So a mate of mine has this GTI..
1. A very tidy example which doubles up as a second car and with its towbar, a handy workhorse (Many laughs have been had at peoples reactions seeing a towbar on a near mint GTI at various shows/events).
Now having been out in this car a good few times, I got a fancy for one. The 4A-GE hi-torque I found to be something else, providing a constant and even pull from around 30MPH up to 100MPH on a open stretch of ''private'' road. A hardy engine with good performance that can take abuse like few others in a good looking reliable hatchback. Given I already was a bit of a Toyota head it was a given that I would probably land a GTI at some stage.
2. I first seen this car on Donedeal in West Meath during September 2016 for €450. Didn't have the money at the time so it was forgotten about. Advert was only up for a few days before it was removed so she wasn't long selling.
It was probably around Feburary/March 2017 it popped up on Donedeal again, but this time in Donegal for a similar price again. The mate of mine who owns the Corolla shown at the start of this post was going to look at it with the interest in selling the lot as parts. He bought the lot and took all the good bits and pieces that could be sold on and I got the leftovers. The left overs included the rolling shell and nearly a full pallet of parts. Mine for less than the cost of a night out.
Turns out the person had bought it as a project but had never done any bodywork/welding before. He seen the rust, worked at the car for an evening or two till the thrill wore off and then decided the car was too rusty to save. It got shoved out of sight/out of mind until he wanted the space in his shed back so back up on Donedeal she went.
3. From March or so when the shell was bought untill mid September the shell was stored in my yard looking something like this, quite sorry for itself. In the meantime I set about buying bits and pieces to help me along with the project.
A very cheap bootlid was found also for sale in Donegal so that was bought. A grille and headlights were bought from a cousin. Another grille, sunroof, quarter windows were also purchased along my travels.
4. A parts car was bought of Adverts.ie, Theres a mountain of spares on this car but most importantly it still has its engine.
5. Bailing twice substituted for a bootlid latch. This car looks deceivingly good in the photos, it is completely rotten.
6. The car was kicked out of the yard into a field for a few weeks so here she is looking even more sorry for herself.
7. Getting pushed into the shed with the aid of the Matbro (Which has featured in nearly every build thread I think I have on here?)
8. The bracket has been on the car since I first saw it. I'm assuming it was someones attempt at making a bracket to mount the front of the car to a spit. It was solid enough to use when towing/pushing as shown here. Later on I managed to use it (After some modifications) to mount the shell on its spit.
9. That positive camber though. The car had no back shocks fitted at all. In place of the drivers rear shock was a lump of round bar and for a passenger rear shock was a length of rebar, bent to fit.
The Halfrauds wheels will not be staying. They are that horrible looking that I'm almost eager to scrap them.
10. So a small examination shows that shes gone in most of the usual AE92 spots. Ends of the sills, arches, front of the pockets, boot floor next to pockets, seat belt mounts, boot floor to rear strut tower joints and rear strut towers. A good bit of welded repairs are required but all of them are easy repairs so nothing to worry about.
11. Boot floor to chassis leg joint is rusty in the bottom left of this photo, Further digging shows that previous welding was carried out here to a low standard hence it will need to be cut out and redone.
So my plan of action is as follows:
1) Strip car to a bare shell.
2) Manufacture a spit to make working and welding on the car far easier.
3) Powerwash shell top to bottom.
4) Roughly cut the rust out.
5) Send shell away for sandblasting. Only having the chassis/engine bay and bootfloor sandblasted as the rest of the bodywork is in very good order.
6) Do all needed repairs, Then prime/seamseal/stonechip and finally apply body color on the underside.
7) Sand/paint rest of car.
Now there are a good few steps missing from that list but that is my plan of action for the meantime.
12. Starting to strip the car. The rear sub frame was dropped (After dealing with a few stubborn bolts). The fuel tank+neck, splash guards, shock tops, front sub frame, front shocks and numerous other parts were all removed leaving me with a bare shell.
13. This fellow was residing above the fuel tank. The photo is deceiving as it was significantly bigger than it looks here, measuring roughly 2'' in diameter.
14. The windscreen was removed using horning wire (Available from any decent agri veterinary clinc). Its intended use is to cut through the horns of cattle so some windscreen sealant did not pit up much of a fight. Using the horning wire I managed to remove the windscreen myself in roughly 15 mins. If I had a second person I'd say it could be done in 5 minutes. A hole was punched through the sealant and the wire was fed through the hole. A pair of vice grips were clamped on each end of the wire to act as handles.
Thats all for now, will get this thread up to date tomorrow.
