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

Grindy grindy, also drilling spot welds out


Taking weight reduction rather far…


1x rusty arch tub removed!




Tinted the rear lights while they were out too



Designed a manifold for the inevitable 16VT conversion too!

New arch tub in




Some repairs to the inner sill and floor






Repaired some crash damage, all zinc primed.


Outer sill tacked on


Getting there, but i've taken a break from it for a few weeks to focus on my new mk1 (some of you may recognise it), as a result the garage is rather full now!

Next up is to finish off the outer sill, seam seal everything, primer, then stone chip and paint the underside and arch tub so I can fit my new painted tank and rear beam back in!

Feels like de ja vu seeing that! Nice work Ahmet  

Cheers mate, just made a new corner piece up and got that welded on, will try finish the arch off tomorrow.



Also retrimmed my Recaros, 10 points to whoever spots the mistake?

Nosmonkey said

Also retrimmed my Recaros, 10 points to whoever spots the mistake?

Erm…. the patern is upside down??  They look lovely by the way. I much prefer the s1 seat material to the s2

Is it actually that the recaro badge is missing?

Yeah, the bottom bum bit is the wrong way around, so need to unpick the stitching and flip it around.

If I find some Recaro badges i'll whack them on, but not too fussed about them tbh.

Great repair work so far.  

Also Very impressive with the way the leather side bolsters have been restored  

Catching up on some old project threads - this looks like it has come a long way. Keep it up!

Can I ask you to post or PM me some details about the leather repair products you used, please?
I have a leather sofa that needs some treatment, but I'm not sure what I am supposed to be looking for!?!?

AL.

Looking Good! Keep it up!……..Im going through exactly the same at the moment!

AL_Mk1 said

Catching up on some old project threads - this looks like it has come a long way. Keep it up!

Can I ask you to post or PM me some details about the leather repair products you used, please?
I have a leather sofa that needs some treatment, but I'm not sure what I am supposed to be looking for!?!?

AL.

Gave the seats 3 coats of hide feed to soften them up. Gold saddle soap i believe it was called about £6.50 for a tub.

I then used acetone and isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the seats, and used furniture clinic leather filler for the deep cracks, multiple coats were needed. Then sanded where required, and painted with furniture clinic black leather paint and satin sealant.

Zinc primed, seam sealed, primed, then undersealed.



Arch tub stonechip painted and over painted



Tank and beam back in



Same up front






Rear coilovers, refurbished accumulator and fuel lines back on




Picked up a stainless steel exhaust for her, next on the list is get the sandblaster set up and blast my brake cylinder backing plates and redo all the rear brakes, then move onto the bodywork. Also fitted some Goodridge braided hoses.

Coming on really nicely, great work and so it won't be all that long before we see it finished!   

Great progress Ahmet, will be nice to see this one finished  

GSF gave me 1 left shoe and 3 right brake shoes so currently awaiting them to sort it out. Anyway, got my backing plates sandblasted and fitted them all on. Brad is welding up my cylinder head water pipe take off as it was very corroded. Hopefully have that next week and I can fit my new water pump and hoses and fill the old girl up with some anti freeze.







Also gave the garage a quick clean and moved my welders and toolbox to the front as it's a lot easier to get at things.

Still need to sort out my brakes shoes but got a new water pump fitted up and some antifreeze i'm the engine. Metering unit can do with a rebuild so thats next on the last after the brakes. Now that spring is here can get back on it.

Done loads on this since the last update. Inner and outer sills replaced on the N/S, floor repaired on the N/S jacking point area. Front panel was rotten so undid all my work and binned it. Engine out, new front panel, slam panel corner and battery tray. Took the inner wings back to bare metal and re did properly with Bilt Hamber Electrox zinc primer ( 1lt tin about 5kg!) followed by BH Etchweld and then Epoxy mastic, Wurth anti stone chip, more epoxy mastic and then 2K paint.

The mastic is amazing stuff. Goes on and looks like a normal primer, but you''ll do well to gouge it off with a screwdriver, it really is incredible stuff and is waterproof too.

Steering rack has been rebuilt and refitted. Current stage is now priming and blocking the rear wings