Golf with 1.9 tdi mk3 engine

I thought I'd post up my latest mk1. I have had this about 2 years and used her as my daily until an intermittent electrical fault left me stranded at work, so I took her off the road to do some fettling last April.

When I bought her:



Shortly before she was taken off the road:



I managed to do not a lot since she was taken off the road last year - we bought a house kind of accidentally, and then got married 3 days after moving, so April-September was manic. By the time I had time to do anything the evenings were drawing in, and there was lots of other things to be done.

We had some great news at the end of last year - I'm a father to be. With this news it presented the perfect opportunity to get rid of my Celica, and buy a Mk1 Octavia VRS estate which is fantastic. I also decided that the Golf had to go, so I gave her a blinking good clean and put her for sale.

After 3 weeks on eBay I got fed up of offers of circa 40-50% of the not unreasonable list price so had a chat with the wife and we decided to keep it, and tart her up, then punt on the wifes car, and give her the vrs for family wagon duties - my wife is a keeper!

The tarting up started, with the front wings being removed.



I was expecting the grot to be beyond the front wings, and well into the inner wings but I'm happy to say they're solid!



I reapplied some waxoyl and am happy that they'll be OK for a few years yet:



Here is her after one weekends work:



All of the surface rust has been ground down and treated with Vactan.

Also I have managed to sort out the running issue, and a few other electrical gremlins so am gaining confidence she'll be OK come MOT time.

I took the bumpers odd and they are cream crackered, so she will be running bumperless for a bit.

I had a play with sorting the roof out again - last time I did it in a bit of a rush as the car was outside. Since then it has had a few more coats of paint, some of which has reacted. So Mrs Wifey got her dust mask on and sanding arm out and did an awesome job!



Filled in the little seam out the back running down from the rear light too.



Then I prepped and put on the new front wings, then a big birthday happened and I got bought a mig welder, so the plan is once I can weld that I will do the rear end "properly". So I did an interim paint before learning to weld and I'll do a "proper" paint job!



This was done outside, under a (small) gazebo! I'm quite happy with it for now…



Things getting put back together:



Just about there (for now):



I know it's not to everyone's taste, but she's in a lot better shape than she was! Once this car is on the road then we're condensing our fleet and this will be my daily! I've learnt a lot doing this, and look set to learn more!



I had an MOT last week and it failed on a little bit of corrosion near the rear beam. This is getting sorted out and she'll be taken back for a retest, and then back on the road in the next few weeks!

nice looking car. good news there was no wing rot  

love your "garage"  

matt

She's back on the road!

I've been driving round in her the past week and I'm so glad I kept it, despite a couple of niggles surfacing which will be sorted asap.

Last weekend with my dads car:



I've had enough of the red oxide primer too, so I've start to paint her…

Update!

Finished that paint job:


Quite happy with it for now. I've done a bit of tidying under the bonnet too, and this will continue, but the next project to tackle is the interior…