1981 Mk1 Diesel Resto project...

Hi,

I'm Jim and I bought this 2 owner from new 1.6d 1981 Golf with 55k miles on the clock. Here's what it looked like when I got it:





It took me about 4 hours to get the front wings off because there was so much rubber underseal! But the inner arches are in good nick as you can see:





Most of the interior, side panel trim, windows etc is now out. On satuday we took the engine and gearbox out for a full engine rebuild.

this was the one on ebay? was soooooo tempted to bid

Yep that's the one!

Lucky bugger I was watching that one, got yourself a bargain I say.

The engine came apart this weekend and as you can see is already as clean as a whistle! Even so, the whole thing is being rebuilt.

Tiny bit of welding needed doing too, near the brake pedal

Bought some Turbo's from a local guy for £280 with good tyres…

Bye bye garage, hello bodyshop!

nice

Should be a cracker when you've finished it!
It's just like mine, an X reg Mars red diesel. Mine's up to 140k now, still runs sweet as a nut though. So you're sticking with the original engine…is it a 5 speed? Although '81 was maybe a tad early for that?

Yeah im sticking with the original engine, I;m painting the whole thing up though so it should look pretty sweet. I like the idea of having a 60MPG show car

It's only 4 speed unfortunately

This weekend, I did my best at cleaning up the big end and gearbox. I took the big end apart too. Once the proper cleaning products arrive from Frost.co.uk it should make the job a lot easier…











This piles of bits and bobs is going to the sandblasters tomorrow…

Got the pulley wheels and rad cowling back from the sandblasters yesterday and started to prime and spray





A load of prep and paint stuff from Frosts.co.uk arrived yesterday



And by an amazing stroke of luck, I managed to source a replacement windscreen from my local VW dealer!

All parts are now painted. Everything came up really nice, and I'm really pleased with the finish. I didn't bother priming the bottom of the sump as I was low on primer and gathered that its not going to be seen very often anyway.

Cant Finish the gearbox until my Dremel arrives. It should make light work of getting the grease out of the nooks and crannys!

you want a hand held steam cleaner for the nooks.

or a wall paper stripper with a nozzle from a mastic tube attached on the end (put gloves on)

Cheers Funk-Star, Just ordered one from Ebay…

Ta,

good work

Good Build……

Are you planning to keep it original of heavy Mods planned ???

Will be watching this space

Good luck  :mrgreen:

Cheers mate! It's going to be original apart from coiloversm, custom interior and chrome bumpers…