So let's stop FOX-ing around. A VW lover's story.

Hi there guys, as you have seen from my introduction thread and father and daughter build threads, is that I am from South Africa.

The father and daughter build is currently dead in the water due to some unforeseen circumstances. But soon we will se if we can get it going again.

This thread will be more a catch up thread on my current vehicle, with photos when possible, since most as been lost due to the whole photobucket-kicking saga.

Now I won't bore you with my previous vehicles, but I will assure you that I love to tinker and modify my cars. And a previous one was also a VW.

Now a quick lesson on South Africa's emissions policy and testing: there is non.

Sure, you get carbon taxed on your new vehicle, but nothing on the older cars.

We have had new factory carb fed vehicle's comming of the factory floor until 2009, when the last Citi Golf was made.

First, a bit of history on the Citi, and it's sedan brother, the FOX.

When South Africa introduced the MkII Golf, or Jumbo Golf as it was known by the public and VWSA, wich used an elephant in it's print media(along with lines that went something like "it's bigger and has more trunk space"), along side the MkII Jetta, they wanted to keep the MkI Golf, as it was known here, going as an entry level vehicle, so they introduced the "citi". Note the stylizing in the font of the word Citi. It will change a couple of times, as did the styling of the car.

The first "citi" launched happend together with the MkII series. Note the small bumpers. The engines were the same as the MkII's, with a 1300 and 1600 with a 4speed gearbox and the citisport with an 1800 and 5speed from the old MkI GTS and newer MkII Jetta CLS and Golf GTS. There was the odd 1500 diesel, but those are far and few.

In late 87 the FOX was introduced. The FOX was a facelift of the MkI Jetta, featuring the new citi style front. Engine options were 1300 4speed, 1600 4speed and the 1800 5speed FOX-sport. Later on the Sport model citi and FOX had an optinal A/C system.

I wish we could go back to those simpler car times. Like when we visit Brasil, there are SO many different small, simple VWs, Fiats, Fords, GMs. Also anything with 4wd is diesel. And those short little 3-5 ft pickup bed, 4 door trucks are super cool.

Then came the CITI in 1990, featuring the new sporty CTI, with a close ratio 5speed and K-Jetronic(CIS) injection system. Sounds familiar? Well, think 80's MkI GTi, with a new face. They all had the newer broader style front and rear bumper, which was locally referred to as CTI-style. At this point VWSA aquired all the old stampings from the USA from the Cabriolet MkI, which is rare as rocking horse poo here in SA.

The FOX also received this new styling.

Then in 1996 the FOX was discontinued...

BUT, the CITI lived on, and the first Citi Life emurged, with new badge styling and alot of new type models, including new 1400 engines, in carb and electronic fuel injection, aswell as 1600 EFI engines, with updated gauge clusters and indicator stalks. The Life had mag wheels what was later called "Flowers" and smoked tail lights.

Above: "FLOWERS" as on my brother in law's car

2003 relaunch of a CiTi Life with new style mag wheels

Then came the new to SA market, VW 6N chassis code Polo Playa and Classic, with the same engines as the EFI Citi's. In early 2000's, with the newer 9N Polo and Mk5 Golf, the CiTi received a new interior, lower grill in the front bumper and Mk5 style tailights. But still the carb motors soldierd on along side the EFI motors. The base models all had 13" steels, as per all previous years, and where pre 2000's top off the line models got 14" mag wheels, here mid range models got 14" mag wheels and top off the range VeloCiTi, TenaCiTi, CitiROX and GTS 1.4i and 1.6i got 15" mag wheels.

The new dash came courtesy of the Skoda Fabia models.

The Velo's, as they where known buy Dubbers, had a hotter camshaft from the factory with a remapped ECU, and what would later be the holy grale off MkI gearboxes, the short 1-2-3 ratio FFZ-box.

Then VWSA produced every CiTi owners wet dream. And all Corsa GSi driver's worst nightmare.

The CITI-R.

Bolder front and rear bumpers, with fat side skirts and arches. A factory tuned and balanced high comp 1800 8V, with a wild cam, custom tuned ECU, sports exhaust and a FFZ-box.
This thing went like the clappers, and only a limited number was build.

Then, came emmisions and crumble zones and airbags. And the death bell was a tolling...

VWSA produced another Limited run Citi's, called the Citi Mk1(note the number 1 was used instead of the capital "I"). It had aircon, driver and passenger airbags, chrome stripping on the sides, with a profile off the Citi with the lettering Mk1 in it. And the same type of badge on the tailgate. On the dash was a numbered plaque, since only 500 was produced, with number 500/500 now on the Uitenhage showroom floor.

