Stoocake's restoration

Hi all, I'm new to the club but I'm here for the long-haul hopefully. Picked myself up this lovely 1982 1.5 Auto for a steal. Only 43,000 miles on the clock! Hasn't been used in the last 5 years and sat in a garage for the last wee while. I was looking for a project to do an engine transplant on, but this car is so original I think it'd be a sin not to keep it standard, save for a few cosmetic improvements I have in mind.

…I guess we'll see how I get on with that as the project unfolds.

Anyway…on to the good stuff.











The interior the day I got it










And cleaned up…





Inner wings look tidy





Even got the original handbooks!!

ooh another 5 door project, good luck with her bud, she doesnt look bad tbf, colour nice too, are the wings rotten at the bottom or is it just stone chip paint?

chris

aircooled1968 said

ooh another 5 door project, good luck with her bud, she doesnt look bad tbf, colour nice too, are the wings rotten at the bottom or is it just stone chip paint?

chris

Both wings look pretty shot so they'll be replaced. There is various bits of rust all over the car - mostly very minor but both sills at the back where the sills meet the arches are pretty nasty. I'll update with more pictures soon. I'll be going for a full respray once all the rust is removed - I'll be keeping the colour the same though.

cool find.

Engine replacement is in order, just recondition the original block and box when it's out and put it back in if/when you get bored of going fast.

Some more pictures for you

Wheel off to see how everything looks underneath:



All looks pretty decent - just surface rust but I'll be getting everything sand blasted and painted/powdercoated









Here are the worst bits of rust - same on both sides







Tyre well is sound apart from a dent - might press back out



Fuel filler isn't too bad at this point - will keep an eye on it



Dampers off





Rear beam cleaned up - decided to get it shot blasted and powdercoated anyway but looks pretty good for the age



Cheers guys.

Hey all - was hoping to update more frequently than I have been doing but work's been really hectic lately. Also managed to blow my months budget for the car on other stuff…I'll catch up with myself soon.

Anyway, had a problem getting the rear beam mounting bolts out the old bushes. Ages of soaking, twisting and levering did the job…would have been easier to replace but I'm being tight and Scottish. Getting them back in might be fun too…





Had all the rear suspension components shipped off to get powdercoated and they came back looking pretty damn good.



Retapping the threads to clear the powder from them



Cleaning up the stub axle



And fitting to beam



Half way through reassembly



Made some new brake lines as the originals were pretty corroded. Not happy with my flaring tool so might have to replace that if I can…maybe I just like buying tools.

Another update from a few bits and pieces I've been doing. I'm considering just stripping down the shell entirely and getting blasted and painted right from the start - what do you reckon? I'll have to save for a few months but I can work at a leisurely pace stripping it then.

On to the pictures - started tearing down the front end to get a look under the wings



Bumper looks absolutely shot - got to be easier to replace than repair this



Wing off, nothing too major by the looks of it - few minor rust holes



A pillar starting to go but doesn't look too widespread…do you reckon this will be easy to cut out and patch up?



Similar story at the front of the sill



Got the fan cowling off ready for my next trip to the shot blasters



And may well do the engine and timing cover at the same time



How it stands now - not an eyesore on the drive at all  

Not an eyesore at all. Noes made a nice garden feature for the last year or so

nice weisel there! What's the colour called do you know?

RatRide said

nice weisel there! What's the colour called do you know?

I'm not sure but I will find out for you tomorrow - stay tuned.

I'll be getting it resprayed and debating whether or not to keep the colour……..what do you reckon?

The paint code is LA3Y - Suriname Red

i'm only 1 page into your thread and noticed your bumpers. I brought mine back to life with a heatgun (paintstripper gun) it brings the plastic up like new. give it a try, unless you already replaced them as i read further into the thread!

Had a good read and loves the pics and updates, best of luck to you fella, cracking car you got bud, obviously will be alot better once you put your touch to it.
Can i suggest that you remove the piece of metal i circled off in the pic as it is this that collects and old water thus causes the rust on the a pillar, if left, it will continue underneath also.
Mine have been removed on  both sides to prevent this in future, but depending on how you feel, is the car in original condition if removed, but there again it is not original as parts are being replaced lol.
Pete

Ah that's swell! Thanks for the advice re the A pillar and the heat gun for the bumpers. I'll do both of those.

I've had a change of heart about the car…hopefully for the best but decided to just go ahead and modify it. As nice as it would be to keep standard, I've always wanted to take an older car and modernise the mechanics of it to my own tastes so just going to say sod it, and go my own way :-)

So with that in mind…out with the engine…

Front end off



(I took more photos at this point but the battery in my phone died so lost a few of them for some reason)

Stripped everything down so I could get the cylinder head off (just figured it'd be easier to manouver engine out of the car without it, and MUCH easier to get to wiring for starter motor so I could disconnect it).



Bores look ok - wee bit of carbon but the engine ran well so all seems in good condition



Stripping brakes



I'll be stripping the bay entirely for the respray (not settled on colour yet…). When I replace the engine I'll be going for something a little unconventional I think…I'll see how settled I am on the idea as time goes on.

