Type 2 dreams

For a while now I have been wanting a Type 2 vw van. I have no idea why but I seem to be gradually falling in love with them. Their every where at the minute, I spotted this one outside wicks when I was nipping in for some bits and bats. either I am looking harder for them or they  are following me, screaming "You should buy one. It's a great idea, what you on about of course the missus will love it. Just look at it, it screams responsible family man. You know what to do. Ebay, Ebay, Ebay, Ebay". So you see I think I will eventually give in a buy one.

The raging roads

Admittedly I am no where near as placid as I like to think, especially when driving. So yes, I  would say that I suffer from road rage. So one of my less aggressive solutions is to just clap, yup you heard my right clap. There is method to my madness, when someone cuts you up they already know their a dickhead. So by clapping your just acknowledging that their a dickhead and letting them know that you know their a dickhead.

A little rubber please

The car parts are starting to stack up

I admit I am getting a little excited

I final bite the bullet and bought some tyres for the P-Slot. I was not a cheap do either but I think it was worth it. I was contemplating getting some part worns it would have worked out a lot cheaper but for some unknown reason I seem to go through them like no ones business.

I do want to put them on today but I have wait. I do not want to rise getting paint of them when I touch up the paint work and have to pay for them repainting. So soon as the weather is better and I have my coilovers delivered so I can fit them. Winston will be rocking his new shoes.

Window tiniting

As is it stands at the moment I am still fairly torn on having Winston's windows tinted. It can look cool, but classic cars for some reason do not always pull it off.

Now it would be rather expensive for me to have them tinted professionally and then decide it look rubbish. In the past I have dabbled with home window tinting kits and they are pretty cheap and much like my attempts at respraying the car, it went monumentally tits up. So that is a no start for me.
Anyway who need tinted windows when you can have condensation. You can remove it in a instance and like magic its there again and again and again. It's fun for all the family.

Indecisive fuel guage

look at the size of that clock.

Much of the fun of owning a classic car is that the majority of gauges, speedos, warning lights, interior lights and pretty much any other electrically powder part of the car has a mind of it's own. The interior light is just a lost cause I can live without it, so I shall. The warning lights, baring in mind there is only two of them in total so if ether one comes on it is time to start the panic procedure. I'm hoping my speedo is accurate cause I always stick to the speed limit and drive like a nun. Now too my favorite gauge of them of the all Winston's fuel gauge.

He is the only car I have owned where you can arrive at your destination with more fuel than you set off. You can also empty or fill the tank if you corner nice and hard (this requires some practice) but is always fun to scare your unwitting passenger. I would say the only time this is pretty irritating is when Winston needs some fuel, or does he? But serious does he? I can't tell.

Peeling Paint

After living on a road that is pretty much a wind tunnel, Winstons paint work has taken a bit of a beating and with the tag team of high wind speed and hail stone it has started  to chip. I'm going to be honest here I really do not want to paint him again it will be my fourth attempt. I just can't be bothered it takes so much time and effort but it needs doing I can't leaving him looking  unloved. Plus once it's done I can then safely put on his white wheels, that currently don't have any rubber on them. Personally I blame my dissertation and all the book crits I've been doing that and moving house. I just haven't had the time to give him the TLC he needs. Poor Winston.

Some serious man wrappage

Look at that. This parcel was clearly wrapped a proper bloke. I mean could it look any more like a car part?

Anyway for those who have eyes you can see it is actually a car part. It is a centre console from a 1990 Mk2 Golf, Winston being the old bastard he is was built in 1987 and apparently they didn't put 12v points in cars back then. Hence why I have purchase this centre console, so I can use my sat nav when driving.

Looking at it, I don't think it should be too much trouble to fit. I have said that before and spent hours sat inside Winston trying to remove the speakers in the dash board, which are still in there.

I will be uploading some photos on how I get on fitting the centre console, in the mean time I will be looking to purchase some more parts for Winston. If you have anything drop me a line I might be interested in taking it off your hands.

Vw show calender

I am hoping this year to go to a few VDub shows with Winston, I don't think I will be entering him in the show and shine competition unless the competition is looking rather weak. I have recently joined the Leeds Vw Collective and been to a meet before Christmas at the Fox and Grapes. They seem like a club that likes to get out and about, which means I might not be going it alone. Here is the site I have been getting my dates from, www.vwshows.com. I'm hoping to hit up Ultimate Dubs in March, I think I should have touched up the paint work by then and fitted some coilovers. We shall see if this goes to plan or if I get a more pressing offer.

