1979 Inari Silver GTI

Nice save

Looks like early floorpans/brake lines?

There was one of these sitting on the drive of the chap who I bought a Mk2 from but wasn't for sale.

Sound like a fantastic little project with a story to match. Just looked up the colour inari silver on the internet and my god, what an amazing colour! I would love a series 1 gti. Good luck with the project and looking forwards to seeing it finished, if it turns out like your red series 1, it will be a very special car 

Managed to squeeze a couple of hours in today, as I really want to get all its parts on it, so I can see what's needed before I store her away.

There were still some more of the awful seat adapters to grind/cut out. Job done!



Both sides now clear and ready for a VW seat each.



Took the opportunity to remove the White bathroom carpet as well. Seems to show much more of the original colour now that's removed.



Unfortunately a good poking around with a screwdriver discovered some nasty rusted through areas on the central tunnel, right at the front, and on both sides too.





Anyway, here's how much metal was removed from the seat bases. Doesn't look much, but really awkward to get at, wholly unnecessary to put there in the first place.



The seats are in, but let me explain their condition. They are the seats I'll use, but I've some more bolsters and cloth to use when they get retrimmed. Even the vinyl isn't good enough on these, but the frames and headrests are fine, as are the lower trims and seatbelt retainers. Plus, they were getting in the way upstairs.



I've taken the clocks and their surround inside the house for table top surgery as I need to fix up the fuel gauge and water temp. gauge, plus use a GTI surround instead of the Bronze GLS one. I'll give them a good clean up and ensure all the bulbs work too. Pictures of this next time around.

Nice job Ben mate. Shame about the rust but it looks like something someone of your calibre can sort easily enough

Keep the updates coming. She's a real beaut mate.

Tackled one of the dashboard issues this morning whilst I had a spare hour. I was concerned about the dubious looking LED's that someone had added to the bottom of the dash, and needed to investigate. I also needed to swap the temp gauge over for the correct one, as the car shouldn't have the coolant level warning light. These came on the later series 1's.
Luckily, I have a few sets of clocks and a GTI surround in my spares. The idea is to swap out the water temp gauge and investigate why extra warning lights had been added. As soon as I removed the old clocks, I found all sorts of homemade electrics added into the back of the dash, which isn't a good sign. Seems that they've tried to hard wire the warning lights, possible because they couldn't earth the originals.
Anyway, here are the spare clocks, and the messy wires inside the dashboard. These clocks have a break on the back of the circuit, so we'll have to use the old circuit.





And these are the ones I've just removed…



You can see where the extra earth wires have been added…





With all the components stripped down and cleaned thoroughly, these are the clocks we'll be using. The speedo is the original one, and displays the correct mileage…



New, and correct surround cleaned and ready…



Clocks have found their new home…



And the whole lot happy…



It seems that there are some bad earths within the circuit, so I will have to go back and try and hard wire some of the warning bulbs. But, all the gauges work perfectly now.

Good stuff. Only the late S2s had the coolant level sensor.

I've 2 sets of the early clocks, and both have the LED warning light inside the water temp gauge. Both those clocks are dated mid to late 1980. I assumed they were for the last series 1's that had the header tank with sensor in there. 

Wow good stuff.

i love the Inari Silver. I have a Derby in it. Strange that so few golfs have survived in Inari silver but most Derbys seem to be Inari Silver.

Love the Series 1 dashboards. Very jealous mate.    

The coolant light is for high temp not level 

Very Nice, I am on the hunt for a S1 GTI project at the moment so I may be in touch soon if i need a part or two! Any idea where I might find a car?

Not read this. I'm liking it fella! Can see plenty of discussion between you and I whilst I build mine up 

frazgolf said

 I am on the hunt for a S1 GTI project. Any idea where I might find a car?

Good luck searching fella  hard to come by no ends… 

Rocking horse poo springs to mind mate as brad says  

There's one for sale in the section currently but IMHO it's too much money for the condition and I want a 3 Door, ideally a GTI

Dig deeper into for sale threads and that was for sale on here back end Of last year in Scotland iirc. 

Looks likes have your ideal project 

Best wishes for the rebuild,will look forward to reading about your progress

Lovely write up and excellent work hereLook forward to more!

come mr more pics Ben, give the fans what they want  

Like I said, this one's on the back burner. However, it's still on my mind, and I'm working through the list of missing or damaged parts whilst she's laid up resting.
Got about 8 things at the AGM - nothing exciting, just little bits of interior trim.
Anyway, here's the latest acquisition…





…original S1 GTI alloys in the all important correct size. So often I see the 5's being used which aren't a GTI wheel.

Plus, they include the correct S1 centre caps too. Shame I bought some of those unnecessarily last month really. They'll need a stripping, and a little bit of work to clean up some of the edges before powder coating again.


Just a handful of bits missing now. Tartan cloth, rear speaker holder seat belt blanking plugs, boot mat, badges, window/door seals, and some small oddments of interior plastic trim.

Sorry for the awful picture quality - time for a phone upgrade after 4 years!

Nice find Ben. I am looking for a set of GTi steels if you stumble across any on your travels mate. Re your list above I might be able to point you in the right direction for some of it

Smudger