Another 1.6 GTI Restoration

Hello! I've just bought my 3rd GTI (thieving scum helped themselves to my last 2…) an '81  1.6 GTI for ?695. No tax or test as it has been stood for the last year. It runs though (needs a good tune up I think) and the shell looks pretty solid - it may well have had some work done previously - and had a respray in 2002. Not the best respray though as a fair bit of surface rust is coming through. Nothiing too major though I hope! Plans are to get all the running gear sorted 1st to get it mobile then work on the engine and body work at a later stage…

Some pictures as I bought it.







New wishbones, poly bushes, track rods, track rod ends, koni ssk top adjustables (lowered 40mm), audi 80 calipers, 16v discs, pads & servo and passat 22.2 master cylinder are all due to go on. The rest is going to be pretty standard apart from a tsr pack a head & kent gs2 cam.

Spent the last week wrestling with 25 years worth of rusted nuts & bolts
  made even more difficult by the pathetic size of my garage! Barely enough room for the car, let alone for me to work around it!

Hopefully have it MOT'd before the end of june so I can enjoy it over the summer… Keep you posted as it progresses.

was this on ebay? think i saw it looks pretty good nick, not sure on the red seatbelts though. 8O

Yes it was on ebay. I'm not too keen on the red belts either! Will be going back to black I think. First things first though. You should see the pile of rust on the garage floor from the wishbones! I'm amazed that there's any metal left on the wishbones at all!

aye it does look pretty tidy

think you'll be keeping it on the momos?

Probably not... they could do with a refurb. I quite like the look of the ats cups but I have a set of new oz racing alloys with new yoko tyres which will go on it for now... See what they look like.

I dont want to admit this but your mk1 looks great on the momos I reckon, cos I aint usually the 17's type of guy 8) .  I saw this on ebay as well thought it looked sweet. 8)

I have to agree they do look pretty decent (7x15's) but only 1 of the tyres is ok. As and when I have some spare cash I might get them refurbed and get some decent tyres…

woZa - the front and back bumper need changing to bring the car back to orginal spec.

madi

mad4it said

woZa - the front and back bumper need changing to bring the car back to orginal spec.

madi

What sort should I be looking at? Didn't realise they weren't original spec…

is it a red strip on the bumpers or chrome?

Red strip. I'm afraid I'm going to ditch the fogs too. I much prefer the look of a two light grill…

Why cant i find bargains like that? You have to go far to get it off ebay??

Yeah miles… Just the other side of town! About 6 miles to be exact! :wink: That's kinda what attracted me to it in the first place.

hi mate,like the gti.thats going to be a wicked little project.tell ya what would look good on that is the bbs wheels off the sportsline you no ,crome edge and the black centres,set the silver paint off proper.whats the hardtop like to drive? got a cab gti 1990 but i want to have a go of the hard top to see the diffence.ps sorry about the spelling.not my strong point.dislexic and all that.love to meet the man that came up with that word to discribe the problem i have.how am i going to spell that when i am explaining to people!

nothing wrong with the bumpers, loads of people added a red pinstrip to them, done it myself a few times!

@ visor
Never driven a soft top but the tin top is great fun to drive. Tight & responsive & agile… Yeah, the guy who came up with the word dyslexia was taking the p**s!

volkswarren
Guess I'll leave the pin stripes for now. Maybe change them when I get around to the bodywork…

Replaced standard servo & ms with 16v servo and passat 22.2mm ms.



Rear Koni SSK with poly bushes…


Braided hoses all round - the rear offside was a real b******d to get at even with the rear beam off (which was much easier than I was anticipating). Replaced the rear beam bushes with poly ones while I was at it. More pics of fronts to follow… Replaced tie rods, tie rod ends, wishbones with poly bushes, ball joint, 256mm 16v drilled and vented discs & pads, audi 80 calipers and carriers, top mounts… Think that's it so far!

Nearly ready for it's MOT. Just waiting for some rear wheel cylinders and bearings to arrive. Get them fitted, bleed the brakes and it should be ready to use  

Then onto the engine. Got a pack A head, gs2 cam, new water pump & sump to go on. Going to give the oil pump a good clean up while that is off. Then finally get the body work tidied up. Not found any structural rust… yet…  

looking nice mate, some good work going in there 8)

Man, it took me a year to get round to doing all this, and you've done it inside a week!

Looks very good though, even with the Arrows on, although I'd change them if it were mine.

Good luck with the resto…

Rich

Being self employed helps… I can get on with the car during the day and do my work during the evening/night! The bit that takes the time is forgetting to order a crucial bit or having to cut off some nuts/bolts with a hacksaw that you were planning on reusing (lower rear suspension bolts anyone!)

Arrows are coming off, oz racing going on. Can't remember the name of them though!

Checked all the electircs ready for MOT and seem to be ok. Only thing is the rear lights dim slightly when the indicator flashes. Checked the earth point in the boot and filed paint away for good contact but no differrence. Seems very slight though. Hopefully not a failure problem???