Crotch holders

I have known for quite some time that Winston, being the ever loving car he is does not have cup holders.

I only realized that he does not ha e cup holders after I open a half litre can of energy drink. Now at 7:30 in the morning it is fairly easy to for get minor details, such as THERE ARE NO CUP HOLDERS WHAT SO EVER IN YOUR CAR. So being the rather creative person I am, I devised the crotch holder. Admittedly not my greatest invention but it did the trick. All I need to improve on it would be some actually cup holders, or possibly a not so willing passenger.

In assocation with ManNav

It's been a hard day for both me and Winston, covering 258 miles today. Not too bad for a car that was built in 1987. Admittedly it has been a long ass day, I got up at 6:30 to drive to Leeds to pick up the book and then on to Birmingham to Golley Slater to see Joe Ivory. I started the day as I meant to go on with a can of relentless, I went on to consumer a further 2 cans exposing myself to well over the recommended daily allowance of not only caffeine but chemicals that I can't even say.

I hate to think of what it has done to my insides but this is the price I have to pay to stay awake. You see I didn't get much sleep last night I was rather nervous about the book crit I had today. It is only the second book crit we've had but I went really well. Not only did Winston not miss a beat but we have been offered a placement for when we finish our degree. I have to say I had a pretty hard drive home I was tired and I could really feel it take it's toll on my arms, no power steering you see. I would like to proudly announce that I managed to do this journey using only my nouse, NO SAT NAV just Man Nav.

Finally got some antifreeze

After these recent cold snaps, I thought it would be a good idea to put in some antifreeze in my radiator. True to student style I have been just putting in water, which worked fine over this surprisingly mild winter.

Much like most of the tasks I undertake with Winston, I have never change my radiator fluid. So after consulting my current bible the Haynes manual for the VW Mk2 Golf I had a rough idea of what I needed to do. So I pulled the front end in to the garage and the fun began.

Surprisingly I found the right pipe fairly easily, I must be getting better at my amature mechanics. But in true Winston style the clip that was securing the pipe put up quite a fight. Getting in there with my grips and loosen that archaic clip, I mean this clip is so old even the cars in Cuba don't use it. I eventaly got that little bastard of without loosing all the skin on my knuckles.

Once the pipe came loose, Winston full on sprung a leak. If you have a keen eye for detail you will have spotted my rather sexy looking purple bucket and no that is not oil in there, that is the filthy water that poured out of Winston radiators. Once the water had been completely drained, I had the always fun task of reattaching the pipe and tackling my old enemy the clip. Putting the clip back was actually harder than taking it for, which to be fair did not surprise me. So to get that back on I had to blind side and attack from below, once the pipe was secured and the clip was in place all that was left to do was fill it back up. Then I put in 2 litres of Miller antifreeze and 2 litres of good old fashioned Yorkshire water. Bonnet down and job done.

New shoes for Winston

Look at them, they are awesome best £56 I have spent so far. I picked them up this morning and have not stopped grinning since. These are going to look amazing on Winston cannot wait to get some rubber on them.


I have to thank CAS coating for such a brilliant job, these wheels look a 100 times better than when I first bought them. I can't wait to get the fitted but I still need to touch up the paint work. Looks like I'm going to have to wait.

One rather proud owner

With his windows all frosted up, things are not looking for me getting to work on time. To be fair I can not say hand on heart, I love getting out of bed to go flips some burgers at MacDonalds. Looking on the bright side Winston started first time, well almost all he needed was a bit of pedal pumping.

What a jip

We managed to make it in to the book crit just on time, but it was a close call after the car park fiasco. The book crit went OK, we got some good feed back. Looks like Winston is going to have to make the commute all over again, when we take back some new work.

The book crit went on for around an hour or so, after we nipped to the shop for a quick drink and a bite to eat before we set off. When we got back to the car park and put in my ticket, the price came up and I just felt like I'd been raped. £6.50 for an hour and a half, what a jip.

Made it to Manchester

It was a fairly uneventful drive, I maintained the driving style of a pensioner on a Sunday all the way here. It was going well until we hit traffic, then we both watch in horror as my oil temperature gauge started to go dangerously high. I "jokingly" told Chris we may have to piss in the radiator to cool the engine down.

