Project EuroTrash

By Jason Jackman

Photography by By Author, Philip Royle

If you ask just about any VW enthusiast what his or her favorite VW is, the answer will most likely be some type of Mk I or II. It's not that new cars aren't fun, because they can be very fun, but the buy-in is much more money than it is for an old car, and so are the modifications. True VW enthusiasts also have pride in what they drive and the heritage from which it came. It's a weird thing, because when it comes down to it, these are just cars, but we don't treat them as only cars. The fact of the matter is that older cars are lighter, more agile, cheaper to buy and modify, and have the rugged unrefined look that is so appealing to many of us. In this light, we picked up our latest Mk II project and decided to show how inexpensively a nice Mk II can be built.

In our search for a Mk II GTI, we stumbled upon a Mk II Jetta that had been owned by only one person who had every receipt for the car. The Jetta was in amazing condition inside and out, especially for a '91. After looking through the maintenance records, the motor also appeared to be regularly serviced. This was a bonus, because every other car we examined had typical multi-owner problems--everything from needing new wheel bearings to electrical gremlins plagued these cars. However, in our price range, most cars were going to have some issues. Also, you can't buy an old car and expect everything to work perfectly; that's just not going to happen. If it does, you're dealing with an enthusiast who knows what they have, and you will pay for it.

Here's the best part (brace yourselves)--we picked the car up for the low, low price of $200. Yes, $200. The catch, though (because there's always a catch), was that the car had 227,000 miles on it. It also needed new brakes, had a weird hesitation under acceleration, had blown suspension, and sported a seized A/C compressor. We knew it would take some work to get the car roadworthy. Most of the problems could be handled in a weekend, though, so we bought it. We decided to take the car down to Renner Motorsport in Inglewood, California, to get the belts replaced, the front rotors turned (for now), a new set of brake pads put on, and to swap the A/C compressor. With an extra battery in the trunk, we headed out to get the car running properly. Keep in mind that some of this work is temporary to get the car moving. We plan on replacing the majority of the OEM brake system in the future, as well as upgrading the rear drums to disc. We also have a motor swap in store for it to make up for the 1.8L 8v, but that mod will come much farther down the road.

Once Ivo from Renner Motorsport took care of the replacement compressor, brakes, and belts, it was time to install the suspension. Since we paid a mere $200 for the car, we decided to splurge on the suspension. Driving the car felt like riding on a small boat in an ocean storm, so the suspension had to be dealt with to drive the car safely. As for what suspension to use, we were drawn to coilovers. The flexibility of adjustable height and spring rates matched to the shock valving hold an allure for us. This allows us the option of easily corner weighting the car any time a track event comes around, and when we aren't at the track, we can drop the car as low as we like to get the look we want. We called Vogtland North America for the coilovers and had a set shipped out to us.

Before installing the coilovers, we needed to deal with the Jetta's hesitation under load. Occasionally when accelerating, the engine felt as though it misfired. We pulled the distributor cap only to find dirty, worn-out contacts, not to mention a few cracked plug wires, so we picked up a set of plug wires, a distributor cap, and a rotor. We were feeling thrifty at the time, so we salvaged the plug wires, cap, and rotor from the G60 motor we had just taken apart (see "Project Scirocco" in this issue). Now that the car was running OK and had some brakes, it was finally time to install our Vogtland coilovers. As expected, we got them in the car with no problems, and we promptly spun the collars down to adjust the height. The car now sits fairly low and still has more than two inches of threads remaining. We could probably set the car on the ground and still have some adjustment left.

From the limited canyon time the car has seen so far, the coilovers made a world of difference. The car is no longer bouncy; instead, it now has a firm ride that responds quickly to imperfections in the road. The body roll has been significantly reduced, and the speeds at which you can take corners has increased. That's not to mention that the rear end of the car now comes out quite predictably and is easily managed. The turn-in on the Mk II has also improved quite a bit, as well, and overall, the car has become much more responsive. Who would have thought you could get all this improvement from just a set of coilovers?

The stock 14-inch wheels still reside on the car for the moment, and the rest of the suspension has yet to be touched. The Mk II is a beautiful platform to start with. We plan on tracking the car in the future to see how it does, but more suspension work will be done to the car before then. The coilovers were put on early in the game to make the car safe enough to drive and add a bit of fun to it while we hoard our pennies for the rest of the parts.

We have grand plans for this project; the bonus is that these grand plans can be accomplished fairly inexpensively. Over the course of the next few months, this car will receive the rest of the suspension, a thorough cleaning, some minor exterior modifications, an engine swap, and a turbo. This is a different kind of project than we normally build, because we'll try to do it as inexpensively as possible. The focus will also be on bringing the performance level of this car up to par rather than simply making it look the part of a high-performance car. We'd actually prefer that it didn't look the part, so that way we at least have the element of surprise. The motor we plan to swap in is a 2.0L ABA motor from a Mk III, to which we'll eventually add a turbo. The goal is to get 200 hp to the front wheels and not spend a whole lot of money doing it.

The best part of our plans for the buildup of Project EuroTrash is this: When we select something to put on the car, we plan to list the various options for that modification. Some of those options may cost more or less than what we choose. In a way, this is a budget project, and on some levels it isn't, mainly because of my belief in the late, great Gene Berg and his theory of "pay now and only cry once." If you don't know who Gene Berg is, then you haven't been around long enough.

The reason for selecting the ABA motor is quite simple; there are a ton of them, and they're fairly cheap to build. With an abundance of them lying around, having been tossed in favor of a 1.8T or a VR, you can find them for right around $500-$700, including a tranny, a computer, and a fuse block. This motor can also make some decent power with the right mods, and just the motor and a 16v tranny will add some peppiness to the Mk II chassis. See? We knew the 2.0L was good for something. It would also be wrong not to mention that we plan on getting modded VR power out of this motor without the extra weight of those two cylinders, which will make the car much more nimble than and just as fast as a car with a VR swap.

Since the Corrado (a future project living at the et ranch) will eventually receive a slew of replacement parts, some of its interior parts will likely find their way into the Jetta. We have also since disassembled our Project MINI, so some of the stereo system from that car will also be installed. This is mostly because the Jetta's stock stereo setup is blown and if we have to drive it, we need some type of music.

All in all, you'd better be excited about this project, because we are. Keep your eye out in upcoming issues for more installments of Project EuroTrash. Until then, as Bob Barker would say, remember to spay and neuter your pets.

TECH FACTS:
'91 Jetta GL, $200; front OEM brake pads, $39; used A/C compressor, $50; accessory belts, $31; Vogtland coilovers, $1,349.99

MSRP:
$1,669.99