new VW owner from Across the Pond!

Hello All! I've just acquired a 1983 RabbitL 1.7L FI over here in Ohio, the States. Except for one fender (where it looks like the battery blew up or something) The car is almost rust free. With fenders being $100 shipped and parts pretty cheap over here, it looks like a great candidate to fix up.

I picked up the car for $200 from a friend of a friend who said they did a tune up and the car never ran right after that. Charged the battery, adcanced the distributor about 90 degrees, and she runs like a CHARM. Guessing he put the plug wires back on the cap one spot off. Oh well! His loss is my gain.

Here are some blurry pics!!!!







Dont pay attention to the missing back bumper. It's around Somewhere.

I'm going to ask a lot of tech questions in the other sections. Thanks for running such an awesome site!

Welcome!

It does seem that you US guys can pick up Rabbits (A1 and A2) (Golfs to us!) damn cheaply! I often read on Vortex how people have bought cars with great potential from just a few hundred dollars!

Good luck with your project…Are you tempted to "Euro" it?  :wink:

Welcome Aboard

That is some rot on that wing 8O  8O   Maybe worth your while putting wheel arch liners on with the new wings, help to protect them a bit better.  What's your plans, Back to standard or are you going to add some mods??

Keep us updated on your progresss, we don't get many bunnies on here!

Thanks for the welcome!

It seems only that fender has the rot! The rest of the car is VERY solid, just ugly paint. I really feel like it got some kind of corrosive on it.

And the rabbits/golfs do go cheap! I can grab one or two more in the 2-5 hundred dollar range. One diesel, one gas, and a slew of others on ebay. Hurray for everyone being busy with muscle cars!

Definitly mod. I dont want to rice it up per se, but i'd like to do some solid, clean, and FAST work under the hood. Thinking turbo stuff, or engine swapping plus a lot of detail work in the head/fuel delivery department. This engine seems to be rare and weird, so it really depends on what's available, or if i get another engine.

I will keep posting pics as we work on it, we could have this baby shiny awesome and fast by spring! I'll try to start a blog


I want to euro it SO bad. Euro = sex over here. I'm going to focus on body/interior/engine work first, then move on to bigger brakes, euro front, etc, depending on cost and effort. Pretty much do weekend jobs while driving in when it's done.


Thanks again for the welcome!

hi and welcome hope you find all the information on this site that you will need

Hi there, interesting to see non-euro spec golf's, engine looks externally the same as the 1.6 GTI engine. Look to hearing more.

Cheers

 welcome mate

8) Hi and welcome

just can't believe the state of that wing when the rest of the car looks fine! very strange

look forward to seeing progress pics, your plans for the engine sound very interesting too    8)

Thanks for all the welcome! Can't wait to really get into this bunny!