However Chris had a similar problem with a previous car, he turn the heating on to 1, I quickly corrected him and said "even though there are four options there only two work. Off and full". Much like everything in Winston, it's all or nothing. Anyway we made it to the car park finally, but the lack of power steering in Winston made the multi story car park a rather interesting task. We parked up and were on time for the book crit. Result.

Get a grip

Well as one of Winston's back doors was playing up, I kindly asked my mug of a creative partner to check if is locked. Being the top bloke his is he proceed to give the handle a gentle 'tug' and broke it. Poor old Winston, used and abused.

A Manchester kind of morning

It is the morning of the trip to Manchester. Before we set off Chris asked me if I brought the sat nav. I had, but as I began explain that Winston has a 12v point it is just not connected up. His face as you can imagine was filled with confidence. As the caring creative partner I am I also caring explain that I reckon there is enough fuel in the tank to get us to Manchester and back but I can not be sure, because I have a indecisive fuel gauge. Depending on whether I am sat on a hill or not it seems to read what it likes. If I corner too hard it will read full if I am turning right and empty when turning left.
So lets hope all goes well this morning on the road to Cheethambell-JWT.

Checking the fluids

Off to Cheethambell-JWT tomorrow for a book Crit. The agency is over in Manchester, which will be the longest journey, bar the journey home which did not go too well. If you don't know how that story goes click here.

So as I promised my creative partner Chris. Here is the proof of it, turns out that he needed both oil and water for the radiator.

Moving house with Winston

Moving house is just as stressful when using a classic as it is using a normal car. You just look cooler in the process.

Winston is doing ok so far, he does creak and moan about it though but showing no signs of dying on me just yet.

Powder coating the P-slots

Taking the the P-slots to CAS coatings to have them powder coated in classy cream colour. I can't wait to pick them up on Monday it's going to be like Christmas all over again for me.

A little bit of battery trouble

It is not uncommon for old dogs like Winston have a battery trouble from time to time. So after two days of having to jump start him. I borrowed a battery charger and bought a multi-meter and battery cover to help keep the battery charge.

Secretly I am doing all I can to avoid buying a new battery, there expensive you know. Plus I have parts to by like tyres for my P-slots and coilovers to drop him like its hot.

Taking my geek to the street

One part of having a classic car is having a tired looking interior. The other part of having a car that some of the parts have been discontinued, it means that parts like door cards are rather expensive and will be in a similar state to the ones you already have.

So as a solution to making Winston's door cards looking fresher, I spent a fair few hours PVAing and lacquering the comic book pages to his door cards. I think it went fairly well, don't you?

MOT time

The time had come when Winston was to no longer rest easy on my drive. I wanted him on the road but no tax, no insurance and most importantly no MOT. So like any good petrol head, I have a mechanic.
So a quick phone call later and Winston was booked in for his MOT. Much like a nervous school kid, sat outside the head masters office wanting for the bad news. To be truthful it wasn't as bad as I expected, some new break pads and oh yes a new rear axle.

So where do you get a new rear axle for a car that is 25 years old? Ebay, the place where people sell their useless shit. It took a bit of searching but I eventually tracked one down, for a reasonable price. I mean who on earth would want to pay £120 for a crusty and rusty car part?

I had two choices, I had sourced one down in Devon for £50 but would cost me £40ish in delivery charges. The other was at Gadbury auto salvages just outside of Salford, for £50. A no brainier really, I was on my way to Gadbury.

Iwas like a kid in a sweet shop, in that scrap yard. So many different classic cars some I had never seen before. As I wondered through the stacks of cars I eventually came face to face with a rather grumpy looking scrap man. He was stripping the rear axle off a mk2 golf that had weeds growing from the wheel arches. So I asked him if he another, luckily he did. So I took that one and took it home to my mechanic and he fettled it up to scratch and Winston pasted his MOT.

I'm no Picassco, but I'll give it a crack

As you have seen by now or you might not Winston has multi-tonal red paint work, as epic and cool as it is. I decided to paint him Matt black, these pictures are from attempt one I am now on attempt three and to put it bluntly it is still not finished. So when I get better weather I am going to give it another go, I have learnt from my mistakes and fingers crossed it will be the last time I have to paint Winston.

A little bit of amature mechanics

I would like to say repairing the accelerator cable was I ten minute job, well I suppose it would be for a professional. For me it took near two hours to remove the broken cable, there was shouting, swearing, tiny bit of blood and a lot of sweat went in to getting that little git out.

