Reserection and preservation of long term stored 24.900 mile 1991 Cabl

Hello all…………………………………….Note : edit on miles after re-checking my calculator !)

After many many Beetles owned years ago, lots of company cars, Austin Healey 3000's and a long term appreciation of hydraulic Citroens culminating in a small fleet that includes a wonderfully comfortable and equipped (as only the French can do) XM Exclusive, an Activa V6 (bonkers good road holding from its active roll controlling suspension system) and a basic as basic can be AX I now find myself with this added to the collection.

Arrival of 1991 Golf Cab, 8300 miles total  (yes: 29.000mile) on the clock (in Km’s) LHD Sport Line Cab.




A bit of history:
The a one owner car, originally bought in Germany, used for one summer then shipped to the Far East where it was not used as the owners forgot to check if a LHD car could be used in HK, at the time they were not !.
It sat in an underground car park until shipped back to the UK where it was used again for a summer before it was placed in a professional storage facility as the owners decided to go back to HK rather than retire.  It sat there until two years ago when they returned; it was kept in their dry garage until a few weeks ago as they did not know what to do with it as they were content with their Polo.

I thought it best to start with a good clean to see just what I had under a layer dirt  (what I call a layer, I am a bit "precious" about cars being clean).
So, out with the Jet-Washer, Bilt & Hamber snow foam, two buckets, some cloths /polish - compound and an afternoon with a garage Vac !







I decided to have a go with the machine polisher on the bonnet, looking good so far except for a couple of small depressions (hard to see !)



The next step was to start checking under the car so I moved it into one of the garages and stared with the front wheel arches, cleaning everything first to get a good look at the rubbers, joints and condition.

Wheel bolts first …ohhh golly they look good !!



Wheels off and lets get into the wheel arch, give it a clean and have a look

Ohhh bloody hell !







Well that was better than I thought, all rubbers etc are soft and compliant, ball joints covers intact, factory fitted disks with no lip and original pads so onward to remover the arch liner and see what nasty long term storage horrors are lurking being that….a good start was the screws all being black with no rust on the heads of the threads…….well I never !







More to follow ………….


 

Incredible! Im green with envy!! What a find.Enjoy.
 

What an amazing find !
Very jealous

One thing I noticed from the pics is there’s no switch for the electric roof
I thought it was standard on sportlines ?


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1wheelonly said

One thing I noticed from the pics is there’s no switch for the electric roof
I thought it was standard on sportlines ?


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Yes, it is quite a stunning find in such condition, so much so/unique that I am struggling to put a value on it for the agreed value cover…

TBH I have not even tried the roof yet….I am concerned that the very cold weather and it being up for years may make the outer layer a little brittle.  The plan will be to get the wood burner in the garage fired up and get some warmth in it….
I has assumed it was a powered roof however so will need to look at that  

The roof and window switches are found on this panel


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1wheelonly said

The roof and window switches are found on this panel

Found the roof switch this afternoon, low down by the steering wheel on the left side…..(note: the car is a LHD version)

As for insurance value, I’m assuming they would want documentation and pictures etc to get an agreed value, I’d assume it being LHD would bring it down a little but 1 owner and low mileage would help hugely
Your stating it’s done 8300 miles ?
Car check shows the last mot in 2020 showing 40,000km


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Re-checked my Calculator !….DOH !

OP edited to correct my stupidity….but it is still stupidly low for its age….so I am still very happy and even more so with the condition……….

Sorry for being daft ! and thanks for spotting my error.

Like you say, still crazy low
I’m dying to know what you paid for it ?

I’ve got the red & the black sportlines, love them




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I see your missing the gti badge on the front grill, good luck finding the correct one

People say the mk2 badge fits, don’t bother, it doesn’t sit flush to the grill and it’s a larger font


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1wheelonly said

Like you say, still crazy low
I’m dying to know what you paid for it ?

Rather not say on that

NICE pair !

After a bit of a pause (getting my ACTIVA v.6 ready for spring) I have re-started work on the Gold SportLine

Images are better than than words (who reads my drivel anyway ! ?  
(If you are wondering, a clear garage roof with Citroen  pipes stored up there


 

Look soooo clean and you have power steering!

Karmann where getting the hang of building later Mk1 Golf cabriolet and the rust prevention was very good with the added plastic covers and very think stone chip paint underneath the car.
Enjoy the car now summers coming and keep the updates coming  

More cleaning………. top time and glass clean

Not bad for a 32 year old plastic roof…..

The next step on the path towards "total deep clean"
Grill off, clean the front panel…….remember this is a "never painted" car…..not bad really for a 30 plus year old

The original factory applied wax has also gone "dirty black"… I am of a mind to leave as much of the original applied coatings as possible, you can only take it off once after all !, best not remove it I think.

What do you think ?

Leave the factory wax as it's original and that's what has keep the rust at bay as it's good stuff.
If I was looking to buy an original car it's the sort of things you look for as you know it's not been messed with and repainted.

I've kept mine on and my cars a daily drive, lives outside and covered 317,000 miles and still wearing its original paint apart from the 100s of stone chips from 35 years of use.     There should also be wax in the scuttle area and at the ends of the scuttle panel, inside the engine bay at the ends where it meets the inner wings?

Tanks for the input……my thoughts as well.

The wax in the scuttle area had "crystallised" and gone flaky so I have had to remove that…I

Bonnet blanket removed, degreased, wet-Vac'r, straps cleaned….I hated looking at it, so much better now

Nice and clean/dry in there (first time I have removed the space-saver/not cleaned it yet)






????
The question I have is how are these tools wrapped/stored in the car as per Factory set-up.