1989 Clipper, finally started doing some work....

Well, I've finally started to do some work on my clipper. Nothing has happened to it over the last year as I had garaged it with the intention of doing it up, but then relocation forced me to sell it.

I left the car in my workplace's garage, and the buyer promised he'd come pick it up, but never did, and after 4 months of being in the garage i rang him up and bought it back off him. He was a young lad who made a impulsive ebay purchase……story sounds familiar…..plus his insurance quote was like two grand so he was stuck. So I got it back.

I now also have the time, space, and some of the money needed to do some work on it; all the things I was lacking before and the reason why I sorn'd it in the first place.

So this is it (her?);




And here is the plan;
To change the 1.6 engine to a 1.8 engine with a GTI head and cam
Fit a weber 32/34 (my pierburg has never worked properly)
Sort out any rust issues
Paint her (I'm going to DIY it ooohh yeah!)
Tidy up the interior, re-trim certain parts, fix the chairs, and get a new dash
Change the gearbox to something a little cruisier so it doesn't feel like I'm nailing the engine on a motorway drive

I'd thought and researched loads of stuff to do to her (some of you are probably bored stiff with me asking them questions, sorry!), but eventually I've decided that I want to just make the car NICE again, sort out all the niggly little problems, and not to do any major engineering work. This is my first project so I'm trying to be realistic on what I can achieve.

Anyway, I've starting the parts gathering process, so far picked up some bargains!:


Corrado dash, evilbay, £5. Already converted to fit a mk2 golf so hoping won't be too hard to fit




GTI 1.8 engine. £70. Going to sell all the bits of this so will have cost me less by the time it gets in the car.




£15 gearbox, which I'm not putting in! Lol bought it on the off chance it might be the right gearbox, but it wasn't.




GTI front seats to replace my knackered ones, 99p! Need retrimming but it's a good start




Also, I sold the clipper kit today. Going for a more retro look eventually;





Was a pain to get off at points as all the old screw heads were properly rusty, but weirdly the arches came off super easy as there was no adhesive behind them….weird…just another weird thing in a long list of weird things I've found left over for me from the previous owner. Weird. I.e. why there's a 1.6 instead of a 1.8 engine, why there are no bolts on the dash (or anywhere for that matter…), why there was smashed glass in the inside of the door, ooohh not to forget the pipe bong I found….the list really does go on and on!

Arches seem okay, little rusty where the screws came out; what do you think?





Also what should I do with all these holes plus the ones on the arches? Should I filler them or do they need some tiny metal patches welding in;



Hopefully there will be more soon! Cheers guys, ooohh and a big thanks to everyone who's helped me out with info and advice over the last couple of years. Hopefully I will get to the stage where I can start helping other people eventually. Word

Lots of love, Jdog, word.

Jono,
what colour you going mate?
looks like you been collecting fella.
What you doing interior wise?
Glad your back mate and on it.
Sending you a PM fella

Colour scheme is going to be something involving a brown hood  :wink:  some geezer sold me one a while back that I never got around to fitting.

So, maybe brown can cream interior, red or green paint……..still open to debate….

A ha ha, I was just gonna ask about my hood        
I got a good contact for Real leather covers for the seats, bloke worked for 27 years at the Karmann factory, making them.
You got me thinking what body colour would go with a chocolate hood.

If I had the time and money my ideal colours would be Old English Cream and Claret Red Leather interior and Red Mohair hood on
Just plain steelies.

I imagine it would be a massive task to get rid of everything black, so I that would have to be incorporated into the colour scheme!

Brown hood, dark red paint, brown/cream interior.
Or the same but with green paint;

http://www.rustoleumdirect.co.uk/colours.php

I'm thinking either 3001 3g4 (dark red) or 6002 (dark green), although with green I always think you run the risk of someone mistaking you for a John Dere

You could leather wrap the dash, door cards, etc

Was thinking of doing that with all the door cards, wasn't sure about the dash, thinking of spraying it with some sort of flexible plastic paint

HI, We have not long finished tidying up,our 1989 clipper too.

We went from this:


To this:

I hope your build goes well for you bro, look forward to seeing the results. Ours started as a simple tidy up, and ended up with respray, new wheels, grille, front and rear lights, sportex exhaust, cream and orange interior inc door cards, porsche etched door handles, wood porsche steering wheel. Well worth the headaches though. Good luck.

That's a good orange, ford focus esque, how much was your paint job?

The paint is a Lamborghini orange flip, which all in cost £2700, well worth it.

show some pic of interiors

i will take some more pics on the weekend and post them    

I might try that. Only I'll still have to dremell off 2 and 6.

Old seats out (drivers one is buggered, anyone want these!!??) :



Out with the old beaten up dash and knee board, and test fitted new dash;







Needs some shaving off at each end, and needs the brackets mounted in a different position, but doesn't look that much hassle at all really! I like the look, although I know it'll upset a few purists. Way better than my old dash. Going to make some custom clocks out of the old mk1 ones I think……watch this space!

Don't worry about the purists… Some cars are meant to be kept original, others just need to be different… 8)

Do you have enough clearance between the gearstick and the dashboard when in the forward gears (R,1,3 & 5)?
I am currently fitting a polo 6N dash and this was something I hadn't banked on! (See my thread via link in Signature…)

uffffff nice i like the dash swap

Hhhhhhmmmmmmm, haven't tried the gearstick yet. It's going to need a bit of modding, but nowhere near as much as I'd thought.

Missed out on a crossflow head on evilbay last night. It went for 35 quid. Gutted. Plan A it is still then, normal head with a weber carb boo hoo

Haynes lies….."the pulley can now be lifted away easily"….took some force, a hammer and a lot of WD40!



Started clearing out the engine bay so I can take the engine out;



Some bits will need replacing….



I did think about just ripping everything out, but decided I'd best label as I go. I also put tape with labels on (almost) all the cables and wires.



The scene of the crime;



How's she's looking now;



Engine bay ready for engine out day!



So ready to take the engine out, decided not to get in to that today. Instead I turned my attention to cleaning up the interior ready for some paint;

Bloody good job I did as well!!!



Lots of the wires cleared up and carpet out;



Seats are in a terrible state. Any idea on how to fix these? Really warped as you can see….








Also, found this in my shed; could I use it for floor underlay/sound proofing??

FleaBay purchase;



It's a 4T gearbox. Not sure if I'm going to use this yet as I'll have to change the flange from 90 to 100 and change the mount from stud to hole

Been doing some body work prep before painting; getting rid of all little knicks and rust spots;



Also, started dissassembling the clocks. Going to custom mount them along with some VDO guages on some MDF and leather wrap it. Using the carrado dash but sort of customising it.
I like the original dash, but mine was in a state, and I like the carrado ones and I got one dirt cheap, so thought why not! Should spruce up the interior a bit.