Monkey's 1981 Golf GTi 1.6 project - rust is lighter than carbon fibre

Nice hand-work on the front panel  

Do the BBS kit, you know you want to  

Picked up a 16v turbo kit the other day.
Escort RS Turbo T3 with a slightly larger Sierra Cosworth 4x4 exhaust housing




Housing off and powder coating stripped




Luckily I had some spares left over from when I rebuilt the T3 on the escort. Put in a new compressor seal and cleaned the turbine blades, been rebuilt recently so didn't bother replacing the thrust bearing and bushings. Gave it a lick of paint along with the manifold and set up the preload on the actuator

Wow, very nice find. Was this another car boot challenge special??

Nope, Neil@greenlight is to thank for this! Got a down pipe too, need to source an ABF and a G60 ecu and loom and get it all built up!

I thought it would be too nice for a booty!!   If it was I'm going to the next one!

WOW what a difference mate. Great work

Well done looks great. That poor brush has seen some better days though.  

Beeno said

Well done looks great. That poor brush has seen some better days though.  

  Many years left in that yet mate!

 :lol    

It's fiiiiine


Need to get cracking finishing off the front panel today, wished I'd just got a new one and be done with it!

Bit of work done today with smudger

Got a small section of the front panel and the headlight bowl done, paint was just too look for any high/low spots but it's come out quite well I think. Also picked up some sheet metal for any other bits than need doing.

2 and a half hours to get home was not funny

Not been doing much this week except for cleaning random junk out of it and starting on the bonnet.

Rear OS lower shock bolt wasn't budging, it'd turn a touch and spring back to its original position. Thought it was the arb, how wrong I was 



Had to cut through the shock mount to get it off, old rubber smells nasty!!

Bonnet being stripped to bare metal, however I didn't consider the bottom primer coat to be so bloody hard to get off! Knotwheel just wouldn't cut it. Majority is off and it will be finished tomorrow along with the wing.

New wing had the aerial hole fibreglassed over at some point and then opened again. Cut a piece to sit flush and welded, skim of filler and job done! Aerial will be getting relocated to the roof (I'll probably get a mk2/3 style bee sting)

Also found an old double action sander to get cracking on the many layers of paint on the bodykit. Ordered some rubber trim to fit as per original too.






I briefly thought of smooooving the whole kit onto the car too, but then I remembered it's not 1998 anymore 

   Good decision. Coming along great. And again quite a bit of elbow grease going into this project. That can only mean that its gonna come out looking great.    

Beeno said

   Good decision. Coming along great. And again quite a bit of elbow grease going into this project. That can only mean that its gonna come out looking great.    

I hope so matey! Bit more work today and a bit more welding to the lower valance where dirt got in between the panel and the crossmember and just made it rust over the years.

Some filler on top to get it aligned with the wing.



And the bonnet was persuaded with a hammer to curve as when they hit it they didn't bother to curve the bonnet lip proper so it jutted out a few mm.




Stonechip and primer are next on the order list. Got some DSX raised top caps to drop the front down another 15mm too.

Fair bit done. coming along great.    

Started on the O/S today. Not as bad as the N/S but still plenty to keep me and my old man busy. Was initially planning on buying a repair panel from Heritage but i've heard some less than favourable opinions so it'll just be repaired.



Also picked up some underseal, a litre of primer, stone chip and some thinner welding wire. Had a go with the 0.6mm wire and it's made a lot of difference, was trying to weld with 1mm before and it just kept blowing through the panels. Getting another genuine VW wing as mine has some rot on the bottom and the less welding there is to do the better.

Might make a start on the inner wing tomorrow. Want to get it all welded so I can then underseal it before I go to Uni on Sunday and fit the wings.

Made a start yesterday, old man on metal working and me on welding, don't know how he managed to turn a sheet of steel into several panels on the inner wing the exact shape and size with all the creases and folds, all that experience I guess   . Tried to keep as much original steel as possible, got the majority of it done but still the rather large (but thankfully quite flat and therefore easy) piece in the middle you see marked, and the rotten piece under the scuttle panel which will probably end up being made of several pieces tacked together outside the car, then fitted and fully welded. I'll get some pics up tonight.

Nos.

Inner wing has come along a bit more.  Not much work done today though, just dicking about  



Raised the back up another 15mm so now it doesn't gouge out the tyres when moving it about    







Started cleaning out the interior as well. Need to ditch that equaliser




And last but not least, took off the a pillar trims as I could spy a small bubble and was quietly crapping myself that all the trapped water under there would've turned it all crispy. Result!

A nice bit of work done and a great repair on that inner wing.