New member intro - just purchased a Mk1 GTI Cabriolet

Good morning - I thought I'd say hello.

I picked this up yesterday. It needs lots of things doing to it, so I will undoubtedly be coming on here for help… but it drives and has an MOT, so it will be a bit of a rolling restoration.

I already have a looooong todo list after just a few hours of ownership :-)

Welcome to the club first of all.

Good looking Cabby you've got there mate.
So tell us a little about yourself and lots more about your Mk1? 🤔 👍🏼

Sent from my Smartphone ☃️

Welcome to the forum, something to keep you busy until the Spring comes!

RichardHall said

Welcome to the forum, something to keep you busy until the Spring comes!

Golf Cabrio said

Welcome to the club first of all.

Good looking Cabby you've got there mate.
So tell us a little about yourself and lots more about your Mk1? 🤔 👍🏼

Thank-you for the welcome.

About me? I am a car enthusiast (of course) and keen amateur tinkerer - with limits!

It all started when I owned a Renault Laguna. It was garbage and if I ever wanted to arrive at a destination, it became necessary to learn a few basics to keep it going!

The golf is my second rolling restoration (and 7th current car). The other restoration job is an Audi (80) Cabriolet V6 which I have been doing a light refresh on for the last 6 months. This is probably going to be sold in the spring to make room for the Golf in the main garage. Just a couple of jobs remaining on it.

I really wanted the Audi for a while and have been wholly disappointed with owning it. It really is just quite a boring, heavy and slow car. I couldn't even get excited about it on the drive home from collecting it…

The newly acquired Golf is way more fun. I drove it home yesterday PM (took over 5 hours) and thanks to a faulty starter motor I wasn't able to stop (at least not easily, I had to stop once at a petrol station)… so it was going to go one of two ways - fall in love, or come back feeling slightly frustrated.

So far, so good… It certainly has got a lot more personality than the Audi.

I wanted a pretty basic model, so it has manual windows, manual roof etc… less to go wrong (in theory). That said, it's riddled with issues; the heater/blower isn't working, the drivers seat won't lock in place (makes braking fun), the steering is vague, the brakes are especially poor, the radio volume is non-existent (appears to be some dodgy aftermarket wiring).

But it has a pretty solid body and mechanicals. It's done 105k miles (although the clocks have been replaced so it is showing 53k), it's the 1.8 manual and whilst not especially fast by today's standards, it just felt "fun", which is what I am after. That said, the driving conditions were terrible - coming back from S.Wales across the Brecons and Shropshire hills in the ice was not great.

Now that it is home, I'll be sorting the basics before driving it again

The last restoration I did before the Audi was a more extensive restoration on a 1971 Opel GT. I sadly had to sell that when I moved house to fund the new purchase, but I am planning to keep the Golf and get it as original as possible.

Welcome along mucker.

Sounds like you know what your doing.

Erm the brakes being rubbish and the steering being vague are generally how mk1's are!

Bigger brakes and servo help.

Ian

borednow said

Welcome along mucker.

Sounds like you know what your doing.

Erm the brakes being rubbish and the steering being vague are generally how mk1's are!

Bigger brakes and servo help.

Ian

I test drove a couple of other ones, and the brakes and steering in this are worse… a lot worse, in fact. I don't think the other 2 had any upgrades,  either.

I am also not in the habit of driving cars that aren't road legal (in spite of having a current MOT, I doubt this one is), so will get a few bits sorted ASAP.

I might look into upgrades, but was going to start with a refresh of the brakes all around, and rebuild the calipers, see what that gets me in terms of improvements.

The steering is particularly vague. I haven't had a proper look yet, but will probably start with replacing the ties rod ends and bits and see what impact that has.

Are there any "go to" suppliers for decent parts?

Welcome aboard mate, I am the owner of a very similar looking machine. So once you’ve got the basics sorted ie the brakes, steering and wiring do you have any more radical plans or are you planning to run as original


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

jamie8v said

Welcome aboard mate, I am the owner of a very similar looking machine. So once you’ve got the basics sorted ie the brakes, steering and wiring do you have any more radical plans or are you planning to run as original

Nice looking car you have there.

I have no plans for anything particularly radical, I'd like to get it as original and tidy as possible. At some point (long after Christmas), I'll be on the lookout for some 15" BBS wheels. I'm unsure if they would have been original to the car, but they are suitable "period" wheels at least and look the best (from what I have seen so far). The wheels it came with are pretty awful.

I may do something similar with the head unit to what I did for the Opel GT. I gutted an original headunit and fitted a bluetooth receiver and MP3 player in the back, I then connected the controls to the original controls on the headunit. It worked pretty well, looked completely original, but allowed me to listen to my music from both my phone and the MP3 player. It does stop it from receiving FM radio, though.

