My first Resto, 3 Door 77' Golf

**Lukacic** · 08-08-2009, 09:22 PM

After much delaying over the past month i have finally found the time to post up my very first restoration!

In the begining of June I bought my very first Golf, and to my surprise it went very well, considering its age. However, it had a face only a mother could love and the interior made me feel dirty by only seeing it..

Ever since the day i bought it i have been slowly restoring it to its original state, and feel that the progress i have made has been good considering the little amount of money i have spent!

I still have a lot to do and its no doubt going to take months to comlete, but i am enjoying 'almost' every bit! lol

Yet to do is;
-Full respray (going white)
-Needs a good tune up
-Numerous new seals needed
-Weld on a new drivers floor pan (i will show you why soon)
-Lower it to a nice height
-Tints!
-Exaust!!
-And last but not least rego

Since i am still very new to the VW scene i am not 100% on things i should look out for and know, so any advice would be much appreciated!

Here is my progress over the past two months, from start to now! Also the first couple of photos are bad quality since my camera was broken, sorry if its hard to see. Enjoy

See what i mean? lol notice the previous owner has used the generic trailer indicators.

The dash was cracked so the previous owner decided to fix it sumhow ( i honestly dont know what with... will remain a mystery)

The engine bay almost made me not buy it, but since im in the detailing business i thought i could fix it

IT BEGINS...

After a much needed cleanup of the whole car i decided that blue isnt the colour for me, so i painted the carpets with a nice black

Also experimented with painting the seats with just basic spray paint... didnt go well as my clothes found out.

Now since the custom work of the previous owner was making me embarassed i needed to get new interior parts asap.

Ripped out the old instrument cluster and put on the new dash-mat to mask the uglyness lol

Called around and Thanks to Costa was able to find someone helpful to buy parts from! So i decided to destroy the ugly dash.

**Lukacic** · 08-08-2009, 09:22 PM

I finally found the dreaded rust patch that i had been hoping not to have and as you can see its pretty bad, so im going to have to find a way to fix it up, and make it strong once again.
For the mean time i have just done the rust conversion and fiberglassed the hole.

But then along came the new dash ( and ive never struggled to put in anything like i did with this!)
Also Fitted the centre console, steering column covers, backseat door cards, and my LED lights, which i got rid of a week later lol

Next was the task of the enginebay, wheels and exterior..

The paint cleaned up nicely, but still in need of a good respray

Next after ripping of the previous 'nudgebar', fitted on the nice new gti grill and a pretty straight chrome bumper.. Which made my day!

New wood steering wheel and gear knob, my 2nd favorite addition to the interior!

**Lukacic** · 08-08-2009, 09:23 PM

New Door Cards and seats out of a Scirocco thanks to Matthew! And yes thats right, ive done floorboards in the back lol

However things did evolve as i put in my 1st favourite thing in the interior!

Also found the time to wire up my new headlamps! Looking mean..

So there is my progress so far, still much more is needed and will update as i go, instead of huge bursts of info as ive done here! lol

Any comments on anything would be great, let me know what you think!

Cheers, Daniel.

**Peter Jones** · 08-08-2009, 09:49 PM

Looks like you're off to a flying start. Nice work!

I notice you're in need of window winders. BMW e30 and some Audi and Volvo ones fit. Check out your local self service wrecker.

Pete

**XXX-1.8T** · 09-08-2009, 12:32 AM

Wow!

Paint looks good i wouldnt worry about the respray!

Did Jules hook u up with the parts?

**mikinoz** · 09-08-2009, 08:12 AM

That is an inspiring thread. It was a royal mess before you started and it now looks half respectable.

Best thing about them is that they are pretty straightforward if you are starting out - I have learnt more fiddling with the MK1 than any other car as I am willing to give it a go knowing if I fail it won't be all that hard to reverse.

Keep at it. Look forward to meeting up with you some time.

* I may have some VW centre caps that fit for nix if your interested.