The MK4 Golf/Bora Dash Conversion

[pobmk4 10]

Awesome work Baz, ive just started pulling mine apart today, ive the whole inside out, and just starting on the engine!! Quite fancy the idea of a new dash, but dont know if i can be bothered at the mo!! LOL

[Bazmcc 0]

Well if you need bits I might have a spare dash and airbox here. I meant to send you the link to this earlier and forgot.

 

I have the corrado bentley at home on the computer as well if you need it but you probably have it already from work.

 

The list of jobs on this has changed slightly. Not much but a bit due to new stuff done and a few discoverys made.

 

Get wiring diagram for MK4 airbox.

Strip MK4 switches and wiring needed from spare MK4 loom.

Mark out mounting position at A pillars to make brackets to mount crossmember.

Remount relay holder at passengers side above aribox.

Fix or replace broken relay holder.

Reroute wiring loom to passengers side behind airbox.

Somehow extend steering rack to fit standard column mounts.

Make brackets to fit bottom of rack to pedal box.

Buy clip to replace broken one on bonnet latch pull.

Extend/replace white cable on MK4 airbox as it's too short due to how far forward the dash center is.

Test fit the airbox to dash vent adapter (big bit on the front of the airbox) and measure it as it needs to be modified and extended to clear the crossmember.

Fix threaded stud or nut to tunnel to bolt down central crossmember bracket.

 

That's enough to keep me going for starters.

[ben_wooduk 0]

Top read!!

[Bazmcc 0]

Didn't really get much done last night but here's a small update.

I swapped the cable for the temp control flap. This is the white one on the MK4 airbox that's too short for the swap. Now I could have used a corrado cable that was about 6-8 inches longer and it would have been a perfect length but unfortunately the cables aren't fixed the same as the MK4 ones to the controls. This is a major improvement of the mk4 controls over the mk3 ones. The MK4 cables have a permanently fixed fitting on the tubes of the cables at the heater control end. They're melted onto the tube. It's a simple T shape style fixing that slides and clips into the mk4 controls. So there's no metal clip snapped into place on the control end. We all know how brittle they can be on the MK3 controls and it means that the tube can be unfixed at one end and stops the flaps being operated properly.

 

Here's how the entire box fits in place first as I noticed I hadn't posted pics of it yet.

 

And this is the spare MK4 airbox I nabbed the cable off. You can see the black clip-on fitting on the second pic at the end of the tube. I made sure it was long enough to make a bit of a loop out of. You'll see why a few pics down.

 

This is the cable fixed in place. Now you can see why the cable had to be long enough to loop. A shorter one with the clip on the end would have been better but this will work.

 

Here's the box in place with the loom and cables all connected.

 

I also cut all the connectors I needed off the spare MK4 loom. I'll probably strip and clean all these over the next couple of days and get them ready for splicing. But before joining anything I'll need to reroute all the corrado wiring and take out the airbox controls loom as I'll be using the MK4 one. I still need to suss out the airbox power supply but it should be simple enough. There's only 4 pins and I think 1 of them is for the AC which isn't needed.

Headlight and dimmer/range control.

Green and Blue cluster.

Headlight dipper/flasher and indicator.

Ignition switch.

Wiper stalk/MFA.

Horn/steering lock locator ring.

Immobiliser reader coil on barrel.

Airbox supply.

Hazard switch.

Rear window heater.

Glove box light.

Fuel flap popper.

Ashtray light/ciggy lighter.

OBD port.

I think that's the lot...

 

[davidwort 0]

wow, great read, and most of all thanks for taking the trouble to write up so much detail and post with all the pics.

[Bazmcc 0]

MK4 loom parts are all now stripped and cleaned. This is just to make it easier for me to work with them.

 

Here is a couple of partsv that will come in handy as well. The slip ring which contains the wiring connector for the horn and airbag. Obviously I'll only be using the horn wires. Also there are a set of 3 plastic brackets. The 2 white pieces screw onto either side of the part of the cross member where it comes up through the dash above the steering column and below the clock recess. The black piece sits across the top of the steering column in the same area and these are all used for wiring loom routing to keep it tidy and stop wires getting nipped by the steering column adjustment mechanism.

