MK1 GTI Restoration 1983 (--Project Black Hawk--) :-)

[Dub Toffee]

THis is a mk1 GTI i picked up in TAS of the venerable Edd
Its a 1983 1.8L Shwartz Black L041
SO if any of you have been wondering why i havent done much on the caddy lately...this is why
Overall it was in great condition, seeing it their in Edds garage 3 years ago got the juices flowing. I had seen it at Edds for quite a few years before that whilst i was still living in Tas, It was last year plucked up the courage to see if he would let me take it on!
It was looking great for a restoration, except for a few knocks on the front nose at some stage and a light tap to the rear quarter but, being a GTI whos comlaining?!!
It did have a bit more damage to the nose than i expected to have to deal with. This was realy a pain in the bum in as it takes time do do things properly and i wasnt in the mood for comprimising, not that im ever in that mood unless im dehydrated and i should be drinking water but instead i reach for a stubbie
Anyway no Stubbies were drank whilst working on this GTI, i just ate alot of pizza whilst in the garage and i think i did drink a stubbie inbetween sandblasting, but judge for yourself i was drinking when i did the paint job.
Enjoy

I had this car soda blasted originaly $1500 at the start of this year, after 4 months of waiting for my painter to sort his S*%# out i realized nothing was going to happen. As it seems Spraypainter workshops are a bit of a minefield. So who can i trust to take this GTI seriously but not force me to sell bodyparts to pay for it???!!.. I KNow...ME! haha After 5 months of sitting under a cloth she developed a bit of slight ever so slight surface rust hear and their. THis was because previously many years before me it had been rubbed back to bare metal on a few panels before so the gal wasnt their anymore, actualy even some parts where the gal coating was signs of surface rust was showing. So lets get this straight its not the kind of rust that leaves dimples or needs cutting out its the kind a light sand with 400 grit can get of. Even Still,
I decided the best surface that i can have for painting and restoration needs to be Consistent and uniform over the whole car so...

After a thorough dissmantling (Jan), Soda Blasting (JAN) Waiting (FEB) Waiting some( MARCH APRIL) more, i set up for sand blasting, I started out with a normal compressor you might find on a building site.
After the first 5 min of blasting i realized i was going to get nowhere... Aghh!
I stoped.
The next sat i hired a ute with a towbar and went to Coates Hire to pick a NIIIIICE ATLAS COPCO Compressor 130cfm
it let me put out a nice 60 psi non stop for the whole day!! I got realy excited when i found out i was getting an Atlas Copco ive installed these on industrial sites before and they are a nice bit of kit made me feel like i was doing a special job with the right gear.

After Soda Blasting and Before Sandblasting




Pic of the Vin Plate

[Dub Toffee]

This shows what I had to deal with on the front, 1 and 2.
2 is a small tap on the nose only on the drivers side that compressed it in 8mm
hardly showed any visible signs on the wheelarch so I was able to pull it out that small amount.
For 1 It's interesting how the small area where the hole crushed in 20mm absorbed most of the impact in the second or first ? little tap in it's life.
Their was still enough momentum left in the impact to move the chasis rail 5mm, the chasis rail gave in at the crease mark.
I wasn't happy to just put a new front on and No one would have known otherwise.
Instead I've sourced a used but perfect chasis rail attached to the wheelarch,
The battery tray was perfect as well so next I had to compare the wheel arch ect and see if it was exactly the same as The mk1Gti

[Dub Toffee]

Here I have cut away the damaged wheel arch along with most if the old chasis rail for finer tuning.
Also on the ground is the section for replacing damage im unhappy with. Also awaiting finer tuning
On the raintray is 4 pages of measurements from the Bently manual necessary for getting this spot on.

[GoLfMan]

awesome mate! Good to see you saving the species. Are the plans to restore it to stock? Or tastefully modify with wheels and suspension?

[Dub Toffee]

Thanks mate it's going to have wheels but I have the originals still to go with it!

Now showing the line I worked out for the Grafting.
You can see two holes on the top rail that remain, I had to keep these on the original part of the panel as they were in different places on my replacement.
Other than that everything else was the same.
The cut goes down under the battery tray, without the front panel on I was able to still do a good weld At that point too.

[Dub Toffee]

The new section cut to the right shape and tacked into place.

[Dub Toffee]

This is showing the welding of the panel.

[Dub Toffee]

Now to take on that second tap...

[Dub Toffee]

Now with everything properly sorted it's time to put a new front panel on.

[Dub Toffee]

After all this I then got onto other areas that needed attention
A small amount if rust on tail, you can see the slight tap just on rear quarter that has been dolyed out before,
This was not enough damage to even make enough impression on the rear panel.