Odd Cabrio Import

Hello! Meet my newly collected ebay impulse buy…….

ebay add

Just picked it up today after buying it blind without viewing it. First time i've done this but it was cheap enough for a gamble. It's got a fair few faults as you'd imagine but after a bit of bodge reversal and a few hundered spend it'll be all good.

The one thing that was rather annoying, the seller decided to mention about the electric windows not working but failed to mention they were stuck in the down position! I had a quick play but ended up driving from coast to coast across Devon in the rain with them like it. Luckily though it wasn't pouring so nothing really entered the car and the heater works nicely.

It's going to take a bit of archeology to find out what options the car originally had when it left the factoy. It has a dash in Km no mention of miles at all so its difficult to know how fast your going. It certainly has factory fitted electric windows, very rare in this country, and has aircon fitted but this may have been added later, I'll need to take the dash out to sort out the rats nest of wiring bodges from past alarm systems etc. The fuse box is on the drivers side! I'll replace the roof as I've found out it leaks now that the windows are shut! I'm glad I wrote the hood replacement guide now

At the moment I'm not looking to make this car a minter but just tidy it up. I've missed owning a cabby ever since parting with the sportline. More pics to come after tomorrow hopefully after having a day to play with it :mrgreen:

If anyone has the following parts they would like to sell me please get in touch:
* rust free rear window frame
* Rear fog light
* unmolested dash board in good nick
I'm sure that list will grow!

Cheers,

Ross

Could be a Jap import mate. If so check if there is aircon in it
Doesn't  look too bad mate

Good to see you back in a Mk1

looks very good for the price  :wink:  

Thanks, it was great to be behind the wheel of one again fo sho.

I didn't bother taking any pics of the exterior as it was raining but here are some to amuse you of the inside now I've stafted looking at the wiring!

mmmm lovely rats nest. Part of the aircon system sits where the fusebox should be. There's loads of other wires in there for it and knee bar has been modified for an extra vent.


Aircon switch in dash


Aftermarket aircon has been fitted - someone has gone to a lot of time installing this - I'm thinking about ripping it out as its just in the way and I doubt i'd use it even if I fixed it.



The only relays left on the where the fusebox should be


The fusebox now - the fuel pump relay is wrong - think this is causing the fuel pump to be on constantly even when ignition on but engine not running, either that or its directly wired to the ignition on side of the fusebox. Also shows some of the many yellow wires used to extend fusebox to the other side of the car!


Genuine electric window control unit

Fun eh!

Are you planning on keeping the elctric windows then ?

Yeah, I'm planning to keep them. hopefully I can get them working and there isn't an issue with the control unit. I have had a brief look at the wiring and I think there may be a wire crossed between the switches but until I get the rest of the wiring sorted and back together I won't know.

i spent last evening removing the aircon. Its made so much more space under the dash. everythings out from inside the car but the pump and rad are still in the engine bay.  I took more pics but dont have my camera with me to upload them at the moment. Someone spent a lot of time, effort and money getting the system installed. Its a shame to remove it but I think its best as i can sort the wires and save a lot of weight! not sure if I'll move the fusebox back to the left of the car yet. I don't think I really need to as it has been extended pretty well. All wires were resoldered and shrink wrapped.

Sell all the aircon parts on here and you'll get some funds for someother part for your project/resto ;D

Here are some more pics of the removal:

Custom air box which has behind knee bar. Part of the knee bar had been cut away to fit it and a hole cut for the extra vent. Brackets had been added to mount it one of which had been welded to the car body


One of the three relays to do with the aircon



Its gone! Just pipes to remove now


Some nasty holes to plug. Planning to find some grommets or tiger seal something over them, could weld them up but what ever I choose it'll need to stop water entering and the panel rusting. And check out all those wires that have been extended!


Here's the fusebox bracket which has been moved to the drivers side above the accellerator pedal.


how I left it last night

There is just pump and rad etc left in the bay to remove next.




Airbox with the fan at the rear to recirculate the air within the car.

Yeah, I will be looking to sell it as a complete system to hopefully fund a new roof for the car. I think the system should work but I couldn't say for sure. There as still some juice in the pipes when I disconnected them. The car needs a few other bits too but I think its not too bad a buy.

I've made a fair bit of progress since last posting and I've booked it in for an MOT tomorrow so fingers crossed!

I've refitted the dash after sorting out the wiring. The window control unit had burnt out relays and I tried to find relays to replace the 2 duff ones but I struggled to find some with the right PCB pin dimensions. So I found a brand new unit on ebay for £50 which I though was a bargain. Windows are fine now!

The hood is working too after discovering someone had cut the power supply to the switch when fitting a stereo  :roll:

I found the car had aftermarket central locking which just needed wiring up and that works now. Also it has an electric aerial which also works after replacing the corroded wires. I just need a head unit now

The headlight fault was due to a worn out headlight switch, had to go to main dealers for that. Also indicator wiring was dodgy so tidied that up.

I removed the rest of the aircon, one problem I had was I lost all coolant when I removed bracket holding the compressor, the bolts also went through the water pump so that came loose with the bracket. at least the coolant is new now. Then I noticed the heater matrix was weeping so replaced that, having the dash out at that point helped a great deal.

I've changed the hood too but havent fitted the rear window yet as I still need to repair the frame, think I'll try welding new metal into it as its only bad in a couple of places. I went for a beige hood, think the old one was more grey but not as dark grey as usual grey hoods. I could have gone for a black one but the car's down as black and beige on the V5 and it keeps it that bit more individual.




I added spigot rings to the wheels as the centre bore is larger on the wheels than the hub/drum. No wonder I got so much judder at high speed as the wheels wouldn't have been centred on the hub correctly. Also got 2 new tyres as the rears were cracking up.


What else! err, just gave it a clean up really. There's still more to do but I'll get it tested first and see how it does after driving it around for a bit. The paint is pretty bad in places but it came up loads better than I thought it would. The rear bumper is high on the agenda for a repaint.




The car is a bit strange - still wonder where it came from originally. With the dash in KM but the car RHD, the elec hood sticker on the dash is in german. The interior colour is unusual and so is the code for it CQ. The paint code isn't the usual shwartz black code, its LA9V (brilliant black metalic) which I didn't think came along on VW's till later on? I can't see its metalic where it still has original paint. It has height adjustable passenger seat as well as drivers seat, this is also one of the option codes on the boot sticker. Also the rear door cards havent got holes for speaker noise to pass through so no rear speakers?!! No GTI badge on the boot but this could have been changed but looking at german ebay, cars on there which are fuel injected dont seem to have GTI badges often.


Any one know what the wheels are out of interest? Theres AWI on them. Not sure if i'll change them in the future but they all need refurbing and the offset is a bit high at ET42


Sorry but I had to add a pic of my little helper! She prefers the mk3 :roll:

Those wheels look good man.

Cheers, I'll probably stick with them then and they'll look better without the scratches.

The car passed fine!!! There were a couple of advisories which I thought it may fail on, top mounts, split lower ball joint dust cover and the brakes were only 60% efficient but I'm putting that down to lack of use at the moment as the disks had become pretty rusty. I wondered if they might spot the lack of side repeaters but they didn't. The testing centre were really friendly and some of them owned VWs themselves.

Not another cabby - you are such a gheylord.

Get that blooming tin-top sorted and stop hanging around mens toilets.

Wish I'd known you were still that way inclined, two of my local mates have cabs they can't even give away.