1600 GTi re-build

hi guys.  new to this forum and to mk1's but am liking what i see.  it will be good to meet some of you at the shows this year.  some of the projects on here are great and it has been good to see how to do bits and bobs before acctually having to do it for real.  

got my first mk1 golf last week and can't wait to get it out on the road again, but i as you can see i have my work cut out over the next couple of months.  this is how the car looked when i bought it.  looks ok in the picture but i hadnt really had a propper poke around at this point.



when i got it home and in the garage i started to strip it down so that i could find all of the rust that was lurking behind the touched up paint.  also put my mattigs on so that i can roll it around easier and so that i can refurb the origionals if i decide to use them.



that is as far as i have got so far.  found that the rear arches are acctualy made of filler!!  so these will have to be replaced along with some rot around the windscreen, however the a-pillars, inner wings, inner arches and sills seem ok which is reasuring.  

the front and rear valances have been painted with some sort of textured paint.  not sure if this is standard or if it has been done to cover some rust.  will try and expose some of it later on in the week to find out but im not supposed to be working on it until after my exams  but what dad doesnt know cant hurt him right?  :wink:

will keep this thread updated with pics of any progress as and when things get done

i am in need of a fuel pump as well so if anyone knows where i can find one it would be much appreciated.

Tom

hi tom

looks like this is going to be a good project, good luck and keep us updated!

the textured paint is called stonechip, they applied it round the lowest parts of the bodywork to give it more of a chance against the elements and loose stones flicking up

cheers

john

Nice project there  8)

I'd recommend checking around the rear axle mount's as this is another common place for them to rust

where abouts are you based?

for parts, first place to call is Richard (Crazyquiff) who's on here and has a advertised link to the right  :wink:

VW should still have fuel pumps available but have you checked your getting 12v to it? saves spending ?100 on a new pump if it turns out to be a dodgy wire or relay  :wink:

keep us posted on updates and good luck with your exams

thanks for the replies people.  hada look around the rear axel mounts.  everything seems fine.  the fuel pump is not acctually attatched to the car so i will hook it up when i get chance and hopefully it will work.  if not i have heard that i may be able to get an uprated one for the same sort of money.  i work at halfords on saturdays and tried to see if i could get a replacement one from here and that was ?160.  and that was trade price!!

based in Malvern mate.

got a bit of work done last night.  found some rust in the passanger side floor pan so i set to it with the grinder.



and then set about re-making the rail type bit underneeth.  not sure what this part is called :dontknow:



and then the floor itself.



the welds are very messy but they are solid and you can't tell after they have been ground down any way.



there is another hole behind the seat mount which i am going to start now.  it looks as though the car has ground out in something an dthe metal has torn/ripped and rust has started to form.  more of the same to come, hopefully later tonight.

Tom

got a bit more done yesterday. there was another hole in the passanger side floor.  i managed to get this repaired and get it out of the garage for some pics.

first here is the floor repair.  again the welding is crap but strong as there is so little room to move underneeth the car.  i covered the brake lines with some heatproof matting so they didnt catch fire.



then i turned it around so i took the chance to get some pics with our van



then i could attack the other side with the wire wheel and look what i found 8O!!  do you ever get that feeling that things are better left alone??!!



at least i found it and will be able to get it fixed properly without a ton of filler.

thats how she stands at the moment but it has now been moved to a garage where my dad works, which means a 40 mile round trip everytime i want to get anything done.     on the plus side i will have more space and i will be able to spray it where it is now.

need to get some pannels ordered before i can really do anything else on the body so until i do that i might drop the rear beam out, clean it, polybush everything and get it back together.  

Tom

Your rear corner looks a bit like mine!

May be worth dropping the rear beam, I'd guess beam mounts could be in need of some attention?

good to know im not the only one.  i guess mine will probably be like that behind the arch as well  will get round to the droping the beam another day so that i can poly bush it all but the mounts are fine.
got the rear numberplate area sorted today, will get some pics up in a bit.

before


after


i am going to need to repair where the numberplate lights are aswell as this is showing signs of rust, not sure wether to repair or get a new pannel though.  what would you guys do?
cheers for any help

Tom

Nice repair :wink:

If now other rust in top half of panel then maybe best to get lower rear valance only as I think only about ?20-?30. If you get the full off Crazyquiff, I think its about ?145, so big difference!

