1.1 Suicide door project started...

So today i picked up my first mk1 golf off one of my best mates…

Its a 1.1 1981 series two with suicide doors and a clipper body kit among a couple of other goodies.

In the mean time i plan to tidy it up and get it in a road worthy condition and then it will be a case of doing bits as i go along.

Future plans will be,
1.6 Gti engine with k jet (again off my mate)
Full set of decent coilies
Full set of Strut braces
Maybe some other alloys
put some more ancillary gauges in the dash
install a stereo
work out how to use the fancy alarm system!  :mrgreen:
Trim up some door cards
Give it a clean and polish!
tidy up a few bits and bobs with some paint
Put on a grille
get some headlights
generally give it a good tidy up!
Sort out the tracking
Get the engine running right
Find some inteior door handles
Fix the Glovebox
Get some decent harnesse
Get a Haynes manual for it just incase!


here are some pictures of it today when i collected it!

If your wondering why there are odd wheels its because the tarantulas are ones i bought for it and it was on the steels already but the two rear tyres are flat so i chucked them on to get it back!






Here it is in its new home at my works workshop for in between customer cars! and overtime  :wink:




a snap of the suicide door and the interior






From what i have found so far….

IT has a spy alarm system installed, with remote start and poppers for the suicide doors
The side repeater pops the door when it has battery (if the batteries dead… unlock the boot with the key and climb in! haha
it has been de locked and de handled apart from the boot
It has been lowered on what i believe to be H&R springs but i will need to investigate with a clean cloth!
The bonnet has been converted to open sideways
It has GTI seats re trimmed in leather and swede and matching rears
GTI steering wheel
Electric Windows
Single Wiper conversion
Rear wiper removed
Clipper Bodykit
Indicators from the body kit have been moved into the lower front grille
Smoked rear lights
Harnesses for the front seats which i will probably change to seatbelts not sure yet
A water temp gauge
A couple of stickers which i will probably be removing!
The wing mirrors are also different as well not sure if they are anything special or not!

theres probably other bits i havent discovered yet which i am planning to other the next few days!

Tomorrow i am taking the other tarantula wheels and putting them on the front so its looks a bit tidier in the workshop.

Also going to sort through what i have and make a list!

I have got the battery on trickle charge so i am hoping to have a play with the alarm system and work it out :/

as i have never had an alarm on any other car when i get one like this; with four buttons and a display with flashing lights and a car doing things which vibrates it all gets a bit too much for me  8O

I have a feeling the boss is going to get peed off with the alarm noise by the end of the day and generally me! haha

I am looking at buying some old gauges off my dad to fit in the golf give it a retro feel… at the moment the electric window switches are in a gauge pod and i might look at relocating them and then having 6 gauges in it and a stereo! but thats all in the future!

As always the parcel shelf is cut out every where for speakers! i know they are like rocking horse doo doos to find an uncut one so i mite look at covering it myself i am not sure yet!

One thing i have noticed though which is worrying is how close the alternator is to the oil filter :/

I shall be adding and crossing things off my list on here with picture updates as i proceed!

I think its time i write up a cost list as well :/ for the parts i NEED first of all then parts i also NEED

I will be no doubt asking for help and advice from the more experienced golf owners on here!

pretty cool. when i was looking for a 1.1 not long ago i was going to ask about this one but the ad said something that put me off (totally forgotten what haha). looks like a lot of work has gone in and its a bit different! will stand out

is this the one with the side openning bonnet?

That was on ebay a few times last year.

I remember this car at gti international about 10 years ago, was a magazine feature for sure !!

really groundbreaking stuff at the time !!!

good luck with it!!

Looks a damn site better than the pics in the adverts I saw of this a while ago, quite a fan of the colour too

I almost bought this car for £600  about 5+ years ago in London, was going rotten on the front panel and the bottoms of both doors had started to rot through, rear headrests were held in by wood and the guy climed in through the boot to open the front doors!!

It really haden't been looked after too well so I backed out. I'm guessing it was the second/2rd owner sinse the work was done. It was also halfway through a head gasket change.

Loved the fact that the indicators open the doors. It also had a jetta front end conversion.

It looks like whoever bought it since then has really put some effort into it. looks really smart now! Well done!


Here are a few photos of it back in 2001 at gti international.

The wing mirrors are also different as well not sure if they are anything special or not!

These are quite special if i recal, saw a set go for around £100 on ebay a few years back.

i remember the feature from way back. The guy who built it now has a seriously sweet silver mk1 g60 with bbs splits

I remember it being on ebay about 4 or so years ago. Bring it back to its former glory, been on the scene years!

They are engelmann mirrors. Best looking after market mirrors IMO. Found on opel mantas depending on model

brucieboy said

is this the one with the side openning bonnet?

Sure is, here is a pic of it when i first saw it. It had porsche alloys on it before which were removed by the old owner before my friend bought it.

Oh right so it seems i have stumbled accross an old legend, i wonder if anyone has anymore pictures of it at all?

The battery didnt have an earth cable and in both alarm fobs the batteries were dead and the boot is the only way of getting in without power!

The interior looks a bit tatty in places, it doesnt have any door cards as the old ones have been ripped apart however i have got templates for them, so like i have done on my mini before in similar trim to the seats.

The bottom of the doors are bubbling up again and there are a couple of scabby bits here and there on it.


I have been going through the bits and bobs on it today investigating it a bit more and getting through the bits and bobs that were in the car.


It came on horrible rusty steels which looked terrible, i have now put on some tarantulas to make it look a bit better!





On Taking off the front wheels i noticed it had vented discs and calipers on the front not sure what they are from though any ideas? maybe a later golf? they still fit under the 13s with hairline clearance





Looking over things it looks like the o/s/f front end had a bit of botched repair on it and the spare wheel well has a couple of holes in it as can be seen below




The doors show the tales of how many times it has been re sprayed. So it looks like it was red originally small chips in other parts of the car show it as well.




