1980 Golf GLi - possible resto?

I have a golf GLi cabriolet. It is not currently on the road, it is laid up due to a badly leaking roof!  I bought the car in Sept 03 at the end of the summer as a daily driver. By christmas I had a new car due to the seats and carpet being permanently soaking!  Now the weather is improving my thoughts are coming around to putting this car back on the road. I beleive that being a V reg'd GLi this is one of the first RHD cabriolets?  It has the old style dash and a wolfsberg three spoke steering wheel, both of which I hope are original, I hope someone can confirm this?

I am hoping that I can keep this car as original as possible, but this year I am on a tight budget. Please could anyone tell me about seats for Mk1 cabriolets. I think the seats fitted are probably series 1 type seats, they are a blue/grey vertical stripe.  Ideally I would like to get a set of seats the same, but I think for the moment I will have to settle for what I can get cheap! Would any Mk1 golf front seats fit my car, or dare I ask even mk2 golf seats? I beleive that the rear seats wil prove more difficult, the back part is unique to the cabrio, but will a back seat from any Cabriolet fit in my car?

I am sorry for the long message, I hope someone can offer me advice.

Sorry i am no expert on the Cabriolet but any Mk1 front seats will fit and any rear cabriolet seats will fit .

This is a rare car …..look after it ……

Any experts on here ???

wow, if its been water logged and laid up for so long I hope it was all dried out thouroughly or your floors, sills etc etc are going to be rotten……

Anyway regarding your question, as chudd says any Mk1 seat will fit fronts and any cabs for the rear. You should be able to pick a set up cheap enough.

I just hope you've had the roof fixed first  

I have been thinking about the floors, and sills actually.  I have not really had a good look at them recently!

My plans for this car at the moment are:

1. Check out the condition of the body.
2. Fix N/S dipped and main beam lights.
3. Fix the horn.
4. If the above are ok, I plan to take for an mot.

The future of the car really depends on the outcome of this, if it passes, or fails on only mechanical items, then I will keep this car and carry out some improvements.

Firstly, I will have the roof replaced, then I will try to source some decent seats.  If I get to this stage I will then just enjoy the rest of the summer in this classic golf.

If things are not so good, is there anyone out there interested in restoring an early Mk1 Cabrio?

He he!!…..my usual request, "Does it have a BROWN dash board"?

The horns on these cars seem to be a major headache, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. There have been long threads trying to describe the best way of fixing a non-working horn. Do a search to find the best and work from there. It will probably be the earth on the steering column which is in really akward place to get to behind the engine at the bottom on the bay, but above the strreing rack.

I have an '84 Cabby and that too had leaks in the roof for quite some time and it had been stood outside in all weathers for about 8 months over the winter. Surprisingly it did have a pool inside it and it dried out quickly with the windows down in a garage.

If the interior is brown, bagsy first bids on the cigarette tray surround!!

Dan

Sorry going a bit off topic  

If the interior is brown, bagsy first bids on the cigarette tray surround!!

Is this is for an early dash?? or the later one? I take it you mean the cigarette surround that holds the lighter? only ask cause I have one in my caddy which I noticed is brown but has been painted black which is chipping off……   if its any good to you.

Surprisingly it did have a pool inside it and it dried out quickly with the windows down in a garage.

Also you have to watch it with this one, ideally when a car interior gets wet you should remove the carpets and dry it all out properly, problem is that the carpets may be dry but the thick sound deadening stuff underneath wont be. Which sits up against the bodywork/floorpan etc.



Just food for thought  :roll:  when I stripped my Rallye the bulkhead was damp even though the carpets etc where bone dry.

I have been thinking about the floors, and sills actually. I have not really had a good look at them recently!

Just have a quick look underneath at the front corners and inner edges where the sill meets the floor, you'll soon see if there shot or not :pray: i've just had to do both sides on my Caddy complete pain in the ass  :doh:

You MOT man will tell you if its rotten or not.

I fixed the horn on mine by attaching it to a relay (there was a very weak votage, enough to switch a relay but not enough to sound the horn) - simple and cheap to do (see thread in Electrical section).

