Ronnie the 5 Door

Hi everyone,

I'll start by introducing 'Ronnie' (or what he used to be)



This is how he used to look! (in 2009, i think). The thread for this can be found here: http://www.edition38.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=239439

Four years later, in the hands of another owner I travelled to Kent to collect Ronnie in what I thought was going to be a short term, simple project. How wrong was I..



The car at the time seemed pretty clean, other than the rust patches here and there which were expected with the age of the car. Those were just the beginning.  Anyway, I'll go into more detail about the damage, the repairs and the current status in a moment, but for now ill list some specs:

He's a 1983 five door 1.5 GX with 86,000 miles on the clock. I'd say the best bit about the entire car was the condition of the engine and the majority of the chassis. I think based on the edition38 thread, the car did approximately 9,000 miles in the space of four years, so had been sat a long time. I purchased the car at around July last year and after driving back from Kent (without any issues), the car was driven around the block just once before deciding it was due a full restoration, and so has been in several garages for surgery ever since.



The first bit of rust I noticed was the front panel. I was able to push and pull pieces from it, completely brittle and not worth repairing, so we did away with the old one, and welded in a nice new one. Lick of primer to keep it fresh until paint!



The worst of the damage was the arch, which we were well aware of before we even set off to collect the car.



The damage didn't stop there either. Due to the arch being left for so long, it ate through to the rear panel and the box section where the bumper mounts, so that led to a full rear end swap.




It was also hungry for some sill.. so it ate that aswell.



We ended up taking the leap and replaced the driver side rear arch.




Some minor repairs to the spare wheel well and fabricated the metal that joins the rear panel to it, making sure everything was strong and sealed.



We soon found that the damage to the sill didn't stop at the edge, the rust also attacked the chassis leg and was starting to affect the structural integrity of the car, and was becoming a bigger job by the week. We decided to get in touch with a body shop capable of full restorations. This led me to Rolds Motor Bodies in Bolton, and we came to an agreement to have the cars final repairs done before having the entire car painted inside and out, with a fresh new colour. So the next job was to strip the entire car, right down to the dashboard and a few hoses/wires in the bay.




So thats what we did, we got rid of as much material as possible from the shell, ready for the day it could be trailered to professional hands and have all the surgery the car requires to make it road worthy again!




Its been around 6 weeks now that the car has been away at Rolds Motor Bodies and so far it has had: - New driver side sill - both front wings - two new doors - chassis leg repaired - both rear arches (inner and outer) - upper driver side sill (custom fabrication) Yes, the rear arches were done again. This was because the body shop noticed that the panel didn't line up right. This was due to an accident the car has had in its past and had been beaten back into shape. The rear arches now line up perfectly, as they should do, since they managed to reshape the entire driver side sill.






I paid the guys a visit today and they have really made some serious progress. I should be looking to have the car back in about a month, and I will post the results.




I am in the middle of tidying the engine up why the car is away. Ive tried to break the story down a little bit to shorten the thread but I like to think the car has come along way in a year of doing little bits at a time, and I will try and keep this thread up to date as possible.

Glad to be a part of Mk1OC!

Cheers for having a gander, comments are welcome!

Dan.

What are your plans, you said new colour and is it going to be fairly standard or are you going to modify it a lot?

Dan, welcome to the Club first and foremost! 

I have to honestly take my hat off to you. 
Not only for your efforts and skills trying to save this Mk1. 
But the will and common sense to let the Pros do what they're doing now!

In addition, the way you have presented this thread (post) is excellent! 

Can't wait to see what follows, thanks for this!  

RichardHall said

What are your plans, you said new colour and is it going to be fairly standard or are you going to modify it a lot?

Well the plan has always been to modify it but i was hoping to have lots of standard, original parts, but as you can see.. a lot of the standard parts have past their sell by date unfortunately, so after what i have spent so far it would be a silly time to stop. The colour isn't original either, so expect something quite fresh. All I will say is, expect stance!    

There are some interesting bits that i've left out of the original post but will later unveil. I look forward to introducing all the new parts for it soon!

