Tasty 1983 1.3 Driver. Unusual colour!

So here she is, my first Mk1 golf, she's a 1983 1.3 Driver. She's only done 87000!
I'd been after a Mk1 for a while, and after looking around for many months, finally a local(ish) good condition came up!
It had pretty much everything i could ask for from a Mk1: Three door, slammed, tidy rims, single light grill, chrome trim, rolled arches. What more could i ask for, ey!?
I brought her a few months ago, and am about to under go some moderate modifications, but first here are the photos from the add:





It may look like she's pretty much sorted, but don't worry there'll be a lot modifications and bits and bobs to be done, so stay tuned!

As you can see, the exterior is mint. I believe it was resprayed around 2 years ago in an unusual brown (I like it! let me know your thoughts on the colour). There's little sign of her age on the interior as well, despite a small rip in the driver side seat. She's on 15" BBS RM's which have a good amount of dish and are pretty much immaculate. Also as you've probably noticed she's very low indeed!

The tyres are also slightly stretched, i know it's not to everyones taste but i'm a fan of a little stretch, to much can look abit silly. Although it makes any curbage incidents much worse :? So i've got my passenger side mirror set up on my rim aha. Take a look at the stretch and also how low she rides:


With the ride this stiff she does corner a beaut, there's virtual no body roll at all! Don't get me wrong, i'm no boy racer who rags it everywhere, i'm a firm believer in low and slow!

First thing i did was to add a "Volkswagen" and "Golf". Here's a photo of the Boot before and after the badges, I much prefer it with the badges:

Badgeless:


With badges:


The Chrome bumpers are solid, although they had some small surface rust, but after a good polish they came out great!:


Of course there's many little tinkering jobs that are going to need some attention, some have proved to be much more complicated than excepted aha. For example, the passenger side mirror was very loose, i thought it'd be a simply tightening of the bolt, however the nut had fallen off inside the door, but it  was no where to be found when the door car was removed, and was a very awkward fix as  one hand inside the door holding the nut, and the other hand through the window with a screwdriver!

I gave her a good clean, along with polishing up the rims, which made her gleam




Mechanically speaking she's sound, starts first time every time, pulls nicely. The ride can be described as 'firm' aha, that's due to the lack of available travel. Which can be a pain with the shoddy condition of the roads!

I'm afraid thats all for now, but shortly i'll be fitting an electronic ignition, doing a complete overhaul on the rear drums. As well as doing a big front brake conversion to 280mm and upgrading the brake servo and master cylinder to a Mk2 GTI 16V. Thanks for looking!

looks really nice, top work on the polish and i love the colour! really suits it

Looks cracking mate! Personally, I love the colour - I think brown cars are great; you don't see them anymore which makes a brown car very 'of it's time.' I remember one of my mates having a brown mk1 astra when we were younger and it was the dogs. The chrome bumpers set it off nicely as well.  

very nice  

Robin79 said

Looks cracking mate! Personally, I love the colour - I think brown cars are great

Thanks alot! Same, i'm very fond of the colour, it seems people either love it or hate. It helps it stand out even more, aha not that there are many Mk1's around these parts. I can only recall seeing two Mk1's in the flesh out and about!?

I like that a lot. Brown really sets it off as well, proper retro colour!

Looks stunning mate, colour was best choice to compliment the chrome work and those fantastic wheels.

Good luck with the rest of the mods :clap:

Looks good, as your only in Surrey you should bring it DATP on the 20th May in Bracknell

im luving that brown it really works well on your car

Not much to update i'm afraid, just been tinkering with my sticky passenger side window and exterior handle. Although alot of goodies have arrived!

I'm pretty certain i know what's in each of these boxes aha:


Finally i have everything I need to upgrade to the G60 280mm brake conversion! Check 'em out:


I know what your thinking: "G60 brake upgrade, on a 1.3?". That may seem a bit ambitious, however as you know Mk1 brakes work as well as potatoes and i'd hate to end up rear ending someone because of this. Secondly I would very much like to do an engine conversion (although this won't be anytime soon!).

