My 1982 mk1 Golf GTI project

Thought I'd start one of these so you guys can see all the fun I have with my golf.

So on the 21st of January I picked up my first Volkswagen, my first Golf my first GTI and the oldest car I've ever owned. I had wanted one since I first saw one, such an iconic car which would have had a place in my dream car garage and now I own one, so needless to say I'm chuffed to bits.

This is how he (yes it's a he, not typical she) looked when I picked him up.






so as you can see the grill was a mess, the middle spot lamps were not a standard item on this car, so the went straight in the bin and were replaced with a CL new/old stock grill I found on ebay for ?15, bargin, although it came with chrome trim instead of red, which is what IMO every GTI needs so I popped to halfords and picked up a can of mars red no.2. You can see the state of the grill here.



so after a lot of rubbing down, the chrome strips were really tough, I got it to look like this.




A ten fold improvement if I do say so.
The next thing that needed attention was the suspension as it was as vague as a vague thing, so I ordered up some hottuning coilovers from ebay after hearing nothing but good things about them and at such a bargin price it was rude not to, I also popped down to my local GSF to pick up some new top mounts, I then ordered a new set of wheels, I liked the euro look so went with some ATS classics, 13x7 with 175/50's on the front and a 13x8 with 195/45's on the rear. I then ordered up an alarm of ebay, only a cheap hawk alarm but I have had hawk alarms before an never had a problem, this one also came with a remote central locking set up.



so my wheels and suspension turned up and I went straight out to get it all fitted, so I built up my coilovers with the new top mounts.



during.



vs.



result was 80mm of ground clearance.



so if we remember what he looked like,
before and after style




not a bad change I think.




unfortunately I've been stuck with this for the past week



so we've both been bored with not much to do.

I've got some more pics on the camera, so I'll upload them and give you all a bit of an update in a bit.

Simple but great changes.  Once i have saved enough for my bodywork, i shall be ordering some of the coilovers.  Let us know how they handle for you.  The car looks great by the way.  Welcome to the site.

looks very nice.

looks like alot of elbow grease has gone into getting a nice shine.

what are the coilover like, thinking of getting some but not sure, whats the ride like??

very nice car :y:

the coilovers are actually really good, they give that typical bumpy ride that coilovers do, but I've been in newer cars with coilovers that give a worse ride. for the money you can't go wrong and they come with a 2 year warranty!

are they bumpy or will they break my spine???  

loving the wheels as well

Ok so pics from today, Got a few of the interior it's tired but not that bad when you consider it's 27 years old!







few of the engine bay aswell





not to sure about all those pipes, they don't look right but I've yet to find a similar picture to compare or go by.

I also change the passenger door handle today as the original had broke

new vs old

jellybelly said

are they bumpy or will they break my spine???  

loving the wheels as well

bumpy not spine shattering, depends on the roads I suppose, I consider the roads around here to by some of the worse in the uk, there's more pot holes then there are cars lol on the flat it's really not a noticeable change.

love this, so simple! where did you get the new handles from?
cant wait to get mine back on the road, its nearly 6 mopnths since ive drove a mk1  :cry:

Nice MK1 mate, a little tidying and it will be well sorted :wink:

benj said

love this, so simple! where did you get the new handles from?
cant wait to get mine back on the road, its nearly 6 mopnths since ive drove a mk1  :cry:

thats what i wanted something simple where i can revert to standard at any point.

got the handles from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-GOLF-MK1-MK2-GTI-FRONT-DOOR-HANDLES-R-H-L-H-C348_W0QQitemZ200293098893QQihZ010QQcategoryZ9889QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

loving the look mate, as soon as iv finished my cabby ill be looking for a tintop so iv got the pair and be going along the similar classic smooth wide and low look

Small update.

I've installed my new alarm and central locking, while i was doing that I pulled the front seats out for a bloody good clean.

and today I used some vegetable oil on the arch trims

Those rims suit the car so well - black and silver rime tone nicely with the black paint of the car and the silver stripes... great idea with the vegi oil! you may get a few dogs licking them

hi mate love the car I have a black 82 black gti as well and I am lovin the wheels they will be my choice once I have got the money together.  I live in Hitchin just down the road and I thought I would let you know of a great upholsterer in Baldock not far away.  I have used him in the past and he is fantastic and very reasonable I only mentioned this because I noticed your drivers seat his name is A R Pound telephone 01462 892704 he is located just in a unit around the side of Baldock Tescos I hope this helps Hornet

Veg oil 8O  Nice one! Paint looks shiny 8)

Veg oil  

Never heard of it before…I used shoe polish once…came out nice actually

Stunning mk1…Nice colour too :mrgreen:

Keep up the good work..

Pierce

whooo man , does that snow or ice crack the paint ?? and how do you start it up in the morning man , thats crazy , in aus  all i worry about is over heating    nice job i says  

lol snows fine, just can't drive in it as it piles up in front of the car. it doesn't like starting on cold morning, but once it's warmed up it's all good.

nice tip with the vegetable oil  :wink:

How have you managed to get a shine on it like that???

Proper nice motor mate…