White 1983 GTi 1600 1.8T - FINALLY WITH SOME PICS

So I've had loads of cars and always wish I'd made a progress thread, so…

I bought a 1983 GTi 1600 off a mate last week, he's had it in storage for nearly 2 year and didn't want to sell but knew he'd never get it started.

My intentions are to keep the car looking fairly clean and standard looking but a nice bay with a 1.8t and maybe some more comfortable seats inside but keep the mk1 dash etc

The car had been stripped down, painted half decently, made to a rolling shell then sold to him, then it was pushed around a unit for 2 year banging off other cars and made no progress until it turned up at my house a few weeks ago, since then I've been reassembling the dash and all the interior parts which were stripped when I got it.

I've moved the car on my driveway so access to it is better and started stripped all the sealant and paint off the engine bay and removing the scuttle tray. It had 2 layers of paint and although it looked clean it was tatty and I figured the engine won't be at my house for a month or so, so why not get some work done on the bay first. I haven't really found any proper rust and only 1 small repair job which seems decent, just wants tidying up. It does have the clutch repair panel but this will be going the journey as I'll be moving to a hydro clutch. Anyway enough chatting on, pictures showing the car a little and the progress on the engine bay I've made

Welcome mate and please do let us see some photos of it now and as it progresses!  

The project sounds great, I look forward to seeing some pics

best of luck with the conversion. its what im on with now too

Good luck, as others have said get some photos up we all love pictures of other peoples projects

Got the car moved to my unit so proper progress could begin

Here it is in my unit, ignore the red engine bay, this was a moment of insanity!



So I let my mate remove a bit of the scuttle when I wasn't there and he definately made a mess so i've had a few holes to weld up but it's coming on nicely. Heres some pics of the shell recently.





I also decided to go with MK4 recaros so i've fitted an old 5door pair as a trial before cutting up my nice 3door seats. I know not everyone will like this but i'm not really bothered.

Bootlid now fully smoothed, again this won’t be to everyones taste but I like it

Bonnet catches cleaned up, primed and ready for paint

Nearly cut my thumb off and called it a day

Thanks for all the replies by the way, you'll probably find this thread moves forward quite quickly as I have no house or girlfriend to maintain.

I've got an AYP engine with 5 speed box, the ECU is mapped and unlocked but I'm really unsure to fit a K03s or upgrade to K04 but I do need to decide soon.

I appreciate some people say a K04 is pointless but I do just want this silly fast, it's not a track car or a daily, it's just a toy to go out and have fun with.

I have also made more progress on the bay but it takes time to smooth stuff!

Good choice on the house girlfriend! Will be watching this thread, good luck!

Little update!

I had to try the engine in the car for motivation reasons and also to check the mounts lined up somewhere near

Welded up all the holes in the slampanel
Engine bay is nearly ready to prime fully and paint. The black bits aren't holes but just where I've been welding..

I then bought a mk4 to break so the mk1 was shoved in the corner and used as shelving for a week

I then used a few bits from the mk4 I bust to build the engine up further and cleaned and painted more bits


Then I decided to be a man and buy a K04


Also bought a 9" servo but that's boring so no pics.

This week i'm hoping to get the engine painted and maybe get the engine in if I can find a K04 manifold and water/oil lines.

Also on the lookout for someone who wants to do the wiring for me, I might give it a go but I'd rather pay someone who knows what they're doing if it's a reasonable price. Rubjonnys October waiting list is too long for me to wait..

what engine is that? it's got dbw throttle body and no vvt so i guess from around 2000? also a k04 inlet mani and later spec push down coil packs with early crank case breather metal pipe.

my brain hurts  

Haha you know your stuff! The engine is a AYP from Ibiza Cupra hence the inlet manifold, put the newer coilpacks in but i'm considering going with 2.0t coilpacks with adaptors. Need to do a bit more research.

I'm using an AGU as a donor engine so some bits will be a little old but will have to do for now.

Also what gearbox oil do people use on here for these boxes? Heard good stuff about Redline although the mileage is unknown on the box and I don't wanna cause problems changing it now..

i have a stock k04 mani somewhere, got a hairline crack but ran it for a year quite hard with no probs or blowing sound / problems.

yours for postage  

PM me your paypal immediately and i'll see you right

let me dig it out    i'll pop you some pics up.  

Haha let me know when you've found it. Theres a Relentless on ebay atm but I need to put the money into getting the car on the road rather than buying bling.

Well I finally got the opportunity to do some work on the car so I plodded on. I'm not totally happy with the work in the bay but if I don't get it finished soon it's gunna be autumn and i'll miss summer sunshine. At the end of the day i'm doing 100% of the work myself so i've gotta expect some bits to not be perfect.
Anyway… some pics





And I laid the bonnet on to get a look at the car coming together although I need a new genuine bonnet

Looking good, keep up the good work  

Looking good, keep up the good work  

Engine is sitting in there nicely where are the mounts from

Car looks fantastic. Love the engine bay  

Matt