1.6 gti rescue resto pic heavy the world's longest project

Hi all,

My name is james and I'm into buying cool old heaps that no one else can see any potential in, now this time I'm not to blame for a change the Mrs is lol, 

As it goes I had only gone to get some tyres on my s2000 see here with the top down at trax,



Now while I was getting my tyres fitted I got talking to the guy that owned the place about an old golf my friend had as a project around 5 years ago he said he had the car and had done some more work to get it ready for paint but hadn't bothered with it for a while after losing interest because he prefered old lorries, naturally I asked if I could go have a look with the Mrs who'd been badgering me to get her a clipper cabriolet since before she had her licence, when we got round to where the car was stored we found it, 



underneath a rack part prepped for paint with a mk1 caddy on top dripping rusty water down its sides, I automatically thought it would be too much work now with me having a t4, a capri and a vfr400 to finish with no where to keep any of them, and walked away thinking it's a shame it never got any further from when I last saw it apart from now it had a new front valance and wings, time to walk away, no space and no time for this car, then my Mrs tugged my arm and said she couldn't leave it there looking all sad, and I told her I didn't want to either because it wasn't rotten and amazingly solid, but I had nowhere to store it or I'd buy it for her 21st birthday present, so she phoned her dad who said she could keep it at her nans, at this point we hadn't bought the car but I could feel my wallet getting lighter lol, so I had a chat with the owner and asked if he'd sell it, the answer was yes, I gave the Mrs a price limit and told her that's all she had to spend on it, he didn't bite but I was only 50 quid out so though why not? The car originally had p slots on and a ton of spares when my friend had it and I found it still had the p slots somewhere if the guy could find them and even more spares now that would be included but would take time to find but oh well at least we'll get em, here's another pic of when we first saw it, 



If you weren't already bored of the story by now well done but there's more, after getting it on the truck like so,



It was dropped at her nans where I couldn't actually do any work on it, not good news but we had a look round and were quite happy it's pretty solid and we sorted someone to respray the car as well for a very good price here's some more pics of what we saw



















bit of a shed but we'll make it work, we then went back to get the seats, they're deffo original and look how would expect for seats that are over 30 years old and been left out side for a dog to sleep on for the last 5 years,









 









The passenger seat weren't too bad just wet oh well,




 




the rear seat was pretty clean apart from a fag burn right in the middle, 









The seats are now with a guy in Northampton being re trimmed to original condition with original cloth so should come good in the end, no sooner had that happened did we get a phone call saying one of her nans neighbours had called the police about the car and after getting no luck from the having it moved were calling a scrap man to tow it away, this is when my nan stepped in and said one of her neighbours had said I could use his garage as long as I emptied it out RESULT! So for the next few days we spent stupid amounts of time emptying the garage and getting the car in, see pic for proof









This is right about the time old boy who owns the garage put it and his house up for sale, here we go again then to add to that the Mrs tells me she's expecting our first child, not looking too good for this old car now, another custodian promising to repair it then not, so it sat in the garage while we looked for a house and get prepared for the arrival of the baby, few viewings later and we still hadn't found anywhere and the time we had the other garage was getting shorter, then we went for a meal in a pub not too far from us and saw an advert for a house, most important part for me it said it had a garage, sold! Lol after viewing the house we knew we wanted it and I knew the golf could still have hope yet, so before we even had a sofa in the car was brought home,









You can see the cars true owner in this pic all chuffed what you can't see is she's heavily pregnant lol here it is behind my bike,









About 3 days after the car was in the garage she decided to tell me she'd said she was going to the 2016 mk1 golf annual meeting on facebook and that was the deadline "/




Suppose I better start then, we're getting closer to today now as we've only been in the new house two weeks today, I started of removing the passenger side wing to work out why the panel gap by the bonnet was wide, here is what I found underneath,









It's all remarkably solid still under there no previous bodges I can see other than where the inner wing meets the front valance,




 




not looking like too much work to get up to scratch, I looked at why the wing wouldn't close up, it's because of this strip,









someone has already trimmed this down but not enough or bothered to remove the e coat or treat the bare metal from where they've trimmed it, so all the primer on the wing needs to come off and the coat, more work, here's the untreated inside of the wing still got the stickers on,









here's the top of the wing in primer that needs to be removed









Anyway moving on the roof was covered in micro blisters, forgot a before pic but some of them had rust in the centre and there's only one way to get rid of it, take it down to bare metal you can see some of the blisters with some already taken to bare metal here,









Here's some of the blisters that hadn't rusted





This bare metalling carried on all the way down the side and around the windscreen and sunroof on the passenger side









the passenger side has already been etch primed here but it was taken back to bare metal and kurusted first see here,









Then it was all etch primed, still wet here hence why you can see the garage light 









Then it was onto the rust stain on the tailgate before,









And after









nice and shiny now, wish the rust treatment was this easy on my capri, after that the Mrs came in the garage to say I needed a shower as we were meant to go the pub and were already late lol so I took a pic of inside,









