Rescuing the 79 GTI

Hi folks,

Seem to be alot of restorations on the go at the moment! Some quality work. Thought i'd tell of my project.  Bought a black 79 GTI in a poor state earlier this year with the intention of saving.  Car came with thousands of pounds of receipts for body work that had been done - sills etc rear arches.  Closer inspection revealed alot of shoddy work - I have the receipts from a VW/Audi authorised gararge who carried out the work - I should name and shame them here but I won't.  Anyway, I have cut out all of the shoddy work and rust and am left with a major restoration project. Here is a list of things to do in order of priority:

Turn car on its roof - fabricate new axle mounting sections with the aid of a jig so that measurements are spot on.  On both sides the inner plates (within the rear sill area) that retain the bolts are very badly corroded. I am going to cut both sides out and re-fabricate them and add additional strength. This is not an impossible repair - although i've not seen it done before on this site.

Once I have aligned the vehicles track I will then -

Weld in:

Inner and outer sills
Inner and outer rear wheel arches
Inner front wings
Front valance
Repair rear valance
Repair sections of floor

Most panels are genuine, fortunately.

Thats the bodywork anyway. Hope to have some pictures up soon!!! Watch this space!

Slabbers

Sounds like a major project you have there. Be good to see some pics although I am as guilty as anyone for not taking them.

Hi there slabbers, sounds like you're doing a thorough resto there. Be great to some pics of what you've found and had to cut out, I have a perverse fascination with rusty cars .

Not seen anyone replace the rear beam mountings, how does the jig work? Presumably you need to use a jig when replacing the front inner wings as well? Look forward to more news

Cheers

Any pics of your project?

Good luck with it!

Hi Folks,

Got the rear axle sections completed last weekend.  Took my father and I three days to get these sections right - how do I post pics - please advise and I will add them.  Anyway heres what we did:

Before I cut out the axle sections I used a machined board to exact tolerances and took a print from the rear axle.  After I drilled the holes out I fitted it to the car to make sure it was exact.  Using this board I had a perfectly straight edge in all directions so that I could measure distances on the car.  I knew that the original distance was 200cm from the 1st bolt at the plate to the front of the wishbone carriers (wishbones removed). These are the points that secure the vehicles track and how square on it is.  

After cutting out the rot and rough work, of which there was alot, for example the inner sills had been badly bodged, the mid sill (between the inner and outer at the rear) was not repaired at all and the outer sill had been replaced three times - when it was repaired it was just hammered in and placed over the top - poor GTI.  

Here I cut out a section of the mid sill and inner sill and the plate that holds the bolts within the axle section.  Fortunately a depth of good metal remained for the inner sill so that i could weld a new section to.  This section went forward to the beginnjing of the floor pan where it terminated with a lip that was seam finished.  Once this was seam welded in I fabricated new mid sills with clean folds that joined onto the inner sill.  This section was starting to feel incredibly solid already.  On the inside of this I used a spare outer repair section for the bolts to pass through.  Here I cut a section out of the area so that I could see where the 90 degree plate maybe situated.  Having left one side alone I knew exact dimensions of this section - usign the repair section was just to look at siting the plate and tack welding so that I had an exact depth.  After this I discarded the repair sections and I checked the measurements along certain points of the car and all were within < 1 mm., in fact the measurements to the front suspension were exact. Then I seam welded the internal plate that retains the bolts.  Bolts were new.  After this was done for both sides I offered up the outer repair sections and seam welded them.  These sections are now incredibly solid.

Anyway thats how I accomplished these repairs - hope to show pics once I figure out how to post pics - sorry.

Offered up the rear passengers rear inner arch and outer last night - pig of a job cutting inner arch out!.  Fit looks good though! Pics soon promise

Great to hear you've got stuck in. The inner arch is a pig to get out, fortunately rust had created a big enough hole in mine to get me started .

To post your pics you can upload them to www.photobucket.com and then insert the url with the tags either side - no spaces . There's a more in depth explanation of how to do it here . Looking forward to seeing them.

Cheers

Sorry guys images aren't the best but I'll get better ones! Here's the one sthat turned out OK:








Hope these images work.

I guess that means the others are too BIG?

All welding work to be ground back and coated in POR 15 then stonechipped.

Looking good :y: - that's a long way further gone than my Mk1 was…

Btw - if you put around the links, they'll appear in your post

Rich

Great work, its obviously a bit of a long-term project you have there! After having done some (not as much as you) welding in similar places, I would thoroughly recommend anyone else doing this to turn the car on its side, as you have done. It makes the welding so much easier, its not just easier, it will be better quality because when you weld upside down, the molten metal doesn't run along the join.

Impressive work going on there, obviously a lot of hidden rot 8O . Got any pics of what you had to cut away?

The problem with the pic links that didn't work was that you had put the tags the wrong way round. Try sticking either side of the link should make pictures appear in post - I've edited and sorted out the pics you've posted so far .

Cheers

Thanks for the comments.  Gotta agree being able to put the car on its side is a major bonus.  There really isn't much weight once everything is removed.  I just rolled the car onto polystyrene, spreading the weight between the A, B pillar and rear end.  Everything is then so much easier, grinding, welding, setting up jig etc.  The car is now back on axle stands so that I can fit the wheel arches and inner/outer sills.  

BTW: alot of guys on this forum tend to fit Hadrian panels.  A friend of mine owns a bodyshop and highly recommends SVG panels (as is recommended by the Golf restoration manual).  They are a much better fit (more like OE) and quality of panel and the following is still available for the Mk1 golf:

Outer sills
Outer wheel arches
Front and Rear valance
Wings

And they don't cost any more than Hadrian panels either.  If you need panels contact auto-panels.co.uk - very helpful.

I'm interested in knowing how many black 79 gti are left in the UK.  Not many registered on the forum! Also, my car was registered in early september so i'm guessing the five speed box is correct?

Cheers Slabbers

Cheers for the info slabfoot , read the same thing, but hadn't thought that SVG panels were still avaiable. Need to get an outer sill and the Hadrian sill panels are partcularly poor.

stop messing about Justin, get a thick coat of filler on it and get it painted

that really looks like you have your work cut out mate but also looks like your doing a proper good job keep the progress pics coming.

Nice work there, good to have one side you could take measurements from for the rear axle mounts.

I would agree with you going for the POR15, really excellent stuff and very resistant to chipping. Don't forget to etch/zinc coat with Metal Ready first.

I estimate approx 20 black Series 1 GTis left in the UK (including my 2!), though many are not roadworthy. If your car is a '79 Model Year ("9" as third digit in the VIN) it should have a 4-speed box as standard.

Keep it up!

Need a 4-speed box then.  Chassis No begins 179 - registered 14th Sept 79.

Anyone know where I could find one?

Sorry - VIN begins 179.

Tried a post in the wanted section? Got anymore pics?