My Citi interior + new spec dash conversion - Lots of pics

[MacMan]

Well many of you may have seen my post about the 2.0 conversion (I still need to update that one), so here are some pics of the interior and new dash conversion I did as well.

My initial plan was not to fit a new spec dash, but while I was looking for parts for my FI conversion, I stumbled across a deal I couldn't refuse.

After getting the new dash, the first step was to strip the old dash... this was pretty simple because I had done it a couple of times already.




Once the dash was removed, all that was left was the wiring harness and the heater box.




Removing the old harness was quite a mission because I had to disconnect the alarm and central locking wires from the harness without messing them up completely. As is always the case with wiring, this ended up being very time consuming.




After about 2 hours, the old harness was finally out and I threw it as far as I could (well not really seeing as it landed right next to the car)




Then the passenger seat started getting in the way so I took that out and while I was at it I also pulled the old heater box out. As you can see I also had to strip the back of the car to get the old harness out.




Just when I thought that was the end of the wiring, I walked around to the other side of the car and realised I still had to fit the new harness. Notice it has quite a bit more cable than the carb harness. BTW this is an MP9 harness for the new spec dash. The MP9 harness for the old spec dash will obviously not work. That big black box you see at the bottom of the picture is the dash control box and without that nothing on the dash or cluster will work. These boxes are not coded to a specific dash (like the transponders are) so any box will work with any new spec dash.




After removing all traces of the old dash, it was time to test fit the new wiring harness to see which route would be best. I must admit this was a really crap part to do and it took a while to finally find the right route. Once again, things got a bit messy.





Now to fit a new spec dash to a Citi that came with the old dash, you have to make some minor modifications. The first one being the steering column support that need to be made lower otherwise the dash sits way too high (it touches the windscreen). I first cut some slots and tried to bend the supports down, but that didn't work too well, so out came the angle grinder.




Now it is not the best thing to mess around with the supports on your steering column because if you grind alot away, the supports might break and your steering column could drop. So to prevent this and provide more support, I fitted a U bolt for support.




After the initial grinding of the steering colum support, I test fitted the dash to see if the amount I took off was sufficient.




But I wasn't happy with the way the dash was sitting so I took it out and took some more off the supports. After a couple more re-fittings I finally got the dash to sit how I wanted it to. Notice how much needs to be taken off the supports.




Then I decided to start sorting out some of the wiring that was cut when the guys pulled the harness out the donar car. These included most of the earth wires and the fuel pump and fuel gauge sender wires. Luckily I did electronics in school so wiring and soldering don't phase me.

Fuel pump and fuel gauge sender wires




Earth point at the back of the car (yes I made sure it was making proper contact)




With the new spec dashes, the flaps in the heater box that control the direction of airflow are not moved by sliders and cables like the old dashes, they are now moved by vacuum. Here you can see the vacuum units on the top piece of the heater box and on the bottom of the heater box, as well as the 2 vacuum solenoids that are controlled by the rotary knobs on the dash.





The 2 vacuum solenoids and the vacuum piping that took me a while to figure out.




Then inside the engine bay you have to fit this funny ball-type thing which is actually a vacuum reservoir. This resevoir is connected to the inlet manifold and when you start the car, all the air gets sucked out of the ball, creating a vacuum inside the ball. This means that the idling is not affected when the heater box flaps are moved and it also means that you can move the flaps a few times when the car is off (until the vacuum in the ball is depleted)






That is all I can post for now... need to get some work done... I will post the rest tonight.

Enjoy.

[Rabbit222]

Awesome bud, very interesting post. I'm waiting anxiously for the rest

[Life-GP]

By the end of it all, you can do a manual on "How to Build a Mk1 Golf"

[Uvy]

i cant see the pics cos our server blocked the fotobucket site..

[nhunter]

Do Citi shifters look like that ? Or is that an attempt at a short shifter ?

[MacMan]

Awesome bud, very interesting post. I'm waiting anxiously for the rest

Thanks dude. I will post the rest just now.

[MacMan]

By the end of it all, you can do a manual on "How to Build a Mk1 Golf"

[MacMan]

Do Citi shifters look like that ? Or is that an attempt at a short shifter ?

No, that is what they look like... pretty hey.

