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Toby's Cosmos Blue GLI 1800 Cabriolet

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Well I've been on the lookout for a cabriolet and this cropped up on ebay, I was looking for a early car to compliment my tin-top that I brought last year, I know it's greedy but it also means that I can spread my weekend driving over two cars to keep their respective mileages down.

So the listing for the car was pretty poor with out of focus pictures and a weak description, but seeing as I was looking for a light project took a chance on it.

Well the car was delivered to me by a chap that I used to transport my tin-top, thanks Arek. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived although Arek informed me that it wouldn't start, although it was running when he picked it up! Anyway to cut a long story short and after a week of checking various things the fault turned out to be the connector to the electronic ignition module.

The car has been off the road for 11 years but stored in a garage and started every year. Apart from a few little storage related dings and after a bit of a polish its come up pretty nice. The drivers seat is a bit torn so I hope to get a replacement cover for that otherwise it will be just a case of getting her through an mot and then just enjoying it.

Here's some pictures
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Last edit: by BrainsOnFire78

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Well done fella nice purchase..

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

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Very nice indeed and I can't remember the last time I saw one with that colour interior, cracking that!  :thumbs:

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Mike

There's me building mine 28 years ago, almost finished!        
  
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Hi, I haven't updated this in a while but plenty has been happening with my Golf. So here goes I shall start from the beginning.

When the Golf was delivered to me it would not fire up, it took me a while and with some help from a neighbour I determined that the fault was with the TC1 electronic ignition, over the years the connection had become weak and the contact was intermittent, so therefore my first purchase was a new module.

Upon fitting this the car fired up first time, great, but the idle was very low and the slightest touch of the accelerator and the car would stall, after a number of starts the car began to tick over and as the engine warmed the accelerator became responsive. With this I determined that I had a cold start issue. After running various tests with the 5th injector, thermo time switch and auxilliary air valve, all of which I replaced, I eventually managed to buy a brand new WUR off ebay for £80. Upon fitting this the car started from cold perfectly, the accelerator acted as it should and I was a very happy man.

So that was the K-Jet issues sorted. Next thing I did was to give the engine a complete service, I replaced the fuel filter, spark plugs, HT leads, distributor cap, rotor arm, air filter and changed the oil and filter. The car was now running great.

Next on the list was to replace the rotten filler neck, of course all the rust from this had ended up in the fuel tank so I siphoned out the fuel through the fuel sender hole into a bucket, of course I didnt have a proper siphon, the consequences of this was mouth full of petrol, yuk. I then tried the magnet trick to try and catch the flakes of rust but I can confirm that this definitely does not work, so feeling desperate I rigged up good old henry the hoover with some pipe and proceeded with caution to suck up the rust. I definately would not recommend using a electric hoover to try and clean rust from your tank as 1. the hoover for ages stinks of petrol and 2. you risk blowing yourself up, but alas I am a fool but thank god I did not detonate the fuel tank.

So next job was to overhaul the suspension, I decided to fit Bilstein B4 dampers and Eiback springs as this is what I have on my GTI and the ride is bang on. I refurbished the front struts with black POR-15 after removing the loose rust and can highly recommend this product it creates a kind of plastic coating and seals the metal from the air preventing rust returning. Also the brakes needed sorting all round so next was to fit new Kunifer brake lines throughout, Goodridge braided flexi lines, new Brembo discs and pads and completely replace the rear drums and inner working. Driving the old rear wheel bearings back into the new drums was not something that I had though about but after recalling a episode of Ed China using studding and combinations of various sockets eventually they seated in place. I also replaced both of the outer CV boots which was pretty straight forward, a case of removing the hub nuts and then sliding the cv joints off the drive shafts.

Sadly when I was replacing the brake lines next to the fuel pump that I had removed I found my first bit of serious rust, damn, I was so close to getting the car MOT'd as well, the side of the rear chassis bracket where the rear axle bolts to had a nice rusty hole in it, right next to the fuel tank.
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After consulting a local welder we agreed that the fuel tank was going to have to come off before a repair could be carried out. As you may well know to get the fuel tank off the exhaust and rear axle have to come off, and so here was my next challenge. To save myself a lot of money we agreed that I would strip the car down myself and get it ready for welding.
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My welder wanted £90 a hour, ouch, and said that I should look around for any other rusty bits that he would sort at the same time, I knew there was a bit of bubbling around the offside rear wheel arch so next job was to remove all the arch trim and this is what I found.
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Fortunately this was the worst of it a new inner and outer arch required, other than that just a few patches were required here and there, apart from the lip on the tailgate strike plate which also was quite bad.
14956567_10210542779707019_2442856535654422887_n.jpg So I got the welding all done in a day, I was pretty shocked by his methods in some areas but at the end of the day I ended up with solid metal where there was previously rusty holes, the chassis only needed a patch which was good also. When he had finished welding he slapped a  load of filler over his work to protect it as it was going to be a while before I could get the car painted, as it was the middle of January and damn cold.
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Whilst the rear beam was off I decided to give this the POR-15 treatment as well, and then it was a case of re-assembly. As I had the tank off I decided that it would be best to flush the last of the rust out with water and the left if to dry in the sun for a week or so.

The exhaust back box was also shot so that got replaced with a Ernst unit at the same time.

After sorting out all the electrical gremlins that the car was suffering from due to lack of use (windsreen wipers, headlights, indicators, horn, fog light, etc.) the car was ready to be MOT'd and off she went on a cold January morning.
15895299_10211098019147658_1173502610037843209_n.jpg And so pleased was I when she passed, I put a fivers worth of petrol in the tank, taxed her and went for my first drive. Boy was I surprised how sweet she runs, this car has not been thrashed at all being a GLI and family owned for most of its life.

Next job was the body work, this was not something I wanted to do myself and after chatting to a mate at work he recommended a guy that worked from home, I went to see him and he quoted me £300 quid to just sort out the areas that needed doing, bargain I though, he said he could paint it in a couple of weeks and would call me. Two months later i came to the conclusion that this guy was a total b#llsh#ter and after he blanked all of my calls came to the conclusion that this was not going to happen. Still haven't heard from you DAVE!! I tried another guy who didn't get back to me and then decided I would give it a go myself. This I have done, it is not to a great standard but will do for now until I can afford to get a proper respray in a year of so. After painting the car I polished it with a DA Polisher and the results are ok, the car is a number of different shades of Cosmos Blue but it will do for now.

I then refitted all the trim, a electric aerial, Blaupunkt stereo and Pioneer speakers. Whilst I was waiting for my paint job I stripped the door cards off, the front cards had been badly damaged by water and were warped. I decided to strip the vinyl off the old hardboard and remount it onto new board as I wanted the car to look as OEM as possible. Final job was to sort out the seats, I picked up a set of Rover Recaro half leather seats and have retrimmed the inserts with original VW fabric. The rear seat I have made a new cover for out of vinyl and the same fabric.

Anyhow here's how the car looks now.

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Last edit: by BrainsOnFire78

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Went to 'Classics On The Crick' in Naphill on Sunday, was a great show with a relaxed friendly atmosphere.
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Dano said

Nice motor. 👍

Thanks, its coming along nicely

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Looks like you've put in some hard works there mucker.

I love the blue interior, I'd forgotten that VW had a fetish for odd coloured interiors.

i see the handbrake isn't trusted  :lol:

Ian

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

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The Golf was in good company at Hedsor car show a couple of weekends ago
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