My 82/83 mk1 golf gti

As some of you know or have seen I got a canny little mk1 back in May last year. I bought it thinking it didn't need much work to keep it on the road, oh how I was wrong haha. 

When I got her home she looked like this 

With in a short time realised she had a few issues. Rear arches were cleaned down and repainted 

Once that was done she got some new wheels and coilovers 



I refreshed the cowling 

She ended looking like this 

Mattig steels (I think?) look amazing. Guess it goes well with the ABF in it?!

The steels are weller road sports, yeah it's a abf, just uploading some more photos haha my phone crashed when I put it all in one comment 

At least we aren't still in the days of getting film developed and scanning them in  

So after sorting out some basic stuff we found the car was running rough, after reading through the little history I got with the car it turns out that the head is quite heavely ported and it's possibly running cams. Put a cold air feed in and a breather on the isv  had a few cooling issues but this turned out to be a air lock due to a leak on the top pipe on the rad. After sorting this a decided to clean up the rocker cover which unleased a hole can of worms  after pulling this off it turned out to be the incorrect rocker bodged on. Looked closer again at the conversion which was done before I got the car which turned out to be a total joke. The conversion was done by the dautche doktors. Anyway got this sorted with the correct cover  some more photos of what's gone in to the car   the huge hole in the sill and floor which was found 

There still loads to do, new parcel shelf and scuttle tray is needed, some rust pervention in the boot and under the seats, exhaust is blowing just down past the manifold, this was discovered after the new system went on. 
Car needs the engine bay sorting and a bit more welding, poor clutch cable fix and so on. 

Where I hope to go with it: am hoping to move it on the itb via omex set up to eliminate the shocking wiring in the engine bay, it will be going on to a 02a gearbox on cable clutch with possibly a short shifter like cae but not sure on that yet. 

Nice car Kris, like it a lot. Love the steels as well, they look well smart!!

Cheers fella, spent 2 months researching wheels before I decided on these, drove me wife mad! Was looking for ATS Classics but the 15x8 / 15x 7 which are rare. Still a way to go yet buts she's used most days 

Shame about the few issues but looks a lovely MK1 Kris. I love the wheels too, very nice  

Cheers fella, another fopar found by the duche doktors today  fuel lines have been set in the incorrect place so they look to have been fowling in the steering rack. Another one to add to the list 

ouch - pretty sweet base though

I am now dreading picking mine up, as your first pictures looked OK.

Least mine is in kit form.

cheers nicko, yeah am just not sure what direction i am going to go with it once the little issues are fixed. engine needs to be taken out and bay cleaned, repainted, and welding done in the placed that need it.

Mas i dont think i would ever buy a mk1 with out going to see it. this was the 3rd or 4th car i went to see, the other ones looked clean but when i delved deeper there were some massive issue, one car and no drivers floor, Not joking, sat in it the seat dropped a few cm then i couldnt initially work out why the foot well was so bouncy, turned out to be sound deading and what i think was either fibre glass or bodge., stamped on the floor and loads of it fell off underneath and it had a very simliar fix in the rear the guy was after over 5g for it. total mine feild.

this car wouldnt have been half as bad if the engine conversion was done properly. if i known now what i did when i went to see it i wouldnt have paid what i did for it and possibly wouldnt have taken it. but then again i could never part with it. haha

quick-ish update, after my car trying to slowly kill me with carbon monoxide posioning found out my manifold is cracked and the heater was blowing al the fumes into the cabin, which am guess is also the reason why it sounds like a deisel at the minute as well, so current list of jobs is mounting up to do before may, new manifold and initial pipe, new steering rack boots, fuel lines reposioned, tracking done, new radiator and heater control valve, blah blah haha MOT due in july so this might be fun.   

Ouch that's not good!    Glad you found the problem  

the problems got worse now dropping the engine out at the start of may, me and my mate have taken a week off work to sort everything out, engine out sort the bay out, replace all the leaking hoses, track down the oil leaks, clean the block, relocate the header tank and battery, repaint brake servo and clean and repaint the bay. in 6 days in my street. haha

Great project. Glad you're getting it all sorted, will be lovely when you've finished  

Matt

Looks amazing! Love it