Wanna sell me them mattigs lol

cheers for the advise on the rear pannel.  i will have to see if i can see how much has been eaten into and hopefully will be able to repair it.

i used to have them on my polo and when i tried to sell it no one wanted the car but everyone asked me about the wheels.  so sorry but the wheels aren't for sale mate.  

will get some pannels on order this week so that i can make some real progress when i next get over to the car, hopefuly on sunday.

cheers for the comments
Tom

got a little bit more work done on the car today.  
first thing i did was to have a look around the spare wheel well.  at first it seemed ok but after a quick poke and a cloud of filler….



this was cut out and replaced with some fresh metal




i am in need of a bit of advise now.  it looks as though the front panel has been put on wonky at some point.  judjing by the rest of the car, i doubt it has been replaced and thought that there would just be a load of filler covering something up. so i cleaned several patches along the panel but i couldn't find any filler.  

the passanger side is fine and sits flush with the wing, however the drivers side sits about 10mm behind the wing.



could this be due to a bad repair, or a dodgy wing.
any advice on how to fix it would be much apreciated.

Cheers
Tom

managed to get a bit more work done on the car yesterday.  started to cut away one of the rear arches in anticipation of getting some new ones.  some metal at the bottom of the inner arch had started to rot away, so oi set about getting it as it should be.







will need to trim this to fit as i wasn't sure how much i would need. better to have too much than too little.  if anyone has pics of this area as it should be would you be able to post some up or pm some please.  it would be a real help.

yesterday i made the trip to crazyquiffs to get the new panels and i have the day off college tomorow so i am going to make a start at getting some decent metal in.  

im not really sure what order to get the new panels in either.  i need to replace 2 rear arches and the complete rear panel.  wasn't sure which one would be best to put in first.  any views on this would be much apreciated too

Tom

Nice work! Doing the rear panel first may be good? It would give you a good reference point if you're repairing rear corners at back of arches.

cheers.  will try to get that done today and will get some pictures up later on.

Tom

as promised, more pictures. :mrgreen:

the plan for today was to get the old rear panel off, and to get the new one on, however i discovered some
 rot at the back of one of the chasis rails.  this needed to be repaired before the panel closes it off but i didn't
 have any metal that was thick enough for the job.

when i first started to get the panel off it looked as though it was not a factory fitted item.  what would
 you guys say??? :dontknow:



neerly there



all off



managed to blank off the towing eye as well.



Tom

The weld on my rear panel looks the same. I've had same thoughts as you as I'm sure it's the original panel but the weld doesn't look very factory!

If you've not finished the panel yet, take a look at chudds thread on this as a good guide to doing it! :wink:

haven't been able to do much to the car recently as i have been revising for my A2 exams.  the last ones EVER

hairyarse - i couldn't find the guide to putting the rear panel on but i will keep on looking.

however i have managed to smooth the scuttle pannel that will be going in at some point.  







i have painted it in black for the moment as i think that it shows any lumps and bumps better than any other colour.  im pretty pleased with how it has turned out but it took so many skims of filler to get it right.  i kept sanding too much off  

anyway my exams are over on wednesday and hopefully i can convince my dad to let me bring the golf back to our garage soon so that i can crack on with it.

Tom

Great job your doing Tom  :clap:

Makes me feel guilty as I've not had to take a welding course and buy a load of tools  ops:

finally the golf is on its way home! :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:
i have just picked up a beast of a trailer for the whole day for ?30!  has a full on tilting bed and everything 8O



will get some pics up later when she touches down.
Tom

bit more progress.

drivers side chasis leg was looking worse for wear at the back so i needed to sort this before can put the new rear panel on.  
chopped out the rot and got the first new bit linned up.



then got the rest in.  everything in primer is new and will be seam sealed etc at some point.





more tomorow hopefully

Tom