As for the seats, any Mk1 Golf interior will fit including the rather nice GTI seats and the later Rivage leather stuff.  Mk2 Golf front seats will fit too.  Sadly Mk2 Polo seats don't fit without lengthening the legs.

V reg is indeed very early for a Cabriolet.  Not just a RHD but any GLI as production (at Karman - not Wolfsburg) didn't start until 1980.  At first there was the GLS which was a 1.5 carb and the GLI which was the 1.6 GTI motor.

The Cabriolet is a bit of an oddball as it was launched just as the Series 1 gave way to the Series 2 but is basically a modified Series 1.  The small tail lights were kept throughout the production run as they allow better access to the boot.

You might find that even if the car fails on corrosion, for not very much money you'll get a couple of plates welded in that get you back on the road.  Not the ideal solution but certainly an acceptable alternative to seeing another Mk1 bite the dust.

V reg is indeed very early for a Cabriolet. Not just a RHD but any GLI as production (at Karman - not Wolfsburg) didn't start until 1980. At first there was the GLS which was a 1.5 carb and the GLI which was the 1.6 GTI motor.

Actually production started in February 1979 after the first prototype was built in 1976! Models were simply GL and GLi.

Cheers
Rajan

There's a brillient fix I found for the horn on mine.

1. Take the steering wheel off.

2. Prise the black collar type thing off the collumn that's under the steering sheel. Takes a bit of effort but it comes off.

3. Place sone tin foil around the bottom of this so it overlaps the edge and goes up the inside and up the outside.

4. Put it back on the steering collumn with the tin foil pointing downwards, make sure it's right down to the bottom.

5. Put steering wheel back on and tighten up!

The tin foil will form a bridge between the steering collum and the metal bearing at the top of the steering collumn (which is normally insulated by a plastic collar round the steering collumn)

It worked for me, and I'm sure it will work  for other people.

Mike.

Oh yeah - GL, not GLS.  I remember.  It was years ago I looked into getting one and ended up with an 1979 3-door 1100 hard top in Mars Red instead.  All the GL cabbies I looked at were a sot of brown/golf colour…

…or a nicer colour but too expensive!

My GLi is silver in colour with a black roof, I do not think these cars are very expensive any more. I paid ?550 with nearly a full MOT.

Regarding putting my car on the road, I have booked it in for an mot this coming Saturday. I still have most of the jobs left to do:

The N/S dipped headlight is still not working
The horn, when pressed is operating a relay under the bonnet but making no sound?
I also have no plastic washer jet on the front screen, can anyone tell me if this is a mot fail? If I tape the water hose to the bonnet and water hits the screen will this do? A local VW dealer told me its no longer available. I will not recieve one by Saturday if I have to buy from a breakers.

I still have a whole lot of work to do if the mot is passed, this includes:

Temp gauge not working (was before)
Heater not blowing warm air, and engine running cool
The roof ( a priority!)
New seats

I've never know an actual horn unit to fail - it is probably just the wires. If the relay is working when you press the buttons, then this is good as that is the harder part of the circuit to fix.

As for the washer - I think technically it should pass, though a picky examiner may fail and you would have to "Appeal".
Go to Halfrauds and get one - Any cheapy universal type thins should do. Just "bluetac" it in place on the bonnet or something untill you can get a proper one.

Stroller,

I can get one to you for Friday for a small sum.

Cheers

Rich

I managed to get my horn and lights sorted ready for the mot.

However I am being forced to forget about getting this car on the road!  The plan was to get it Mot'd and run around in it as it is over the summer.

It has failed the Mot on several points, and I do not have the money, or the space and tools to do the work.

It failed on the following:

Corrosion on the bulkhead - OS
Steering rack excessively worn on both sides
Bulging flexi brake hose- one front, one rear
both rear wheel bearing are noisy and have play
Wipers fail to clean screen (trivial)
Middle exhaust rubber missing (trivial)
Two front tyres below legal limit.

I am now thinking about selling the whole car as a resto project, maybe suitable for someone with more space & money than me, or may consider selling some parts?

A bit gutted though, as I really like this car, but cant justify as my daily car as my round trip to work in 115 miles!