[MacMan]

As promised, here is the rest of the post.

After sorting the vacuum system out, I needed to find a way to hold the wiring harness in place because the new harness doesn't run on top of the firewall, but against the firewall behind the heater box. So I modified the old harness clips so I could bolt them onto the studs that hold the underfelt.




The new spec dashes come with their own seperate mounting brackets which need to be bolted / screwed into the sides of the footwells. Initially I tried to screw them directly into the steel, but the metal is too thin to hold the screw properly. So what I did was take the mounting clips from the old airbox and I used those. It worked like a charm and the brackets are really solid.

Here are the mounting clips on the one side.



Here is the left bracket bolted in place.




Unlike the old harness, the new harness has a steel plate where the harness goes into the engine bay. So I had to drill holes through the firewall and bolted the plate on. As you can see I only drilled 3 holes, that's because the bottom left hole will drill into the wheel arch. I used stainless steel bolts, nuts and spring washers for this.




After the brackets and harness were in, I fitted the dash and bolted it in to see what it looked like.




I then pulled the dash out again and started sorting out the rest of the wiring.

Routed the right side door switch wires and the handbrake switch wires and then held them in place with the best tape ever made... duct tape.




After routing the fuel pump and fuel gauge sender wires through the standard grommet under the back seat, I needed to route them to the harness. Once again I used duct tape to secure it in place.




Then came the worst job... re-wiring the alarm and central locking systems. The actual wiring is easy, it is just trying to make it neat that is difficult. But I seem to have got it right.

Here you can see I used the fuse box bracket from the old harness to mount the alarm box onto.



I also mounted the central locking relay and the selective unlocking relay on the same bracket.




After making sure everything was working 100%, I tidied the wires up properly and I fitted the new heater box and the top piece that goes to the windscreen demister section of the dash.




Once all the wiring was sorted I went about fitting the new hand brake, new pedals and new carpet. The handbrake and pedals were very easy to fit, but the carpet was surprisingly difficult to fit due to the lack of space behind the heater box. So in the end I had to remove the heater box AGAIN, fit the carpet and then put the heater box back.

Here is a comparison between the old and new handbrakes... MUCH better.



The new pedals, handbrake and carpet in... much much better.




When I started the conversion I looked at the roof lining and I realised that the original one is actually really ugly. So I set about sourcing the roof lining from a VeloCiti. It took me about a month, but I found one for a good price. So I ripped the old lining out and started fitting the new one.

Here is the inside without the roof lining. The material pads are to stop the steel support rods rattling on the inside of the roof.



Now we all know Citis are not the most quiet cars inside so I thought I would glue some underfelt (dog blanket actually) on the inside of the roof and then glue the pads on top of underfelt would help reduce some of the road noise entering the cabin. And guess what.. it did.

Underfelt in place.



Original material pads in place.




Once the glue had dried (and my head stop spinning) I started fitting the new roof lining. Now this may sound pretty simple but trust me it is a very time consuming job doing it properly. But I think it will be well worth it in the end.

Inserting the support rods into the rod clips.



All the support rods in place, now I just need to glue the edges down and put the rubber surrounds back on. The original rubbers were light grey, so I bought some black rubber from a place in Boksburg.




I managed to finish glueing the lining on the left rear panel and bolt the seatbelt and backboard support back into place.




Of course i couldn't use the old interior light with the new roof lining, so I also had to source a VeloCiti interior light seeing as VW don't sell them yet. This also took a while but I managed to get one in brand new condition.




Now somewhere in between the fitting of the 1st dash and sorting the motor out, the opportunity arose for me to get a 2005 VeloCiti dash in perfect condition. I preferred the look of the VeloCiti dash so I set about selling the new spec dash I had already bought. It was sold the first week I placed the ad for it in the Junkmail and so off I went and bought the VeloCiti dash. And this is the dash I have fitted in my car now. I must say the new dash is really awesome. For some reason it makes the car quieter than the old one and it doesn't rattle at all. The rotary knobs in place of the old sliders is also a bonus.

So what do you guys think?

