[Car_Restoration] 1.9 Restoration

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Hi,

I've been lurking on the forum for a little while now, stealing information from other peoples posts.

 

And thought it about time I shared my project.

 

I've always dreamed of owning a gleaming Gti in as factory condition as possible. Knowing that I was never going to be happy with one that was already available, and wanting a project. I decided to get an as complete as possible starter with as little chassis and bosywork as possible for a 20 yr old car.

 

It didn't take too long before I found a suitable candidate. A 1988 1.9 in silver.

 

 

After a few question answered by the seller I was on route with a trailer to see what it was like. It was pretty rough, it didn't run too well, was missing a few little bits like grill and intake hose. And had the most ridiculous exhaust that could easily fit my size 12s in!

 

But everything else seemed complete and unbroken. And the chassis seemed solid enough excluding the usual bubbling on the sill next to the rear arches and bottom of the footwell. So I parted with not too much money and took it home.

I got stuck into stripping it straight away I started with the outside.

 

 

I had concerns straight away with the amount of corrosion around the headlight panel, how did I miss that?

But I pressed on and started to strip the inside.

 

 

And then found the nightmare looking inside the rear quarters at the arches. It's obviously been in an accident on both sides, and repaired to a pretty poor standard. Both inner arches, the top of the sill and quarters were all badly corroded.

 

 

I'm amateur at best with welding, and this was way out of my league to sort out to a standard I am going to be happy with. I had no choice but to call in the professionals to see what it would cost to sort, I had 3 quotes, the lowest being £3500 just for the welding work. I nearly passed out. I felt like such an idiot for not spotting it when I looked at the car originally.

That left only one option to me, to re shell the car.

The criteria was simple, the new shell had to be solid with no rust, a phase 1.5 original 1.9. After a fair bit of looking, Matt from Pug1off came to the rescue with a 1990 graphite grey that was already stripped and for a bargain price. Phew!

Edited December 23, 2013 by timoth123

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

I carried on stripping the original shell of every remaining nut, bolt and clip ready to replace or refurb.

 

 

Then got stuck into the new shell, but first I wanted a spit for the car to make working on the underside easier.

 

I made up a couple of A frames with rotating brackets!

 

Made up some brackets to weld to the rotating part of the frame. I was quite impressed with how it turned out!

 

The drivers side rear bumper mount was wrecked, so cut the good one out of the original shell and welded it into the new shell.

 

 

 

At this point I started looking for a decent bodyshop. I wanted the whole car bare metalled so that there would be no nasties hiding under fresh new paint work. In hindsight, I should have had the car dipped or soda blasted then primed, then pass it on to the body shop. But they were happy to do it and I'm happy that they did a good job. A few weeks into them having it I took a trip upto the shop to check it out.

What a difference...

 

 

While the shell was in the bodyshop I set about refurbing the rear beam. Replacing all the bearing, seals and shafts. Then gave it some colour and a solid mount kit. Aswell as some new blistein dampers not seen here.

 

 

 

Then a week before I had to go tot the Falklands for 4 months I got the call the shell was completed

Good god they had done an unbelievable job, it was hard to believe it was the same car. The colour really does pop, it's standard graphite grey, but I'm sure it wouldn't have looked this good from factory!!

 

 

 

I've now returned back to the uk and can't wait to get started on rebuilding her in the new year!!

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Amazing work! Great colour too. Look forward to your updates.

[eddie bullit 37]

Stunning! Looks like you're doing an amazing job..can't wait for an update on this

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Ditto to the above, great effort and I have to say I really like the colour as well. White or red are generally my preference, but a fresh grey like that looks really good.

 

Just embarking on the same project, but starting with a complete (but rotten) car and a 2nd better condition bare shell to prepare, then rebuild with the parts from the complete car.

 

Keep the photos coming as you'll help keep me motivated ​

[welshpug 1,661]

can;' believe you scrapped it for just sills, I'm working on one far worse, needs a front floor rear section and both front inner wings bits of boot floor etc!

 

could have cut that lot from your mint shell before scrapping it!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Its interesting to see the trend with projects very much changing, only a few years all new projects would begin with folk ripping the trim out into a skip and fitting a roll cage, but now there are some very nice restoration works underway.

 

The shell looks great in its new paint, look forward to see the rest unfold.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Very true tom, even in my time track cars and gti6's have slowed right down and spits seem to be the new trend to scrub your bottom!

[DamirGTI 342]

can;' believe you scrapped it for just sills

 

Ditto ... looked like sound bodywork bar the rear sill segments (kinda common rust spots anyway.. and usually isn't as bad as it looks that's what frighten you off by the looks) , i'd fix that one for sure if i where you ...

Might understand the reason being you're not as handy with the welding as you've said , but could at least try/took the opportunity with that one and practice/learn welding as you go along with the project , gaining the welding skills and fixing up the car by yourself (and that really is , an magic feeling !) .

 

D

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Yeh I've no doubt I could have repaired it my self. But, and this is what really matters to me here, not to a professional/ factory standard. If it was for track or just to get it going again I would of been happy to give it ago.

 

The pics really don't show how bad it was. Once I'd got the gearbox/battery box out, all under there was shot too. Plus headlight panels, front inner wings weren't that great. Aswell as the boot floor and under the tank.

 

It's my fault, I shouldn't have been so eager in the first place to get one and looked the original shell over a little better.

 

You live and learn!

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Looking very thorough. Top job.

 

Looks as if you get a nice factory fit sunroof with your new shell too?

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

that is an awesome colour!

[arnold80 4]

cracking paint job! hope my graphite comes out looking as good!

