Previously I had cut an aluminum panel to be used as a dash insert covering the area where the stereo head and some dash vents used to be. After installing it, it became obvious that the shiny surface would be distracting and look out of place in the black dash. I’m also not a fabrication master so my cuts aren’t perfectly parallel to the shape of the hole being filled, which was accentuated by the contrast of the aluminum against black dashboard. Painting the piece black cures both ills, it allows the insert to blend into the dash and camouflage the slightly uneven edges. This insert was sprayed with black Plasti-Dip that I had purchased a few years ago for doing a similar job in a different car. The result looks nice with a rubberized feel and solid matte black finish that complements the dash.
Another item in the interior that was bugging me was the open shifter box. I don’t mind the exposed mechanical pieces so much as seeing the big hole with freshly rebuilt bushings and lots of fresh grease – that hole that is just waiting to catch whatever I drop and inviting for all manners of dirt and grime to get ground into the shifter bushings. I need a shifter boot.
The first problem is that the OEM shifter boot mounts to a center console that I’m not using. I need a new way to attach a boot. I took some measurements of the rectangular shifter opening and the width of the tunnel and looked around the internet and parts shops to see if there was a ready-made “universal” shift boot available. The rectangular shape is narrower than the “universal” type commonly sold, and the tunnel is too narrow to attach anything that I found that would cover the hole. I cut a piece of aluminum into a surround piece around the hole. Now I needed a way to fasten this plate. The forward mounting bolt for the entire shifter assembly is just ahead of the area being filled, and this was incorporated into the new surround piece. A new hole was drilled to fit another bolt at the back of the surround. I tapped a thread into the hole in the tunnel, cut the head off the new bolt (now a stud), and threaded it in so that it was flush with the bottom of the sheet metal. The threads held it while I tack welded it from the bottom. This had to be flush on the bottom in order to allow the shifter box to sit tightly against the tunnel. The new surround is held with these two bolts.
This shows the new surround, the open hole into the shifter assembly, as well as the Corrado shift knob I picked up at the junkyard gratis:
It would look better with a handful of stainless allen head bolts around the perimeter, but maybe that will happen further down the road, I’m considering this a trial at the moment. I took some basic measurements and started cutting up an old t-shirt to make a template for the fabric for the boot. After a few tries I ended up with a boot made out of a t-shirt and held together with staples that fits through the range of motion of the shifter. My mom gave me some fabric she had left over from recovering some benches and volunteered to sew it together. When this gets put back together I’ll hold the base of the boot by sandwiching it under the new surround piece.
Working on my measurements and cutting a t-shirt for fitment purposes:
T-shirt boot in place, it fits:
This is the fabric that the final boot will be made from:
Moving to the engine bay; the valve cover was painted white and the bolts a contrasting metallic black (left over spray paint from another project).
A new valve cover gasket was installed with a dab of silicone in the corners and the mating surface to the valve cover. A new PCV valve grommet (price at GAP <$2.00, price at dealer that won’t price match >$11.00) was pushed into the valve cover since I had to cut out the brittle, cracked old one that 1) would not come out in one piece and 2) was leaking.
The intake manifold was wiped down and reinstalled with the contrasting painted bolts. A new upper intake manifold gasket came with the valve cover gasket, so I cleaned up the two surfaces with a scrub pad on my angle grinder. This took off the baked on gasket material without removing any metal.
Eventually I plan to polish the finish of the intake manifold and paint the VW logo a contrasting color, but that is a project for another day. Intake manifold reinstalled:
Looking forward to when the powertrain work is complete, the next major system is suspension, which needs a complete overhaul. In anticipation of the suspension work, I ordered the Prothane polyurethane bushing kit off eBay that came with lower control arm bushings, rear strut mounts, bump stops, steering rack bushings, front sway bar mounts, and beam bushing inserts. I bought this mostly for the lower control arm bushings, rear strut mounts, and beam bushing inserts since the package price on eBay was cheaper than buying just the desired parts individually from GAP or BFI or anyone else I looked at. The “extra” bushings in the kit are just gravy. I had read somewhere that this kit comes with steering rack bushings that fit only Mk2 steering racks. I don’t know why they market the kit (including steering rack bushings) for all Mk2 and Mk3 cars if the steering rack is different, so, I double checked myself. After comparing it to the one in the kit, indeed they are different. The outside shape where the metal bracket holds it down is the same, however the bushings in the kit had a squared interior bottom shape while the OEM rack has a smaller, round inner opening with a small cutout for a hydraulic steering line to pass through. I held them up to each other (although I didn’t get a picture) and the pieces in the kit clearly don’t fit my steering rack. According to Bentley, the Mk3 had two different steering racks over the model run, although both only have one bushing, as opposed to the two that come in the kit. It’s possible the kit’s bushings fit the other Mk3 steering rack, but I believe they are intended for Mk2’s only. Weird. Any Mk2 guys need steering rack bushings?
The last major project I need to do before firing up the engine again is exhaust. I have accumulated a selection of junkyard and castoff exhaust pieces that I’m hoping will allow me to cobble together a muffled 2.5” -3” side-exit exhaust.
Getting ready to test fit some pipes, I cleaned up and reinstalled the heat shields lining the tunnel.
