Hey everyone! I thought I’d start a build thread about my 1983 mk1 golf Gti ABF, I’ve owned the car for about 6 ish years now. Ive always had mk2 golfs but my dream has always been to own a mk1, a good friend of mine had this mk1 stored in a garage for well over 19 years waiting to be restored to its former glory but never got round to starting it, years went by of me asking to buy it and one day I got a phone call saying he was loosing the garage and it had to go! So I jumped at the chance to finally buy it from him,we went down to the garage to clear it out to find that there had been a leak in the roof and it had been running down the boot lid and cause a fair bit of rust damage. We moved the car up to its new home and gave it a well needed wash! We then started to cut out and replace all the rusted out areas and gave them all a quick primer to seal it while we worked on the car as it was stored outside. That’s all I’ve got time for tonight but will try and continue it tomorrow.
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Once the dreaded rot had been cut out and replaced I could then start to prep the body ready for paint.
The car was then at the stage where it was ready for my friend to come and collect it for it’s proper paint job! Once we got it up to his unit the final paint prep began. we then got it into primer and any imperfections were spot filled out ready for base coat and clear top coat. then prep and a good clean ready for the final stage. then on to a good wet flat and polish to finish it off.
Now the car was painted it was time to get the donor parts. Up until then my daily car was a 1988 mk2 golf Gti that i had converted to a ABF, I owned the car for about 10 years but it was getting very tired from driving it every day the whole time I owned it! It had always been my plan to use the ABF in the mk1 as to me it doesn’t look out of place in a mk1 bay,it still has that old school look about it and as the mk1 was going to be my new daily car I wasn’t looking for massive power just a nice reliable car. So the time had come to start to strip the mk2 for parts that I could use on the mk1. I had already sourced the parts I needed for the conversion that I couldn’t get from the mk2 like engine mounts and exhaust mainfold so it was time to get it mounted into the mk1!
Next job was suspension and brakes. I decided on bc racing coil overs as there an amazing bit of kit! (Plus the black and gold fitted in with my theme perfect!) the original brake set up was in a bad way so I started looking for some replacements,I came across a Vauxhall caliper set up using mk2 discs.
Next up was to get the car off the steelies and get the bbs rs on! I still had some black left over from painting the car so made the decision to go for black centres, black lips and gold bolts to break it up a bit and add a hint of gold. I thought I’d try something a bit different and went with a heavy gold flake on the barrels so that you can see it through the centres but doesn’t jump out at you.
With the wheels finished it was time to get them on the car and crack on with getting the car back together.
With the engine in an running I decided it was time to freshen up the old carbon bits I made from When the engine was in the mk2 and to start skinning the mk1 parts. I gave the old cam cover a flat back and fresh clear coat. And same for the inlet manifold. I got hold of a scuttle tray but it was a black gel coat fibreglass one so took it into work and skinned it in a pre preg rc200 weave to match the inlet manifold. next up was the wiper arms. This photo is raw carbon with no clear coat on it yet. carbon fuel filler cap. hand brake cover. This photo is raw with no clear coat. Rocker cover half way through building up the clear coat,still needed a final flat back and final coat. then I took a mould off of my spare grill badge to make some full carbon front badges. I then went onto front door cards skinning the window winders,interior door handles and surround and modified my door pockets to take a larger speaker and then skinned in carbon.