I even geeked out to the point of having a collection of period radio shows on the MP3 player, just to complete the experience ;-)

danmiddle2 said

borednow said

Welcome along mucker.

Sounds like you know what your doing.

Erm the brakes being rubbish and the steering being vague are generally how mk1's are!

Bigger brakes and servo help.

Ian

I test drove a couple of other ones, and the brakes and steering in this are worse… a lot worse, in fact. I don't think the other 2 had any upgrades,  either.

I am also not in the habit of driving cars that aren't road legal (in spite of having a current MOT, I doubt this one is), so will get a few bits sorted ASAP.

I might look into upgrades, but was going to start with a refresh of the brakes all around, and rebuild the calipers, see what that gets me in terms of improvements.

The steering is particularly vague. I haven't had a proper look yet, but will probably start with replacing the ties rod ends and bits and see what impact that has.

Are there any "go to" suppliers for decent parts?

Blimey must be bad then.

First port of call is always to renew the brake fluid and a good bleed, but I'm sure you know that already!

Occasionally the servo can develop a bit of a leak so if you're losing fluid or the vacuum isn't holding this can also affect the brakes. Check all the hard plastic lines and valves from the manifold to the servo.

As for parts, Ebay (tierod69 is rather good), otherwise Classic -VW and Heritage.

Personally I try and avoid JP Group parts as the quality can be a bit hit and miss. I've had less issues with Meyle and Topran tbh.

For special order items from VW then Veedub Machine  http://www.veedubmachine.co.uk/  can also be helpful.

Ian

borednow said

Blimey must be bad then.

First port of call is always to renew the brake fluid and a good bleed, but I'm sure you know that already!

Occasionally the servo can develop a bit of a leak so if you're losing fluid or the vacuum isn't holding this can also affect the brakes. Check all the hard plastic lines and valves from the manifold to the servo.

As for parts, Ebay (tierod69 is rather good), otherwise Classic -VW and Heritage.

Personally I try and avoid JP Group parts as the quality can be a bit hit and miss. I've had less issues with Meyle and Topran tbh.

For special order items from VW then Veedub Machine  http://www.veedubmachine.co.uk/  can also be helpful.

Ian

Thanks for the links, I'll take a look.

Yes, it isn't great, definitely not been wonderfully well maintained. Thanks for tip on the servo, I'll take a look

Welcome and am sure you will love your cab.

Welcome, where you based at. ? Try some 15" alloys or 14" standards should lighten up the steering, come visit me and we can try a set on ! Lol .
Radio yes get the speakers checked fronts especially need to be loud. Do my forget these cars are nothing like modern cars and wind noise is terrible.
Brakes again freshen up, see what's there, could be just needing fluid.  Heaters are a pain but needs doing, I'm same have 1 car barely defrosted windows, new matrix and motor is around 50£

The car was approved for 13" or 14" rims, Sportline's up to 15" on mainland Europe.

You can use larger of course and I have a set of BBS 15's from a Sportline on mine because they are within year and I like them a lot.

But unless you have power steering or the body of incredible hulk they're very heavy when parking! 😉 👍🏼

Merry Christmas 🎄

Sent from my Smartphone ☃️

Kenneth Cartwright said

Welcome, where you based at. ? Try some 15" alloys or 14" standards should lighten up the steering, come visit me and we can try a set on ! Lol .
Radio yes get the speakers checked fronts especially need to be loud. Do my forget these cars are nothing like modern cars and wind noise is terrible.
Brakes again freshen up, see what's there, could be just needing fluid.  Heaters are a pain but needs doing, I'm same have 1 car barely defrosted windows, new matrix and motor is around 50£

Thanks for the offer. I am near Market Drayton in Shropshire. I have just SORN'ed the car today whilst I sort out some of the essential mechanical's (still need to find a few times to finish off the Audi too). I may take you up on the offer to try some different wheels once I have made a little progress.

The car starts now, which is a plus!

Golf Cabrio said

The car was approved for 13" or 14" rims, Sportline's up to 15" on mainland Europe.

You can use larger of course and I have a set of BBS 15's from a Sportline on mine because they are within year and I like them a lot.

But unless you have power steering or the body of incredible hulk they're very heavy when parking! 😉 👍🏼

Merry Christmas 🎄

Sent from my Smartphone ☃️

I think the 15" BBS look the best from what I have seen so far… heavy non-PAS is not too much of a problem for me, but my partner is somewhat slighter. I was think of maybe some 14" BBS wheels from a BMW E30 might fit.

Welcome aboard,
looks like a busy time for you. But once you're sorted the summer fun is worth it, hot day roof down. Can't beat it.