I grabbed the junkyard header:
and cut off the damaged flex section and 2” pipe that had been welded onto the 2.5” collector:
The closer I examined this header the more I believe that it was custom made. The header flange and primary tubes appear to have resisted rust better than the collector and subsequent tubing. I can’t tell if this has been coated or is stainless, how do I tell? Stainless is non-ferrous right? E.g. a magnet won’t stick? I’ll have to try… The collector was (hopefully) not welded by one of the big header producers, as there is far too much weld material clumped around the welds and I can see little bits of welding wire stuck in the welds inside the pipe.
I test fit the header and it looks cool just to see a header hanging off the engine. You can also see the masking tape I put on the freshly painted valve cover to stop myself from nicking it every time I pulled it in or out:
I cut off the 2.5” flanges from the OEM exhaust manifold and cat. If I wasn’t trying to meet a budget I would definitely order some new flanges, it really doesn’t make any sense to do this unless operating under my budget rules. For example, I burned up 3-4 reciprocating saw blades cutting these flanges off. At Lowe’s, the blades work out to about $3/each. You can buy flanges online for around $5/each + shipping.
Off the OEM exhaust manifold:
Off the cat, that was a lot of cutting on some really thick welds:
…and now I have two flanges to work with:
Working from under the car, I lined up where the muffler needs to go:
Looking a little closer you can see I had tacked the flanges onto some new piping on the header:
Here’s the header with the new piping off the car:
My first real welds with this welder, it should hold:
And here is the header with the new section fully welded and cleaned up:
I’m working through the exhaust one section at a time, the next piece will be a challenge, bringing the dual exit muffler back together to a single pipe:
When the exhaust and shifter boot are complete, the next items on the list are:
• Test fire the engine – it has been many months since it has been run
• Refill the cooling system
• Double check the new belts, particularly the AC delete belts, make sure the VR6 pulley isn’t going to lose a belt and that the replacement belt has enough tension – fix if needed
• Double check for exhaust leaks and rattles
• Test drives to make sure everything is working as intended – the last time this was driven it was snowing in late December or early January, hopefully the next drive will be before the one year anniversary
• New fuel filter – routine maintenance that I don’t think has ever been done
• Suspension & brakes – this will be the next major project that will include cleaning, repairing, refurbishing / upgrading, and painting all components:
o Flush brake fluid
o Install new brake lines w/zip ties
o Shocks & cut/junkyard springs
o Bump stops?
o Front HD strut bearings
o LCA bushings
o Ball joints (as needed)
o Tie rod ends (as needed)
o Camber bolts
o Remove front sway bar (?)
o Sway bar bushings
o Rear upper shock bushings
o Rear beam bushings
o Box rear beam
o Rear anti roll bar
o Alignment
Although this is off topic of the build, it is garage related and maybe interesting to read… I mentioned in previous updates how I moved my air compressor to the ceiling and ran some lines to a hose reel and an auxiliary tank. I also incorporated an auto-drain on the main tank, a main shut-off valve, two filters (to catch water/grit), two drops with ball valves to drain water from the line, and quick disconnects for an auxiliary tank. These were all good features to design into the system, but leaks have been driving me mad. Although the auto-drain sounded great, it is being returned to Harbor Freight, it is leaking air. Some people have had good luck taking them apart and reseating an o-ring, but mine continues to leak, at this point I’d rather manually drain the tank. After eliminating the obvious leaks from the Harbor Freight auto drain, I sprayed down the remaining connections with soapy water to find any other leaks. Unfortunately I found a handful, which made me rethink my setup with plans to simplify the system and eliminate any un-needed threaded connections. All of the sweated/soldered connections are good, but about 25% of the threaded fittings leak, even with thread sealant. Since I would like to have the compressor always-on, any leaks will cause the compressor to constantly cycle to keep enough air in the system. This is unacceptable because of additional power use, the noise at all hours, and additional wear on the compressor pump. The alternative is to accept a system with leaks and keep the compressor turned off when not in use. However, following this course has negatives in that it will take time to refill the system every time I go to use if for the day and I would need to rig up a remote power switch or climb a ladder to the attic every time I want to power it on. Although I have too much effort already invested in this system, it should still be easier to persevere with what I’ve started and eliminate the leaks/simplify the system. The filter right off the compressor was eliminated and a sweated ball valve replaced the threaded piece that was there:
Another sweated ball valve replaced a leaky ball valve for the quick release fitting that will keep the auxiliary tank filled (in the background):
A couple of unions are incorporated to aid in disassembly of the system (at the top right), and a 3/8” ID hose connects to the reel instead of a rigid hard line that can’t be easily tightened:
Too much time is being spent on the compressor, but the bright side is that I’m learning a lot about running copper line!
Keep up the good work!
i really enjoy seeing member getting down and dirty on a build instead of taking it to some weirdo 
that will charge way too much ... i myself got my hands busy on some oldschool cool a complete restoration i will be on it all winter just purchase a heater with some long john's and a big theromus to keep my hot cocoa warm and a bottle of vodka to keep me warm thru the cold winter days & nights just need some cuba cigars to help me think more ..lol so if nobody doesn't hear from me in a while if because i froze my a@@ restoring my v-dub:lol: 
well i am bushed got to got to bed to make the dough-nuts lol
