1980 B1 Passat Project

[Peter Jones]

This is another piece we thought we'd never find, the plastic front spoiler.

We've had that part of the valence covered in black insulation tape since DOVW.

We found the parts through The VW classic Parts Centre and they were very helpful in shipping them out.

It's in two pieces and is about the most fragile thing I've ever seen on the front of a car.

There were bits of the original one on the car when we got it. It's taken us 18 months or so to find a set.



They have plastic pins on the back of them that go through the panel and are secured by speed nuts on the back.



They need to have a foam rubber washer under the nuts to allow for some body flex without snapping the pins.

I found brand new speed nuts in Autobarn and some suitable foam sticky discs in Bunnings.

I punched holes in the pads so they'd go over the pins.



The spoiler pieces got a clean before they went on.



..and the end result..It's good to finally have the front finished off.

[Jarred]

I'm amazed you found half of the parts you did for this Pete, let alone this!

looks great, really does finish it off

[Peter Jones]

We got the tip off as to where to look for the spoiler bits from the very help folk over at a German Passat forum. www.passatclassic.de -- DIE Passat-Seiten

The B1s are getting rare even in Europe.

[Peter Jones]

Exhaust has seemed a bit oily of late, so I set about doing the stem seals today.

Weird thing was that the were 4 stem seals fitted to the inlets and none on the exhaust valves!

Here's some pics in no particular order.

[Peter Jones]

Also swapped out the temp sender and replaced the fuel lines and filter.

Did an oil change too.

[Jarred]

you've been a busy man! (as usual)

seriously, so no stem seals on the exhaust valves? wouldn't that have caused some, issues?

[16v_kid]

Nice collection of shims!

[Peter Jones]

Yeah stem seals are there for a purpose, dunno why this motor had them left out.

I've been collecting shims and tools since I went solid cam in the race car. A lot of these came from Mr Bug's garage sale.

I replaced the reverse light switch today, sounds trivial but in a Passat the switch is almost inaccessible.

Took a few hours and I had to go and buy some long pliers to get the connectors back on.

Here's old vs new. I had previously tried to repair the old one, it lasted long enough for roadworthy then stuck on!

I tried to find a new one but no-one lists reverse switches for these Passats.

After a lot of research and cross checking of catalogs I discovered that the switch is the same part as fitted to Porsche 924s, and GAP stocks them.

Did an oil change on the gearbox while I was under there too, only 700ml of oil came out, I put 1.5L back in! Not surprisingly it shifts better now

Old vs New

[Peter Jones]

Frank's birth certificate came in the mail today, he's actually a '79 it just took a while for him to get here on the boat and get complianced.

[Peter Jones]

Little bit of maintenance this weekend. Turned into a can of worms of course.

I set about repairing a small hole in the downpipe which required me to remove the downpipe from the car.

While I was under there I spotted a leaking welsh plug which I replaced of course.

When I went to refit the the down pipe I discovered that the threads in the manifold were stripped so I had to remove the manifold and helicoil a few holes and make up new studs.

All good now.