Fitting the new one presented me with a whole new problem, I have always been good a breaking things but fixing stuff is a new bag of tricks for me. To cut a long story short, I was finished long after the sun went down but before it came back up again, just. After a quick test drive with the new cable, I triumphantly enter the front room and it was like looking down the barrel of a gun. The missus had a face on like had just pissed in her cup of tea, but I knew she was proud of me really.

Collecting Winston

It was an early start, Me and my friend Stu had a long drive to Oldbury just outside of Birmingham. It was fairly uneventful drive down, I felt pretty apprehensive had I made a mistake, am I buying a complete nail of a car?

This is not the first time I have bought a used car, in fact Winston is my fifth car in three years. My first car was a Fiat Cinquecento, I got given by my missus mum it was a lovely car. It had blacked out windows in the back and speakers in the parcel shelf, I loved that car but it didn't last long before I broke it. I hit a speed bump a little too hard and snapped the suspension housing on the driver side. The suspension strut dropped and melted the front tyre while I was driving, that being said I manged to pull over safely and park it in between to drives. The first thing I did was ring my grandad and told him my car had died, so he turned up with my uncle and between they decided after much debate that the car was well and truly dead.

My second car was a Fiat Punto, which I lowered 40 mm on springs and fitted 4 6x9 speakers and 12 inch sub in the boot. It was a lovely chavtastic car indeed, well it was until I bottomed it out and cracked the rear axle. It was long after that I part ex'd it on a Ford Focus Zetec. I didn't have that 1.8 litre beast for long before it got stolen off my drive. That was a heart breaking moment, when I was stood in the empty space on my drive where my car used to be with the key in my hands.

After that came the granny magnet, a Ford Focus estate a proper family mans car which I what I needed to drive my little boy about. This brings me back to Winston car number 5, he was going to be my scum run car. I will not go in to explaining what the scum run is, you find out yourself here.

So anyway when we got to the guys house who was selling Winston, we knew we were in the right place because there was a Dodge challenger rotting on the drive. A good sign I know, that being said the bloke I bought him off was a top guy he'd put a new engine it and made sure it was ok for me to drive it home. I handed over the cash and signed the paper work then Winston was all mine, after a quick fill we were back on the road heading home.

Setting off back up home, with no stereo the next 125 miles were going to be a long 2 hour journey. The only thing I had to keep me company was the conversation with the sat nav and I can tell you that that was riveting until it eventually die. All that was left was the squeaking of the rear windscreen wiper that I couldn't figure out to turn it off. So me and Stu decieded that we would have a non competitive, within the speed limit race. Me in Winston packing a hefty 1.3 litre engine and 4 gears against Stu straight 2.0 litre Fiesta ST. Well me and Winston gave it all we had until the accelerator cable gave out, sat in the middle lane doing the speed limit obviously the accelerator pedal flat to the floor and I was loosing speed quickly. Hazards on, moved on to the hard shoulder.

What could I do, I had no roadside recovery well I'll tell you what I tried first. Stu had a phone charger plug in his boot, so between the two of us we managed to attach it to the throttle and feed the plug through the passenger window. When I pulled on the plug it rev'd the engine and I popped it in to gear and set off down the hard shoulder one hand on the steering wheel the other on the plug. Genius, know.

Well as you guessed it did not work too well, so we called our friend Damo and he came to pick me up in his sprinter van. After a little bit of improvisation Winston was hitched to the back of a Damo's Sprinter van and with "On tow" scribbled on a sheet of A4 in Biro tossed on parcel shelf, we were off. You's think that would be the end of it, home safe but no there is more. Damo and I quote "forgot I was towing you" within the first 5 minutes I was doing 80 mph on tow on the motorway in the middle lane, it got even more interesting as he became a amber gambler and cornered like a rally driver for the last 30 miles of my journey home.

Unhitched, Winston left strewn across the top of the drive I knocked on the door and Kat came to the window. With a massive grin on my face I shouted up "This is Winston" she loving replied "What? That heap of shit?"

I'd like to introduce Winston

This is my Vw Mk2 golf and for my sins as a car enthusiast Winston is my daily drive. I forked out the wonderful sum of £250 and bought him with out even a test drive. I found and feel in love with Winston on Volkstorque Here are a few photos from the advert on forum I bought him from;

Ironing out that dent will be easy, honestly.

Didn't you know rust is lighter than carbon fiber?

Two tone, people pay thousands for that

Faded red is the new black, no?

There not rips, it's character.

As you can tell he was a real looker and at £250 a real bargain.