SAMGLF's Mk1 Golf GTI Karman Cabriolet Progress - Recaro Sport (But not for me!)

So I thought I'd give her a clean yesterday as I've not had a chance to since I bought her. Looks alright, but it did make me find a lot of imperfections in the paintwork as expected.

Yet to decide how to go about adressing this as ideally it is crying out for a re-paint but it's not really in my budget :/

I'd like to sort out the paintwork as much as possible without a full spray, but fear that the colour would be too difficult to match.

I expect your paintwork's a bit like mine; looks OK from 10ft away, but as soon as you get close you can see all the little imperfections in it. My car's had a budget respray at some point in it's past, so if you look closely you can see how poor the new paint is in places, and also to odd paint run and even areas where it hasn't stuck to the car properly. The worst bit is where they left the plastic tray in place under the bonnet so that is covered in paint.  

You'll be surprised how well poor paintwork can come up with a really through clean with some proper compounds and a machine, but it can be a lot of work to get a good finish.

I think it looks quite respectable, it's not got that deep shine to it, but it's pretty clean over all and a really good polish should bring it up nicely.

Also regarding matching the colour, a good bodyshop should be able to do this and blend in new and old paintwork so it's hardly noticeable.

Your cabby does look tidy Sam  

Would a good 'detail' help from a pro do you think?

As mentioned, a decent body shop will match the paint no problem so doing bit by bit shouldn't be an issue  

Yeah exactly. If you stand a few feet away it looks good, but getting so close during cleaning has made me see so many imperfections.
One of the mirrors looks like a replacement that's been cheaply sprayed, but only noticeable close up. 
For some reason there's white paint dots on front bumper in places, though thinking about it that might be stone chips.

There's a few areas that previous owners have tried to touch up and fine badly.

I'd like to try and tidy up all the poorly touched up areas and try and clay/polish scratches out etc first and see what's left. I like the car in blue but the paint does look a bit dull. 

I know a great body shop that has done things with previous cars of mine and they do machine polishing etc as well. It's going into them Wednesday for a bit of a health check throughout so I'll find out what they think. 

So…….after replacing the seals, unfortunatley it failed today's test of rain and whilst I have solved leaks in two places, I now have more leaks than I had before! It would seem that I've made it almost worse :/

Should I just accept defeat on trying to make the vehicle water tight? lol

Oh no, that sucks!  

Not sure if the buyers guide has more info on solving leaks in it or not? Worth a look

How's the header seal along the top go the windscreen frame??

KPCabrio said

How's the header seal along the top go the windscreen frame??

Looks fine and haven't had any issues with water there at all.

Not leaking as badly through the roof handle now either, but worse than it was above drivers window :/

Car was a bit damp on drivers side this morning

Is it odd that rather than rectify the issue (on what was supposed to be a short term car that I was going to sell on at the end of the summer) I am now looking at moving to a new house (renting) with a garage so I can keep the car dry when not in use? Hahaha

Well that would be a bonus - a roundabout sort of fix anyway!  

So, yesterday I popped into my local (ish) classic car specialist garage to have a full health check of the vehicle, having only owned it for a couple of weeks. They looked over the vehicle both from mechanical and cosmetic point of view and I was pleasantly surprised

Verdict was, apart from the power issue (just alternator bushes need changing as had been suggested) and a bad fitment of the exhaust by a previous garage where it was bent from front to back and putting pressure on all the brackets…….they were really impressed and said what a fine example of the model it was!

Good news! As you always fear the worse when the car goes in the garage!

Obviously there were other less serious issues such as minor corrosion to under body which needs the side skirts removed really to really see what it looks like, along with fairly minor scrapes, poor paint patchwork and stone chips at the front.
I was hoping there might be opportunity to restore at least some of the damage to the paintwork without a full respray but it seems not. As we'd be looking at fresh new paint and wouldn't want to stop on a line between one panel and the next and by the time it's been blended into the next, you've almost half repaired the next panel anyway (when all panels have imperfections), it really is a case of all of nothing.

So that's a decision I'll have to make…..

In the meantime, I thought it only necessary that now rolling in the VW, I should get a new car seat for my little boy………and obviously it had to be no less that Recaro Sport! Lucky boy!

That's great news Sam, you must be pleased. A full respray is one thing, but it's cosmetic and all the important bits are working right which is a good thing.

Like the new Recaro - your boy should love that  

Hairyarse said

That's great news Sam, you must be pleased. A full respray is one thing, but it's cosmetic and all the important bits are working right which is a good thing.

Like the new Recaro - your boy should love that  

Yeah really pleased with the comments! I''ve had so many great comments from people about the car in the three weeks I've owned it……….pushing me more and more to restoring and keeping it, which was never the original intention as it was a bit of an impulse buy as it came up for sale near my grandparents house and I had been without transport for a couple of months and was getting fed up so just bought it!
The owner of the garage said 'I don't say this often, but if you ever decide to sell it rather than spend out on it, give me a call first and I'll buy it from you to restore!'

Can't get better than that!

You should have seen the hideous seat I had to drive around in the front with before haha! We're both much happier withthis one

That's a great compliment from the garage owner then, more confirmation that you have a solid one!  

The car will be going into the garage Tuesday morning to have the exhaust removed an re-fitted correctly with new brackets. Apparently it had been poorly aligned and rattling noise has been getting worse…..also the power issue will be looked at more carefully.

Though I did order a BOSCH S5 battery anyway, as thought the better battery couldn't hurt anyway and put my mind a bit more at rest when it comes to using the electric roof this summer!!!

On a seperate note, the casing around the steering wheel column/ignition barrel has come apart. It was like this when I purchased. Does anyone know what clip/screw normally holds this in place, so that I can get hold of what's needed to fix this back together again?

The steering column cowling Sam is held on with two self tappers - one each side from underneath (i.e through the lower half in to the top.

If you haven't got any you'll get a blister pack of them from somewhere like Halfrauds or even a DIY place. Can't find the size on partbase but they're about 6-8mm long - not much help!  

Ok found it - http://www.partsbase.org/vw/golf-cabriolet-goc-eu-1991-228-switch-for-turn-signals-main-and-dip-beams-headlight-flasher-wipers-and-wash-wipe-operation/

3.5x13mm, my measuring eyes are obviously out of whack tonight! lol

Great help! Thanks Hairy!

Small update, treated myself to the Bosch S5 which I collected this morning and the new front and rear speakers arrived as well. Happy that the front compnents will fit, but just hoping that the depth of the rears will be ok……….only time will tell. Just need to find myself a crimping set I think as this was advised, just not sure at the moment which exact crimps/connectors I am going to need………





I'd also be interested to know if anyone know's where I can get this plastic part from that goes along the front door cards and around the door pin as its cracked and broken and might as well replace when I take it all apart to repair locks/handles etc.

I think you can buy the door cappings 2nd hand only. Newton Commercial do them new but for tintops only and from memory they're a different fitting - there was a post about it the other week.

Worth an email to NC to see if they have plans to do them for cabby's too.

The top edge of the door cappings is meant to fit under the rubber seal which runs along the glass and I think they are glued to the door. You can't buy them new, there is a post about them in the bodywork/trim section in the tec help.
You don't need to take them off to work on the locks etc, they only time they need to be removed is if you are spraying the inside of the door.