Waiting for the end of the month now before I've got more money to spend on it…damn not winning the Euromillions…

Cheers

Few more pics from todays work

Boxes of bits fast filling up - I live in a shared house and I'm hogging the garage all to myself…trying to make an effort to keep space down but quite hard.



Just a reference pic for the throttle cable - anyone know the best way to get the grommet out the bulkhead? It's pretty damn tight



I've stripped all the brake components off the bulkhead as I'll most likely be needing to move the cylinder thanks to the new engine. Forget to take a pic after so this is all you're getting ;-)



Finally took the NS wing off - rust a little worse on this side sadly - front of sill has a few holes in it and generally worse condition. Ah well, shouldn't add too much time to the project…

As you say it's your car, you mod it if you wish bud, it still doesnt take away it is a mk1 golf, afterall i have a citigolf as you know are more later Modified versions and when people see the car the words MK1 are always said.
Looking forward to this update, nice to see this kind of work.
Myself sitting here jealous seeing you can weld something i can't but would love to do, as not just money you save but your own work to get her back to mint condition.
Best of luck to you bud, hope all goes well  :wink:

Weyhey! Finally got a chance to update you on my progress. Spent most of last week sleeping with my eyes open thanks to work so haven't done too much.

Started getting the rest of the interior out - dash was nice and easy to remove





Some water has got in and rusted holes in this panel but should be easy to weld in a patch





Carpets out - little bit damp under drivers side - presumably from hole shown above



Inner sill on passenger side is rotten where it meets the floorpan, most of the way along



Not much left



Onto the rear suspension - wanted to get the rear wheels back on and move on to the front (the rear subframe will be off again to do paint and reinstall fuel tank etc)



Didn't get any pics of the beam installed…but I don't want to show it until I've got new shocks as the old ones really let it down :-P

Engine had to come out - managed to drag it out single handedly using nothing but a bit of rope and a trolley jack (I'm too tight to hire a crane)







Anyone want a 1.5 with 3 speed auto? …thought not :-P

So having decided to modify the car after all, I wasn't sure what engine I wanted but I came across a 2.0l 8v with everything I needed and loads more for £70!



The block:



Lots left to do - will update again in a week or so. Cheers

 WOW it's been a while since I updated this!

I haven't forgotten about the project, I've still been working on it but had a few other things on, including passing my bike test, getting my new (to me) CBR600 ready to ride, training for a half-marathon, being ill, planning a stag do, and tied up on a massive project on work. Also I've been learning to weld - surely a useful skill in Golf ownership!

So I'm back! And the project should pick up some speed!

Amongst some of the work I've been doing on the Golf include trying to remove include disasembling the front hub assemblies - had an absolute nightmare getting the driveshaft out - ended up drilling the end of the hub/nut, but took several days to do this. Still, no damage to hub and the driveshaft is scrap anyway



Such a rewarding sound when the nut popped free




After that, disasembling the hubs and getting the bearings out was the next challenge. NS came away relatively easily, bit of heat and using some C-spanners I kept from my old HSD adjustable shocks and off it came, but the OS one was an absolute git. Took a couple of days to remove - had to grind slots into it with a reinforced dremel cutting disk and tap with a hammer after freezing the hub and blow-torching the bearing casing



I have a manual steering rack now that I have fitted new tie-rods and ends to, painted the body and brackets and here is the result - looks better in the flesh



The battery tray was pretty rusty so I took the paint off that and painted in grey primer until I settle on a colour for the car - I seem to be changing my mind every 5 minutes about what colour I want it, but plenty bodywork to do so I guess there's no rush



Someone here said that heat can restore plastic bumpers to their original colour - they were right! Thanks for the tip



I've stripped a load more parts to get powdercoated, so will get them done soon and pictures will follow.

I've been teaching myself to MIG weld and getting the hang of it now. A wee bit more practice and I'll be confident to go at it on the car - this was my first go…



Can anyone help confirm what I need to do about the fuel tank if converting to injection? From what I gather I should either change to a petrol injection tank and fit larger fuel lines under the car, and modify the wiring using a lighting connector from a mk2? Diesel tanks will work but have a larger mesh in the bottom - both tanks have swirl pots? If possible I'd rather use the existing tank as it's in sound condition, and either fit an internal pump if possible (is it?) or use an inline one (and perhaps an aftermarket swirl pot in the engine bay if I'm worried about fuel surge?)

All comments welcome.

really looking forward to seeing this progress..

Thank you. Hopefully be able to show some of the progress this week. My welding is getting a bit more useful now so I'll be attacking the car with it fairly soon.

I've taken a load of stuff to the powder coaters - whether I'll use all of these again or not I'm not sure, but it was cheap, and I had a few other bits done as well - some fittings from my motorbike and a couple of car ramps that someone gave me, they should come up nice.



Should have the 'after' pic in the next couple of days.