1980 GTI (in Australia)

As posted in the Newbies forum, I collected my first Mk1 today.  

I have a quite few questions I am hoping more learned readers can help me with, so apologies for this long post. Here's a few pics to ease the pain!





















More pics HERE.

Q1. Where will I find a build date? The car comes with quite good history and from the paperwork I have it looks as though the car is a March 1980 build. But it would be great if I can confirm that. The paperwork shows the UK reg was FDL 588V, maybe this might help confirm its birthday(?).

Q2. S1 GTIs would have left the factory with the single headlight grille, right? Obviously I need to refurbish the red detailing, so just working out if I should go back to the single headlight grille while I am at it.

Q3. The research I have been able to do at this stage suggests the red striped seats weren't introduced until S2 in late 1980. If that holds true it looks like the previous owner (presumably in the UK) didn't dig the tartan seats!

Q4. What instruments should be in the two lower dials? This has a clock on the left and a temp gauge on the right. Given there is also a temp gauge in the binnacle under the rev counter, it seems a bit odd to have another temp display (albeit one with more detailed info, the range goes from 50-150?C). I wouldn't mind an oil temp gauge in there (probably at the expense of the clock) and was wondering if that was ever an OEM option?

Q5. I do have the original three spoke Wolfsburg wheel, but for some reason the horn doesn't sound with that one and the previous owner kindly fitted the later four spoke wheel so the horn is operational for my rego check. Is it just my wheel, or do all three spoke style wheels have horn sounding issues?

Q6. The wheels aren't the ones that came with the car, so a two part question here - what would the original wheels that were fitted to this car look like; and were the wheels I currently have ever a factory option?

Q7. Am I right in thinking the speakers fitted in the door are not original (was this an option), and is the radio/cassette player fitted from the era? If not, any clues on where I can find a reference for the original radio?

I think that's all for now. Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Cheers
Liam

Hmm, can tick a few of these off myself now…

Q1. Looks like has been answered, by coincidence, here:
http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=71057

Q2. Probably personal preference I guess.

Q3. Still pretty certain the seats in the car aren't original???

Q4. It would seem the other gauge is most likely an oil temp already, haha.

Q5. Any responses, clues?

Q6. I guess the car originally came with steelies or alloys similar to these:
http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=39105

Q7. Any responses, clues?

Looks great..I like to see that you want to put it back as it left the factory..  Single headlamp grill is correct I believe, Hella offered a twin headlamp grill option possibly back then. Interior has been changed your right, if anything it should be the grey interior I would say but Tarten is the correct interior for that car. Alos the wheels are incorerct may well be steels or could of had early 9 spokes depends when registered..?  maybe you could find what dealership it came form in the UK then see if they have any sales information on that specific car.  Nice one mate wish i had an early one like that even though I'm blessed with a Helios Blue Campaign with 91K on the clock you cant beat the early ones..  Great find..  I wonder how many more were shipped over or did VAG Australia sell any originally that are RHD & possibly in slightly better condition due to weather then some of UK models..

That's really nice and looks very clean and tidy in the pics…

I'd go with a single light grille (personal preference as you say) - it should also have a black VW badge being a GTI.

The wheels would have been the S1 alloys or steels - check out this thread for a pic of the alloys. The seats in that car are an original tartan - I'm not sure whether they were used for silver cars though, or whether there was a different shade for each body colour.

The two gauges in the centre console are correct, and the temp one is for the oil as you suspect.

The horn is often an issue on the Mk1 on all sorts of steering wheels. If you take the horn push apart on the 3-spoke wheel you may find dirty / broken contacts - whatever the problem, it should be a relatively easy fix.

HTH

Rich

Cheers for the replies.

chris said

I wonder how many more were shipped over or did VAG Australia sell any originally that are RHD & possibly in slightly better condition due to weather then some of UK models..

No Mk1 GTIs officially sold down under. Regular Mk1 Golfs were built here for a while, not sure of the exact history.

At a guess there's probably 15-20 genuine Mk1 GTIs in Australia, all personal imports.

She sounds pretty feisty…
http://www.liam27.com/mk1/GTI1600.wav

 

Gave the interior plastics a bit of loving today. Comes up great for a 30 year old car!  8)





Anyway, I have a question about the dash vents for the windscreen, am I missing any covers/trim from these vents?


(Pic taken before the clean up, haha)

TIA

Liam

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 8)

A few extras…

real beauty, love it,

What a difference the grille trim made! looks brilliant.

wow... a real transformation on the front end there looks ace what shade of red di you use? need to do mine, but id like to get it as near to original red as possible

3 pics….before during and after, and what a difference.

This is why I am loving my resto…the wee jobs that make a massive difference.

looks amazing, very nice.

Thanks for the comments everyone.  8)

Illy1983 said

wow… a real transformation on the front end there looks ace what shade of red di you use? need to do mine, but id like to get it as near to original red as possible

It's called "Le Mans Red" from the Power Plus Touch Up range. Not sure if this is an Australian only product, but there's no apparent website to point you too.

I have been itching to get this done so didn't want to wait to try and source a proper Mars Red solution.

This one looks pretty good, though.

So, I got something very cool in the mail today - a birth certificate of my car from Volkswagen AG…

 

 

 

This has solved some questions and raised others.

Firstly, looks like the twin grille configuration is how the car left the factory. It also appears as though the interior fabric has been changed at some stage, which I'd kind of already guessed at, so good to have this confirmed.

Anyone know what the "diagonal stripes Gazelle" fabric looks like?

However, the surprise is the documentation stating the car left the factory with a sunroof. I'd love to know when that was removed (presumably due to being a rust trap).

Chassis and engine numbers match, as well. Oddly, this had to be confirmed on a separate piece of paper, due to privacy reasons apparently.

I have the birth certificates too.

Gazelle trim was not fitted to the GTi.

Yeah, seems odd, doesn't it…

I will probably source the tartan material and recover the existing seats. Thanks to g60go for the tip on the fabric, too.  8)

Great looking car!, keep us posted on the progress.

Cheers

Dibbler.

Time for a bump!  8)









BBS RM012 6.5x15 ET33

Well I think your golf is looking about spot on now.

For me there is nothing better than a sorted standard car on nice rims.

Is that a mk2 back box (twin pipe)

Chris