1983 VW Golf MK1 Clipper - 1.6 and 1.8 GTI Wolfsburg

Hey everyone!

My friend and I have just bought two 1983 MK1 cabriolets. The one (the donor car) is a 1983 white 1.6 mk1, and the frame we are using (because the donor car isnt a Norwegian registered car) is actually a 1.8 GTI Wolfsburg edition. This is the car that everything from our donor car will be moved to.

We will start out with the 1.6 engine in the Norwegian car, but eventually we will find a 1.8 GTI and move that over.

The plan is to rebuild the car and make it into mint condition.

We have brand new wheel arches, Weitec coilovers, 8 ATS 13 and 14 inch wheels, new frond and rear panels and so on. The car has mint condition seats with the checkered patterns and the car has the black VDO dials.

This is the donor car (German registered)


And this is the Norwegian 1.8 GTI Wolfsburg frame we will move everything on to.


The car, when ready, will be repainted. We will paint it white, and try to get some ATS Classics on it. We will adjust the car to be low, and a small clean stereosystem will be installed in a way that doesnt look too much out of place.

We do have a problem with the engine right now. The car had been still since 1994, and still has the same oil and fuel. We have filled new fuel, but not yet changed the oil because we suddenly cant get it started. It started before we changed the sparkplugs, so we changed back to the sparkplugs it had when it started but still wont start. No clue why, any thoughts?

Anyways, this is our project

Alright we bought a 1.8 GTI engine today for a wopping 100 pounds. Complete engine, so now we have the engine for the rebuild

Not much activity on this board is there…

Well now I am trying to figure out if the 1.6 wiring harness works on the 1.8 gti engine.

Also I need to know if the gearbox from the 1.6 fits on the 1.8 GTI. Any help?

1.6 gearbox will fit 1.8 no probs. I'm pretty sure the engine wiring is the same as well. You are going to be busy! Have fun! :-)

Thanks for the reply man

Alright thats great to hear! Yeah theres some work going into this project, but its all fun and also there are not very many mk1 cabriolet GTI in Norway so thats cool too

I do need a new camshaft for the gti engine, and also fan wheel I think and waterpump wheel. Anyone got spares?

looks good look forward to seeing this being pulled together :-)