Also the rear bearings have arrived, which means i now also have everything i need to do a complete rear drum refurb. This job has pretty high priority, as on one of the threads on the drive side rear hub is threaded, meaning my rear wheel is only being held on by 3 botls, which is a scary thought!:


I'm keen to do these ASAP, the brakes do work, although i've defecated in pants in the process of stopping! I hoping that with the complete brake overhaul i will save myself some clean underwear in the future.

I'll crack on with the brakes when the weather clears up, it's been non stop misery the past couple days. There will probably be some updates to come before the brakes get done. Thanks again for reading, stayed tuned!

Great looking project there mate, love the colour as well!!

Firstly i'd just like to thank everyone for all the positive comments, it's much appreciated, and it's nice to know other people enjoying the colour as much as i do.

One of the problems i've noticed is my driver side rear light is pretty dim compared to the far side lights. So i went to see the person who knows many a things about electronic fiddly bits, my old man. When we started looking at the wires and the light itself, first thing we did was to tidy everything up.
The connections were looking pretty sketch and here's a photo of the previous wires looking tired:


You can also see the original colour of the car in the above photo, which i'm not a big fan off!

Grubby!:


So we tidied and crimped it all up hoping it would make a difference:


Unfortunately there was no improvement. The earth seemed fine, everything seemed to be in order. Par whipped his voltmeter out and started poking and prodding this and that muttering things. So he came to the conclusion that the dim light simply wasn't getting all 12 volts, it was only getting around 7.5ish. This stumped the man that has been with BT for 30+ years, so the chance of me solving the issue was looking slim!
So I guess this is not only an update on the thread but also a cry for help! If anyone has any suggestions or tips they'd be greatly appreciated. As it's pretty sketchy driving around with dim break and indicator lights, especially in the day!

You could help save my par losing what little hair he has left, we're stumped!

Thanks for reading again. Back soon, stay tuned!

The weather was nice today, (by nice i mean not raining aha) so I figured i do the back brake refurb. This was an important job to get done as if you remember earlier on in the thread i mentioned that my driver side rear hub had a threaded hole for one of the wheel bolts. So my wheel was only being held on by 3 bolts, which had been on the back of my mind while driving most of the time.

Over all it was a pretty straight forward job, heres the photos of what happened:

Started with the dodgy hub, as you can see she was looking tired. I had no idea if these had ever been looked at. So was keen to do so as these could be untouched in 29 years:




You can see a trolly jack in the background which I'm borrowing of a friendly neighbour. Which is a lot less kurfuffle than using a fiddley little jack you find in the boot of your car.

I got all the stuff from VW Heritage, they've proved to be pretty good with all the stuff i've got from them so far. Although there was a little glitch, of which you'll see later on.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the hub off, everything looked in all good working order:




I'm pretty sure the brake shoes have been replaced not to long ago, i was expecting them to be worn to bits. Here's a photo comparing the brake shoes i brought, up against the shoes already in the hub, as you'll see there's still a lot of use to be had out of the original shoes:




I decided to not replace any of the shoes or springs. VW Heritage do a tidy little refurb kit which includes all the springs required to overhaul two pairs of hubs. So i stuck these back in the garage to be used when they're really needed. So i'd be changing over the hubs and bearings, i thought if i was changing one side i might as well keep it even and do the other side while i'm at it.

Greasing up the new bearings wasn't a nice thing to do aha, however discovered some of my old mans grease which he'd has since the 70's which he used on his 3.0 Ford Capri, it's even older than the car it was about to go on aha!:


The new spilt pin also came in the VW Heritage kit:


Here's the finished article, looks a lot better if i may say. The only fault i could find with the Refurb kit was that the dust cap just wouldn't fit! I got the rubber mallet on and it still wouldn't go in. So unfortunately i had to use the original, but i guess that doesn't really matter, just me being picky about my car! aha:


The job didn't take long, and it's put my mind at ease that my wheel is not being held on by 3 bolts anymore aha. Thats all for now, thanks for reading! Will be back soon with possibly G60 front brake assembly and/or electronic ignition.

Firstly i'd like to thank anyone who voted for me for COTM. I really do appreciate it, as i've only really just gotten over the fact that i own a MK1 let alone it being COTM!