 

One more thing I wanted to point out was a pair of plastic humps on the underside of the MK4 dash. They clip into a pair of metal clips on the bulkhead of the MK4. I decided to keep them on the dash as they seem to do a good job of setting the dash at a good height to the glass on the corrado.

 

After refitting the dash crossmember to make sure everything was still lined up correctly and centered I test fitted and marked where the ends of the crossmember met the old brackets. I'll be honest, I haven't quite decided on the best way to fix the dash on properly yet but we'll worry about that soon enough. I just made a couple of crude marks on the brackets with a permanent pen.

 

Then I moved onto the wiring work. I thought I might as well try and sort some of it out.

If you're going to work on VW wiring this kit below is essential. It's a Schwaben kit but as far as I'm aware Laser make the same or similar kit. Best £30 I've spent out of all my electronic gear. I can pop the pins out of CE1 (early vws) and CE2 onwards connectors with ease.

 

First thing I did was to remove the corrado airbox loom for the fan controls to the resistor pack. This isn't needed as we have the MK4 one already on the new airbox now.

 

Then I moved onto the Speaker loom. I wanted to show this one as it's a basic example of a modification needed to suit the new dash. As you can see we have the speaker plug for the head unit, then wires running to the dash speakers on each side (blue is drivers side, red is passengers side), wires running from the dash speakers and to the connector for the door speakers on each side. There's also a connector there for the wires running to the rear speakers but we don't need to touch it. So what we want to do is adjust this loom to eliminate anything we don't need. As the MK4 dash doesn't have any speakers we need to basically cut off the connectors to and from the dash speakers and simply bridge the gap for the wires to go straight from the head unit to the door speakers.

 

The simplified loom. Easy as that. Now we just have a loom with a connector from the head unit (out of shot below) to the 2 door speaker connectors and the other one to the rear speaker connector (at the top of the pic) which runs down the passengers side.

 

I then removed the main central dash loom and the light switch looms from the dash to the fuse box. I did this for 3 reasons. The fuse box area of a corrado is a right old mess and I want to tidy it up. The looms were hanging in the footwell and were really getting the in the way. And mainly, I can splice the new connectors on the looms much easier when it's out of the car.

 

After each loom is completed and I'm happy with how I can get it routed around the back of the dash I will braid the loom. This is how the loom will look after the nylon braiding has been applied. It's time consuming and requires a few tools but worth it.

 

That's a couple more things knocked off the list. Hopefully I can get a bit more done later.

[Bazmcc 0]

Didn't get a chance to do any real work yesterday. I'll get back at it tonight and full blast assault on it tomorrow.

 

Corrado headlight switch and loom, fog light switches and loom, rear heater switches and loom, full center console loom. I have to say, the center console loom is a right mess. I'll try and simplify or seperate this loom, maybe even split it into 2 or 3 seperate strands. It'll look much better when it's braided and routed properly.

 

This is a list of the parts needed to make up a complete MK4 dash center console. Most of which I have sorted and piled up already. I'll get pics of these later.

Radio Cage - 2 different types, one with clip on trim, one with solid black sides. I got the one with the clip on trim.

2 trim side strips.

Heater control surround

OBD port cover

Cupholder - new and old style available - I've gone for new one

Something to fill a double DIN gap. I'm going with an OEM mk4 radio and cubby hole.

MK4 Dash vents -Golf and Bora ones are different. I've gone with the better looking and illuminated Bora ones.

Hazard Light switch

Rear window heater switch

Center vent blanks x 3 - these are sided so you need to make sure you get 1 left hand one and 2 right hand ones.

Headlight switch - 3 different variations available - I got the 1 with both front and back fog light options.

Dimmer switch - 2 different versions available. 1 with headlight levelling and dimmer, 1 with just the dimmer. I've got an old one with the headlight adjuster but I'll swap it out for a single dimmer one. The ones with just the dimmer only came on MK4s with Xenons which have automatic headlight levelling.

 

Other than that lot there's the main tunnel center console.

