I always liked these Caddys, especially since i am house owner - there's always stuff to carry. But usually if a car shows up on ebay or the usual boards, it's either an expensive super showcar or a bunch of rust. So I decided to buy this one from the neighbor of a German car forum member in January 2013. It had about a year TÜV (German MOT equivalent), was running (more or less) and was offered for a reasonable price. This is the picture from the seller:
So I drove half way through Germany (500 km one way) to pick up this thing. First owner was a concrete factory, last owner was a hunter who had his son painted the car green (painted is not the correct word - looks like he scooped green hammerite all over the car. Masking? what do you mean?). Dents and dings all over, but not much rust for a 24 years old car. The car idled poor (hole in the vaccum tube to the brake servo - not uncommon on older VWs). but it was running fine on the highway home. First picture at my place:
First I gave all the locks and hinges and moving parts a grease. Then I replaced air filter and ignition parts (spark plugs, cables, points, distributor rotor and cap) and I made a VW logo for the grille from a hub cap I found at the roadside (I don't like those grilles without logo). I added smoked indicators. And I needed good tires. These are Daewoo rims, which have the same size, offset and BCD, only the center bore is a little bit too small - nothing what a little patience and a big file couldn't fix.
a bit welding (more to come...)
and a cool steering wheel:
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a little toying around with the cutting machine at our local FabLab:
The car was running fine and didn't cause big trouble. TÜV was due in November (you can extend for a month or two), but I didn't want to fix the car when it's freezing outside. So I changed the front brake hoses in September and welded some spots (sills, wheel arches). Sorry, no pictures - I am really bad at working and photographing at the same time. I work very focused, and at the end when everything is reassembled and working, I notice that I didn't take any photos :-(
I cleared TÜV a couple of days ago ( had some minor issues with a worn track rod and the rear brakes) and that's the way the car looks at the moment (cross hair headlights added!):
As you might have guessed - in the long run the car should be white again...
So I drove half way through Germany (500 km one way) to pick up this thing. First owner was a concrete factory, last owner was a hunter who had his son painted the car green (painted is not the correct word - looks like he scooped green hammerite all over the car. Masking? what do you mean?). Dents and dings all over, but not much rust for a 24 years old car. The car idled poor (hole in the vaccum tube to the brake servo - not uncommon on older VWs). but it was running fine on the highway home. First picture at my place:
First I gave all the locks and hinges and moving parts a grease. Then I replaced air filter and ignition parts (spark plugs, cables, points, distributor rotor and cap) and I made a VW logo for the grille from a hub cap I found at the roadside (I don't like those grilles without logo). I added smoked indicators. And I needed good tires. These are Daewoo rims, which have the same size, offset and BCD, only the center bore is a little bit too small - nothing what a little patience and a big file couldn't fix.
a bit welding (more to come...)
and a cool steering wheel:
a little toying around with the cutting machine at our local FabLab:
The car was running fine and didn't cause big trouble. TÜV was due in November (you can extend for a month or two), but I didn't want to fix the car when it's freezing outside. So I changed the front brake hoses in September and welded some spots (sills, wheel arches). Sorry, no pictures - I am really bad at working and photographing at the same time. I work very focused, and at the end when everything is reassembled and working, I notice that I didn't take any photos :-(
I cleared TÜV a couple of days ago ( had some minor issues with a worn track rod and the rear brakes) and that's the way the car looks at the moment (cross hair headlights added!):
As you might have guessed - in the long run the car should be white again...
