The MK4 Golf/Bora Dash Conversion

[pobmk4 10]

Nice work sham, im still trying to collect bits for mine. Hows the wiring so far?! LOL did you get the switches sorted?? Did you look anymore into doing away with the resistor?? (lighting)

[Bazmcc 0]

I'm leaving the lighting circuit as it is at the minute and them i might look into the change at a later date. But if you have an easy way to do it let me know and I suppose I could change it at any time.

 

What bits do you need for yours? I have a few spares. Might be handier just buying a scrapped mk4 shell out of quiggs and stripping it.

Wiring is a bit of a headache. Need to really sit down and get it sorted soon but the cabin to engine bay looms are nearly all done. Next will be the mounting of the mk4 fuse box and relay plate and i'll try and suss out each switch that's left. Working on the clock wiring at the minute too.

[Bazmcc 0]

I got the ABS controller tidied up and a few bits braided last night and I now have all the looms set where I need them to be.

 

I've got a bit mixed up with a couple of plugs from the fuse box so I need to go over a few diagrams again but it sjould be easy enough to sort out as I think it's just the horn, and washer bottle and stuff that I need to plug in.

 

All the braided looms now come in from the passengers A pillar, run along below the cross member, behind the center dash vent adapter and will run through a plastic conduit bracket on top of the steering column and go over the top of the fuse box and plug in as normal. The dash switches and clocks etc will have a slightly more seperated loom but will run along the top of the steering column with the rest of them and down into the corrado fuse box and part will go to the MK4 fuse box.

[Bazmcc 0]

Really sorry for the slow progress on this. I've been snowed under with other crap including a pile of wiring for other people.

 

The only other update I have is that my engineer mate has converted his CNC mill from an old school AT PC format and controller boards to a Windows XP machine with all new controller boards, cabling, etc etc etc so the metal working bits will all be done fairly soon.

 

I'll get the clocks LCD screen repaired soon enough too and hopefully we'll be back on track now in the next 2 weeks and I'll get some major work done.

 

Stay tuned. I haven't given up.

[Peebee 0]

Just had a flick through, looking good man. Can't wait to see the finished product. :-)

[Bazmcc 0]

Just a small update.

Steering column took a bit of work but it's getting there.

 

By using the original MK4 mounting points I had to add some length to the main shaft to reach the firewall and a wee bit extra to the joint at the end so it reached down to the rack.

6" extra on the main shaft. 40mm on the joint.

 

When This was test fitted the shaft was too low at the end and the joint was binding because of the tight angle meaning the steering could only move a few mm. To sort this out I had to move the back mounting point of the column. Here's a couple of metal strips I used to mock up the fitment. I'll weld proper bars on when it's ready to mount properly. You can see how far forward and how far up it moves the angle.

 

To make this meet at the end properly I had to shorten the shaft extension as well and after a couple of test fits and rewelds I ended up being able to get away with a small 1" extension. It's just tacked in this pic for test fitting.

 

Decent amount of clearance (or just enough).

[Critical_Mass 10]

Good work Baz did you do the welding yourself?

[Bazmcc 0]

The first couple of pics of the column is my mates welding. He just tacked them together after he cut the metal for them. The bit with the smaller piece is my welding as I was cutting and refitting to test to make sure everything was where it should be.

 

I got a couple more bits fitted last night. I took the dash back out and removed the crossmember. I welded on the 2 brackets for holding the steering column rear mount further forward. It's a bit agricultural but it's structural so I just made sure it was on without warping it too much. I think I'll send the whole cross member to get blasted now just to tidy it up a bit to blow off the surface rust. I'm sending the subframe and control arms etc all to get powdercoated anyway.

 

[Bazmcc 0]

Black carpet is in. Funny how carpets don't really fit properly second time round. Maybe that bloody glue was causing issues. Either way, it's in. I just need all the black clips and fittings now. I also want to replace all the crap fluffy sound proofing that's disintegrating around the top of the bulkhead and across the bottom of the window etc. I'll be using a sticky stuff a bit like dynamat except cheaper and better for molding round corners. I'll post pics of the carpet later.

 

I've also started labelling up all the wiring for the dash instruments and switches again. Need to really get my head round it this time. I'll be using a spare MK4 fusebox as well as the corrado one. The MK4 one fits in nice and slick and tidy and stays out of the way. I might even swap over some stuff from the corrado box over at some stage.

[Bazmcc 0]

Getting there. I'll post up full lists of each connector, pin and location.

 

[Bazmcc 0]

OK so all the switches and column laid our where they should be looks a bit like this below. I'll post up the full lists later hopefully of what each pin goes to on a standard MK4 setup.