The ashtray won't be needed because it won't fit between the center console and the tunnel. I'll try to incorporate a ciggy lighter into the dash somewhere else.

The other thing is the fuel cap popper. Obviously this isn't needed so I can always use the switch for something else. Might put the spoiler button on there.

[Portent 0]

I hope you changed the heater matrix before putting all that in there :D

 

On a serious note... 87 Jetta 16v has a mk4 dash in his project car and it does look nice.

[Bazmcc 0]

It'll be in and out a good few times before it's all done. The airbox can now be lifted out in about 2 minutes or less. lol.

All the stuff about the matrix is back a bit. At least it's easily sorted if it craps it's pants and I have about 4 or 5 of them from various different swaps and research.

 

I'll do a search for 87 Jetta 16v and have a look now.

[Portent 0]

It'll be in and out a good few times before it's all done. The airbox can now be lifted out in about 2 minutes or less. lol.

All the stuff about the matrix is back a bit. At least it's easily sorted if it craps it's pants and I have about 4 or 5 of them from various different swaps and research.

 

I'll do a search for 87 Jetta 16v and have a look now.

 

Not sure if he installed the dash himself as I gather he bought the car to finish.

[quicky1980 0]

really interesting read. Keep it up!

[dingo 0]

loved reading this - great work being done here. maybe a short shift mod solve the problem with the dash clearance?

[Bazmcc 0]

Sorry for the slight hold up. I spent most of the weekend cleaning parts and piddling about with wiring in the engine bay. I thought I might as well sort out the bay wiring while I was doing this as it all has to be routed behind the dash anyway. For example the radiator and fan loom braided and made to fit across the firewall and down the front wing rather than out at that ridiculous place above the clutch pedal and across the enging bay and down the near side chassis leg.

 

Here is how I think a couple of the MK4 dash switches should be wired. Someone can jump in and correct these if you feel they might be wrong. Bear in mind this is still incomplete and there will be plenty of gaps to fill.

 

MK4 headlight switch

1 -> Rado light switch X

2 -> 15A fuse -> Rado light switch X

4 -> Rado light switch 56

7 -> Rado light switch 56

8 -> Rado Fog switch pin 1

9 -> Rado Fog switch pin 6

10 -> Rado light switch 31

13 -> Rado light switch 58L

14 -> Rado light switch 58R

15 -> Rado light switch 30

16 -> Rado light switch 58e

17 -> Rado light switch 58b

 

MK4 rear window heater switch

1 -> Rado rear window heater switch pin 3

2 -> Rado rear window heater switch pin 4

5 -> Rado rear window heater switch pin 1

6 -> Rado rear window heater switch pin 2

 

MK4 hazard switch

1 -> MK4 left stalk T12/5

2 -> Rado Hazard Switch pin 7

3 -> Rado Hazard Switch pin 3

5 -> Illumination

6 -> Earth

7 -> 10A fuse -> relay panel screw 30

8 -> 15A fuse -> relay panel screw 30

[Bazmcc 0]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been really really busy. I'll get back at it and get some more of the wiring sorted later hopefully.

Here's a little addition to the wiring. It's a simple one for the MK4 airbox connector. This is the standard MK4 wiring connections. As you can see that'll be easy enough to transfer over from the corrado one. I'll probably make a seperate link loom for this to tidy up the oem dash loom.

 

T10j (The large 10 pin connector on the MK4 airbox loom)

1. -> 2.5, sw/bl - 25A Fuse number 25 (S225) (main power for fan)

2. -> 0.5, bl/ro - Radiator fan controller T14/8 (comes from AC switch connector T8b/1)

3. -> 0.5, gr/bl - illumination

4. -> 0.5, sw/bl - 7.5A fuse number 5 (main power for switches)

Edited April 23, 2012 by Bazmcc

[Bazmcc 0]

Got a little bit of braiding done tonight before running out of the sizes I need. it's a time consuming process.

 

Here's what I started with. It's the loom for the lighting, the horn, the washer bottle, coolant and brake bottle sensors, etc. They're not all seperated and ready for braiding.

 

Reduced to only the lighting section of the loom.

