1977 Project (US)

Finally got my car home- bought it last week.  Here are the initial pictures before cleaning or anything.  2-77 build date, 101688 miles, stored in garage since it was parked in 2002.  Factory original white bumpers and steel wheels, red plaid interior including white dash and door cards.

Good to see another states men over here.  Nice looking car!

Lola to be in excellent condition. Good find.

MUCH nicer condition than my last rabbit.

Good one mate, What are your plans??

allana13 said

Good one mate, What are your plans??

First I will try to figure out how rare it is.  I can't find any information about the options it has (red dash, plaid seats, white painted bumpers and steel wheels).  If it is uber rare then I will put it back to stock.  If it is mundane, I will build a 1.8 high compression engine with a big cam, coilovers, white cabrio body kit, and some BB Arrows if I can find a set.

Pictures after a quick wash.

Looking good mate. Keep it orignal  :mrgreen:

Got my muffler on, went to test drive it- battery is dead.  Need to recharge and test my battery, test for draw on system.  Hopefully nothing to serious…

I will post pictures of the bottom of the car and the spare tire well tomorrow- absolutely amazing!  Bottom of the car is not even scraped up, undercoating is nice and smooth (found that out when I was instaling the muffler!).  Spare tire well is perfect.

Found a draw on my battery today.  Traced it to a relay in the K position on the fuse panel.  Not sure what exactly it does, but it needs replaced.  

Could not get any good pictures of the bottom of the car, but here are some of the inside.


Rear inside panel on what would be your guys' passenger side.  33 year old cardboard covered by vinyl.


Close up of the warning sticker, in case I didn't know how to operate my seat…


Spare tire well.  33 years old and going strong!


Hard to believe the seatbelts are original until you see the label that says 1976…


Some of my other "Golfs" have not even had headliners…

looks good so far mate, where abouts in washington are you?

wakoff said

looks good so far mate, where abouts in washington are you?

Sorry for the slow response…  been busy with a new job and working on the new car.

I am in Roy, Washington.  It is between Olympia and Tacoma, south of Seattle.  Small town, farm area.

Been driving the Rabbit to work for the last couple weeks- been interesting.  Idle has smoothed out after a tank of gas was run through it.  Got some alloy wheels installed.  Just put on some new "euro" bumpers- the black plastic kind.  The wheels and bumpers are a big improvement.  Tested my alternator the other day and it was weak at idle so I changed it today while I was stuck on the side of the road on my way to work- fuel pump relay cooked itself   .  New replacement alternator is putting out 0 voltage to the battery  :dontknow: .  

I had forgotten what it is like to commute in a 33 year old car.   :?

Started to buff out the paint and it is shining up very nice- will post some pictures this weekend of the new and improved look.  Did some digging and found that the color, alpine white, was an LE color for 1977.  Still trying to figure out what went on in 1977 when my car was built…  Car still looks like a truck though- coilovers are on backorder until the middle of the month.   

Ya man thoes bumpers looked nasty….

Post us some pics of the new ones Dub

Close up of new wheel.  Vintage Fantasticness!

Rear view with new bumper and wheels.  In the back is my 1991 SHO Taurus.  It really is just a coincidence that they are both white with black wheels…  SHO came with black wheels when I bought it, Rabbit wheels were cheap from my brother.

Front view with new bumper and wheels.  Took all the side trim and clips off so that I can polish all the paint.

Removed the chrome from the grille, polished and waxed the hood, installed new bumpers.

Great little car!... why are OEM US spec bumpers so big.. glad you changed it, they always look out of place.

77AllWhite said

wakoff said

looks good so far mate, where abouts in washington are you?

Sorry for the slow response…  been busy with a new job and working on the new car.

I am in Roy, Washington.  It is between Olympia and Tacoma, south of Seattle.  Small town, farm area.

No probs mate, i'm never really on this site any more after selling mine earlier this year… looking for one in the states though, was at that 'Leavenworth drive' this year, lots of nice cars, my mother stays in Wenatchee, couple of hours east of Seattle and 15 mins from leavenworth!! Looking to drive the west coast next summer, spend a month doing it, already been coast to coast and love your country  

SoundillusioN said

Great little car!… why are OEM US spec bumpers so big.. glad you changed it, they always look out of place.

American crash standards require the bigger "diving board" bumpers with 5mph shocks behind them. My E30 when in the states I had fugly chrome us spec bumpers which I swapped for the more attractive euro ones. Tons of euro cars got this treatment during the 70s and 80s from ferraris and porsches to the little rabbits and e30s and mercs