. Kicking the tires to steer it around the driveway was getting old. Sharp eyes may have caught that the pedal cluster and steering rack were parts from an autotragic A1. Nobody seems to want these parts.






And that's where I sit. The car has started to be used as a shed.




Somewhere along the way, butyl sound deadener was applied.

At this point, nothing is holding me back from starting the wiring.

-Todd
 
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ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Minor progress.... I bought a easy up canopy. If I'm not baking in the sun, maybe I'll work on this more.




I decided to apply Dynamat Hoodliner to the raintray and firewall. I did this over a decade ago to a built gas Rabbit and it was the quietest Rabbut I've ever driven. The fact that Chip Foose endorses Dynamat and they specifically mention diesels made it a no brainier, haha!




I started by cutting all the bend tabs and other brackets off the firewall. Any minor rust was wire brushed, etch primed and coated with Rust Encapsulator.




I originally planned on only doing the p/s like the factory, but figured I'd do the entire thing.

I did this in 2 pieces. The last time I did this, I tried to make it 1 piece and it was a nightmare. The adhesive is very aggressive. 3M 3440 was used in multiple 1/2 overlapping layers to achieve a strong seamless transition between pieces and to cover any exposed foam edge.

Peeling the release paper a little at a time and working the contours with a small roller took some time. Because the firewall and raintray aren't 100% flat, I ended up short in 3 areas. Patched in with more Hoodliner and tape and you'd never know.

Brake clean easily wipes the red from the tape.










Torched a screwdriver and burned through, from the cabin for holes. Need to come up with a way to give the other holes a finished look.




Mounting the m/c and plumbing new lines comes next.

-Todd
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Nice
On the B3V I installed thin fiberglass insulation blanket on the back and upper portion of the bulkhead accessible from the rain tray area. The 16v didn't have anything there originally.

On the diesel cars I think there was something originally in there but even for the B4 it's now NLA and I couldn't find an extant one in a JY on any B4.

nice canopy

Steve
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
The canopy is coming in handy. Being in the shade with box fans blowing makes mid 90°s pretty tolerable.

I rebuilt and resealed the HVAC box that's in the rain tray area, but I was already thinking about pulling it back out and covering the area you mentioned. I have enough scrap to get it done.

On past cars, I used the same stuff on the inside of the firewall. The effect definitely wasn't the same. Dynamat refers to this stuff as sound soaker, and I guess it makes sense.

I was thinking about adding a heat shield behind the turbo and dp. They claim this stuff is alumanized, but if I can melt through with a screwdriver....

Anyhow, I spent all day doing brake plumbing. I'll post pics tomorrow.

-Todd
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Mocking up the brake lines. I use a strand of 12ga Romex to get the approximate bends and length. Pretty crazy how even the shortest line is about 24", prior to bending.

Lines from the prop valve to rear drums were already replaced. I nicked them when cutting out the floors.




I think I did a pretty decent job of keeping everything symmetrical.




For some reason, I love that little jog around the fuel lines. Seeing those bend tabs on the frame horns bothers me. I'll be cutting them off and touching up with single stage.




I decided to pull everything off and gold plate them, lol.






Booster and clutch master were painted, but not shown. As mentioned earlier, booster is S2 16v and the m/c and clutch master are B4.

-Todd
 
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