 

And this is the head unit speaker wiring finished.

 

I'll be back to get stuck into it properly this weekend again.

[dingo 0]

wiring looms are scary... where did you get that braiding kit you've got? great thread

[Bazmcc 0]

Wiring looms aren't actually too bad when you get them all seperated out.

 

It's not actually a kit that can be bought altogether as far as I'm aware. I've worked with wiring and electronics for years so I've gathered up lots of tools. For braiding work I need the following stuff.

A terminal removal set.

Heat shrick wrap of various different sizes.

Expandable braided sleeving of various different sizes.

 

And a heatgun.

 

Also I have my general soldering kit of various tapes, 4 different strength soldering irons, solder, soldering stands, flux, wiper nippers, solder sucker, etc etc etc.

[bristolbaron 11]

excellent work, well out of my capabilities!

[Bazmcc 0]

Got a bit of work done yesterday.

My first job was to sort out the 2 central mounting places. I had to make 1 small alteration to the top bar. As you can see below I've had to put another kink into it.

This means that it's about 3/4 of an inch too far away from the hole where the original dash was. Easily sorted with a couple of bits of plastic used as spacers. That's just bolted done with an M8 bolt, a couple of washers and an M8 locking nut.

 

Next I cut the doorcards so they could be fitted to the doors with the dash in. I'm still undecided on how they'll be finished but I'll worry about that in due course. As you can see there isn't much room. This is why it's important to have everything centered properly.

 

Next was to deal with the lower mount that attachs to the tunnel. I wanted to try and fit this with an easy option of removing it without having to drop the heatshielding under the car each time. Yes, you will have to take the front part down to fit the bolt or nut for this one.

I got a double sided threaded bolt here. I think it came off a gearbox or something, really can't remember. I shorted both ends to match what I needed as it only has to go through 1 sheet of metal on each side.

Hole drilled through the tunnel, bolted in and then the bracket fitted and the carpet with an 'L' slice to wrap it around.

 

Quick test fit before the proper head scratching started.

 

Then as I hadn't decided yet about the mounts for the sides, I went and done another part to keep me busy. I bought another lower mk4 steering column for £10 to experiment with.

I had to make the cuts where the column had to be extended.

 

This is the roller bearing on the inside of the U shaped bracket that attaches to the rack. Easy to put them back into place so don't worry if they fall out like this.

 

All done. This is ready to go to the engineer.

 

Then suddenly I had a wee flash of inspiration. I wanted to mount the dash side brackets causing as little fuss as possible and try to avoid any major cutting and welding. I'd been debating in my head about how I could use the existing brackets and I just worked out how it could be done.

A couple of crafty snips and I had a place on the brackets that could be bent. But I needed to mark and snip out that bubble in the middle so it could be bent flat where I wanted it. These were cut using a dremel.

 

Simple as that. This could be welded up to strengthen it but I don't think there's any real need.

 

The bent metal meets the crossmember perfectly. But we need to mark out where the holes are and extend the existing holes in the bar brackets so we can get bolts through the 2 bits of metal.

[Bazmcc 0]

The holes were filed out using a round file.

 

Then a test fit to mark out the elongated holes on the brackets so I know where to drill. This was obviously done on both sides.

 

And then it was bolted up using 10mm M6 bolts, washers on both sides and lock nuts. All stainless steel fixings.

 

And that's the crossmember fully fitted. I'll post pics of how it looks with the dash on. Everything fits like it should. That's the main fitting out of the way. Lots more to do though.

 

And because it was after midnight and I had nothing better to do I was wondering where the spoiler button might go. I checked to see if it would fit into one of the dash blacks so I cut a hole through one. I'm not so sure about the fitting but it might work if I could maybe use the front of another one to close the gaps around the edges. It's sideways as well but that doesn't really bother me.

[Bazmcc 0]

Did a little work this morning with fitting all the dash parts and working on the side panels. There's a threaded stud on the door which fouls the side panels and simply needs to be shortened a bit. The pic below shows the top threaded stud which has been shortened. It also shows all the silicone crap that some muppet has used to stick the plastic lining on with and made a right mess. That's a problem I need to solve and clean up and work out a tidy solution for it.