Secondly i'd like to apologise for the lack of activity recently. I've returned to Plymouth to finish my exams till the end of May, but then i'll be home again for a long summer.
I've been toying with the idea of doing the AFH 1.4 16v bike carb conversion. Been reading up on it lots, and would really like to do it! However, being 18 almost 19, and this summer i'll have my 2 years no claims, insurance is still a monster. despite the fact that it'd only be a 1.4! I guess i'll just have to see, if anyone has any tips on insurance on this conversion i'd love to hear.

Thanks for reading, Shaney.

Your not the only one looking into this conversion of late, i have been looking at it as well. Just seems like the perfect engine to go into a previously small blocked MK1, little revvy engine sub the big block tax bracket.

Insurance wise is might be worth a look around footman james and other classic policies, the big companies seem to run a mile when you mention engine conversion.

what shade of brown you got there, my mate has a Porsche brown MK2, I'm still not sure on the colour, but he likes it.

Final one, what specs on your RM's?

I've got the actually paint code at home, although i'm at uni till the end of the month, but will get back to you on that one. As i'm not 100% on it the colour.

My RM's are 15's, centres are BBS silver with a 2"inch chrome lip on them. They're pretty perfectly proportioned in my eyes aha.

Reckon you'll undertake the conversion? Would be handy if you made a build thread aha!

Cheers, Shaney.

Not much to report unfortunately, the weather has been pretty rubbish as i'm sure you are all aware. Been home from uni a few days now, got a long 4 months off ahead

I had a few days of sunshine, and due to some roadworks going on near my house, my Golf was very grubby! I couldn't relax knowing this so i gave her a good clean and a little wax, and she came out great!:





I'd like to clean up my engine bay soon as it's looking tired. I've read about leaving some of the parts like the rocker cover to soak in a white vinegar and salt solution? Apparently this takes the rust right off? Would like to hear some other peoples methods of removing there rust. Then maybe hit it with some wet and dry, and then finally polish 'em up!

Been working a lot, wanting to save up for an AFH conversion. Although this could not happen for quite a while due to lack of funds and being a youngen' when it comes to insurance, so don't except anything to soon aha.

Thanks for reading, hoping to get someone stuff done like the electronic ignition (if anyone has any advise on this, i'd be greatful!) and the front brake conversion too when we finally get some sunshine.

Shaney.

Nice car! looks really tidy! A couple of pointers for you.

The rear lights, check the bulb holders, unplug them and get a wire brush on them on every metal bit you see, where the bulbs sit in and where the connector sits on, be very meticulous. Afterwards give it a coat of silicone greese. Clean the terminals inside the connector block, check the wires as they go into the terminals on the connector block. If your earths are good then I'd be stumped too, I did this job a couple of months ago and it was the bulb holder/light board was lightly corroded.

Electronic ignition, I have fitted this to my 1300 driver and it's awesome, no more adjusting or burnt points to deal with. My issue with it is that I have the ducellier distributor fitted to my golf, now they don't do a kit for that, (If you have a bosch then your in luck!) I had to get a kit for a Metro I think it was. Whilst fitting the kit I noticed that the vacuum advance wouldn't work due to the postition the sender bolts in. the vacuum advance failed on my Golf years ago and haven't noticed much if any difference since so almost a year later it's still fitted and works a treat, That is until I too do the AFH Conversion :wink:

nice care mate, if i am not mistaken this  was owned by a fellow member here ….. not too sure… any pics of the interior

mk1golfdriver said

 That is until I too do the AFH Conversion :wink:

Thanks for the pointers! Really appreciate that, and your comments too. I guess i'm still not really over the fact i own a Mk1 one aha. I'd love to here about any progress you make with the AFH Conversion, i'm keen to do this. Good luck!

allana13 said

nice care mate, if i am not mistaken this  was owned by a fellow member here ….. not too sure… any pics of the interior

Yeah i believe it was, got it from a chap called Joe from Horsham, don't know if you know it? I'll get some snaps of the interior over the next couple of days. It's got black and grey striped seats, in pretty good condition. Thanks for the comments!

Cheers,

Shaney.