Mats MK2 Calypso Driver.

Hi guys, Ive got a new car

Unfortunatly the gearbox in my MK3 blew up quite nicely 4 days after I had MOT and taxed it, I popped it into my local garage who said it had gone because it was to low and the driveshafts had fudged it, now I was just gonna go and buy a gearbox and slap it in and carry on but that would mean me having to raise the car to avoid the issue a second time and to be honest I wasnt prepared to do that it would be like backhanding baby Jesus!

So I was on the hunt for another car I innitailly wanted a mk2 polo but not being able to find one and me being impatient I decided that I won't get another VW as I would just pour money at it and would end up breaking it like I had with the MK3.

So with my new found sensibility the hunt was on for a 1.0 litre cheap non VW, Lauren being a lovely girlfriend helped me in my search for a non volkswagon and one night whilst trawling autotrader she found me a car! A MK2 Driver . . .

I looked at the ad was a 1 owner from new 46,000 miles and 12 months MOT all for the sum of £475. So the VW fever hit me and I had to have it so last monday me and Lauren filled up the water for the thousandth time in her MK2 and headed down to Southhampton.

When we arrived we were greeted by MK2 that looked like it haddened been washed in its life moss and algea everywhere and alot of dents! But after a look around I could only find one patch of rust on the bottom off the grill, the interior looked like it hadnt even been sat in! So I took it for a little test drive and fell in love it drove so smooth and pulled well. Also had origanal stereo and working sunroof. I was chuffed.

The story behind it is an old chap brought it new in 1991 at the age of 71 and 20 years later at 91 he had decided to give up driving. Unfortunatly the car has had its fair share of Tesco bumps but that didnt put me off.

So half an hour later £460 lighter (The guy knocked £15 off for petrol what a gent) and £20 of petrol me and Lauren are convoying back home in our MK2's, the car drove like a dream well until I had a blow out on the motorway , slapped the spare on the hard shoulder and set off home without a problem.

Anyway its been a week now and havn't had any problems and still love this car, spent 3 hours cleaning it on Saturday was hard work, ideally it could do with a machine polish but im to skint to afford anything like that! I dont really have any plans for the car modifying wise I just want to keep it as origanal as possible and enjoy driving it.

Sorry for the essay here are the pics!



















Here is one of it parked up at Bug Jam yesterday only went for the day, note how messy the campers were tho!

Small update.

Polished my exhaust with some Autosol, will give it another go when I get some fine steel wool.



Added my Bug Jam Sticker

Wow, looks good, kudos to the missus for a good find

Sounds like it might have original or very old tyres on by the way, which would explain the blowout at speed - I wouldn't trust them past 40 if you're still on the same wheels.

Look forward to seeing where you go with it

Shes already saying "If it wasnt for me you wouldn't have that car"

I was told they are all new tyres and they all looked very new Im guessing that one was a duff one I have since checked all the tyres and all look fine.

Not sure where to go with it after driving the MK3 low for so long im enjoying the comfort of standard ride height, In my opinion it would look good lowered + wheels but Im low on funds and wouldnt want any old wheels to go on it, Im happy just sourcing some new doors and bumpers leaving it standard.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11 ...

tyre age thingy, just to check


There's plenty of free stuff to look at too, rear wiper lay down, clean all the little old lady driving out of the engine etc

O cool Ill check the tyre age after work tomorow hope I wont be in for a shock, whats a rear wiper lay down? got any pics? Im driving it like an old man have next to zero money for petrol.

what i found

http://www.matey-matey.com/lay_flat_wiper.shtml

Cheers Dash

Had a little read looks good, really should google search!

Nice find and 46k miles!

I do love the small bumper look & there's nowhere for any grot to hide on those either. I was very close to buying one a few years back, but I missed out on the one I wanted & ended up with a red big bumper 8v GTi instead.

I bet it is quite a relief to drive at standard ride height for a while, especially coming from your mk3. The mk2 though.. that would look great with just some springs & some BBS RA type wheels on there I reckon... interested to see how long you can hold out at standard ride height

very nice. wont modify it, wish i had a £ for every time i have said "i aint gona modify this one its so nice and original iam just gona leave it standard" but you start with some wheels then that makes it look to high so you better lower it just a little to make it look right, and then thats it, the modifing demon gets his claws into you and you spend every waking moment trawling through mags and getting square eyes and headaches watching stuff on ebay and you cant get to sleep at night because you cant turn your brain off and stop thinking about that next part you need to just finnish it off. or is that just me.
dont kid yourself face it your going to modify it

hoppinmad wrote:

very nice. wont modify it, wish i had a £ for every time i have said "i aint gona modify this one its so nice and original iam just gona leave it standard" but you start with some wheels then that makes it look to high so you better lower it just a little to make it look right, and then thats it, the modifing demon gets his claws into you and you spend every waking moment trawling through mags and getting square eyes and headaches watching stuff on ebay and you cant get to sleep at night because you cant turn your brain off and stop thinking about that next part you need to just finnish it off. or is that just me.
dont kid yourself face it your going to modify it

lol. what ty said.

i doubt you'll be able to keep it at standard right height for very long

What you guys are saying is extremely true ive this is my 4th and all 3 of my previous have been modified in one way or another.

"start with some wheels then that makes it look to high so you better lower it just a little to make it look right"

Unfortunatly for me its the other way round its "slam it d**khead low on steels then buy 2 or 3 sets of ridiculusly small 13" realise theres no way id be able to drive on 13's then repeat process"

Also staying away from 5 door MK2 Golf google searches just incase something tempts me . . .

great car nice and original , excellent work

well nice mate good find

Small update, I got bored of keeping the mk2 standard so Ive made some small changes, first I got myself a single headlight grill, brought a new front bumper as my other one was all bent in. I wanted chrome bumpers but couldnt afford the price tag on them, so I cheated and brought 7mm chome tape from halfords, looks pretty good to me.

banging! now get it cleaned for edition, see you at 10am in apsley on friday

For those of you that have seen my MK2 will have noticed that the passenger doors where smashed in due to oldperson + carpark = fail, well I found some doors in the same colour and only 10 mins down the road so on monday night me Lauren and my mate Matt fitted the doors, swapped the door cards over and the central locking, which works!

They need a good clean and a spot of rust needs sorting on the bottom of one.



DSC_0538 by Mat.Walker, on Flickr

Lauren brought me this cool AA badge.


DSC_0539 by Mat.Walker, on Flickr

DSC_0540 by Mat.Walker, on Flickr

Also going to look at some wheels before the meet tomorow.

wicked man!

Nooooo ! Wrong badge for the era man !!!

Maybe -

ignore paul... he is a mk1 whore. :p

if you changed the window wipers for non era wipers he would find out where you live and give you a damn good talking to.

Look out for the hairy dude in the mk1 tomorrow

you paul :p

Nah I saw that badge and thought it looked a bit crap in comparison

nice .... in my experience these bedges are worn by the slowest of drivers.....................

Suits me then

AA badges Rock!!!

i got given one..........its all rusty and old and i love it!!....shame i havnt got an 'old skool' car to put it on