Old project new thread - '83 gti

So many things I've struggled with that would have been so simple with a dremel! Not even that expensive

A little ebay purchase…

Nice alloys, they'll look good ;-)

Hope so!
Going to get some Toyo T1R's for them, and I will need to sort out some of the curb marks etc and the centre bore needs increasing by 0.05mm, another job for the dremmel!

These arrived today, got them off a member on here, in need a bit of a clean


 

n and Been a little while since I updated, car was at the welders for a bit longer than I had hoped but they did a very good job

Got some nice tyres for the new wheels


The bit that was welded, quite hard to see because of the sealer/paint



Then got round to fitting the new fuel tank



Rear beam went back in along with new coilovers, wheels fit nicely on the back




Had to fit a new caliper onto the front passenger side, the old one had seized.
It had goodridge braided hoses on there which had different connections and couldn't find any way to fit the new flexi hose as the connectors were pretty badly rusted on.
In the end I bought a rigid line flaring kit to put a new bit on and just cut the end off with the old connector on.



New brake on and bled all the brakes, but couldn't get the last bit of air out the system, after pumping the pedal a few times it would go hard and the brakes worked well, however it would then go all soft again and I'd have no brakes



As I had the mot booked in for today I took it down there and asked them to have a go at bleeding the brakes again which should see it pass! It's at the test as I type this so fingers crossed




 

Been a long time since I updated this, but like most people I've got more time at the moment to work on the car.  

Bought a mig welder and a few other bits so I don't need to rely on outside help and hopefully going to learn a few things.

I can't quite remember what has been done to the car since I last posted, did pass it's mot eventually and I had one great summer of use out of the car.

Took it to the coast in Wales for a weekend (about 3 hours each way) and it rained the whole time, turns out the sunroof and door seals are very leaky. 

At the end of the summer the thermostat stopped working so it went back into the garage where it remained untouched for the past two years.

Fortunately I left the sunroof open a bit so I could access the fittings and get it out, the mechanism was completely jammed with rust.



Drip tray and wind deflector are too far gone so will be replacing those. Managed to free up the mechanism but got a new winder part as that was done as well.

Today I replaced the heater fan which solved that problem, and wired up the vdo gauges which I had been putting off for a long time, turned out to be quite straightforward and I learned how to solder wires.



Will dig out some photos and get some of the current process up soon

Be good to see another Mars red beauty back on the road.
Looks pretty tidy. Other than the sunroof, does it need much doing to it?

J

The interior is pretty much completely stripped out at the moment, when it was in for its last mot the garage did a bit of welding to one of the rear suspension strut towers and set fire to an old piece of foam that was sandwiched behind a panel. 

Fortunately someone was in the back watching for fires but ripped the headliner when he was trying to hop out the boot. They set off a powder extinguisher which somehow got everywhere, so before the dash etc goes back in I'll need to clean that mess up. 

As far as the interior I need to do:
New headliner and sunroof piece etc
New door cards
Would like to fit electric windows 
Finish the vdo gauges and other electrical gremlins
Put the dash and the rest back in.

The engine runs pretty sweet, I'm going to do some servicing and I got a polished and ported intake manifold with an Audi throttle body on eBay recently to go on.

Most of my time will be doing body work, I had the driver side sill and rear lower balance replaced before. Both rear arches and lower corner panels need chopping as they are full of rust. And a few patches elsewhere like on the roof and under the windscreen. 

Hopefully get started finding the extent of the rust this week.

A few photos I found on the computer from the summer I was driving it.

Finished wiring up the gauges today, feels nice doing all the wiring properly so that it lasts.



I wanted to run the car for a bit to make sure the pressure and temp gauges work but the car wouldn't fire up, tested the fuel pump and didn't get any power, then popped that spare relay in and it primed when I turned the ignition.
So popped out to gsf and picked up a relay, still wouldn't start. Forgot there was a fuse as well for the fuel pump, which turned out to be completely melted…



Swapped this out and still wouldn't start, fuel was pretty low so I popped out again and filled up a Jerry can but still nothing, then I remembered a wire for the coil had dropped off the negative terminal as I had been taking it on and off so many times, got that back on and it fired right up. At least I have a spare relay now.

Got the car out the garage and let it warm up, all the gauges working fine, the oil pressure goes to just over 3 when the engine is under load then drops down a bit at idle. Can anyone confirm if this is correct?



New mechanism for the sunroof arrived, shocking how bad the old one is in comparison 



Took a bit of the rusty spots away on part of the sunroof frame and painted it back up, won't be seen so not fussed for it to be perfect.



Pulled the bumper off to check out the rust on the rear corner which I will investigate a bit more next time 

Made a bit more space in the garage today and turned the car around to make life easier.  Masked off an area to work on and stripped the paint and a very thick layer of filler.


 

 


Will definitely be covering everything with dust sheets next time.

Discovered that a new lip/repair piece had been spot welded on, it didn't seem to be welded to the inner arch but there was a thick layer of some kind of rubber sealant inside.

Working from the back I ground away the spot welds and pulled the repair panel away.


There was another bit of patch work in front of the arch and it also looks like there are 3 skins, so I'm assuming the inner arch was also repaired at some point.



 Felt like a lot of progress today, my gf came with and got stuck in too, first time I've had someone help me with the car for a full day.      

 I haven't decided if it's going to be easier to strip away the under-seal to investigate the repairs done to the inner arch, or if I'll be able to see it once the rest of the arch is cut out. 

Where do you find these girl friends????

Early-1800 said

Where do you find these girl friends????

  just the one girlfriend actually 

Cut the body back to where it's good metal today, and removed a few patches that were welded on in front of the arch on the sill. Most of that area looks ok fortunately.

Will need to the replace some of the inner arch so ordered a panel for both sides as I'm sure it's the same case on the other side of the car.



Started cutting the arch panel down a little bit at a time, some funny shapes to cut out and get right at the bottom corners so taking my time with it. Finally fitting into place nicely now when I test it but still a few more bits to cut out before I move on to grinding the edges to make it flush with the car. 



The plan is to get this piece fitting perfectly before I start chopping anything else away on the inner arch so I still have this piece for reference if that makes sense. 

I think it was particularly rusty as this drainage tube was completely shut in with nowhere for the water to get out, I'm assuming this is for the sunroof and is in the correct place? 

Slow progress at the moment, finding it hard to get straight edges with the flap disc so finishing the edges with a file. 

A couple more bits to finish but each side fits quite flush now, ignore all my sharpie marks!





The inner arch came today, pretty much the entire lip of the old one was rusted so chopped that out today and started cutting the new piece down to fit, will finish that up tomorrow once the outer is done then I should be ready to weld. 

Finished trimming the inner arch lip down and got everything ready to weld, going to practice on some spare bits of metal first as this will be my first time doing it.

Got the inner arch mostly welded on, bit left to do on each side then I'll grind the welds back and give it a few coats of primer 

Made a little corner piece to replace a bit I chopped out, welded it in and finished welding the inner arch lip, when I test fitted the outer panel it didn't sit flush so I had to break the welds and move part of the inner back in, hence the overlap and dodgy welds at the back. I'm happy with how it turned out though and won't be seen anyway, gave it a few coats of primer and ready to weld the outer now.

Extended the sun roof drainage tube today with some spare fuel hose I had.

Got halfway welding the arch, I put a thin layer of sealant in between the lips, not sure if this is what other people have done but will definitely keep things water tight. 

All the welding on the outside of the panel is done now, there's a small patch on the end of the sill inside that needs doing but started filling for a change of pace.





More block sanding to do but coming along nicely 

Looking noicee

Ian