My Mars Red Mk1 Golf C > 20v 1.8T

Hi,

Been browsing this forum and the project threads for a long time dreaming of a mk1 project … and finally got one myself!

A guy at work pointed to someone he knew selling his mk1 with an AGU engine for a pretty good deal, so snapped it up.  It's a 3 door '82 Golf C in mars red complete with a 20v 1.8t AGU engine.  Apparently it's been sat in a garage for nearly 10 years, at this point was bought by the previous owner.  His plan was to restore it and fit the 20v, but didn't have the time to do it, and had other cars to sort, so has been sitting around in a unit for a year or so waiting to be fixed up.

Thought I'd start this project thread to keep me motivated and to track progress as I go.  I'm no mechanic and have only done basic tasks on cars, so if I'm doing anything wrong I'd really appreciate a shout/help!  It's going to be a steep learning curve, but am a keen bean.

The plan is to do a complete nut and bolt restoration to a fairly decent standard… but not complete show standard and fit the AGU.  Looking to keep it mars red with black details, and perhaps BBS RZ alloys… This will likely change as it progresses.

Only a couple photos at the moment, will upload more as everyone likes pictures!


In my garage next to the new 20vt:




 

Sounds like a pretty good plan so far.

Pictures! everyone likes pictures…  first batch uploaded;

Will upload more once I've sorted through all the pics, want track my progress, so these fist batch are the before condition:

Viewing the golf:


Collection day:


AGU in my van:


Unloaded in my garage:


Batch of before photos showing condition:


Rear turrets look ok:



Interior:


Mess of an engine:


Front seats:  (have since found out they're corrado g60 seats)








Removed the front wings, pushed it outside to give it a quick wash and photo the crusty bits!








































Then I started stripping the auxiliaries off the engine to remove



New AGU:

So far from a quick look over, made a quick list of areas for body repair:

- Sills
- Front floor pans
- Rear arches
- Fuel filler cap
- Front lower valance
- Rear lower valance
- Section around tailgate latch
- Bonnet
- Tailgate
- Front inner wing bottoms
- Rear window surround patches needed
- Maybe replace roof skin with non-sunroof?

Almost doesn't seem worth repairing the shell with that list of known repairs! ….on one hand it would be quicker and cheaper to get a better condition shell (if they exist) but on the other hand I'd like to save it… and it looks like some of the common areas aren't all that crusty rusty….

At the moment I'm persuading myself I can fix it up, but seems a pretty daunting considering I've never touched a welder… I'm going to say this will be a 3-5 year resto project, and I'll hopefully learn on the fly… when I f*ck up.

Updates!  … I'm still catching up with pics.  So I've been stripping it back to a bare shell to start the work.  Been sneaking most the parts up the loft Another batch of photos;

Made use of the inspection pit:



Rear lights removed, nice clumps of silicon:



Carpets and interior out bar the rear seats which have been welded in Left floor pan looking has had some patchy repair done previously:



Right floor pan has been jacked up well before and nice and holey:



Carpet was held down with nails!


Rear seats from a corrado welded in:  



Dash before removal:





This kind of thing makes it feel worth stripping it all back:



Decided to get the wire brush on a couple of areas to see if any rust was lurking:





Then found this beaut:



Any good suggestions of how to remove that welcomed, I'm hoping can get a repair panel up to the trim line.

Then me and a mate removed this one night:







Engine mount has been moved but needs a bit of tidying up:



 

After a lot of swearing at just a couple of bolts, dropped the fuel tank off, had a couple of litres of petrol inside… good for parts cleaning 



Think it's in use-able condition, will clean it back and check for leaks.  Any recommendations on how to do that appreciated 

Looks like a decent project. The bonus of doing a mk1 is the amount of replacement panels/ parts that are available.
You'll get a huge sense of satisfaction learning to weld. My only piece of advice (a novice myself) is when you welding two pieces of metal together with a but joint, leave an approx gap of 1mm between the two otherwise the two side will push up or create a valley when you weld them. I learnt that watching project binky after my rear arches had warped.

Oh and the carpet nails are actually original factory

MR_LONG said

Looks like a decent project. The bonus of doing a mk1 is the amount of replacement panels/ parts that are available.
You'll get a huge sense of satisfaction learning to weld. My only piece of advice (a novice myself) is when you welding two pieces of metal together with a but joint, leave an approx gap of 1mm between the two otherwise the two side will push up or create a valley when you weld them. I learnt that watching project binky after my rear arches had warped.

Oh and the carpet nails are actually original factory

Thanks!  Good pointer on welding - hadn't thought of that.  Looking forward to getting into it, just looking at buying the gear at the moment; a welder and likely to get a roll over jig to make things easier.

Ha! Didn't know about the nails, should have kept them for originality!

nice looking project, not too bad condition, for a mk1 golf  

nice spacious garage too. love the p-slot alloys  

best of luck
matt

pazwaa said

nice looking project, not too bad condition, for a mk1 golf  

nice spacious garage too. love the p-slot alloys  

best of luck
matt

Thanks, I'm in two minds to keep the p slots or not, might keep them as a second set.

Hard to tell from the pictures but you might have a mixture of Mk1 and Mk2 P slots there,see how many A's you have on the end of the part no in the wheel centre

Looks like a good project mate definitely not the worst condition that's been seen on here! Enjoy the journey 👍

PIRELLI P said

Hard to tell from the pictures but you might have a mixture of Mk1 and Mk2 P slots there,see how many A's you have on the end of the part no in the wheel centre

I'll have a look again later, don't think I've actually had a wheel off it yet!  Dropped the rear beam with wheels still attached.  Would be good if they're the rarer mk1 P slots, they're 15" but they don't have the rare pirelli stamped centres :/

alexHxC said

Looks like a good project mate definitely not the worst condition that's been seen on here! Enjoy the journey 👍

Thanks! A lot of rot, but not that much is how I describe it! haha

No major updates… Kind of got a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work to do! But is now stripped to a rolling shell.

Got a rollover jig kit to weld together then can start to tackle the metal work.


Removing the rear quarter glass revealed this … Think I'll leave that til I'm a bit more competent at welding.

Fair pay to you looks a good project best of luck starting one soon myself will follow yours  and hopefully pick up a few pointers

Fair play that was sorry fat fingers

dubm3 said

Fair pay to you looks a good project best of luck starting one soon myself will follow yours  and hopefully pick up a few pointers

Cheers, although the rate I'm going ill be picking up pointers from yours!

Weekend I removed the windscreen expecting the worst.




But was pleasantly suprised!





Just couple of small spots on the pillars



The windscreen has this milky glaze around the edges, is there a way to remove this or is it non repairable?  … sorry was hard to capture on my phone


 

Can't repair the milkyness I'm afraid its a new screen.

jellybelly said

Can't repair the milkyness I'm afraid its a new screen.

Ahh was hoping that wasn't the case, do you know what causes it?