Bit empty but saves me stripping it lol and an under bonnet shot gonna need some major work under there but stopping the rust is always my first priority,









I also found a bag with a load of cv gaitors in it,









hopefully they'll come in handy at some point anyways that's my story and it's all up to date on here now, until tomorrow when I'm back on it, more updates then comments and criticism always welcome cheers James 

Looks like a he cracking base to a project

Nice dude..  Hope the rebuild/project goes well… original Blaupunkt stereo too…  is it the London SQM37? looks similar to mine…

Cheers jelly belly I'm hoping it stays as good as it looks and doesn't throw up any nasty surprises,

Deandubya I'm hoping so too and I got a better pic of it for you says Melbourne SQR26 on it, this is an 83 car, but don't know if that's what it rolled out of the factory with but it will be staying,



I have been back out there today doing a bit and started by removing the sunroof to stop it getting damaged and even dirtier than it is now, it also allowed me to stand in the car and carry on sanding the roof, here it is with sunroof removed,



doing this let me get on with the job in hand, more bare metalling oh joy here you can see where I left off,



after around an hour and a half we got to here



I then painted on some kurusted and went to have a look at the sunroof while it did it's thing, this I how I found it,



grim I'm sure you'll agree, now the Mrs will moan if she sees this mess in the house so I did something else she'll moan about, chucked it in the bath like so,



after about twenty five minutes of cleaning it looked like this,



shiny eh? The top side looked like this



much better I'm sure you'll agree, is it meant to have this bronze colour glass though would anyone know? the sunroof was then put away safe and I went back to see if the kurust had gone off which it hadn't so I to the wing outside and grinder a bit more the lip off and it did close the gap up abit but still needs some work as seen here





I have noticed though that most of the gaps on the car are quite big is this normal? Anyway going back out now to see if the kurust has cured so will update later again, cheers James

Cheers for the reply and pic mate gives me something to look at and aim for with mine, hopefully I can get it to be as clean as yours,




I did go back out after my last update and carried on messing around I got the bare metal that had been kurusted into etch primer














ill pull the sunroof surround off and refurb that once the headlining is out and I've removed the windows, I also had a look at the next part ill be working on,









This is just behind the sunroof and needs all that filler digging out as it hasn't been covered and is porous, I couldn't help having a little rub down before I came in to get a shower and start dinner,









hopefully won't be too bad underneath it, and here's an overview of how it looks now,









tomorrow it's back to reality however and ill be driving one of these for the most of the day,









once I'm back though ill get back onto the golf and hopefully if I keep plugging away the deadline won't seem so bad, cheers again, James

Great project, great progress so far!  

Cheers martijn, I've lacked a bit of motivation with the car since my last post after finding out my grandad had cancer and him unfortunately dying last Monday, supporting family always comes first as I'm sure you're all aware, couple that to the worst flu I've ever had and the work on the car although still moving was very slow, now though I'm picking back up and have been back out there at a proper pace, last time I left it I had come to some filler and had a lot of roof left to bare metal seen here,









Under the filler was a dent that had some rust in, the rust was sanded back at the same time as the paint 









This will need filling properly later on, but for now keep on with getting the paint off which seems to take forever with whatever paint was underneath being like glue 









slowly getting there 









And finally done!!!









With that finally done I put on some kurust 



















This is now curing properly as I right this update, with the roof it's the sort of job I hope I never have to do again but would as it's the only way to do doit properly, I also had a look at flatting the rear quarter panel on the off side 









This isn't actually too bad if I'm honest but still needs more attention before I call it done, going back out there now so may update again later as always comments and criticism always welcome cheers James 

Well I went back out again last night and made a start on the filler work for the roof, didn't get loads of pics of that as it's just filler lol I did get one though,



It looks like there's load of filler but it isn't actually very thick just covers a large area to bring it all up to the right height, that's the roof now ready for primer but I'm leaving the filler open for now to vent all the thinners out of it to stop it creating a "map" when primed over, after this I turned my attention to the nearside rear quarter panel and started to flat it off, I found some tiny dents and some little specs of rust, obviously they where taken back to bare metal so they can be treated as seen here

 

I also removed the rear window at this point so I could prep the area properly,



anyone for a steering wheel? I have about 6 lol

This is about the worst of the corrosion I've found on the car so far, it's been caused by the window seal holding water against the body 



look to have caught it in time as I've seen these a lot worse than this, I also worked further down the panel to flat the high build primer applied by the previous owner, what you can't see in this pic is that the original side decal is still fitted underneath  obviously this means I've got to take all that back and start again 



after this I took the window inside and put it in the bath like the sunroof



It was as you would expect filthy and after about 10 minutes it looked like this 



so clean you have to actually look for it lol that's all for today, once again comments and criticism always welcome bit thin on the ground though lol cheers James  

This is from my local scrappy!  …. Every time I've been and asked for parts, but said no as wants to sell as a whole.  Glad it's being restored!

Looks like a good base… keep up the good work!

