1983 GTi Campaign

Much to my fault I'm terrible at remembering to take progression pictures so we'll just have to make do with the more a less end results!
Inherited the car after the old man passed a few months back, though he'd all but given it to my by then as long as I got it back on the road. It was something we were supposed to do together but health and other projects got in the way, you always think you have more time but can only do the best moving forward.

I did get the arches welded up, resprayed and undersealed back in 2009. I didnt want to let it degrade much further and leave it to rot but there was no other plans at that point. Did some fiddling here and there and kept it MOT'd until 2012 when it was put to hibernation.

Here we are at 2022, the tyres were shot and one of the alloys had a slow leak since I can remember, so after a few weeks I found a pirelli alloy that didnt cost me the earth, though it looks… well it needs a bit of love compared to the rest of them, but it holds air fine and I can get to that down the line.
Old tyres pumped up and much to my surprise, she rolls easy with a few squeaks and a good push.
Bit of room to work I put a 'fresh' battery in but boy was she not having it, turned so slow but did get a few coughs. Wrecked my head for a bit but decided to start from the bottom before going full hulk mode and buying all new parts, tested the battery and thank christ I did, was a dud! Down to the local and picked up a nice Bosh and wouldnt you know it, fires right up, even on that old crappie fuel!

I'm getting a bit of a rattle from the exhaust and she's well overdue her belts being replaced and a full service, wiper motors also seem lacking. Going to be getting to them sometime next week. For now though, I have to either find the bloomin locking nut key or get the bolts removed, got all the history of the car from new but can I heck find that damn nut! The small things…

Since the weathers gone all horrible on us, I thought I had a bit of time to get her cleaned up before the rain hit me, sods law though, as soon as I got everything done, here came the rain! Got a few pictures before stowing her away again. Still, got to have the best look I could in 13 odd years and I'm not seeing any major flaws to the body work so I'm happy with that!

Will throw in some updates when the progression happens. Until then, heres some pictures of where we are!

Is it just me, or is it always the passenger seat that gets the saggy fabric?

(I do have the cover for the alloy on the rear, just didnt put in on before pictures )

That looks pretty tidy to me - very original!

paceman said

That looks pretty tidy to me - very original!

Many thanks! He did take a lot of pride in keeping it that way, if I ever sniffed at anything aftermarket I'd probably get a cuff around the ear  

That is a lovely motor. Hope you get it all running spot on and have fun times with it!