Beanington

VW Heritage are probably going to be your best bet for the 'correct' fastener. As you said, you can work around it for sure, but worth a look first :)

^ Agreed entirely, Mahle did do OEM VR6 pistons but there was also an alternative, unsure which years / models got which. Mahle also made the OEM 1.8T and TFSI pistons among others, they usually do OE spec over sized pistons for re-bores as well as the Power Pack / Mahle Motorsport range. For reference on Mahle Motorsport, they're used all the way through to factory Le Mans race cars :)

Another big bit of the puzzle ready, the engine is now good to go, minus some hoses and fluids. Basically started with a dopey old AGU engine and ME3.8 ECU, swapped to a K03S turbo, added a Forge actuator, Forge recirc valve, Forge baffled sump, Creations Motorsport turbo intake pipe, Saab red injectors, new heat exchanger, cambelt kit and tensioner, alternator, colder plugs gapped for some proper boost, and probably a few more bits I’ve forgotten like gaskets and bolts and stuff. Cleaned out the oil pickup as well, because 1.8T :D Took a fair bit of time to clean it up, get the painting and powder coating done and all that stuff. It looks a lot better than it did when we pulled it out of a dirty Mk4 though so hopefully it’ll look good in the bay Also put on a lightened G60 flywheel and a new Sachs VR6 clutch, and on the subject of transmission stuff… I also had a painfully long-awaited parcel turn up, which was nice :) And as the drivers side driveshaft looked okay, but the passengers side one very much wasn’t, got a new one from J&R… GKN bearings, decent steel, good rubber boots and a 2 year warranty, can’t lose! The diff has been fitted now, with the usual ARP bolts / fresh diff bearings combo, so onto the engine and into the car tomorrow Fingers crossed tomorrow is productive and I’ll have another update, thanks :thumbleft:

Hi, new here and a while back I got a 16v rolling shell from Monkey and Paulina locally. It’s ropey, but is getting a decent going over, mechanically at least. Pinched this photo of it while Paulina was driving it at the Mk2OC Curborough day :) They had it converted it to VR6 but moved on to a tidier Storm model and started fresh. It had sat outside untouched due to other cars until a few weeks ago but trying to make up for lost time now! :) So we got it inside and up on stands strip it down EXCUSE IT BEING SERIOUSLY DIRTY! As it’s a dual purpose road and track car, I wanted a cage of some sort for mounting harnesses and keeping the roof up if it goes over. The flip side was I didn’t want the usual risk of caving your head in while driving on the road without a helmet. We got a main hoop and some extra 44.5mm CDS tube from Cyclone Racing and then lent it back slightly, trying not to go too far. Then we cut the rear stays, diagonal and strut brace to suit. The hoop still follows the pillar enough to be able to add to it and meet MSA regulations. That's if the car ever evolves / changes to a pure track car or race car later, for now it’s enough to tick the boxes it had to and looks alright so all good Then put the seat tubes in and gave it all a ghetto coat of satin battleship grey from an agricultural / industrial supply place. It's smooth enough, hard wearing and there won’t be any glare off it, so should be alright although it isn't anything fancy. After that we started unbolting things. The rear beam was in a bit of a state and the bushes were pretty much hanging out Binned the gammy old brake lines, pipes and bushes and then took an abrasive wheel in the angle grinder to any rusty bits. Got the rusty patches back to clean good metal and thinned out the rest of the coating on the good bits across the rest of it, then wire wheeled the awkward to get at bits around studs and brackets and whatnot Checked it over and it looked alright and cleaned up okay so gave it a coat of red oxide Then a coat of black stone chip and sating black paint Also did the same with the front wishbones as they were in a similar state and then started getting the new bushes in. Should tidy things up a bit and I can get some more life out of them Next job chassis wise is going to be changing the tie rods, gaiters and rod ends as well as the lower ball joints. They’re pretty disgusting and I can totally see them causing grief if things need to come apart for maintenance or alignment changes later. I also got new discs and pads front and rear, braided lines, front caliper seal kits, Mk4 rear calipers and new wheel bearings, so should be an improvement. Before that we’ll be having a bash at the engine so hopefully that goes smoothly. Anyway, up to date now so more updates soon, thanks :)

Depending on your luck you may have some fun with stuck brakes if it hasn't moved in that long, that's usually my biggest annoyance :D If he / you have shimmied it about a bit over the years then hopefully you'll be cool. Had a couple of old cars, including a Mk2 Rallye that'd sat for 6 years, where I had to drop the pads out to be able to push it :D As for the actual issue, besides the handy stuff posted already as sensible precautions or things that it'll literally need, the electrical issue shouldn't be too much trouble. All the info is available readily and easily online, A2resource have full fusebox diagrams and engine wiring diagrams are easy to find, so you'll be able to crack it with a multi-meter, a cheap eBay OBD code reader and a little free time :thumbleft: Glad nobody was hurt in the fire though, sounds pretty major!

Not 100% on that mate, members rides threads seem to have to be approved by a moderator for n00bs, I've accidentally started two now, a week apart with the most recent being the keeper, as I wasn't sure if the first one had gone through / if I had done something wrong / hadn't actually posted it :D

Cheers guys :) Fendervg, seems to cover the members rides section too unfortunately, but I completely understand why, I've seen the endless ads / spam posts on other forums and Speedhunters and elsewhere, got to be tricky nowadays :bonk:

Agree with everything said, of course. Personally, the body is the important bit. Time spent on mechanical stuff is negligible compared to the time it takes to do good and proper panel work or rust removal / replacing metal :)

Hey, Newbie in the South West, trying to get this pesky '5 post' thing out of the way (joking, I understand why it's in place) Started a build thread the other day so hopefully that'll be approved soon and I can share my little project :thumbleft: Thanks!