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Bit of a short update.

 

Well I returned back to Peterborough and thought I'd get stuck into her straight away. My first job was to check everything was ok for the 5 months I've been away from her.

And shock horror, someone has decided that the best place to store some glass panes and a set of scabby wheels was up against my nice newly painted tailgate. Rather than propping it up against it with some clothes to protect it, it looks like they've just let it fall onto it, scratching right through to the primer in several locations, not to mention the scuffs from the wheels!! Brilliant!

 

So off that went back to the bodyshop yesterday, as if the 3k price tag wasn't high enough to start with, add another couple hundred to have that redone. Grrrrrr!

 

So the first job I got on with was starting to strip the engine, I really need to get the head sent away to be refurbed.

 

Started stripping off the ancillaries and other bits,

Found some lovely looking stuff behind the thermostat!

 

 

 

Then could I hell get the crank pulley bolt off, I had to stop myself in the end as I was convinced something would break. I've ordered a proper flywheel locking tool which should be here on Monday, and an updated windy gun!

So this is as far as I got! Nowhere near as far along as I wanted to be by the end of the week.

 

 

I also got the shell out of storage and back in the workshop and on the spit ready to put hoses back on the underside.

Also put new rivnuts in the roof for the sunroof.

Slipped my mind to get photos of that though!

 

And that's it for the time being, hopefully I'll get abit more done this weekend!!

 

(It WILL be completed by the summer, I hope)

[m@ttc 30]

whats that stuff behind the thermostat? great project btw.

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Small update!

I'm still waiting for the flywheel locking tool to turn up, so the engine hasn't been touched unfortunately!

 

Fitted the rear beam with new wheel bearings/hubs and bolted it to the car, fitted the old discs and the original wheels. I did this to aid in moving it around. It kind of reminds me of a wheel borrow now! A very expensive one!!

 

 

I'm not convinced on that ride height though. I wanted standard height!

 

 

Quick pic of the sunroof rivets in place. Refurbed sunroof frame is now also in place and started to rebuild the doors and ancillaries!

 

 

And that's about it, other than I've posted about 20 kg of nuts bolts and brackets to be powder coated or zinc plated. So hopefully have those soon!!

[mhdurrani 1]

Just read through all this one.word WOW, I love it given me sooooo much inspiration as to how I want mine to go, think I will check over it again on day of collection, to.be on the safe side good job me.mate is coming with me who.is a welder and body repair as a living so all covered for especially with mates rates ;-) this thread has shown.me to do mine to the same standard though I hope I can save the original shell any can be saved depends how much you want to spend I guess,

Look forward to seeing more updates.

Just read through all this one.word WOW, I love it given me sooooo much inspiration as to how I want mine to go, think I will check over it again on day of collection, to.be on the safe side good job me.mate is coming with me who.is a welder and body repair as a living so all covered for especially with mates rates ;-) this thread has shown.me to do mine to the same standard though I hope I can save the original shell any can be saved depends how much you want to spend I guess,

Look forward to seeing more updates.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

To get pulley bolt undone, take sump off wedge a lump of timber between crank web and block then undo the bolt.

[mrfirepro 127 1 Cars]

Great work Tim,

 

I think your ahead of me for a while, will try and catch up..

 

Paintwork is peachy......

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Small problem looking at this picture;

 

http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx159/Tim_mc/3a19ef6628ad55a586a8b27bd95a77b5_zps59f1c674.jpg

 

Damper upper bolts are facing the wrong way- they would hit the body not allowing you to get them out.

 

May be worth dropping beam to swap around now before more bits are bolted on.

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Ah brilliant! Thanks for the heads up on that Tom! Appreciate it!

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Been pottering along with a few bits over the last couple of days.

 

Got the engine fully stripped, after I tried the 4th different windy gun (heavy duty one from the heavy truck line workshop) to get the crank pulley bolt off, it finally gave in! Was plain sailing after that.

 

There was some pretty nasty looking scoring on some of the main bearing cap shells (2 and 4). I can't see any damage to the crank so hopefully all is ok there.

 

I've packaged up the pistons, liners and rods, crank and head which has all been sent to the engine builders to be checked over and the head refurbed. Bit worried about the head as there was some corrosion on the face. Fingers crossed it's not as bad as it looks.

 

Check out the crap around the liners. The bolt is a flywheel bolt some sort of size reference?!

 

 

The main caps, you can see the scoring here.......

 

 

Here's all the parts waiting to go through the parts washer.

 

And how the block came out. Not as good as I had hoped. Anyone any ideas how to get this back to pristine clean? Some sort of blasting maybe?

 

 

Also anyone have a be1 gear knob insert that's not faded? Like the be3 one I have below. The be1 I have is too faded for my liking.

 

 

And.....

Anyone want these for free? Front Undamaged genuine wings and lowering springs. Going in the skip at the weekend if no one does?

Must be some use to someone?

[welshpug 1,661]

I would gladly take the wings Tim, no chance you could box them up? Happy to donate beer token or even some trim or engine parts if i have anything you need.

 

No idea in your area, but i have seen parrs sandy brown has had vapour blasted, what the process entails exactly i'm not certain, but for an engine block you want to avoid abrasive particulates given the potential for carnage that could ensue if you miss the tiniest bit.

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

Yeh I'd gladly box them welsh, pm me your name and address and I'll put it through parcel hero to see what it costs. It won't be much. I've just sent 44kilos of engine parts to South Wales pistons, and that only cost £23.

Shame I'm not going home to Tenby this weekend. Could have dropped them in.

[Weser 30]

I will take second dibs on the wings if it falls through with welshpug