 

Tonight I'll be filling in the gaps for all the wiring to and from the fuse box and steering column. I still need to seperate what will be left after that and i'll make up a loom to suit all those connections. I don't think there's anything major that I've missed but i'll fill in the last few connectors as I get to them.

 

[EJ Taylor 22]

this is awesome man, great thread. keep up the good work!

[Bazmcc 0]

I've just came up with a good idea!!!!! but i'll need to test fit something first and then I can post up if it works or not.

[Bazmcc 0]

 

---------- Post added at 7:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 7:00 PM ----------

 

These are the standard MK4 pin and wire positions for all the switches and clocks. Obviously I still need to work out what is left to connect to the Corrado wiring system for the actual swap but having the MK4 list is a good start.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Bazmcc

[Bazmcc 0]

ok so here we are after a good few hours more put into the wiring mess. I will update the images above with all the new info as soon as I get a chance but for now I'm just trying to get the basics all finished. I only really have the illumination and the earths to wire up and then a load of the wires from the T32 and T32a connectors for the clocks, and a couple of other strays. I have 2 or 3 more connectors to add to the list that I forgot about but they'll be easy to add in.

 

During:

 

And as it sits now.

[petemcr 10]

amazing work, can't wait to see this when it's done. So glad I didn't take my mates dash and try to take this on or I'd have gone :bonk: by now lol

[Bazmcc 0]

I just hope it all works when I'm done. The cluster arrives back today with the LCD repaired. I decided to let the guy who sells the LCDs just solder mine up as I haven't had time to do it lately and my micro soldering tip isn't in great shape so it saves me buying a new one. It might have been an expensive fix but for the rarest set of clocks I've ever seen it's worth it.

 

Tonight I'm going to try and get the illumination and Earth connections all layed out and I'll solder up what I can. I'm going to do a test and see if the MK4 bonnet pull can be used to replace the crap corrado one. It's much better looking and appears to be stronger too.

 

I'll also post up a list of the connections which need to be intergrated to the engine and corrado lighting looms etc. I only have half of this done so far as there are a few more connections to add still. I seem to have misplaced a box full of wiring too, it has my original small rado dash loom and a few extra connectors in it. I'm sure it'll turn up. Hopefully I'll have another update tonight with a few more pics.

 

I'm itching to get my crossmember back as without it, I'm just guessing what the wire lengths should be but I don't have a lot of choice.

[petemcr 10]

look forward to seeing the new pics, some major surgery this but the outcome is going to be amazing

[tentonhammer 10]

Just had a quick scan through this thread - Aaaarrrggh! ;) It looks like chaos, bet it isn't when you get down to it though. Props to you fella, that's a pretty hefty swap

[Bazmcc 0]

ok so all the plans I had of doing work tonight went out the window. Got my clocks back and put them together and tested. LCD is sorted.

allsortsuk2009 from ebay - Thanks very much, did a great job. Supplied and fitted the lcd for just over £70. It was something I could have done without but money well spent to get the clocks sorted.

 

One thing I want to do with them is to turn them into the sport clocks. As these are a really rare set of clocks anyway it wasn't going to be straight forward. Here's a few pics why. Have a look at the icon alignment. Sorry but these pics are really crap. I may need to have a dig around and see if I have any cluster foils that'll fit straight in there. If not it's no big deal but would have been nice to have the sport style foils. As long as the clocks are working again I'm happy enough.

 

 

 

Original on top and Immo 2 bora sport clocks on the bottom.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Bazmcc

[Bazmcc 0]

Whayheyy!! found the other bundle of wiring I lost. I'll see if I can get the rest wired up before the weekend.

 

I have an idea about modifying those foils to fit as well if I can't find anything to fit.

[petemcr 10]

Looking really good, my mate has a set of sports clocks from the V5 Bora which I nicked the climatronic out of, I don't know if they're the sports clocks you're referring to but he's probably selling them

[Bazmcc 0]

The problem is the rarity of the non can FIS clocks I've got there. It's the only set i've ever seen. A couple of mates who work with vws every day said they didn't think they existed. I need to find foils that match the LED and icon pattern of them. I have a few spares so I just need to sort through them and see if anything is the same.

 

[petemcr 10]

The problem is the rarity of the non can FIS clocks I've got there.

 

Ah ok, well I could take a pic of them tonight if you want and see if they're any help, you do have a fair few sets of clocks don't you

[Bazmcc 0]

Problem is i'd need to see them switched on to see where the icons are. I've done a lot of sport clocks, trip computers, cruise control installs etc for people so the clocks and parts have just gathered up. I need to sort them out and sell what I don't need.