 

golfcabrio said

Dan, welcome to the Club first and foremost! 

I have to honestly take my hat off to you. 
Not only for your efforts and skills trying to save this Mk1. 
But the will and common sense to let the Pros do what they're doing now!

In addition, the way you have presented this thread (post) is excellent! 

Can't wait to see what follows, thanks for this!  

wow, thankyou very much sir! happy to be here and hope you enjoy the read and everything that has yet to come for my quirky 5 door!  

Thanks Guys! Dan

Nice looking project and some nice repairs by yourself too  

Good luck with it all  

Matt

pazwaa said

Nice looking project and some nice repairs by yourself too  

Good luck with it all  

Matt

Thanks Matt!  

Welcome - 5 doors rule

GTI_Jim said

Welcome - 5 doors rule

Cheers Jim! Im expecting mixed opinions about the extra doors! haha, glad you're a fan  

Mk1_Dan said

GTI_Jim said

Welcome - 5 doors rule

Cheers Jim! Im expecting mixed opinions about the extra doors! haha, glad you're a fan  

What's not to like?     

Quick update. Paid the body shop another visit today to see a sample of the colour and see how the Golf has progressed in the last week.

The interior is unbelievable, i'm very impressed with the outcome so far, as they seem to do things by factory standards. Everything has been sealed, protected and fresh sound deadening has been fitted. As for the exterior, all of the panels line up bang on, the arches have been rolled and the car is due to be primed and painted next week.


>




Well thats the latest on Ronnie, I'll be sure to keep you all as up to date as possible!

Dan.

Happy New Year Mk1 Owners,

Figured i'd post an update why i've got the time. Had Ronnie back from paint for a short while, and got a few things done.

Im really happy with the colour and i've been told that pictures really don't do it justice!









As you can see, we've managed to get the engine sat in the bay and tidied a few bits up. Hopefully will have it running soon, then we can focus on getting the interior sorted.

Once those bits are done we can look into the modifying to have it sitting pretty before it goes for its MOT.

I'll try to keep this more regularly updated over the upcoming weeks.

Cheers, Dan 

Nice repairs and amazing paintwork, such a deep shine.  Whats the colour called ?  Nice to see a 5 door being restored, keep the updates coming.

really like the colour man    

watson said

Nice repairs and amazing paintwork, such a deep shine.  Whats the colour called ?  Nice to see a 5 door being restored, keep the updates coming.

+1 love to know what colour it is

whoa, what a transformation, looks great  

matt

Cheers guys! The colour is Porsche Ruby Red Metallic (2011 iirc). The colour has been around a while i believe and carried through various models but the depth of the colour and shade changed ever so slightly. Im really happy with the finish, the guys at Rolds did a good job.

Hope that helps!

Cheers, Dan    

Looks sweet mate, good stuff

Quick update. Took a week away from work to spend some time on the golf with the old man, in hope to make some serious progress.

We hoped to get more done in the time we had, but I think we did okay. The week plan was to get more of the engine in the bay, make a start on the interior, fit new suspension and box off some little bits.

The "new suspension" was in fact, the airlift treatment.



Airlift Performance SLAM Series struts with V2 Management. Arrived at about 11:00 on Wednesday and we managed to get it all fitted and working in a day. A build needs sorting and the lines need shortening, but other than that, its good to go.

During the fitting of the air suspension, we noticed a strong smell of fuel, which didn't go away throughout the entire day, just to find that due to its static past (being so low on coilovers) the tank had taken a beating and suffered some quick repairs with some form of sealant, which had cracked. This affected our plans but as usual we just crack on, and get a new tank ordered.

The golf now has a fresh coat of underseal where the tank rests, and a nice coat over the brand new tank. Throughout the rest of the week we managed to get most of the engine bay together, fit the headlights/grille and make a start on the interior.

I'll go into more detail with the interior when ive managed to get everything in and working properly.

More updates soon! Dan 

Cant wait to see this,   what size rims will you be running?