1981 Black 3dr 2.0 16V GTI

Hello, been on here a while but never posted a build thread so here it is!

Theres some big changes happening soon so I thought id get you up to speed with everything thats happened over the last 17 months first!

First you should meet Sven, this was my first MK1 that I never ran just bought for parts as it was going cheap


Would of been a weapon back in the day, but now was rotten.  So we did this


Then I had a bit of cash in my pocket so decided to buy this


It was a loverly looking car when I went to look at it, but then  got it home and discovered it was heavily T-cutted but still a nice car.  It also had this horrible school trousers interior with chavy chrome steering wheel/gear knob/ handbrake cover which all had to go and was replaced with parts from SVEN

Like the seats


Crappy grille trim


And other parts.  Next step was to just clean her up and take it out to some local meets where it got a bit of respect





And all was wel until one day….


BOOM! gear box explosion!, But I had a spare 1.6 FD  box from SVEN which I painted


Then I refurbed some 90mm shafts


And banged it in, ran it like that for about 3 months


Polished the manifold a rocker cover


Bought some chrome shiz


And fitted it



Refurbed my gear linkage


Chrome dash surround


I Ran it through winter 2009, she never let me down once.


Bought new wheels, Alleycats


Kept them on for 2 weeks, they were too small and I was too low but I still did a 500 mile round trip to pick up a 9a (2.0 16v) in them, on the way back with the 9a in the boot I was ripping cats eyes out the motorway…

Stripped the engine, fitted a P+P head then gave the engine a lick of paint




Mean while the car remained out in the snow


Got the engine fitted by a friend of mine whilst I was in Jamaica and came back to a beast, the extra .200cc makes a hell of a difference but I had to buy a new rear mount as mine couldn't cope


There was a few scabby areas in the bay



So I cleaned it up a bit



Then it looked like this


Then I bought and fitted some G60 steels and lowered it a bit more and took some arty shots



I actually won car of the month with one of these shots!  :dontknow:

Started getting oil problems with the 9a after about 8000 miles so I bought a few things.  oil catch tank and a new Vag oil pump and a uprated headlight loom to help me see better at night.


New battery and loom fitted


Me and my friend tried to figure out the oil issues


Oil was leaking down the back of the block when revved


So she was leaking but I couldn't figure out why.  I fitted a new VAG sump seal, intermittent shaft seal, rocker cover seal, cam shaft seal but still it was leaking oil from somewhere.  When I screwed the block together I used a metal head gasket set.  I just couldn't figure it out so I decided to keep running it and topping it up until the MOT ran out then retire it for a bit and figure out what to do next.

However, events conspired against me to ensure this couldn't happen.

I was driving down the a46 in Lincoln one night when out of nowhere a deer ran out into the road in front of me. This is what happened to it




I had to bodge it to get it back home, the intake manifold had snapped at the 5th injector


This is how it got home


I launched a crap wing and a red bonnet on it and drove it to a local body shop for a new front panel to be welded on






I put what bits I had left on it


Pushed it into my garage and there it has stayed since June.  I have since bought another 9a which im going to have re-built and ive just ordered a stand, crane and some strops.  Ive got a body shop comming round to quote me on some new panels and a full shoot next week.

Hope you enjoyed the read! too many pics I know lol

never enough pics, hope the car is back on the road soon

Glad to see your still into it! Been pretty unlucky with it but should look good!

nice build story, starting to look good again, will look awsome again soon though im sure

chris

p.s. never enough pics bud

Had an email from the place ive bought my stand and crane from, everywhere was out of stock of stands so I ordered from the one place that said they were in stock, then I get an email saying there out of stock!

Grrrrr! wont be ripping the block out next week then….

I hope you ate that deer!!

Got to get something back

I should of! I went back the next morning and it was gone so someone else did!

Ok so this morning a few parcels knocked on my door!

An engine crane, stand and slings! so by middle of the week we may have some actual progress

meanwhile I thought id share this


Awesome video.

Right ive had a mental few days

Had band practice in London on Tuesday finishing at 9pm and planned to drive strait up to where the mk1 is (county durham) afterwards.  About 10 mins into my journey I had a bow out so had to postpone until today where I drove up the 280 miles arriving at 3pm.  By 10:30pm I had the whole engine and box out.  All my wiring is labled and all bolts that came off the car are in poly bags with labels.

Off to the body shop next!  Ill get a pic of the gutted mk1 tomorrow.

Heres the pictures as prommised

Empty bay


Aftermath, 2 9a's there

Car is looking good! looking forward to seeing your next stages!

Great thread. lovely car  :notworthy:

Nice car great engine

Did you sort the leak? The inter shaft seal housing has a very thin green seal behind if you didnt know. I found mine to be leaking from mine.
Good build keep it up

possle said

Did you sort the leak? The inter shaft seal housing has a very thin green seal behind if you didnt know. I found mine to be leaking from mine.
Good build keep it up

I think the rings are gone mate, no matter what seal I replaced it was just leaking from somewhere else.  Best to pull it out and stick a new one in

OK so my parts have been slowly arriving in dribs and drabs.  Ive got most of them, GPC and funk-star are making a fortune out of me.



Still loads to come, most of the parts above are genuine VW stuff, its only the engine mount and speedo gear thats not.

Soz about the crap picture

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

I really don't know what im going to do now.

Some guy in the local paint shop has been like yea ill be over to look at the car 'give you a nice price' and all that jazz.  I try and ring him, no answer so text him telling him I need the car away and into his shop this week and can he call me.  I get this text back.

"having no engine is a problem for me as I have to push it about and thats a problem as im on my own."

Seriously WTF? has this guy never had a car into his shop with no engine before!? he is a VW specialist and about 2 miles from my house so it was perfect really.  So im off up to my house on wednesday to finish stripping the shell and now I have no clue about where im going to send it.  I have no idea about bodyshops in the North East as I haven't lived there long.

Sorry this is a bit of a rant but im just a bit gobsmacked.

what a prize pillock...after you rushing about

I know.

Well I slept on it and had a moment of clarity.  The paint doesn't have to be minty mint in the engine bay does it?

Im going to paint the bay myself this week week.  Then im going to drop my valver in and get an MOT on it and then drive it to a decent bodyshop.

Things arn't so bad.