83 gti full rebuild

This is my 83 gti i got a few months back, i always wanted a mk1 and bought it with no tax or mot. I havent even drove the car apart from towing it home :? where i started to strip it down to see what condition it was in, it was aparently just overfueling so i gave it a quick look round and found a small amount of rust on the door and thought nothing of it until i got home.

back home


after a bit of looking i found a rusty spare wheel well


and the door after a closer inspection


The rear wheel arch also had a bit of rust but i didnt get a picture of it befor welding But the worst rust was found when i realised my carpet was wet… couldnt find a leaking window seal so striped all the old rotten carpet sprayed the car with a hose to find a nice hole in the rain tray under the bonnet 8O I have now got all these rust problems welded up properly

Rust cut out


Welded up






rear wheel arch welded up




inside striped out


The wings and bonnet also needed replacing as they had a few dents and a dodgy arial hole weld up :evil:

so as the wings were off thought i would strip of the stone chip and underseal and redo them





The wingsalso got a coat of ruber seam sealant

 

The car a few days ago with windows removed, where i found another small rust patch under the rear quater window rubber and also under the tailgate rubber seal but i havent taken pics yet.



The next jobs on the list are remove rubber sound deadening from floor pans, which i have already started on…thats a fun job lol and to get the new rust sorted, as well as removing tailgate glass then doors and tailgate and prep the shell ready for a respray, which is going to be an audi grey. im going to spray the bonnet, wings, tailgate, inside the shell and doors myself to save on money as im still a poor student, but get the shell sprayed by a friends dad. after that i can start putting it back together with a few new parts that i got of ebay which include standard rear lights and a small front splitter. As well as fitting these badboys



Next on the list to buy is primer and paint, polly bush kit, gearbox linkage kit and headlights. I also have to sort out the dodgy wiring done by the po
to get the fan to work and also make the car tick over at less than 2000 rpm
Sorry for the bad pics there all camera phone, will try and get a proper digi camera soon as well as upload more pics from todays work

Dunc

looks great bud keep us updated!

 

Nice work so far and that front end looks mint under the wings....

Yeah the front end had no rust whatsoever apart from a 5 pence sized hole in the corner off the inner wing where it wraps around but this has been welded to.

nice are they supersport coilies

yeah they are im kinda doing this car on a budget but i want to do the important things first like making the shell clear of rust and spraying it. Im also going to repolish the teardrops and color match the tears to the body work and space them out a bit, but thats not going to happen for a while as i've got all the fun prep work to do :roll: i want this car to look almost standard apart from a few things like smoothed rear wiper and lowered a lil bit  it already came with groved brakes and uprated pads butthe electrics are a bit dodgy on this car.

small amount of rust along the tailgate, was covered by tailgate rubber only found this today



also found a small rust hole under rear window rubber which will also need welding up



removed all the sound deadning from the floor pans to find no rust at all





also removed some of the damaged paint under the rear seats and rear suspension towers/arches





took the wire wheel to the other rear arch to remove some surface rust and found…filler, after removing it all i found out that this side had also been welded for rust but they made a good job of it just needs a small bit of grinding.



Also got a few more body parts for the car these include a new bonnet to go with the new wings and new front and rear bumpers

that look brilliant mate, ur at a similar looking stage to mine, except yours has an engine lol, good to see the rust is only localised, check the rear axle mountings and inner sills where the floorpan meets the sill, they are common traps

looks good, keep it up
nice one mate
JJ

The new bumpers arived soz for the bad pictures still the camera phone :? hopefully if theres no rain over the weekend i can get the inside of the car preped for primer.

Yeah i checked underneath mate its suprisingly rust free which is cool. I will hopefully get it welded soon when i can aford to rent a welder for the weekend.

Looking very tidy mate, keep up the hard work, she'll look a beaut when she's done.

Keep the posts coming!

Hello Mate.
I was just wondering where you bought the new bumpers from?
Did they come with the metal bits aswell?
Because im missing those  :?

Thanks
Luke


_____________________
1982 mk1 golf gti (Going to paint inari Silver)
1990 black mk2 golf 1600 driver - Daily runabout

My project - http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=32082

http://www.car-partsonline.com

Thats where i got the bumpers from, they did come with the metal mounting arms as well and at a reasonable price fast service as well. They got lots of little bits as well, i got a accelerator cable with the bumpers deffo use them again. didnt get much work done this weekend had to fix my other car

got started on the golf again today after a little break, got the doors and tailgate off including the front quater windows. but found this at the end of the window runner


will this be ok to put back in once the car is sprayed the mounting point isnt rusty just the inner part



also removed more old paint from the rear of the car


the door getting flatted down ready to be skimed with filler theres a few small chips/dings in the pasenger door


the tailgate with the wiper holes welded up i have the original sticker ser to go here again found on ebay


and a sneaky look at the new paint which will be getting sprayed during easter if all goes to plan



and the engine bay which i havent shown yet its quite clean with no rust on the strut towers

I just love those classic teardrop wheels, very nice.

not sure weather to keep the teardrops or get a set of 13" but then it might be a bit unusable for everyday driving… the teardrops dont seem to fill the arches nicely, i'll see what it looks like when i get the coilovers on but thats a long way of yet

had the welder round today to fix the last few pieces of rust, all the bodywork now rust free





had the holes in the rear panel welded up as they had started to rust as well. The next step is to lead fill the arch and a few other little parts im not totally happy with, then i can get my mates media blaster and strip all the paint from the inside and out and get it all ready for zinc oxide primer and some high build. I decided that im only going to prime the shell and spray the inside then fit all the panels and pay a profesional to do the outside as i want a good finish 8) then i get to put it all back together with my new parts i've been collecting over the month's

the new parts










Things still to buy/get
primer
new windscreen & rubber
new tailgate glass rubber
windscreen wiper arms
Polly bush kit
Upper & lower omp strut brace kit
Carpet set
seats - http://www.cobraseats.com/le_mans.htm
And probably a load of other bits i cant remember at the moment
Things to do

remove the last of the rubber glue on floorpans
Media blasting
Lead filling
prepping with wet and dry inside and out
Priming
refit panels
get sprayed
sort out all the wireing
put everything back together
MOT & tax, insurance
DRIVE IT!!

Good work there mate

Bet you cant wait to get it finished, I've got all that in front of me yet  

Today i decided to remove the old headlining and sunroof ready for the car to be prep'd for spraying, found out that the sunroof was aftermarket and just mastic'ed then screwed in place is this normally how this would be done my roof skin is now really flimsy which is anoying because i wanted to flat it back ready for spraying but it just flexes. I also couldnt figure out how to remove the rear view mirror  :? didnt want to just start pulling things off anyone know how???
and pics

the hole



coming out from inside


i wish the previous owner would have left it alone it would have been much easier to work on lol

After market sunroofs are a nightmare.  At least with a factory one you get some extra support to help with roof flexion.  I would be seriously tempted to re-skin the roof and get rid of it completely.
Good progress there.

With the rear view mirror you basicly just use bruit force and rip it out.
Thats what i did anyway. Expect theres a proper, civilised way to do it now.

I got a aftermarket sunroof on my car. Roof is realy flimsy as you say.
Might reskin the roof to get rid of it. Not sure though.

You may have to attempt it first and tell me how easy it is.

Luke


_____________________
1982 mk1 golf gti (Going to paint inari Silver)
1990 black mk2 golf 1600 driver (FOR SALE!!!!!!!!)
1993 White bmw 318is couple (m3 replica) - Daily runabout

My project - http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=32082