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Ade's Mk1 Jetta C

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Lido Green Rust Monster

Following a long stint of company car ownership and driving all manner of soul-less modern toss I finally came to terms with the fact I needed a little vehicular toy to play with.  Nothing fancy, just something that was a bit retro, lots of fun and that I could tinker with at weekends.   Various cars were considered but one fateful day, this popped up.  It's not often you see a mk1 jetta pop up for sale (at least not one that's bolted together or right out of my budget…), so I figured it was worth the 360 mile round trip to take a look.  At first glance it seemed solid enough; it had it's obvious faults, the front wings mainly being made of several layers of filler being one, but to be honest I had decided to buy it before I even saw it in the flesh which may have contributed to my slightly rose tinted view of it!
Given it's a small block 1.3 4 speed, it survived the 180 mile drive home pretty well (I don't think it had ever left its home town prior to that day).  The following morning with it parked on my drive I could actually fully inspect what I had bought instead of "contributing a bit more to the house deposit savings".  The outlook wasn't quite a good as I had hoped!

Here it is in all it's Lido Green glory…

IMG_3801 by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr


I must admit, I love the colour.  I wanted something that wouldn't give me too much hassle, something I could run around in at weekends etc. and maybe invest a bit more time and money in next year (as winter is coming and my garage is my home office so a garaged winter project can't really happen).

I was ready to hate the little 1.3 but I've got to be honest, It's not actually that bad.  Obviously it's not the fastest thing in the world but its plenty of fun round the country lanes and it seems tidy enough (even if the carb is a little temperamental when its cold)

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr
 

Last edit: by ade36

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The guy that owned it before me (and had done since 1988) loved taking care of this car; but unfortunately his idea of taking care of it involved just skimming on another layer of filler and brushing over some green paint… The front wings are a write off as the are just made of filler now, but unfortunately the inners are also going to need some work… In fact a lot of work… Also note the corrosion around the turret :-/. The fuse box has also been removed and all the fuses are now spliced in line on each wire and floating around the engine bay… Which is nice.
Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

For the record, I have no idea why he put the headlight caps on the top of the front suspension turrets

Last edit: by ade36

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Ouch, that looks like an expensive toy to put straight.

My first golf was Lido green. I hated the colour at first but after a few weeks I grew to love it an still do.  :wub:  :wub:

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It doesn't get much better at the back…

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

That's a rather crappy inner arch… The fuel filler area has gone on the outside too  O_o

Last edit: by ade36

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That should keep you busy on the cold, winter nights!

Andy

LINCOLNSHIRE REGION - https://www.facebook.com/groups/467122313360002/

1983 MK1 Golf GTI Campaign Model - Under (looooong) resto!
1962 Rover P4 80
2002 BMW 745i
2008 BMW Z4 2.5Si

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It'll be so lovely when saved though

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Thanks guys!

I'm hoping to have a bit of fun with it (eventually!).  It's certainly more work than I set out to take on, but it's what I've ended up with so I'll just have to deal with it… Always wanted to know how to weld; guess now I'll have to learn!

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Welding and rewiring is in order, you really would not want to relay on those seat belts holding you in with that rust around them.

Love the headlight cover on the strut mounts, never seen that before, most people just leave them off. So what is on the back of the headlight?

1988 Mk1 Golf GTi Cabriolet 1.8cc DX, K-jet. Daily drive. 317,000 miles and counting
1978 Mk1 Scirocco GLS 1.6cc FR, Webber carb. Weekend toy.

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mark1gls said

Welding and rewiring is in order, you really would not want to relay on those seat belts holding you in with that rust around them.

Love the headlight cover on the strut mounts, never seen that before, most people just leave them off. So what is on the back of the headlight?

Yeah, I removed the rear seat belt (and bench) straight away so no one was tempted to use it as it's in no way safe.  Now have a replacement inner rear tub and belt mount so hopefully the will be cut out and replaced soon.

As for the rewiring; I quite like the idea of the later spec fuse box (mounted beneath the dash rather than in the bay). Presumably its a relatively simple thing the convert to… Would the simplest way be to find someone breaking a golf and just take all the wiring and fuse box out or would it be just as easy to start from scratch?

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With the rewiring it depends on how good you are with electrics?
I would try and get a good second hand loom and fuse box and fit that one in as the connections and plugs will already be there and you don't have to start sourcing those parts but I'm not great with electrics but can unplug and plug things back in as I've changed my fuse box before as the old one was faulty and that was a 1/2 hour job.