1. A very tidy example which doubles up as a second car and with its towbar, a handy workhorse (Many laughs have been had at peoples reactions seeing a towbar on a near mint GTI at various shows/events).
Now having been out in this car a good few times, I got a fancy for one. The 4A-GE hi-torque I found to be something else, providing a constant and even pull from around 30MPH up to 100MPH on a open stretch of ''private'' road. A hardy engine with good performance that can take abuse like few others in a good looking reliable hatchback. Given I already was a bit of a Toyota head it was a given that I would probably land a GTI at some stage.
2. I first seen this car on Donedeal in West Meath during September 2016 for €450. Didn't have the money at the time so it was forgotten about. Advert was only up for a few days before it was removed so she wasn't long selling.
It was probably around Feburary/March 2017 it popped up on Donedeal again, but this time in Donegal for a similar price again. The mate of mine who owns the Corolla shown at the start of this post was going to look at it with the interest in selling the lot as parts. He bought the lot and took all the good bits and pieces that could be sold on and I got the leftovers. The left overs included the rolling shell and nearly a full pallet of parts. Mine for less than the cost of a night out.
Turns out the person had bought it as a project but had never done any bodywork/welding before. He seen the rust, worked at the car for an evening or two till the thrill wore off and then decided the car was too rusty to save. It got shoved out of sight/out of mind until he wanted the space in his shed back so back up on Donedeal she went.
3. From March or so when the shell was bought untill mid September the shell was stored in my yard looking something like this, quite sorry for itself. In the meantime I set about buying bits and pieces to help me along with the project.
A very cheap bootlid was found also for sale in Donegal so that was bought. A grille and headlights were bought from a cousin. Another grille, sunroof, quarter windows were also purchased along my travels.
4. A parts car was bought of Adverts.ie, Theres a mountain of spares on this car but most importantly it still has its engine.
5. Bailing twice substituted for a bootlid latch. This car looks deceivingly good in the photos, it is completely rotten.
6. The car was kicked out of the yard into a field for a few weeks so here she is looking even more sorry for herself.
7. Getting pushed into the shed with the aid of the Matbro (Which has featured in nearly every build thread I think I have on here?)
8. The bracket has been on the car since I first saw it. I'm assuming it was someones attempt at making a bracket to mount the front of the car to a spit. It was solid enough to use when towing/pushing as shown here. Later on I managed to use it (After some modifications) to mount the shell on its spit.
9. That positive camber though. The car had no back shocks fitted at all. In place of the drivers rear shock was a lump of round bar and for a passenger rear shock was a length of rebar, bent to fit.
The Halfrauds wheels will not be staying. They are that horrible looking that I'm almost eager to scrap them.
10. So a small examination shows that shes gone in most of the usual AE92 spots. Ends of the sills, arches, front of the pockets, boot floor next to pockets, seat belt mounts, boot floor to rear strut tower joints and rear strut towers. A good bit of welded repairs are required but all of them are easy repairs so nothing to worry about.
11. Boot floor to chassis leg joint is rusty in the bottom left of this photo, Further digging shows that previous welding was carried out here to a low standard hence it will need to be cut out and redone.
So my plan of action is as follows:
1) Strip car to a bare shell.
2) Manufacture a spit to make working and welding on the car far easier.
3) Powerwash shell top to bottom.
4) Roughly cut the rust out.
5) Send shell away for sandblasting. Only having the chassis/engine bay and bootfloor sandblasted as the rest of the bodywork is in very good order.
6) Do all needed repairs, Then prime/seamseal/stonechip and finally apply body color on the underside.
7) Sand/paint rest of car.
Now there are a good few steps missing from that list but that is my plan of action for the meantime.
12. Starting to strip the car. The rear sub frame was dropped (After dealing with a few stubborn bolts). The fuel tank+neck, splash guards, shock tops, front sub frame, front shocks and numerous other parts were all removed leaving me with a bare shell.
13. This fellow was residing above the fuel tank. The photo is deceiving as it was significantly bigger than it looks here, measuring roughly 2'' in diameter.
14. The windscreen was removed using horning wire (Available from any decent agri veterinary clinc). Its intended use is to cut through the horns of cattle so some windscreen sealant did not pit up much of a fight. Using the horning wire I managed to remove the windscreen myself in roughly 15 mins. If I had a second person I'd say it could be done in 5 minutes. A hole was punched through the sealant and the wire was fed through the hole. A pair of vice grips were clamped on each end of the wire to act as handles.
Thats all for now, will get this thread up to date tomorrow.
