my white 83 gti

i will start by saying theres probably NOTHING anyone on here will learn or be interested in but i am going to keep a detailed build thread of this even if its just for my own sake.

well i bought this car early 2016 with the intention of just using it a 1983 mk1 golf gti with plenty of paperwork dating right back through its life i was made up with my purchase and the day i picked it up was the first time i had ever driven an old car! i got out of my 2005 s line audi a4 and got into the mk1 to drive it home and i couldnt stop smiling! the feel of it the smell every little rattle and bump was intense, it was quite a long drive home and cruising round the m25 in the dark that night i will never forget.  with no previous mechanical experience or even interest i just wanted a mk1 golf because i loved the look of them, i have enjoyed driving it every single day through the last 5 months or so but i have now decided to sort a few issues before they get any worse.
owning this car for only 6 months in total has lit a new flame and given me a new found love i have already bought, stripped and rebuilt another 1.8 engine i fitted this got it running and then the clutch went so i had it back out and put a brand new clutch in (good fun on my jack jones outside my house on the side of the road with no engine lift just halfords cheap jacks)  a few other problems popped up, the rear shock gave up, an inner cv split split, the back box had rotted and fell off and the front brake pads are at absolute minimum also passenger side has worn a lot more so than the drivers side pads?.  so today i decided i would have to go without driving it for some time and commited to start stripping it down.

plans at the moment are strip it 75% myself at home (i have no garage or workshop tools)
already been to various bodyshops around the south east for qoutes on full respray and they varied from 3k to 8k i settled for one in between who is local and has already done 2 x mk1s that i have seen in person.  it has a few small rust spots couple on the scuttle 2 on window seals and 2 or 3 on the rear valance and boot lid nothing bigger than a 10p so these will be sorted at time of body prep.  i decided i am going to keep it white but have the frozen white used on the rs focus. bodywise it will stay standard no flared arches or crazy modifications probably needs a new rear panel not 100% sure if i can get away with just replacing bottom corners yet..  it has an aftermarket sunroof at the moment that does leak may have the sunroof removed ?)

when its put back together i will be using all new window and door seals the smaller style bumpers, all red rear lights and hecklebend and new headlights and restored grill
full bias pedal box doing away with servo

i want to semi smooth the bay clean but not overkill.
front will be standard dash and clocks with 2 recaros up front i will see what comes up for sale in the coming months
smooth the inside rear, no rear seats or carpet just clean shiny paintwork and battery.


i need new coilovers and as for brakes well i have a full running mk4 gti to use whatever i want from and i do believe it has upgraded brakes of some sort on there as they are huge and bright blue with fancy discs something i need to look into as they dont look like standard mk4 calipers front or rears.

engine wise i went and bought a daily low mileage mk4 gti with an auq 1.8t that i have driven for a month or so to see if theres any issues. im 50/50 weather to do the 20v or not  the main appeal to me was its fairly straight forward in that i can just send the loom off and then buy all other parts required straight off the shelf and theres so many other build threads i feel confident of being able to do it myself at home.. i would LOVE a vr6 in there but i feel like that would be a bit out of my league to get in there and running thats something i will have time to think about anyway i was 100% sure i was going to put a 20v in but now am starting to see a lot of 1.8t mk1s so many that it makes me want to try something different. i know everything out there that i could do has already been done but hopefully by the time its painted and back in my hands i would have decided on what to use.  any vr6 complete conversions available? talk to me so day one i had literally 1 hour to get started and it was raining! so i thought i would start with something quick and easy  the rear seats/boot
i was shock at just how easy this bench came out but not complaining.  i have next to no storage space so nearly everything being removed will be going up for sale
i whipped out the rear bench and removed the boot liner, i had fitted a new sound system into the car only  a few weeks ago so thats what all the excess wiring is for it ran to the amp and sub in the boot.  i will see what i can get done tomorrow with a couple of hours to spare hopefully get the dash and the front seats out along with the front and rear bumpers.

i will upload a couple of pictures each time i do soemthing to the car and hopefully it wont be to long before i am putting it back together all pretty and shiny! between now and then there will be plenty of headaches and HELP posts.

Looks top notch mate being slightly biased i love the white ones haha

Very nice car.

Don't worry about anyone learning anything, I can't speak for anyone else, but as far as I'm concerned, I like to look at the work other people are doing in their build threads. Sometimes it gives you ideas, other times its just pure unadulterated car porn.