The dash looked a bit untidy as well many things were stripped out and buttons are not the right length for the heater etc.





The button is missing on the glove box





I didnt like the electric window buttons where they were and the gauge wasnt plugged in so i decided to take them out and move the electric window buttons into two small purpose made holes in the alcove in the centre console as can be seen here.






I found a smaller window wiper but need to secure the arm on properly and tidy it up around the scuttle


Tomorrow i am going to get an earth for the battery and have a check over and give it a go on starting and to see if the alarm system is still programmed in or not. Working on it inbetween customers cars and on it whilst munching lunch and after closing time.

how hard would it be to repair the suicide doors where they are bubbling?

the rear seats dont seem to have the holes for the head rests but i am going to look into this a bit more as i do have the head rests.


Does any one know what wheels are on it in the second pic from alfie? They look quite good on it actually!

Unfortunately i dont have the headlights and the grille from before but i spose i can build it into a new fresh version of what it used to be before.

my god my last post was a long one!

I think I have managed to find the guy who originally owned it and done all the bits and bobs to it and have sent him an email. Hopefully he gets back to me!

It seems it has been passed from person to person and hasnt touched the road since 2004!

http://www.westsidevw.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2658&highlight=&sid=3db510c98a79d787bc952e7fbfdfd2d3

This link might help, think it's the original owner ( mat) on there, looks like they are referring to the guys I almost bought it from in southal!

thanks Alfie i found the same thing, he is the one i have emailed so with a bit of luck might get some stuff back on it. Would love to find the feature on it in a back issue!

okay i have hit my first rather big issue, i wanted to get the car up and running on this 1.1 in the meantime…

However i topped up the coolant and it all came back out around my feet. Reason being not a hose but a core plug in the block above the oil filter. It looks like someone has tried to remove it before but couldnt get it out, so instead theyv left two holes in it which is lovely for water! luckily i had a pan under the car collecting the drips of oil so i moved that to collect the water.

All the others had been replaced and who ever was doing it obviously got bored of this one when it presented a challenge so they left it with two holes.

Probably one reason why it hasnt been on the road for some time.

Took all the air box off and inspected the carb and the fuel lines.

The carb needs a very good clean and the line from the pump to the carb inlet is split in several places to the white beads inside!

This poor car really hasnt been treated properly, i have a feeling that what i had hoped to be a fairly quick fix up and go is going to turn into a large overhaul!

I dont think i will go for the Gti lump yet as it has done a lot of miles and could pose more issues :/ not just with itself but with the rest of the body!

Today i have connected the battery up and powered up the electrics!

The alarm was all still programmed in which was great and the door poppers still work!

The car wouldnt crank even though the starter had voltage, after an investigation it turned out the car didnt have an earth to the body from the gearbox, so just to check we connected a jump lead from the box to the negative terminal and it cranked over, we didnt do it long enough to start as the manifold wasnt on it would have made a hell of a racket!

Going to put some new fuel hose on in the next couple of days and grab some paint for it hopefully next week.

Theres a local Volksfest Show to me at Northweald Airfield and it looks promising for some of the bits and bobs on my list so i think i will check here for some used parts that i need like interior handles and new core plugs and go from there really!

Funds are still tight so its stuck on essentials at the moment still!

Its still making steady progress though it is getting there already!

And iv worked out how to use the alarm

Engine has been up and running after replacing the core plug, and altho it was a little bumpy at idle it drove okay had a little drive up and down the yard!

However another core plug that wasnt replaced before the second one behind the exhaust has gone. So tomorrow morning im in work at 8 to get it on the ramp do a little inspection and to undo the exhaust manifold to get to the core plugs. becuase it is right in the way i will have to split the manifold from the down pipe hopefully all goes well! they dont take long to get in thank god!

We got the core plugs of Euro Car Parts and due being on a business account we got two for the expensive price of £1.01! handy we got two!

Still going on sunday to get some more bits, got a little bit more money now, so its onwards with…

Distributor cap,
Clip for above
Belt Cover
Fan Belt

and maybe something else engine wise i cant remember but is on my list. Then whatver i have left can go on things like splitters and lights

right been a few days without an update.

I have replaced the fuel line from the pump to the carb.

Once it run up to teperature another core plug had a hole in it so it all came out of that one as well. So i replaced it.

I went to volksfest at northweald on sunday and collected a fair few bits including…

A pair of securon harnesses
A set of VDO ancillary gauges from an audi quattro by the looks of it.
Some interior door handles
A glovebox lid with a locking key
A pair of headlights
A fan belt

So i have fitted the ancillary gauges in the centre console where the electric windows were, i just need to wire them up now!
This now means i have 5 VDO gauges and just need one more which i may have one for soon!

I still need to get some other bits for it like gaskets and need to set the timing up properly for it, and get a new timing cover as well!

We had a busy week last week so i didnt manage to get a major amount done but made some progress!

Pictures to follow tonight!

Bad news guys!

I got the golf up and running properly and took it for a little drive in the yard.

It was all over the show and didnt feel right at all.

we took it back in and inspected it and it appears to had a shunt in the back and the chassis is slightly bent, not only that it has had a lot of bodged repairs and patches put in. This means that we would need to cut a lot of the body out to be able to repair it properly and its just not feasable.

So i am going to strip down the car have to sell the bits and bobs off it!

Once everything is stripped i will sell the body as it may be of some use to someone.

It is such a shame but unfortunately its just been too bodged to repair.

Such a shame! Feel for you right now! Would have made an greet little show car once finished! 1st dubs in the seats tho if they are any good!