My first venture into golfism.

[Lofty]

Hey guys this is my first post so I thought I'd introduce myself.
Today I picked up a fairly stock standard mk1 diesel golf.
It runs fine and everything but I'm not really keen on the diesel.
How hard is it to put a new petrol engine in?

Also how hard is it to remove rust from the panel in front of the windscreen?

I pick it up on Monday I'll post some pictures when I get it home.
Thanks guys I'm looking forward to a long and fruitful stay here!

Cheers, Lofty.

[Peter Jones]

Petrol conversion is about 1/2 a day if you know what you're doing. 2 weekends if you don't.

Rust repair is straight forward but does require removing the screen and mig welding.

Both topics have had heaps of coverage on here, take a look through my thread on "Ziggy" I did a petrol conversion and the screen repairs on that one.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/f55/meet-ziggy-79-gld-mk1-38301.html

Welcome!

Pete

[Lofty]

Ok so got it home and started to dismantle to see what the damage was.


The first thing I did was rub back the bonnet and prime that.


With that dont I took the front grill and bumber off to do the front panel.


There was quite a sizable dent in the front panel inbetween where the chin spoiler fits and where the bumper goes.
Not quite sure what im going to do about it but for now I just pushed it out so its fairly straight.


The interior is a perfect (apart from a cracked dash) brown cloth style one.



I was just wondering what the deal is with the mirror positioner. Is it a stock feature?


After finishing the front I took it down the road for a little photo shoot.





You're not gangsta' unless you have soot.


My plan for this car is to respray it a little darker silver (a bit closer to the graphite colour), lower it, chuck some nice rims on, clean up the engine a little and use it as a beach bus. Maybe sometime down the track chuck a new engine in it but im in no rush to do that.

Cheers, Lofty.

[Peter Jones]

RE the mirror, being a diesel it'll be a '79 and the '79 got a remote adjust mirror on the driver side only.

The flag mirror on the passenger side has been added later. Remote mirrors are not common for the passenger side but can be sourced from LHD countries.

[GeorgeMK1]

Welcome mate

I like the plans for the little golf. Like Pete said, the engine conversion isnt too hard, but you will stumble here and there. Nothing to die for, its all pretty basic.
Good luck !!

[Lofty]

Sorry just fixed the pictures on the above post.
How loose are GLD 4spd gearboxes usually?

Mine is loose like a wizards sleeve.

[Jace]

Sorry just fixed the pictures on the above post.
How loose are GLD 4spd gearboxes usually?

Mine is loose like a wizards sleeve.

Good analogy. You probably need a shifter rebuild kit with all new bushes.

I like your plans. Good luck with it.

[Peter Jones]

The gearbox will be fine, the looseness will be due to worn out bushes in the shifter linkages.

They're cheap and easy to replace.

[Lofty]

How easy is easy?

Where do you get them?

[Jace]

Your PM inbox is full mate, you need to delete some messages.

The shifter rebuild kits are sometimes available from the US on ebay, or from GAP (germanautoparts.com), just make sure you get a 4-speed one.

[Lofty]

Whoops.
Ok thats fixed.

Thanks for the information.

[GeorgeMK1]

Wooaahh i just realised the environment around where you live.

The court, the surrounding, the houses all look pretty damn nice hahah !! I like it

[mikinoz]

Is that Sandy Bay, and if so, how do the locals feel about your sooty?

[Jarred]

first thing to do is check that you actually have some shifter bushings left!

I wouldn't be surprised if a few have disappeared over the years!

good luck with it all, plenty of info on this forum about what you can do to your mk 1 to make it better!

[Lofty]

Haha I don't think they love him mikinoz.
but we are definitely the odd ones out seeing as dad has a thing for classic Italian cars haha.