Mars red 83 GTI AHN 502Y

Fingers crossed with the bodyshop, the shell looks tidy

Hi folks

Thought it was time for another update:

When I look through my build thread it amuses me that I had every intention in getting this on the road summer 2012 - that clearly has not happened!

With numerous delays at the paintshop it has been a very frustrating couple of years but I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. I have been promised shell for the end of the month so we shall see….

Here are a few photos I took this week. The shell is 80% in polyester now so a few more rub downs and should see some primer on the old girl. A lot of work has gone into this shell and in hindsight a more solid shell would have perhaps been the way to go but at least I have kept one more on the road!














I have turned my attention to interior bits.

I have started to recover the rear boot cards which were warped and had things screwed into them in the past. I pulled the faux leather off and then soaked the board panels and dried them out under weights to flatten them out again. Next I picked some faux leather from fleabay and set about sticking it on with contact adhesive. Finished photos to follow!








I have also re-covered the back board to the rear bench - again photo's to follow ;-)



I am on the lookout for a trimmer to flip my rear bench material if anybody has a good lead?


I also bought a bargain Pioneer graphic equalizer this week which will hook up to my matching head unit - I'm considering mounting this in the centre console so there will be a bit of chopping to do……..

I love looking at photos of the cars in a spray booth (also feel a little jealous   ).

Shell looks great, all smooth, panel gaps look spot on. Hopefully worth the (long) wait.  

Matt

cheers mate this really needs to happen this year

Your car is looking really nice man, looks straight as a die! Be great to see her done this year!

I'm at the end of my first year into the build and was planning to have her done for the AGM this year but It's not going to be easy to achieve it   I guess these things take longer than expected sometimes

Andy.

Hi andy,
Thanks for the kind words. yeh you are abso right sometimes things do take longer, things come along & plans change then theres the waiting round for services which can be frustrating. i decided to concentrate on doing the mechanicals and leaving bodywork to others as i knew i could not meet my own standards.  we both started out with similar rot boxes so be nice to see both mars red survivors at the 2015 agm at very least  

I'm the same mate, I don't think I can meet my own standards either, bodywork wise. Yeah I've made the car structurally safe, front and rear panel etc but it's the finishing off and prepping for paint, just don't know where to start lol.

2015 AGM, it's a date

Very tidy work, nice  

Liking the graphic equaliser too!  

Cheers fellas :-)

Does make  you wonder in  the 1980's what crazy fool puts a graphic equalizer, sub and amp in a car that can be broken into with a plastic spoon. I had my fair share of headunits and amps nicked in the late 90's :-( 

Yeah I had my stereo nicked out of my MK1 in 1990. They tried to pull out the parcel shelf too to get the speakers but it was too well secured.

That was 'back in the day' when it was cool to have big speakers in your parcel shelf  

Looks good to me mate!

I'm putting two amps and a sub in mine, well I have put both the amps in, I just need to buy the sub when I find the one I'm after!

It might be easy to break into but how many times will it be left outside in the cold? I would imagine after you have spent the time and money that you have on sorting it out, it will be stored properly in the garage lol

Had a pioneer headunit, sherwood amp, rockford fosgate sub and my pioneer 6x9's stolen out of a fiesta si circa 2000. The swines used a ball bearing to break the window but missed 1st time so had a nice ding in my bonnet ;-(

Hi Joe
Good to hear from you mate - looking a bit different now aye Oh of course it is never going to be left outside :-)
Here is the full assembly together:



Going to mount equalizer where gauge pod is then amp sat below. My centre console is a bit bashed anyway so not hacking into a minter.


Here is a finished photo of the boot cards and the original material for comparison:





And finally front & rear panels progress to polyester:

More tidy work, very nice

Time for a daft question, but what's the polyester? Primer?

New cards and old car looking great   

Matt

Cheers guys.

As far as my limited knowledge knows polyester is a type of primer which is great for going rock hard and does not suffer from shrinkage so is very hard to sand… 
i think the body will get a final fine sand then primer then paint and laquer. got to have the underside sealed 1st which will  be next week with any luck!

Makes sense - it looks a damn fine job!

Final Rub down before primer….getting closer!

Looks great as it is, all the panels line up nicely. 

Next step - all one colour 

Matt

& yet more progress chaps

looking forward to some colour