Morgie's 81 GTi restoration - Engine bay time!

Firstly a little about myself…

My name's Dan, I'm 24 and I work mainly as a strip/fitter in a BMW bodyshop.

I've always been into cars and modifying cars but not always VWs although I've always loved the typical VW style .

Even though I work in a bodyshop I rarely get involved with the heavier side of things: welding, fabrication etc. so I decided I needed a project to practice my skills on…

…cue the MK1  

These are the first pictures I have of the Golf, it'd clearly been resprayed (badly) at some point but looked ok from a distance, not that it mattered as it was going to be done again anyway .

A few months later and I finally got around to dragging it into work to start the strip down:





Now I knew it would need work but I wasn't prepared for just how much!

The first areas I tackled were the scuttle panel and inner wings:







Obviously since that was my first real attempt at welding there was probably a bit more shouting, swearing and struggling than I've made out haha

Anyway on to the inner wing:









After tackling those little bits I felt a bit more confident so moved onto the rear arches…

I've got a cupple of mk1's you can practice on!Looks like a good base to start from, good luck with it.

sp8y said

I've got a cupple of mk1's you can practice on!Looks like a good base to start from, good luck with it.

Haha I'm done practising now, this was 3-4 years ago, just getting up to date  

Oh right, well the offers still there haha. Are you going to be keeping it standard or modified?

Plastic arches off to reveal….. yep, rotten metal

I ordered new inner and outer rear arches:



And started chopping into the quarter panel (it's only metal ):



Clamped the new inner arch in place and cut through both panels:



Then welded her up:



Primed and sealed:



Outer arch clamped, cut and welded:

sp8y said

Oh right, well the offers still there haha. Are you going to be keeping it standard or modified?

It will be modified but not too drastically  

I'm desperately trying to upload all the progress but my laptop is awful at the best of times, I'll try again later    

The driver's side was done in the same way, along with cutting out the rusty rear tow eye and welding up the rear seams:







Next up was the back panel/boot floor which had been previously bodged so I cut all that out and redone it:

This is the passenger side rear footwell :



And passenger side sill:



Floor cut out:



And sill off with the new inner lip made:



Old floor crossmember:



New floor in, lower part of crossmember and outer sill on:







Passenger side looking good!

The driver's side coming on nicely:



I decided to smooth the boot:



And a couple more plates:





Window runner :



Aaaaaand much prep work and sealing of the interior later:







Anti stone chip for extra protection:

wow looks like a great base and even better now, looks like you have the ideal place to complete the work, hope it all keeps going as well, Rich

After what seemed like forever doing filler and prep work the majority of the shell was ready for primer:



Now I'm not a painter but I had painted a few sets of wheels previously so I thought I may as well give it a go seeing as I had done everything up to this point. It turned out well
:



Straight after the shell was primed I moved onto the interior again and prepped it ready for paint:





I knew I wanted to change the colour of the car but even after 18 months I just couldn't make my mind up In the end I opted to paint the interior the very exotic sounding Reddish Beige from the Hyundai stable  with the view that it will go with whatever colour I decide to do the exterior.

I got plenty of stick about it being Pink but I can't see it myself :

richyhill said

wow looks like a great base and even better now, looks like you have the ideal place to complete the work, hope it all keeps going as well, Rich

Thanks Rich, yeh it's a great place to do work for sure. Now I've done it I feel confident I could buy some equipment and do it all at home which I might be doing on a new project this winter coming  

Nice work

Wow Dan, epic work for your first resto  

I'm looking forward to updates. Liking the colour too and I don't see the pink!

Where in the UK are you and are you coming to the AG next month?

The colour is more 'mushroom' than pink I would say  Great work so far, look forward to more updates.

Andy.

Thanks Chris

Hairyarse said

Wow Dan, epic work for your first resto  

I'm looking forward to updates. Liking the colour too and I don't see the pink!

Where in the UK are you and are you coming to the AG next month?

Thanks very much  I've still got some more progress to post up which i'll try and do tonight.

I'm about half hour north of London and yes I'm going to try and get to the gathering, never been before and I'm looking forward to it

It won't be in the Golf though, more than likely my Z3  

Melteddrummer said

The colour is more 'mushroom' than pink I would say  Great work so far, look forward to more updates.

Andy.

Haha cheers Andy, more updates on the way very soon!

Some top restoration work there, car looks great now, but a bit scary to start with when your floor pan is a vast hole.    Good luck with the rest of the restoration, keep the pictures coming. Matt.

Can I ask what anti stone chip you used?