Ujum the Invincible!

It's all gone weird coz I'm using an iPad and copying and pasting from another forum. Skip past the pics and start a bit lower down!

So finally get back towards mine and pul up on the side of the road so we can empty the drive of some cars, thus making the reversing in of the trailer a little easier. Plus I finally have chance to take some pics.





Trailer onto drive, first time no messing!




Rolled the poor old blighter off

And finally in his new resting place next to Clive





He's now become affectionately known as either ' Ujum' or the ' that rusty piece of poo' depending on who I'm talking too!
More pics to follow


So I have a bit of problem and it's VW shaped.

I like water cooled vw's, there we go I've finally admitted it. Perhaps now my addiction may be cured ………or not.

Anyway, despite having a Derby (for me) and a mk1 golf convertible ( for Lady Borednow) usually known as Clive I felt there was something missing from my vw's ownership. The 'proper' water cooled classic, a mk1 golf GTI.

So despite still working on the Derby ( the old adage about a project never truly being finished and all that!) and still trying to get Clive to stop bloody leaking I set about the hunt for another piece of junk to fill the driveway with.

Now I don't like spending lots of money to purchase my toys as I feel guilty about it. The derby was £500 and Clive the princely sum of £427.50 so my goal was to find a GTI for around £500.

Ha! That was never go a work was it? Even rotted out pieces of rubbish are at least twice that. However I was not going to be thwarted! Fair enough thought I, a 3 door is all that's important as engines are cheap and I don't care about having a 'correct' car cos I'm building it for me.

After a few months of searching I found a 3 door 1.1l up for sale not too far away, so went for a look. A young lad owned it and had advertised it with an incorrect phone number, no pictures and a lousy description and up for £1000 but no mot. Gotta be worth a look.
Of I travel to Newlyn, a small fishing village on a hill NR Penzance, when I say on a hill I mean it's virtually vertical, I'm sure I saw a couple of mountain goats slide by on the way up the single width, twisty road. It even had a 90 degree bend in it that the Volvo needed to be shuffled around!

Undaunted we arrived.

I found an extremely sorry looking rust coloured 3 door golf. Rang the bell and found the owner, a young lad of 18 who had bought it as his first car, apparently the work needed was so beyond his knowledge and skill that he'd decided to sell it on.
So we went to have a look. ' does it run' I asked, 'nope, and it's got no front brakes as I took them off coz they were seized, and I can't get the wishbones back on either'
Hmmmmmmm
So don't run, no front brakes, and the wishbones are just kinda hang in space. Right. Fuel filler neck and tank are rust, there is barely any metal left around the area that the clutch comes through the bulk head, there's a hole in the rear chassis leg, holes in the floor and holes in the front chassis legs. Every panel is damaged and there's gaffa tape over all the areas of rust/holed body work.
I explain that it's not worth a grand, not even in bits. I also suggest that if he wants some help I'd happily lend some experience to the mix but he's adamant he wants rid.
I leave him my phone number and an offer of £350

Few days later I get a phone call ' if you can go to £500 you can have it'
' I'll be there on the weekend' says I. Doh!

So a 3 door golf for £500, can't really go wrong can I? Hmmmm

At the weekend a couple of mates and I go off and borrow a trailer, so far so good. I've been dreading picking it up as trying to get a trailer up and down these hills and around the corners is going to be a bit of a pain me thinks. I've been considering it for a few days and we're going to have to take the trailer off, spin it around, tow the golf to it, manhandle it onto the trailer, send the Volvo around, re hitch up and then drive off. I have a plan!
Volvo loaded with tow rope, gloves and 2 mates. Cool beans.
Off to a farm, in the wrong direction , to pick up the trailer. After stopping in at Tesco for the 24 tins of payment for said lend. We've been told the trailer is 'round the back' and to ' drop the beer on the door step as otherwise the dogs'll eat you'. Find farm, drop beer, find trailer. Manually spin trailer cos it's pointing the wrong way, dray trailer over the worst of the tractor ruts and connect to Volvo. Excellent, even has a winch! Connect lights, oh pants, Volvo has stupid euro 21 pin connector grr. A few phone calls later to chap and he reckons he has a converter in the house. Unfortunately he's at a ploughing match or some other farmer type thing and no where near us. So he tells us where the key to the house is, the names of the dogs and where he thinks the adaptor is.
A quick game of rock, paper, scissors later to decide who's going in and it's found, lights on and off we go.