Good luck with the project, sounds like you have a fairly good idea of what you want to do.
I admire your commitment to doing it without a garage too.  

true, even if someone learns something NOT to do then it will be useful to some extent.

i plan to weld up a few un used holes and smooth some of the bay and boot myself so will be a laugh to watch if nothing else.

Is that Mark Carter's old MK1? funk-star

Looks like you've fallen in love with it and look forward to seeing your updates.

ref the sunroof, you could get the hole welded up by the body shop. Another option is fit a Webasto (or similar) full sliding roof.

chudd on here (some years ago now!) fitted a fiat cinquecento roof to his MK1 and it looked great.    

yes buddy i bought it off mark carter and as for the sunroof i guess i will wait and see what the damage is when its taken out. i cant remove it yet because i have to keep the car outside on the road for now.

today i removed the bumpers and parcel shel supports and so on and started to flatten off and smooth out the rear.

there was quite a few holes in the floor pan that where covered by tape and then had original paint over them.  any ideas why these are here? and why they would have a tape over them and then painted over..  i want a clean floor so i may have to have these welded up.   they are either side of the spare wheel well and in between the well and the petrol tank area..

before i started today..



and after a couple of hours..






the very rear of the spare wheel well has rotted through its had a previous repair because it has a plate underneath the rotten area and had some kind of filler in there too..  there are also at least 5 holes in the wheel well that look like they have been purposely drilled so i am im not sure weather to try and cut out the small 4 -5 inch section of this and piece it in or do away with the spare wheel well completely this would also enable me to have a custom style exhaust with a centre exit..   

also discovered that the rear panel will definitely need replacing  there is a long line of rust/rot right up inside the lip that the bottom of the boot lid sits onto.. basically up inside the rear panel where the boot lock sits.. i can see from the outside the rubber seal has been glued on over the top of this rot.. and from crouching down inside the boot of the car and looking up you can see it has rotted all the way through and has been filled with several different colours/types of filler over the years..  NOT what i wanted to find but oh well.

The holes with tape and paint over are as they come from the factory, would guess the holes are used in the manufacturing process.

Mine looked to be taped then seam sealed before the paint.

well i cracked on again today for a bit removing all the old paint, there was runs down the inside from the boot close and below rear windows, also lots of new looking seam sealer along the bottom of the rear panel and odd blobs of sealant in the corners i knew i wanted to get everything off to make sure the new paint wont be hiding any nasty surprises for the near future..
this is what i discovered today





quite a mess made by someone in the past in the back passenger side corner a patch over a patch  i want to cut this out and replace as one piece will be fun for my first time welding but im confident i can do it better than whats been done to it already.     

the back drivers side corner has some rot at the very end of the chassis leg the lip that folds up ont the rear panel has rusted through. so when my rear panel is taken off i wont have a lip to fix to. i will have to add one at that time of the panel going on i guess.

Where are you? I have a new rear panel


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hi volkswarren i am in essex
is it a standard s2 rear light panel|? and i presume its a repro?  thanks dan.

Not a repo no genuine vw  think they are southafrican but still genuine and s2


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another crack at it today. got the inside rear mostly back to bare metal. the far edge of the boot floor that meets the rear panel will need replacing once the rear panel is off..  2 repair patches needed in the wheel well.  pic of rear panel as of today  took the paint back to try and find the spot welds i will need to remove.

Great work! Love seeing builds coming together. Will be keeping an eye on this build

Nice looking project, will follow with interest.

Don't suppose the rear parcel shelf supports / side trim are black? And if they are, do you want to sell them to me along with the rear seat catches that are screwed in to the sides of the car?

hi mate i gave the rear parcel shelf supports away already to the fella who bought my seats. i do have the rear seat catches though. drop me a pm with your address and i will pop them in an envelope to you. have to go post office on thursday to take a load of other things anyway

Looking like a good little project. Needs quite a bit of work but if it was good with all that wrong then it'll be dreams with all new bits!

not much to update at the moment. i practised a few but welds on new metal 1.2mm and it went fine. so i had a go on the car in the spare wheel well and it was just blowing holes though it with the mig on its lowest settings and doing short bursts 1 spot at a time..  i ended up doing it twice then cutting it out again.  i can spot weld a patch over the opening from the underneath of the car but it just doesnt want to happen when i but it.. im considering removing the spare wheel well completely tbh  the car wont be a daily and it would enable me to have a centre exit custom exhaust like the lupo gti.