[Moe276]

Dats wicked dude really cool, next you can help me wen I get my dash he he, maybe we will show another Opel guy not t mess wit da veedubz again,

[Grim]

I am jealous as hell, ,makes a hec of a difference. A friend of mine had the whole mp9 conversion done to his 2 door mk1, and I noticed on his that you can't wind the window down with the old door panels in place, as with the door closed it catches the side of the dash. Don't you need to change the door panels too?
Wouldn't mind doing it to my old golfie, but fear I wouldn't have much working after going through all that wiring....
[/quote]

[VW MAN]

very nice and neat
good idea on the dog blanket for roof lining...

can someone moved this to FAQ section....??will be awesome to keep as with macman's last conversino post

[Rabbit222]

I'm speechless man! Great job there Can't believe that after all that hard work,you went and pulled out the new dash and fitted the velociti dash Awesome stuff! How long did this take you bru?

[zi]

looks good >>>> hmmm u r gving us ideas....

[joggiep]

Moved to FAQ .. great Post ..

And it's looking like a new car .. great work

[MacMan]

Dats wicked dude really cool, next you can help me wen I get my dash he he, maybe we will show another Opel guy not t mess wit da veedubz again,

Lol... I think I will need to be permanently drunk if I was going to do another new spec dash conversion.

hehehe... that Corsa driver must have left another set of skidmarks when he saw the 3 of us chasing him.

[MacMan]

I am jealous as hell, ,makes a hec of a difference. A friend of mine had the whole mp9 conversion done to his 2 door mk1, and I noticed on his that you can't wind the window down with the old door panels in place, as with the door closed it catches the side of the dash. Don't you need to change the door panels too?
Wouldn't mind doing it to my old golfie, but fear I wouldn't have much working after going through all that wiring....

[/quote]

Yip, the same things happens to mine... I have to open the door to wind the window down. So I am either going to get the new panels (and probably doors, but I don't like how the did the mirrors) or I am just going to fit some decent electric windows.

[MacMan]

very nice and neat
good idea on the dog blanket for roof lining...

can someone moved this to FAQ section....??will be awesome to keep as with macman's last conversino post

Hehe I went to plenty material shops and none of them had what I was looking for, so I saw these blankets at one of them and they are right thickness and material I was looking for, so I took them. Plus they were dirt cheap.

[MacMan]

I'm speechless man! Great job there Can't believe that after all that hard work,you went and pulled out the new dash and fitted the velociti dash Awesome stuff! How long did this take you bru?

Thanks again.

Well removing the dash is pretty simple... about 20 screws. The harness and brackets are universal so I just used the ones that came with the 1st dash.

Seeing as I was doing a motor conversion at the same time and because I like taking my time to do things properly, it has taken me about 3 months so far. I still have a bit more to finish on the interior, but it is pretty much done.

Well worth the effort IMO.

[Vades]

Awesome post - much respect! Thanks for taking the time to take pics and post the whole lot.

[Moe276]

Dats wicked dude really cool, next you can help me wen I get my dash he he, maybe we will show another Opel guy not t mess wit da veedubz again,

Lol... I think I will need to be permanently drunk if I was going to do another new spec dash conversion.

hehehe... that Corsa driver must have left another set of skidmarks when he saw the 3 of us chasing him.

he he ya he didnt epect dat hey, oh and bout da drunk part, drinks are on the house lol, looks very nice bro and thanks for this post it will really be of much help,

[MacMan]

Dats wicked dude really cool, next you can help me wen I get my dash he he, maybe we will show another Opel guy not t mess wit da veedubz again,

Lol... I think I will need to be permanently drunk if I was going to do another new spec dash conversion.

hehehe... that Corsa driver must have left another set of skidmarks when he saw the 3 of us chasing him.

he he ya he didnt epect dat hey, oh and bout da drunk part, drinks are on the house lol, looks very nice bro and thanks for this post it will really be of much help,

No problem man... are you also going to be fitting a new dash to your pocket rocket?

[Phat B - WP]

Looks great, must be a bonus being able to do everything yourself...

[Moe276]

Yip soon I hope im busy scouting 4 one at a good price, been spending way to much on dis lil mk1 but i suppose it neva ends hey,

[harley]

you got mad skills:lol:

I think I'll just wait until the newer Citis become cheaper, thats a lot of work to get that right!!!