Rally Jetta!

My sister gave my parent her 91 Jetta wolfsburg. Its pretty much a POS, and needs some serious work. It runs and all, but is a 91 with 143K miles. We were wondering what the posibilities are for moding it? I'm on this board all the time for my car so I figured that someone here would be able to help. All I'm seeing so far is regular maintence questions, so I dont know how much help this will be.

Thanks for the help.

That's because the car is not the best choice for modifying.

There's quite a lot available for aftermarket performance and styling parts.

You may want to join VWVortex (www.vwvortex.com) - there's a wealth of performance/modding info in there.

If you're not planning on doing a motor swap, then you'd be best off putting the effort into getting that car running and driving real nice first. If you start modifying a POS, you'll just end up with a modded POS. What I recommend for anyone trying to turn a VW of that vintage back into a nice feeling car is to replace all the engine mounts, replace the A-arm bushings, and replace all the bushings in the shift linkage (or install an aftermarket spherical bearing linkage). Those three things are often overlooked, but make a world of difference on a VW that old.

Don't forget an engine tune-up (unless you're swapping the motor). Once you get that thing running nice, then your budget is the only limit to what you can do. Recaro seats from A2 GTIs/GLIs are a direct fit, and well worth the effort. If you're keeping the stock suspension, check the dampeners and the front upper strut mounts and replace them if necessary. If you want sharper handling, then go for a quality set of aftermarket springs (0" to 1.25" drop) and splurge on a nice set of dampeners like Bilstein or Boge. If you just want the car to look low and you don't care if it handles like crap or rides like a shopping cart, then you can get springs that will drop the car 3" or so - but you will HAVE to use dampeners specifically designed to work with that ride height. You have lots of choices for both stainles and aluminized cat-back exhaust systems. Most of the best systems are fairly quiet yet still high-flowing. The cheaper systems are often free flowing, but loud. Zender made a ton of body kits for A2 VWs, and I'm sure they are still available out there somewhere, if that's your cup of tea. Lighting upgrades are popular - you can install the "rallye" lights that came on the G60 Rallye Golf, but it'll cost you about $800 for all the parts. A more popular alternative is to install the core support, grille, and lights from a 1990-1992 GTI - that will give you 4 round lights in the front. Engine upgrades normally consist of aggressive camshaft, stiffer valve springs (but only if the camshaft is so aggressive that it needs them), new valve lifters while you're at it, remove the a/c system (unless you really want it), performance chip for your Digifant II ECU, Dual outlet exhaust manifold and dual inlet downpipe (can be found on some other A2s if yours doesn't already have them), windage tray for the oil pan, and a higher compression ratio if you think the motor is up to it.

For drivetrain and steering mods, there's just a handful, but they're very worthwhile. Quick-ratio steering racks can be bought from Autotech, and the transmission you should use will be one that came in an A2 GLI or GTI (8 valve or 16 valve - it doesn't matter). Peloquin has a great, low-cost kit to enhance the mild limited slip differentials found in GTI and GLI transmissions - it's basically a spring and shim kit for the outputs of the transmission. You can install it without even removing the tranny from the car. If you have more money, you can get an entire limited slip kit from Quaife or Peloquin that will give you a true, aggressive limited slip effect - and you don't need a GTI/GLI transmission to start with for that.

I could go on and on ... but I'm really sick of typing. :)