So I had been stalking this car on usedottawa.com (similar to kijiji or craigslist) for a few weeks. It was a silver 8v GTI. The best part? It's an 86 GTI. I've wanted an old gti for a while and this was perfect. Small bumpers and small doors looks proper.

Well long story short, I picked it up yesterday and am in love with it. I hated having 4 doors and a trunk. Don't ask why, I just enjoy the body style and the interior of this GTI more than my faux-GTX-interiored base-model Jetta.

:: Here's what it's got ::

It's got a TT exhaust with a flowmaster muffler. Lowered on Neuspeed springs. It has a dual round setup with H4 headlights (looked quickly, didn't see what brand) and some Audi guages. The rear beam is in perfect shape and has rear disks.
And kms are relatively low with 184,000. (114k miles) Red stripe trim and bumpers in AMAZING shape.

Home with my DD


Cool grey seats, though drivers side is wrecked


I'm excited to get it running to try out the MFA


Low KM's


My green car had perfect wiring. This one has wires for an old sound system scattered everywhere.


The bad? You bet your ass there's some manly servings of rust. All over the car.


Where it will be sitting until I get the engine going again.


:: PLANS ::

1) To get the car running again. I was told it needs the timing set. I fully expect that to be one of many issues with the car.

2) Fix the rust. A few small holes in the floor, the rear valence area, rocker panels, fender flare area, gas cap area, near all the glass, the hatch. All of it needs tending.

3) Later on I want to get that exhaust off and clean it up. I hate driving a car knowing that there is rust exposed that can get worse. My green car is nearly rust-free underneath. This, on the other hand, isn't.

:: In closing ::

I've never taken on a project like this. This car is pretty much a dream car in terms of old VW's - an 86 GTI, low Km, no p/s, no ac. I'm not ready to take the plunge and buy a 16v yet as I'm still learning new things on these old 8v engines. The progress might not always be fast, but I hope to get what I can done for the rest of summer.

Good luck with the make over dude, looks like a fun project.

If you are missing that driver side door trim I may have it - free if I can find it- let me know.

Thanks for the offer. If you have the driver side small trim piece I'd take that. I emailed the guy and haven't heard back if he has it still.

:: Play-by-play from today ::

The plan was to try and get the car started. Me and a few friends got started on the timing. We started by putting the plugs in the right order as they were completely wrong. Second, we lined up the flywheel with the arrow, and set the cam gear mark up with the cylinder head. (thank god for bentley manual and that sh%t vortex search) We pulled the distributer cap and it was aiming at cylinder 1. We assumed it was all in order so I took the battery from my green car and fired her up...

The car popped and stuttered. The petal to the floor it still wouldn't rev. The issue was that the throttle cable was stuck so some wd40 fixed that. Still though, the car was running completely wrong. So I checked online again and saw that the distributer had a small line that had to be a certain way. It was clearly wrong. We unbolted the distributer and I got in the car and started it as my friend rotated the distributer until it would run right. Out of nowhere though, the car revved up to about 6k so I killed the engine. Turns out it was the smaller throttle thinger above the throttle cable. It needs to be greased up as it's a bit stiff.

Anyway... We unstuck that throttle and started her up again. This time the distributer was in the right position and it was idling nicely at exactly 1k. We closed it all up and were ready to take it on it's first rip.

I WISH we had a picture of this, but my friend and I took her on the road with no grille, a half unbolted rad support, no hood and no fender flares (rusty rear fenders) The car definitely had a bit of pull to it. The TT exhaust and Flowmaster muffler definitely sounded pretty cool. (I'm used to a stock 8v exhaust on my jetta) We did a few tours of the road in front of my house and then pulled back in the driveway. I tightened the rad support, put the grille on, reinstalled the hood and tucked it back into it's spot on the driveway.

This being my first major project I'm going to remember it for a while. The car now runs after a few hours work.

To do:
- Front driver-side suspension is acting up. Ball joint or tie rod?
- Shifter doesn't want to get in any gear without a big fight. Probably needs to be rebuilt, or realigned?
- Start rear fender bodywork. Then floors, then gas cap area
- Buy new rear hatch

Anyway. Enjoy some pictures from today:

Here's the rusty engine:


My friend standing beside my rusty car:

Hope you'll make something good out of it. I always love to see mk2 golfs rescued from the dead.

I will certainly try to make something great out of this. I'm so eager to drive it but I know there is a lot that still needs to be looked after.

After having checked everything out, heres the full to do list

Rust fixing:

- Finish grinding rear wheel wells down. Cut out rot DONE
- Grind and cut rot on rear valence STARTED
- Cut out gas cap area, weld in new metal CUT
- Sort out a few rust bubbles under rear window and windshield STARTED
- Grind down rust. Patch small hole in rocker panels
- Pull carpet and patch a few small holes in the floor
- Clean up battery tray
- Grind down previous strut tower work and reseal it to stop future rust
- Clean up front fenders STARTED
- Repaint front valence panel
- Repaint lower grille strip

Engine:

- Learn all I can about CIS engine
- Check plugs / wires. replace if necessary
- Oil change
- Coolant flush
- Buy and Install shifter rebuild kit
- Buy and install upper and lower timing covers
- Have exhaust clamps cut off and exhaust welded up nicely
- Reroute some wiring to declutter the bay

Interior:

- Reseal vapor barriers DONE
- Attempt to install stock radio
- Pull all useless wires from previous soundsystem
- Shampoo floors and seats
- Tape up driver's seat until a replacement can be found
- Relocate gauges
- Buy and install driver side window regulator

General:

- Pick up a new hatch, then respray silver
- New wheels and tires

All of this will take a lot of time, but I would love to clean this car up real nice and make it the new DD. The rust is the main issue for me right now as the car drives as it is right now. (though the shifter linkage is messed right now)

So today I went after the rust some more. I got the other fender flare off and assessed the situation...
It was worse than I thought it could be. There was huge amounts of Bondo everywhere. Also found out that the front subframe at the control arm has rusted out. Add that to the list of other shit that needs to be done. I figure my plans now have changed from fixing the rust to buying rust repair panels and having them welded in. The rear wheel wells just too rusty to clean up.

