Goly's restoration. Updated 29/06/2017

Hi all,
Well the time has finally come to take my Golf off the road and carry out a full restoration. It's a sad day  the plan is to make her look bloody marvellous over the next 2 years with a few tricks up my sleeve to make her unique  The progress will be slow but I will try and update the thread as often as i possibly can with stories, advise and photos.
Here she is just getting tucked away for the winter.





I have put the standard suspension back on whilst she is just sat in the garage and I don't know if anyone is interested but I have put my coilovers up for sale on ebay HERE!.
My plan is to start buying all the parts I need to get Goly back to standard and to get the engine out ready for a full strip down and overhaul.
Thats all from me today so enjoy Christmas everyone, I hope Santa gets you what you want.
Bye for now. Paul.
P.S Here is one more pic for you  

Good luck with it mate. Come back and keep us updated.

Cheers smudger, I've never done a full restoration so this should be fun, I have just realised that my garage is quite small so might try and persuade the wife to let me get a double garage before I start work  

Good luck with the resto!

I got my engine out today and the shell is off to the body shop next week - excited isn't the word!  :mrgreen:

Nice one m00, do you have a build thread?  I'm waiting a little while until the weather gets a little bit better before I start stripping bits off, in the mean time I will be sorting out a roll over jig.
I have been asking advice from fellow forum users on this thread http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=mk1-golf-chat_2%2Fhow-to-start-my-full and I have decided to start my resto by stripping Goly to a bare shell. This will begin as soon as I make a roll over jig and the weather picks up.
dik-van-dub says the most important thing to do is get some pictures on here to show everyone what I'm starting with so here we go.
For my 30th birthday my wife purchased a 1983 5dr 1.3 cl Golf



This is how she was on the day we picked her up. £401 off ebay and a 30 mile round trip.







The passenger wing had been previously damaged so the paint was removed and the rat look started  Coilovers were fitted along with a roof rack. This is how she was for over a year and I loved driving her with this much character but the time has come to bring her back to her former glory.









I want to try and restore her back to original, how she was when we bought her, she had the original number plates, tax disk holder and an original sticker in the back window. Fingers crossed I can do this car justice and make her a little stunner 

Ooh, they love their progress pictures these folk!

My build thread is here: http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=your-mk1-golfs_2%2F1-1-formel-e-restoration

It sounds like its going to be a nice steady project  

Wow great 30th bday present and cracking price too!  

What's your plans with it?

Nice price mate. She looks pretty decent in the pics. A detailed build thread is as good for you as it is for others as you can see how much time, effort and £££ you have sunk into your car. Trust me you'll forget things. Also good when you come to sell.

Good luck with it.  

Well its about time I told you all about what is happening with Goly!  I was planning on a 2 year restoration for Goly but last year I purchased a second Golf, Ruby, I decided to try and get her up and running as a daily driver whilst Goly was being restored. All was going well (Check out my other thread for progress) until I got to the engine! Ruby needs a fair bit of engine and carb work and I am fed up of being without a Golf on the road. This brings me back to Goly. Yesterday (19/04/2014) I swapped the Golfs over, I took Goly out of the garage and put Ruby back in it. I am now going to start a proper restoration trying to do most of the work,  except bodywork, painting, and upholstery, myself. So basically I will be doing just mechanical stuff   
This is Goly now,







Hopefully over the next few months you will see some good progress on Goly and I hope to get her in the bodyshop by Christmas. 
Wish me luck. 
I need to drive my Golf again! 

Good luck with Goly - what's the plans? Standard or modded?

Hairyarse said

Good luck with Goly - what's the plans? Standard or modded?

Thanks Andy,
My plans for Goly are to keep looking totally original, standard 1.3 engine but with air ride suspension, a simple manual setup that is  totally hidden from view, for a better quality ride, the air suspension will also help when we get our little period Eriba Puck caravan as  the car can remain at a constant ride height. Hopefully we can  have Goly ready for the AGM 2015  

Sounds a good plan mate  

Good luck with the restoration. Be interested to see details of the air-ride  

Matt

Best of luck with your resto and  I look forward to seeing it at the 2015 AGM  

I've done it! I have finally made a start on Goly!
It has took a while but today I decided to give my little bro a call (Doesn't know much about cars but he owes me a favor and is very keen to learn) and ask him to come and help me start stripping things back in the engine bay  
We had about 3 hours tinkering and managed to strip quite a few bits from the front end and from the engine bay. Radiator out, headlamps and grille removed, the vast majority of pipes, cables, clips, and connections were disconnected from the engine and labelled up ready to take the engine out. This time next week we should be able to remove the engine  
The most difficult part so far has been remembering to take pictures of EVERYTHING that we remove! I have had a lot of experience on cars and usually just rip everything off and remember where it all goes for when I put it back a few days later, however, this time I will need pictures to help because I know i will forget where a certain bolt goes or what position a cable was routed.
I suppose you would all like to see a few of these photos and a couple of shots of the progress after the first day?

Some of the removed parts



Yellow box is for all of the small engine parts that are removed, all parts bagged and labelled so I know where they go



How the engine bay looks at the minute



A sorry looking Mk1 just begging to be restored and driven again!



That's all for today folks, hopefully I will have another update for you at the end of next week!

Good going mate, I'm prob going to do the same with the engine with all the pics :-)

Keep the update coming !!

Great start. Good thing to remember to take pics - you'll kick yourself when you (will!) forget!  

Good luck with the resto. Goly looks quite clean, so hopefully nothing too major. Like you say, take lots of pics and label everything.  Keep the updates coming.

Thanks for the support everyone  
Today is my 34th birthday so I decided to do a bit of work on the present I got for my 30th birthday! (Goly)  
I had a spare hour before starting work so I Thought I would remove the brake master cylinder, servo and linkages. All went well with no major issues  
Next on the list is to get the engine out. I only have the driveshafts to undo and the 4 engine/gearbox mounts to remove and she will be out  
Until I find an engine crane I might just start on the interior!
I don't know what anyone else thinks but this stripping down malarkey seems too easy! Fingers crossed it goes back together just as smoothly  
Just a couple of pics of what I removed today.

This



This



This and all the bits you see on the wall in the background



Were removed from here



So that's it for another day, hopefully I can do a bit more tomorrow if my brother doesn't need help with the exhaust on his Mk2 Polo saloon!!!  

A very Happy Birthday Day GolyTheGolf!  
So do you reckon Goly will be finished by the time your my age?

If you remember I turned the big 50 back in Jan!  

Just kidding mate but if he's not ready, you can always buy another from 'Season 2' of 'Guess the Asking Price' this Winter!   

Have a great day mate!