83 mars red engineless driver full resto

Finally got a photobucket account so thought id chuck a few pics up.

Picked up this little beaut oct last year, looked pretty clean but there were a few rusty surprises lurking as per usual.

My first mk1, my first car project and seeing as it was engineless i decided to follow the crowds and go 20vt with it. Mainly due to the fact its been done by so many and makes advice plentyful!

Been working on her 14 months now and almost ready for engine start but its been a relatively steep learning curve…

Picked her up…



Empty bay


Fair sized hole once i dug into the filler and sealant


Due to corrosion i had to remove the scuttle to repair this. Bit of fab work, my first attempt at welding…ever.  just join the dots so i was told!


Then i found out to there was a difference between a small bolck and a big block lol this bit was welded by a good friend seeing as how important it is!

Liked the look of the bay with no scuttle, so went with it, cutting out rotten metal, welding in fresh and etch priming as i went.  Luckily nothing to major.



With most of the engine bay prepped for a dust over with a rattlecan, i moved on to the underside



Spent a month scraping underseal and treating the various areas of surface rust.  The car had been off the road in a garage for the last 10 years, and thanks to an oil leak on the engine, almost the whole of the underside has a nice covering of corrosion preventative compound keeping it safe from rot  



2 new inner rear arches, keeping as much original material as possible

Only the very rear of the sills needed any work so after fully undersealing, and a coat of waxoyl i installed a new gti tank, reconditioned rear beam with poly mounts, new front wishbones with new bushes, balljoints, coilovers and struck it lucky with all the gti ARB stuff to upgrade from the driver bits.


I turned her the right way up and welded up a few bulkhead holes i no longer required.  Didnt want to go full smooth. 

but from a bit of a tidy up with a rattlecan blow in, a few hours scimming filler, highbuilding and sanding…

Looking great so far mate, keep the pics coming!!

Andy.

Cheers Andy.  Ive got hundreds of pictures but just trying to skim so i dont bore people too much.

Spent hours looking through peoples build threads, gives me motivation and inspiration when mines not going so good, thought id repay the favour!

Both rear arches done, progressing with the welding from dots to small runs to keep the heat and distortion to a minimum


For reference, the above was one of my mistakes, for anyone replacing rear arches, dont pick the swage line of the arch to cut and weld to, makes it extremely difficult to skim smooth before painting!
Fuel filler


rear valance tacked prior to seaming

off to prep for paint, an epic solid 2 weeks working late of treating minor rust patches, etching, skim filling, panel prepping, high building, block sanding, re-high building, DA sanding, topcoating 3 coats….

Pics not working mate

Combination of 1meg downlaod speeds and uploading using phone lol, 

All showing now

Wow mate, you've done a cracking job of that. Looks really nice, happy days!!

Cheers mate,  looking at what work you have put in to yours, seems like i got away lightly with rust!

 Youve got some serious skills dude! 

Looks like you picked up doing a resto no problem there The paint looks great! It looked quite a solid car to start with too.

Looking forward to your updates  

Cheers dude.  Looking at all the other builds i definately struck lucky with the shell! All the rot was limited to very small areas, easy enough to cut out and replace. Luckily there had been no repair work to any of the car so no panel filler surprises!

Really happy with the finish of the paint, especially for a DIY job.  Not perfect for sure but im very pleased and i still have the final g10 compound and polish to do.

Looks very different in the light! Engine and gearbox in, solid G60 flywheel and sachs clutch. CDA gearbox with an 02J shift tower and selector, Epytec mounts, ebay special intercooler for now




Audi TT front seats, retrimmed rear bench with the remaining alcantara and grey leather, not to everyones taste but i like it

you've done a great refurb there. paint looks fantastic  

matt

Cheers matt!

Hats off to people who paint cars for a living, there is a serious amount of work that you just dont see! 

Went halves on a media blast cabinet with a mate so started to prep brakes.  Going gurling 54 calipers, 9 inch servo, 23mm mc.  I have a rear disc conversion but going to wait until its mot'd and registered correctly, just incase i get pulled on the 8 point system..



Dont tell the wife…


Epytec 280 adapters with german made 280 vented discs ( the overspray will be sorted soon enough, but its a driving car, not a show car  


Wheels and wine!!

Like the paint oven there mate

Those wheel look fantastic as well!!     

get away with a fair amount with my mrs, another reason to keep hold of her lol

Onto downpipe, would love a ready made bolt on jobby, but since the start of the build the money pot has shallowed so needs must…

Who needs a welder? Aluminium bodge tape works a treat lol trial fitting angles and bends.  Laser cut at work 12mm stanless K03 flange made as couldnt find a 316 grade stainless ready made one. 3 inch pipework down to the bottom bend.


A lot of filing due to the angle it exits, didnt want to add too many cut in bits as its the hottest point.

tacking and trialling next, very close but going to heat blanket the boot

finally tacked and ready for tigging! Over to a mates for that soon!

Nice work on the DP Adz, very impressive

You can use that aluminium tape on the steering boot as well, as an extra precaution.

Cheers dude, good call on the ali tape.

Got bits of an aircraft APU exhaust blanket im going to mod eventually.  Ali tape and heat mat will do for the time being though

Exhaust looks great, good job  

Matt

Spent the week in the evenings finishing the wiring, temp fitting fuel pump wires and main power wires to make sure it all works before spending too much time hiding looms!

Mocked up a boost pipe, again just to get her running


Temp fitted the downpipe now its back from welding


Connected the battery, no smoke or fire yet! But the wiper motor was getting very hot and starting to smell, guessing somethings ceased on the mech.  Had me panicing that something was starting to go up in smoke!



Primed both fuel pumps…..but it wont fire

Got a 16989 fault on her, could be a duff ecu  May be something to do with the immo defeat? 

My only hope at the minute is that the battery just doesnt have enough! Monitoring the voltage accross the ecu and its dipping to 7.0 volts during cranking.

So charging the battery tonight and we will try again tomorrow! Fingers crossed…..