Project: '76 Golf GL - the resto begins!

[572]

Hi all,

This is our MK1 Golf - it's a '76 GL 5 door with the 4 speed manual and carby motor. Justin (celestine) and myself purchased it with the hope of restoring it to its former glory! We are both avid DIY'ers when it comes to cars, so we had no problem digging into this much much bigger project.

We're both fairly new to VW's by some standards, with Justin only having his modded '07 Polo for about a year and my Polo GTI being the youngest at just 3 months old - a far cry from the 32yr old Golf But the obsession is flowing thick and fast with influences from here, VW Vortex and Performance VW mag.

We landed this:



Work began about a week ago, first job was to strip the interior out and check for rust - and boy did we find some! As some of you may be aware, these are the pic's we posted in the help thread:




Not quite what we had in mind!!

[572]

Since that discovery we thought we'd better keep on looking for any more serious problems. So we started looking! Only notable mention is the bottom of one of the quarter panels has been eaten away where it bolts onto the body.



Someone liquid nailed the tail lights in - what a mess! Not the mention the wiring...

[572]

After some careful considerations and Justin talking with a few members on here (Jimmymac and GolfLoon to name a few!) we decided to keep going with the car and weld in a new floor section and cut and bog up the exterior rust.

This is where we are today - cleaned majority of spare wheel well out, stripped A pillars & guard, degreased floors and cut out the rust in the floor pan.

We soon found some help to cut the floor out




Drivers side A pillar - previously been bogged up


Passengers floor pan goooone! Justin picked up a sheet of 1.6mm steel to form the new floor.


Partial cleaning of other footwells


Spare tyre well - surprisingly rust free with only a few small holes, considering.

[Preen59]

Looks like a pretty sound base apart from the rust in the floor. Love to see someone else doing a 4 door..

[GoLfMan]

great work fellas great to see another one being saved!

[GoLfMan]

Love to see someone else doing a 4 door..

ditto that

[Preen59]

Hey i just realised... Your car was the same colour originally as mine was originally. Mine's a year newer and a GLS though.

[Golf Loon]

Leave a drainhole in the spare wheel well. That will save it for years to come

[Jarred]

nice work boys. looks like a pretty good base for some DIY! I rekcon you'll have a ball with it.

a few things though, a) you have a swallowtail, which is cool, and 4 door will be good to, something different!

and, I'm surprised to see the rust in the A pillars, from what I know, not many 76's rust in the A pillars, but all (well most) or that later ones do, or are at least more prone to rusting there!

What are the plans for the car? colour? engine? look?

[static1800]

Just had to do a double take then the interior colour is blue and exterior red, same blue as mine aswell

Goodluck with the project mate, mine has similar rust in the pan although not as bad.

[572]

GolfLoon: Already one there, will make sure it's cleaned out.

Jarred: I was always under the impression that the swallowtail feature was only on 2drs, but I just did some more research on it. I'm guessing a '76 4dr swallowtail is a little rare then?

Couple of interesting points - brake lines inside not outside (early model thing?) & front seats have optional headrest (rare-ish so I've read?). You've certainly gotten me even more inspired now!

Plans are to restore it to close to original condition and register it at this stage! Brainstorming has brought up repainting it in Candy White, 14/15" BBS wheels (early BMW items look the business and we've got some 185/70/R14 tyres here in need of 4x100 rims) and perhaps a heart transplant (but I'm not so sure about the swap from carb to EFI).

[Preen59]

Couple of interesting points - brake lines inside not outside (early model thing?) & front seats have optional headrest (rare-ish so I've read?). You've certainly gotten me even more inspired now!

Plans are to restore it to close to original condition and register it at this stage! Brainstorming has brought up repainting it in Candy White, 14/15" BBS wheels (early BMW items look the business and we've got some 185/70/R14 tyres here in need of 4x100 rims) and perhaps a heart transplant (but I'm not so sure about the swap from carb to EFI).

Yeah only the later models had the external brake lines. Probably because the brake line grommets in the firewall leaked and that's why they all rust on the front floor i'd say.

Candy white is the colour i got mine painted.. Colour code is B4B4. Lovely looking colour.

AND i've got 15x7 BMW E30 M3 BBS wheels on my car too. (My car is the Mk1 16v Project if you're wondering).

Looks like you're going with a real winning combination here. Good luck and keep the pics coming.

[572]

Yea one of projects when the dash is out is to try and seal all the known leaking spots.

Candy White is also the same colour as Justin's Polo

This is the style that I'm thinking of:



Unfortunately these are 5x120 I think, so no go.

I'll check out your project for sure

[Jarred]

tHE MK 1 ME AND JOSH JUST RIPPED APART HAD THE SAME ISSUE WITH RUST IN THE PASSENGER FLOOR, DUE (sorry caps) to no doubt the internal brake line.

I do happen to know on early, I mean really early, (74) the golf's didn't have head rests, were swallowtails, haddrum brakes on the front even! I actually think that Tim's (golfworx) 76 is a swallow, an that's a 4 door. Mine a 76 (complianced 9/76 from memory) but not tail for me . ANywho. I think really, Swallowtail is just rare here in general, because the 76 was the last to have the tail, and the golf's came out here in 76, whereas 74/75 models in euro are, well not common, but there would have been more sold new in europe, than oZ i'd say.

The plans sound good. the wheels you're looking for came off the e30 BMW 3 series, theres a neat seat on ebay atm, for about $450 and tehy come up everynow and then. BMW/euro wreckers might also have some instock.

[572]

Certainly a common issue with any of the MK1's by the sound of it.

Either way it's a cool discovery, so thanks

Those wheels cost more than we paid for the car lol! Everything has been put way out of proportion, in terms of price, after we bought this. I'll keep my eye out, because we need to sort the tyre situation out at some point before rego and like I said we've already got a set of almost new 14" tyres off Justins Polo (he put BBS on too lol!), just need the rims.