Plan of attack discussed and agreed upon. However upon arrival we find a Morris minor parked just where we need to drop the trailer. So I park up and we go to see if an alternative is possible. Unfortunately not. A quick knock on the door and a discussion with the lovely elderly lady owner later and said moggy is moved, she also volunteers to stay with the trailer and direct traffic around and explain to all the locals what's going on. Such a nice lady! During the ensuing shenanigans we find out that she and her husband know the current owner of the golf and Mr moggy owner had been giving him some gentle encouragement. So you know a bit about cars the then? Says I? 'Oh yes, he replies, I maintain the Morris myself and I used to work for Jaguar'. Turns out he was part of the design team for the E type! And spent his entire career at jaguar, amazing who you meet sometimes isn't it?

So Volvo shunted around some tight corners, tow rope attached to golf. Now all of a sudden no-one else wants to drive the Volvo or the golf 'in case we hit something' big girls the pair of em! I explain that driving the golf into a wall might actually improve it and Rob agrees to pilot said golf.
I hop in the Volvo, that's out in the road, and begin to take up the slack on the tow rope, to pull the golf of the drive at 90 degrees to the road and up the steep hill. Golf begins to move…………..
Remember those suspension arms I mentioned and how they weren't properly attached? Yes? Well I'd forgotten all about them. The golf made it about 3ft before one became detached and it stopped dead. Pants.
Anyway with lots of hammering and using screwdrivers as they were never meant to be used and jamming in a random bolt it was sufficiently attached to try again.

So drag golf up steep hill towards 90 degree bend, wedge wheels on golf, shuffle Volvo around bend and out of the way in a hedge, push golf up rest of hill and around 90 degree bend, roll golf backwards down adjacent hill using hand brake for control whilst aiming for trailer, manage to get golf halfway up trailer ramps before all momentum lost ( yes a I chickened out on the way down the hill and used the hand brake a bit too much!) , run up hill, grab Volvo, apologise to lots of people, travel down some even narrower roads to get the Volvo on the front of the trailer, hitch up, strap down golf. Thank the Moggies owners profusely, load up and move off down the hill. At which point Mrs Jones pulls out from the kerb in her Q8 just in front of me. I stop, she stops. She indicates that she'd like me to reverse back up the hill past all the parked cars. I indicate that it might be easier if she just reverses back into her parking space, she refuses. I turn off the Volvo and close my eyes. Strangely she the decides after about 5 minutes to reverse.
We skip by and I wave to thank her ( I find that aggravates people more than swearing at them

And finally onto the drive and into a resting position next to Clive.
more pics to follow!
He's been sat on the drive since June and apart from emptying out the water not much has been done tbh.
I did sell the wheels and a set of side trims that were in the boot for around £180 so he now stands me in at £320 quid. Which is better!

The plan is to leave the body work alone, externally speaking, I'll plate up the holes, and probably lacquer him but that's it. My next door neighbour is a bit of a street artist and discussions are on going about sharks, pin up girls and other associated 'retro' style stuff that will work with the years of Patina on the body.

I've already obtained a 1.4l twin cam engine and gear box from a polo so he'll have a bit of grunt, especially with the twin weber 40s that are currently in the garage waiting for somewhere to go. I'm hoping this should result in around 120 bhp when in and sorted. The engine bay will get cut about a bit and smoothed as currently there is quite a lot of rust in there and then painted up nicely. I'm thinking about some sort of steam punk type thing maybe.

This is going to be a beg, steal and borrow project as I don't have anymore money to throw at cars.
The engine cost me £40 I think, I've also obtained a set of 60mm drop springs and a full set of strut braces. These all look new but cost about £100 all in.
We've also found a lower arb from a cabby which was obtained for £25. VW 11 calliper will be used in conjunction with a larger MC and vacuum thingy. These will be obtained from the local scrap yard and refurbed.

I'm planning a full ICE install using gear which I've been collecting for a while so that's basically free according to my maths.

An early Porsche leather steering wheel with a mk1 polo horn push is currently on its way to me for the princely sum of a tenner posted!

I'm on the lookout for a set of shabby-chic bucket seats if anyone has or knows of any going cheap?

New fuel lines and brake lines will also go in and I'm sure other stuff will appear along the way but I'm hoping to have him on the road for less than £1500.

Wish me luck

Great story, thanks for sharing!! Hopefully your addiction doesn't get cured

I can't believe that woman in the Q8! I would have done the same as you!  

If you can get this MOTd and going for £1500 that would be a great result - looking forward to seeing how this pans out  

Cheers mucker

The major problem is going to be the welding i think.

Apperently, after chatting with the some local mk1 ers, its been stood behind someones garage for years, hence the nice patina it's developed. Apparently I'm  nuys and it's unsaveable. But after reading metalheads thread I'm inspired!

we shall see.  

Keep at it, you'll get there