And so, with that, short history into VWSA's A1 chassis, I will begin my 1991 1600 3speed auto's story.

Some upgrades and fixes went down with the photo-tanic, so I will only be able to show some end results and current statuses of the car.

I will also update the above posts as I download some more photos to show the updates as they happened during the Citi's live span.

Ok, so my whole back story is, my father's father bought a VW Beetle in the 60's. And after that, there waa always a VW of sorts in the family.

My first car was a 1976 VW Beetle 1300L. But after blowing number 3 plug out the head, I installed a 1600. 

Then after a year or two, me and my father started rebuilding her. I bought another 1600 Beetle body just to get the long range transmission, scrapped that body, and did the same process again to get a set of rims. 

Reasoning for this madness, to replicate another South African only model, the 1600SP.

And yes, that's my Ugly mugg...

So the future missus was working as an admin and switchboard operator at one of my suppliers when I started a Beetle workshop.

Then a bad economic time hit in 2011, and I had to close shop. 

But me and this sweet lady kept in touch. Then in 2011 she gave me a number of a company looking for a technician. And it was in her home town, some 900kilos away from me.

I did a phone interview, and got the job. Loaded the Beetle with my personals that could fit.... And moved....

Needles to say, things happened and we found out that there is 2 stripes on the test kit...

So we had to buy a family car, since she also owned a Beetle

Photos added to Citi history posts...

So, let me just show a current photo as the FOX stands, then I will start with updates, or is it back logging...

So, back in 2012 I bought the FOX as a 1991 1600 3speed auto. I knew VWSA had a couple of these on the road alongside the Mk2 1800 auto's.

It was a little bit abused, and neglected. I had to replace CV boots, steering rack boots, front shocks and a complete exhaust system.
 

The old lady I bought the car from struggled to see, and hit many a Vespa between her house and the library.
So her son-in-law decided to sell the car.
So the front bumper is this ugly mess, and I have been driving with that bumper since then.
 

I did do some mods, upgrades and maintenance to the car over the years, but mostly for safety, comfort and drivability.
The first things, was the aforementioned faulty parts to get the car through roadworthy inspection.
 

Replaced everything, and upgraded the exhaust to a 57mm free flow with 3 silencer boxes. That last part was exhaust shop's attempt to stop the sheep's like bleating that most of the Citi's are known for with a free flow system. This has been changed in December 2020 to a 2 silencer setup, and sounds still grunty enough, without the bleating. Turns out, the 57mm straight through in the middle with the 57mm offset at the rear was al that was needed. Poor 1600 struggled to breath.

I also removed the crappy center of dash speaker to install three gauges, volt, oil pressure and water temp.

Later I removed the std Pana-cronic radio and replaced it with a gifted Starsound DVD screened radio/CD(DVD)/USB in 2013. This radio served me well till last Monday, the 8th of Feb, when the CD reader decided to quit playing my fav CD's. I am on the hunt now for a decent replacement.

Seen here is also my attempts to do the red control accents the Mk1 GTi's had.

Also replaced the std speedo and clock combo with a later Citi's speedo/tacho combo. Luckily VWSA build these cars's wiring harnass the same through the years, so all I had to do was plug it in and drive.

Most of the photos off changes and upgrades sone during the years, will be taken recently, as all photos of previous items done, went missing with the great Photobucket hosting/hostage situation

So, when I bought the FOX, it had original 13" steelies with 3 different types of hub caps on 3 of the wheels, while the fourth had nadda.

The through some internet, and VWForumSA dealings, I had scored a set of 13" GTi manholes.(Photobucket photos, so nothing to prove). After working for a local tracking/recovery company for 5 years, I made the move to one of the 4 Midas parts distributors in town. The bought a set of 14" (Unknown brand) mag wheels and had them refurbed and fitted to the car.

They did not come with center caps, so was toying with expansion block plugs...

But then my brother in law purchased a Citi with genuine Borbet type A's, sans center caps, and asked if I wanted to swap, since he had a set of "Flowers" going on the car, and needed 14" tyres, and he knows how much I liked the Borbets... So a deal was struck and we did the exchange.... 