Cleaned up front fender:


Back right fender:


Right rear fender flare will have to be cut out:


The left rear fender had mountains of bondo. It was everywhere, holding all the rusty metal together. It will also have to be cut out:


Cleaned out the garage and got the car in there. Another day down, more issues found. I'll keep at it:

Still grinding away at the rust. I've almost uncovered all of it, so tomorrow I'll be picking up a cutting disk or 10 to cut away all the garbage metal on the car. Then comes the fun part: learning to weld

Anyway check out the carnage for yourself!!:

WOO holes under the windshield. You just know there's more where this came from:


Poo in the fenders:


Holes under the back window. NICE!


This doesn't look too bad:


Holy s*%t holes that go into the hatch area. Awesome!


Big f*#ker of a hole under the back seat:


Driver side looks alright:


Passenger also looks decent:


Also of note:
- Coolant is coming out of the radiator on the top near where the plastic side meets the metal finned area.
- Exhaust clamps are all rusted to hell. Exhaust looks hole-free
- Subframe is completely toast. Worse than I saw initially.

So I had a few hours to go at the car today. I picked up a cutting wheel for the grinder and went at it.

Tool of choice:


More and more junk is piling on top of it:


One side cut:


And the other side:


A lot of the junk metal cut in the back:


And the other side:


My personal favorite. I hate gas filler area rust:


Voila!


Now that I got a lot of the rust cut out I'll be going at what's left with the grinder to hit good metal. I still have the floors and rocker panels to cut, but that's not for today. I'm debating whether I'll try to form my own fender flares or just buy replacement flare panels.

Good progress so far dude!

Thanks Seb, I've certainly been putting in lots of time when I can. Bodywork is a bitch...

Got the interior ripped out. The rust is worse than I thought, but I think it's salvageable.

Carpet out in one piece:


Bunch of interior junk:


Seats, lower dash stuff etc:


Nearly all the floor is rusty:


The biggest shock of the day was this little gem:


Why can't they both look like this:


Lovely rust action right here:


More rusty floors:


Ouch, a huge hole:


I picked up a wire wheel for the grinder today. I'll go at that undercoating junk on the floors and see exactly how much needs to be cut out.
Does anyone know if I can cut out the welds on the seat tracks and that other seat brace and reweld them in after?

Looks like you could use this.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=45052

Now I can say my car wasn't in the worst condition. By far yours has some major rust issue.

Dont give up. You're off to a good start. Patient is the key. Good luck with the rest and if you need the rear valance, let me know.

Sorry guys, I don't know your names so I'll go with ovd names:
MK1 GTI: That floor panel sounds nice, but since I'll be fixing pretty well the whole floor it's a waste to have one nice repair panel. (imo)
I'll hack to check for brake lines and anything else under the floors, but I want to get cutting soon. I'm eager to cross some serious stuff off the list.

VW-Autowerk: Was your car even close to this rusty? It looks amazing right now, hard to see how it could have had any rust. I'll let you know later on about the panel when I get to that area of rust repair.

I have a bunch of questions:
What size of steel would be best for replacing the floors? Should I look into some way of strengthening the steel (rolling those lines into the metal. I forget what they are called) rather than just throwing a few pieces of flat metal?

The front of the floors seem to be almost 2 pieces of metal thick. Almost like the top metal has rusted and the bottom has rusted less. Is this how the floors are? Any info would help.

What do those circle access panels do? Can I go without them with the new floors?

How would you guys go about tackling the rear shock tower? Patch it? A new one from a rust-free car?

Finally: Would anyone on here (ovd) be interested in helping me out with the more precise welding? (rear shock tower) I probably wont be taking that on for a bit but it would be nice to know someone local could help me out.

Any answers help a lot. Thanks for the comments, compliments and support.

I'm pretty sure that panel is for the whole passenger side. You should pm him for some pics because that piece could make your life alot easier. The circle panels are used during the making of the car and are not needed now.

Well that changes things. If it were the whole side that would be nice. I'll give him a pm about that panel

Any other answers are greatly appreciated!

rant/

So I was going to work on the car today. Had it parked outside the garage while I looked at something online. The sun is shining real bright, its humid as all hell... Then it starts f***ing raining out of the blue. So I run out to move the car back into the garage. Except I'm f***ing retarded and had the door open a bit as I was backing into the garage and it hits the garage and bends outward.
I'm so irritated with this car and the rust and all the stupid shit going wrong with it. Sick of walking outside and having some flash bullshit rain happening (rain and bare metal all over the car = bad)

/rant

tl dr: Only progress today was f***ing up my door

You need to call this guy and pick up these seats.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.p ... t-and-rear

Galvanized sheet metal and POR-15 <3

Just as important as duct tape and zip ties for an old dub

GL