Dangerous44Dave said

This is from my local scrappy!  …. Every time I've been and asked for parts, but said no as wants to sell as a whole.  Glad it's being restored!

Looks like a good base… keep up the good work!

It came with a lot of parts too lol where about are you from then? I was living in Castle brom but have moved out to Shustoke now might be able to get a mini meet going when it's done lol

rostill said

Dangerous44Dave said

This is from my local scrappy!  …. Every time I've been and asked for parts, but said no as wants to sell as a whole.  Glad it's being restored!

Looks like a good base… keep up the good work!

It came with a lot of parts too lol where about are you from then? I was living in Castle brom but have moved out to Shustoke now might be able to get a mini meet going when it's done lol

From Olton, might be a while before mines finished lol, wish I'd of offered on that now!

Lol this is still a while away yet and sorry man beat ya to it lmao 

I've been back out again doing a bit, I got the rear quarter into some etch primer to protect it a bit, not all of it just where needed covering for now and didn't need filling 



also bought two heaters to put in the garage and keep the car warm lol after this I moved around the front and took bag the surface rust around the screen and found a hole 



You can see here the windscreen is out, and I managed to break it on the way out "/ if anyone has one please pm me and ill take it,



here's an overview of the screen out, luckily there's no other rust in the surround, I also found this tag does anyone know if it's for the car?



After that I did a bit of sanding on the scuttle and bonnet then tidied the garage up and took some parts inside,

First was the centre console that has cleaned up really well and another bonus is the misses told be to put the blanket down and do it in the living room with a beer   



that came up quite well and also this piece I'm not sure where it lives can any one help?



And I also removed the radio which wasn't attached to anything and the wiring went to a birds nest that wasn't original and didn't go anywhere in a heap under the dash 



This will be cleaned up and tested when I get chance, that's all for tonight I will be back on the car tomorrow so hopefully will have more updates then, comments and suggestions welcome cheers James 

Nice work on your golf!

That little black plastic piece goes over your handbrake

That bar code tag is riveted on one of the 2 support bars below the bonnet catch on the front panel behind the grill. Also you have a series 1 center consol which I don't think will fit a series 2 dash with the under trays on.

Looking forward to seeing this progress, great to see another one being saved!

Hi the tag you found goes on the front panel, behind the gril in the centre are two bars going down, just below the bonnet catch, the plate goes on the right side bar.
also thats a series one centre console, your car is a series 2. :-)

Great progress so far

Wow, nice work. Keep the progress reports coming  

Thanks for all the replies with help guys it will definitely push this project forward, also I had a feeling the centre console was wrong as it didn't fit well at all, I did however visit the previous owners to see if they had a screen and as soon as I walked in there was a series 2 console on the side! Unfortunately it was for his caddy   although there is apparently two more in my pile of bits that I still need to collect   




After I finished the last update I had a phone call to say my other grandad who turned 100 in November had died on the birthday of my other grandad that died 2 weeks before, obviously the car didn't get worked on massively with the first of the two funerals and work, but I have been doing bits,




here you can see the rear quarter is final filled now and had been etch primed,









Here's some parking dings filled on the door,









As you can see most of the filler was rubbed back leaving just a fine levelling coat,



after that I etch primed over the filler left the heater on and came in to get a shower so we can go the pub 









As always comments and suggestions always welcome have a good Christmas all  

Well hope you all had a good Christmas I know I did, since that I haven't really spent much time on the car until today and I thought I'd start at the very back of the rear quarter which needed flatting back ready for primer, I was held back however by the bumper clip, seen here









Now the groove was full of filler and I wasn't sure how it attached so I went inside to get this,









I bought this bore scope ages ago and have never had a use for it until now, so I went back out to the car and put it down inside the rear quarter to see how it attached from behind this is what I found,









absolutely nothing that can be undone, so I scraped the groove clear and saw there was two plastic pins spreading the claw at the back holding it in, so armed with an m8 bolt I knocked it out, if you do this remember to only knock them through so far then take it out the last bit by hand so you don't lose it forever, here it is removed 









While flatting the quarter back I found a big lump of filler that turned into a lump of metal so I got the wire wheel out and found this,









an untidy weld, I'll cut this out and welt it up properly, while the wire wheel was out I couldn't help use it to pick a scab on the rear panel,









It was a little pitted but not too bad, it did show a lot of filler on the rear panel however so I decided to do as I said earlier in thread, get back to a job I hate more bare metalling   









once I got to this point I decided to move down the panel and found something else under a pile of filler 









yes that's a hole at the bottom, 









I'm actually glad this was full of pog because I can repair it properly much easier than finding poor welding, it was at this point I forgot to take many more pictures and just got on with it "/ I did get it mostly done then covered it up with etch primer to protect it until I come back to weld it up,









before this I had also knocked out two rather large dents surprisingly easily then I left the heaters on and locked up,









As always comments and suggestions always welcome, James

Progressing well mate, youve found very little rust, let's hope it continues