Luckily the Citi came with two cracked original covers, so they are now with a friend who has a 3D printer to take measurements to replicate and produce four new center caps

I will be updating and recording each aspect of the car over the years, up to current. That was that in terms of wheels. The exchanges and fitment happened during Nov and Dec 2019. The covers are with said friend since then, but Covid happened and social distancing and a new/rebuild engine made purchasing them bit out of reach, so center caps are still on hold

Interesting to see the path the mk1 Golf took in your country.  Cool thread so far.  Welcome to the forum.

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Interesting to see the path the mk1 Golf took in your country.  Cool thread so far.  Welcome to the forum.

Thanks Pres. Yes the Citi Golf has a huge following in South Africa.

Just a sample of what can be done to make them look good:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/725229254315710/permalink/1774504966054795/

Let me know if the link doesn't work, then I will try to copy and paste the photos

My old fox (1993 coupe wolfsburg edition no less) had only a clock in place of that tachometer.

That car had rocking heat and AC though.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Hi Robbie

Yes, the 1600 FOX and early Citi's also had a clock there, while the later model Citi's had the tacho.

Base model FOX(1300) and Citi Chico(1300) had no clock, just heat gauge and fuel gauge where th tacho/clock is.

Morning guys, so wanted to do a recap of all the other stuff done on the FOX, but seeing as the carb's speed-pump pivot snapped on me last Thursday evening on my way home, I thought i will post up my repair of the weekend.

Now, there are new carbs available for the Citi's in SA, but there are two differences between my carb, and a std carb. 

First, the throttle lever is different because off the whole auto thing.

Second, seeing as my car is now a 2L and not a 1600 anymore(part of the recaps coming), and has been jetted as such.

First up, the problem as on Thursday evening.

The pivot needs to be just above the fuel inlet.

A better view from the top with carb off.

The replacement top part of another old carb I had laying around. This one was an original VW carb, with blown throttle shaft bushes.

The original mount point for the std airfilter box is a single bolt that goes into the center of the carb between the two barrels. This carbs mount point was cracked and loose, so I went and cut it out and cleaned it up. Might have scored a few milliwatts in power, but atleast gained 80% more reliability from this part.

Carb with broken pivot.

Carb with modified throat and fixed pivot.

I am going to drill out the broken part of the other top, with a tapped hole through that needle and seat, and tap it for a shanked 8mm bolt, since the shank part is precise the diameter of the speedpump arm.

Then I an going to clean up this ones throat aswell, since I left some more on the other one that can be taken out.

So seeing as I already posted about some interior stuff, I will add a couple more.

Removed the driver side air vent and made my own vent gauge bracket to fit a vacuume gauge. This about round 2017, just before my move to Midas.

And more recent, about end off 2019 beginning of 2020, I refurbished, and adapted a Mk2 GTi 16V's Italvolanti steering wheel to fit the FOX. Had it since 2015, and did not know how to adapt it from the thick 21mm shaft of the Mk2, down to the thin, 16mm shaft of the FOX.

Above image is an internet download of said steering wheel

Then during a gararge cleanup, I came across an old two piece sport steering hub for the thin shafts. And being two piece, I looked whether the Italvolanti would fit on it.... And it did, sort off...

I had to carefully file off just a smidge around the outer edge for it to fit inside, and drill three holes for the bolts to fit, aswell as get longer bolts to hold it all together.

Next the rim was re-upholstered with new leather and red cross stitching.

I kept the original center piece with the 16V logo, just for the looks.

And just a few weeks ago, I finished the center console refresh and fitment of an extra gauge. An oil temp gauge.... Through back to my aircooled days of monitoring temps.

Yuck. Pardon the mess. Little one's handcream sweat out in the center, and living on a small holding does nothing good for your car's interior look, even after the previous week's wash and vac.

Can see on those last two photos that you can't always reach to the back to clean out all the dust.

Gear indicator plate after a clean up and a few quick layers of black spray and clear lacker

Center console scrubbed up and the just a couple of light dustings of gloss black.

*All spray work done with aerosol spraycans.*

Also fitted a new auto shifter I modified.
Since automatics aren't modified much in SA, I was surprised to find a auto shifter at a local styling shop when I went searching forcthe oil temp. Since both were NOS(a term I learned from USA car forums for New Old Stock), the sold both to me for less than what the oil temp was for on the shelf.

To get USD multiply  those prices by 0.07.

Fake carbon... Wooohoooo!!!!

More photos to follow on the change for the shifter and completed project

So lat time I left you all with the photo of this fake carbon shift knob

So let's see if it fits, before we do anything to it...

Looks nice and wide...

A bit longer, but I like how this is going to turn out...

Correct shaft adapter and it works, although the release button was a bit notchy...