 

And this is the dash fitted with everything bolted on except the steering column stuff.

 

The list of new tasks and changes to the existing list:

 

Remount relay holder at passengers side above aribox.

Fix or replace broken relay holder.

Reroute wiring loom to passengers side behind airbox.

Extend steering rack to fit standard column mounts.

Measure up steering rack.

Make brackets to fit bottom of rack to pedal box.

Buy clip to replace broken one on bonnet latch pull.

Test fit the airbox to dash vent adapter (big bit on the front of the airbox) and measure it as it needs to be modified and extended to clear the crossmember.

Fit wiring guides to cross member for running looms through.

Look into better soundproofing to replace the old sagging crap in the car already.

Suss out a solution to the plastic sheeting needing replaced in the doors.

Trim the side panels in the dash to allow the doors to close without fouling them.

Test fit the center console for the shifter.

Mark center console position.

Drop out the shifter box and take to the engineer.

Test fit handbrake surround/rear center console.

 

And all that wiring.....

[Bazmcc 0]

I have a couple of old spare tatty bits of center console so decided to give them a bit of a test fit last night. The rado tunnel appears very high. It's a combination of the dash coming out further than standard and the lack of overall cabin height, bulkhead height, tunnel size etc.

 

After a little trimming I think I can position it pretty close to where I want it. I'll not be making any decisions or making any brackets for it until I get the modifications made to the gearstick. The cogs have been churning again and I've got a spare shifter box and cables from a MK4. I'll be having a look at these side by side later tonight.

 

The rear part needed a bit of a shove in but it's not too far away. Again, it's quite tight because of the tunnel size. (ignore the dirt/mould/grime).

 

This is where the back of the rear center console reaches.

 

Another issue to resolve is the handbrake if I decide to go with the MK4 console (which I will). The MK4 handbrake is offset to the passenger's side. I happen to have a spare one of those too. The bolt holes very very nearyly mathc up. A little ream with a file and it should sit it there pretty well.

 

I played about with the A pillars. They just needed a little trim off the bottom and they go in pretty well. I'll tidy them up when it comes to the final fit.

 

I test fitted the upper steering column and ignition parts for fitment too.

 

 

I'll make better progress later this evening hopefully.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Coming along nicely mate. How close does the gearstick get to the dash, when put in 5th?

[Bazmcc 0]

There's a couple of pics on page 1 or maybe 2 of the gearstick fully forward. It's right into the center console. lol

 

Reverse is actually a bigger problem as the dash is tilted towards the driver.

 

MASSIVE FAVOUR NEEDED: Can someone unscrew their gearknob and remove the gaitor and measure the throw for me (at the top of the stick) from the top of reverse where it's fully engaged back straight back to the stop in the middle very left hand side (furthest left you can go).

 

I have no gearbox in and I don't want to have to remount the block and gearbox just to measure that.

[Bazmcc 0]

OK last nights work involved getting next to sod all done so not happy with the progress but hopefully I'll get more stuff sorted tonight.

 

I compared the MK4 shifter and cables and the Corrado shifter and cables. Pretty similar setups.

 

Then I took the actual shifters apart to see the differences inside.

 

This is the MK4 shifter on the left and Corrado one on the right.

 

Interesting!!! The MK4 spring is positioned lower on the shaft meaning that I would be able to position the offset modification lower down if I use it...

 

Bottom of the boxes are different. The mk4 one is more curved. Because the MK4 spring and pivot is positioned differently it needs a tiny bit more clearance on the bottom.

 

After a quick test fit I noticed that the corner of the sharp angle on the corrado box was fouling the bottom of the mk4 shifter.

Sorry, I don't have any pics of the mod I made but I think we're all big boys and girls and we know what a hammer and metal bar can do. lol. I put the bar down through the inside of the box and flattened the angle out a bit for more clearance.

 

Test fit.

 

Then I filed out the handbrake bolt hole. As you can see it needs filed out off to the side a bit as the handbrake sits offset at the back (where it should be) and straight in the middle at the front. I'll sort this later.