Mission for the MK1

[Dubstein]

Here will be a fairly long story and post all about my recent purchase of my first ever VW.. It was quite a feat for myself but i thoroughly enjoyed every single bit of it!

So i have been searching around online for a decent condition MK1 Golf under my budget of $4000 for quite some time now, preferably in Queensland. For about 2 months i hadn't found any suitable contenders.. But there was one little yellow 4 door Golf in Tasmania that I've had my eyes on. Now i live up Far North Queensland near Cairns and Tasmania is quite the distance just to get a cheap car, specially unseen, but i was getting anxious about buying a awesome MK1 already..

I did end up contacting the owner and she sounded very lovely. The car belonged to the family whom said they've always loved the thing, so it was well looked after. It was previously a diesel but had a transplant to a 1.6 Passat engine, Still the diesel 4 speed gearbox (Which is tighter ratios I've heard), fuel tank, suspension etc.. Interior was what i was expecting for 35 years but relatively in decent condition. Has registration till 2013 (Ends exactly on my birthday.. weird, they also lived on the same street name as us..) and was having a full service the coming week. I was getting pretty keen, so i thought about it, ALOT since it was 4000km's away !



Long story short, my other car shat itself and i was in need of a second car to get me around whilst i replace the other cars engine.. I really wanted a MK1 Golf so i contacted the owner of the yellow one and asked her for a price. She wanted around 4k but i got her to 3. Sounds crazy but i was going for it. Dad had time off work so he wanted to come with me and get the car (Thankfully haha) We got flights booked for about $100 because of flyby points, booked the Spirit Of Tasmania for about $400 (Including cabin and getting the car on). So i was still under my $4000 budget! Next thing we did was just wait until the day of the flights

Here are some pictures i took of her while in Tassy -




The day came and we left for Melbourne on a Thursday night. Go into Victoria early morning and had to wait for the stop over plane to Hobart.. god that was the longest part of the journey.. Finally got into Hobart Friday morning tired as, The owners son came picked us up from the airport in the Golf. All i could do is smile! I couldn't wait just to get it home already. We drove to there place, signed papers, reminisced and drank some coffee. No time to waste we got in the car, filled her up and headed to Devenport to board the boat. Got on the boat, so ready to just crash.. Hadn't slept for 2 days. the sleep on the boat was just amazing!


Goodbye huge boat!


Picture out bush, New South Wales


No time to waste again, we got the car off the boat and started to drive to Dubbo our first stop. Got there fine and Dad paid for a room, that sleep was awesome too haha. So it's now Sunday morning and our next stop was suppose to be Brisbane. But unfortunately but luckily we broke down 10km's outside Goondawindi (Right on the QLD Border).. fk, No spark. We were lucky to of put 3rd party insurance on her before we went down and got a tow into Goondawindi. We had to book a room there and stay the night and got to Repco in the morning. Got up bright and early and started to look at the engine, we need new a new spark point and rotor. We got very lucky and Repco had some for a Golf engine which fit anyway, got that in and fix some other things up. We were down in time so we ditched Brisbane and headed straight to Yeppon (Relatives lives there). Got there, slept, Left early in the morning again and headed for Townsville (Another relly lives there too).



So the car did 3.5K Km's and only needed a $6 spark point. I say it was doing very very well. The owners said they thought we'd only make it to Dubbo hahahah.. But in Townsville for some reason all the electrics went nuts and shorted out etc, was very strange. Spent about 4hrs figuring it all out and got her up and running again, we got lucky again.. Now the last stop was getting home (Around 4hrs).. We did it fine!


There is alot more.. i mean alot more i could of typed here but i think this is long enough.. (I am missing so much more but my fingers hurt now)
So basically i drove a 1978 Golf from the bottom of Australia to the Top with minimal problems.. Oh yeah on $420 of Fuel. I've had alot of people call me crazy just to go that far just for a car (Especially this one) But it really wasn't just about the car. It was a very memorable trip for me (Kinda of my annual holiday too). I've never been out of QLD, and it was an amazing experience to do it with my dad, to be honest and i'd do it all again!


CURRENT CAR PROGRESS WILL ALSO BE IN THIS THREAD.

[cjay]

Great story, looking forward to hearing more

[Dubstein]

Cheers, and i will! Many plans ahead

I test fitted my Honda's Buddyclubs on today for fun. And all i can say is.. no, not at stock height anyway hahaha.

[gecko2k]

**** yeah! Great story! Looking forward to see this little yellow golf in Cairns!


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[roccodingo]

Road trips are always fun, and for the ignition points from memory ( I Only use electronic dizzy's nowdays ) there the same as a holden red engine. Good luck

[Dubstein]

Road trips are always fun, and for the ignition points from memory ( I Only use electronic dizzy's nowdays ) there the same as a holden red engine. Good luck

True? Im guessing heaps of old car parts usually mix and match anyway

[Dubstein]

Haven't been doing much to the golf as we've transplanted the hondas engine and trying to sell. I am currently pulling a load of unneeded wires out of the engine bay and cleaning it up alittle.
Also took off the front grill/bar and it looks as if the car has been hit slightly on the right.. Ill take pictures on the weekend, but im kinda assuming thats why they replaced the engine now haha
Not really worried as i might be stripping/painting if i sell and buy another daily.

[valgamesh]

Awesome story man, reminds me of buying the mk2, bought it from Perth and drove it back to Canberra, everyone thought I was nuts and thankfully not one issue.

Be good to see how it turns out

[Dubstein]

Finally had time to work on the golf today and i've found out something abit disappointing but nothing i wont have a go at and repair
Took off the grill and front bar and noticed abit of bog chipping off the front panel area. Had a closer look with a chisel and relieved this, inch think bog hiding alot rust and dents..



Had a good go at removing most of it, will do more tommrow!



Also cleaned all the interior and engine bay up quite abit, removed spotlights and the maze of wires from them. Found some rims/tires to purchase but ive run into a little money issue this week. Hopefully i can sell the Honda and have some cash! So if anyone is interested in a 97 Honda Integra with new engine/paint/rims, hit me up

[Preen59]

Looking good, dude. What a trip! Good stuff.


Be prepared for more **** like that. It's a Mk1 and they've been around for a long time. Someone is bound to have messed with it at some stage!