Description
A chance to buy yourself a rare and appreciating classic VW. Firstly apologies for the length of this but I want to get all the details across!
This is an auction for my 1981 MK1 Golf GTI. This is the rare and sought after 1600 engine & 5 speed gearbox combination.
When I bought the car it came with very little history – what attracted me to it however was its (mostly) originality.
As I knew I was going to have to carry out a large amount of work so I wasn’t too concerned about history – I’ve seen plenty of horror shows with full history!
I have however since I took ownership of the car saved all paperwork and bills – I’ve not totted this up as I am sure it would upset me (and mainly my wife) greatly! This fills two folders!
Just put the car as SORN and the MOT was carried out in July – no advisories.
Overview:
1981 Golf GTI in Schwarz Black
Circa 137, 600 miles
Completely original specification throughout
Car has MOT (last with no advisories) until 11. 07. 2019 - starts and runs beautifully and is ready to drive away (Subject to SORN – due to change to free tax in 2021)
2 folders worth of bills since the car has been in my possession.
The details/ Good Points:
During my ownership the following work has been completed:-
Exterior
• Engine and gearbox removed before paint
• Front wings replaced – genuine VW
• Common rust around rear arches fixed
• Battery tray replaced new with new panel from VW Heritage
• Small area around windscreen cut out and replaced
• All other rust fixed
• All paint removed from outside of car / boot and under the bonnet down to bare metal to ensure all rust was dealt with – a lot of photos available!
• Repainted in original black
• New waistline and lower trims
• New bonnet cable
• New sunroof panel and mechanism fitted and greased along with new seal
• Sunroof aperture clear of rust
• New door seals fitted on both doors
• New rear quarter window seals fitted
• Dinitrol & Dynax used to coat the underneath to prevent future rot – not that I really used it in the wet but wanted to be sure.
• Dinitrol also used on arches (behind plastic extensions) as this is the usual place to rot and wanted to stop this in the future
• Driving lights wired into mainbeam light – pull the stalk and all four lights light up the road ahead
• New arches fitted (Heritage VW)
• New plastic bumpers fitted - front & rear (Crazy quiffs)
• New silver decals fitted along doors, and swage lines (as well as the often forgotten boot one)
• New ‘GTI’ badge at the front & new ‘Golf GTI’ badge at the rear
• All original ‘tarantula’ style wheels (never understood this name as they only have 7 spokes…) refurbished so no kerb marks, original caps fitted and new tyres.
• New duckbill spoiler
• WR56 Bosch Sparkplugs
• New warning type stickers/ tyre pressure stickers etc replaced with new
• New OEM front indicators
• Original 80’s style number plates – the new ones letters/ numbers are too narrow and look ‘wrong’
Mechanical
• Original 1600 engine installed VIN plate present
• Engine and gearbox removed before painting
• New INA Timing belt and tensioner fitted – new gaskets throughout
• Tappets checked and re-shimmed as required – can show evidence of this in the history file
• Rocker cover, timing belt cover repainted and correct decals installed
• New engine mounts throughout
• All new coolant hoses throughout
• New water pump & belt
• New LUK clutch kit fitted when engine out back in
• DOT 4 Brake fluid
• Gulf Tec 10w/ 40 oil used
• New oil cooler
• New alternator
• New Bosch battery
• New distributer cap & rotor arm
• New standard exhaust fitted (and adjusted properly so it does not knock!)
• Gearbox repainted and refilled with Redline gearbox oil – best stuff available! All gears select easily
• New heater matrix for the heater – proper Hella one not a dodgy leaky generic one
• New gear change bushes fitted
• New brake master cylinder
• New starter motor
• New fuel pump, fuel filter and check valve fitted – sorted the hot start issues I had
• Car has been rolling roaded twice at BHPerformance in Kingswinford – healthy compression across all cylinders confirmed
• Good oil pressure
• The first one showed up that the car was lean at the top end – fitting an adjustable 16v Mk2 WUR has solved this problem and a second rolling road setup was carried out to optimise – All graphs available.
• New VDO fuel level sender
• New heater valve
Interior
• Very good condition interior – drivers side bolster (by right hand thigh when sitting) was replaced along with material and also material covering the driver’s side bolster (kidney side)
• Roof lining is perfect
• Door cards are very good – 1 small nick on the rear passenger side one
• Uncut parcel shelf
• No alarm or immobiliser fitted – I removed the old one as old alarms are always way more hassle than they worth!
• All locks and ignition work off the same key – 2 keys available
• 3 gauges fitted in the centre console, from a Porsche 924 as they use the same font – Battery, oil temperature and oil pressure
• 1981 period radio fitted - no FM let alone cassette here although I have added an ipod lead so that you can plug your phone or mp3 player in.
Not so good points:
• Being very honest the paint on the bonnet is not perfect, it holds a godd shine but has a few marks and also a couple of spots of microblistering but these are not that noticeable so I haven’t had anything done with them
• Front quarter window seals are slightly damaged – do not leak! Purely aesthetic damage - I have second hand good ones to fit but just haven’t had the chance.
• Rear quarter windows – for some reason when the painter was rubbing the paint down he didn’t removed the windows until part way through the process and managed to scratch the glass – again not a leaking issue purely cosmetic.
Photos available upon request of all these issues
As with all cars viewing is essential – I can supply tea and coffee, maybe even biscuits! – as condition is such a subjective thing – we are in Sutton Coldfield, B75 and I’m more than happy to supply a jack so you can see the condition underneath.
I want everyone to be happy in the transaction so there will be a no pressure ‘sales’ technique and no rush to complete viewings as I believe the car will sell itself.
I love the car – so much so that I have joined the Mk1 Owners club – something I thoroughly recommend as they are a very friendly bunch.
We all know the price of these is only going one way, especially original specification, un-modified ones so if it doesn’t sell at this price I will keep it and use it for another year.
Only reason for sale is that since completing it I have realised that I enjoy the ‘doing’ more of the project than ‘having’ the completed project – so I fancy doing another one – if you have a MK1 Golf GTI that you aren’t going to complete please let me know, maybe we can come to an arrangement.