Keep the updates coming and pictures.  :thumbs:  

1988 Mk1 Golf GTi Cabriolet 1.8cc DX, K-jet. Daily drive. 317,000 miles and counting
1978 Mk1 Scirocco GLS 1.6cc FR, Webber carb. Weekend toy.

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Ok, so had a spare couple of hours this afternoon so thought I'd start stripping some bits back and see what I'm going to have to deal with…

Firstly I took the headlight surrounds out of the equation as they are rarer that a rare thing and if I broke one whilst faffing about then the swearing rant that would follow would be enough to put a stella fuelled chav to shame

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

I now know why these things are rare; they are brittle and flimsy as shiz.

And randomly found this spare key stuck to the front slam panel; I guess the previous owner used to get locked out a lot!

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Two sheared bumper mount bolts later and I was ready to start attacking the wings.  I knew they were going to be bad, but the bad news started as soon as the bumper was off.

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

But hey, I knew the wings were going to be a write off.  Time to start prying them off and see the extent of the real issues

Filler…

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Filler…

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

And more filler…

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Although I was grateful for that last one; It made reaching the upper internal wing bolt much easier!

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

And the inner wings; not much better:

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

What isn't rust is, yep, you've guessed it, filler:

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

And what's that at the front? Yep, mesh and filler:

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Beneath the filler it isn't much better… Rust and daylight.

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Not exactly safe at the moment!

It's not beyond saving (although I do still need to remove the nearside wing!).  I have a pretty mint golf complete front end in the back garden that can supply donor inner wings, and the chassis legs on the jetta look solid… But as expected, I'm gonna have my work cut out, and I'm going to have to get good at welding pretty quick!

Last edit: by ade36

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Those front wings are a work of art. Some of these photos need framing! :lol:

All power to your elbow, my Corrado's terminal rust was way milder than that mess - although much harder to fix. Good on you for saving it!

"Klaus": 1987 Clipper Cabrio, LA7Y, 1.8 Weber (auto)
1995 Corrado VR6, LK4Z: RIP
2003 Golf R32, LB5R

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Stone said

Those front wings are a work of art. Some of these photos need framing! :lol:

All power to your elbow, my Corrado's terminal rust was way milder than that mess - although much harder to fix. Good on you for saving it!

Yeah, I scrapped many a car in the past for rust that is far less severe than this… If it was a different model I would probably be inclined to cut my losses and run but as these things are so hard to come by I got to at least try to save it.

Like I said, I've got good condition inner wings I can use to replace these; the bit I'm trying to work out is how I'm going to get them lined up… There is so little left of the existing wing that I have no datum/reference point to go from!

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omg, so bad condition. I  had three jetta's and none was that bad :O

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It's what happens when you put filler over bad metal and not cut out or kill the rust as it just keeps eating away at the metal.  :(

1988 Mk1 Golf GTi Cabriolet 1.8cc DX, K-jet. Daily drive. 317,000 miles and counting
1978 Mk1 Scirocco GLS 1.6cc FR, Webber carb. Weekend toy.

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Do like the colour of this.

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Really like this car despite its issues, i particularly like the inline fuses they remind me of the mess I found taking my dash out... Heh the pain putting it righ!

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It's been a while so I may as well update with my progress (or lack thereof)

Ground back some of the underseal that was coating the inner arch and actually found some clean metal… which was nice.

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Sprayed it all in primer which gave me a better picture of what I was looking at.

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Keep kidding myself that I can sort this out by cutting repair panels but it's still going to be a case of drilling the spot welds and replacing the entire inner wing as one.


Anyway, time passed and I thought I'd better take a look at the other side… I mean, it couldn't be worse, right?

Wrong:

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Filler:
Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Mesh:
Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Holes:

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr



And the entire connection between the front panel and inner wing is made from…
Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Yep! Filler!

No chance of an easy fix on this side then…

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr
 

Last edit: by ade36

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Oh, and about 90% of the front lower panel (annoyingly the jetta specific bit) is made from about an inch think slab of filler
Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

Untitled by Adrian Child, on Flickr

I mean, what the actual f*$k was the previous owner thinking?!

Last edit: by ade36

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Man that's not good, if you or someone you know that can weld and weld good might be able to make the iinner wing panels to correct this, just rip the paint and filler right back to see how far the rabbit hole goes

List of past and present cars ive owned

1997 corsa 1.2 poop

2003 Ibiza 130 tdi hybrided to 240bhp

1991 Mk 2 jetta calypso green 1.6td

2001 MG ZT 190+ v6 in trophy blue…. Sold to my brother

2003 Golf GTI TDI 150 black leather heated recaros ;) the
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