Red Rescued

Topic: Red Rescued (Read 18231 times) previous topic - next topic

Red Rescued

February 16, 2021, 03:34:55 PM

Ok then, so here we go again.
As some of you may know, I've got a bit of a habit of engine swapping mk2s.
Over the last 21 years, I've had (until now) 10 mk2s, only 4 ended up keeping their original engines.
Now my blue one, I'll never sell (unless someone offers me really stupid money for it), but it's not really in keeping with the original GTI mantra any more.
So as prices are on the rise, I thought now is the best time to get a nice standard one before I'm priced out completely.

Fortunately, Paulina (my wife) thinks a very similar way to me so we started looking.
We didn't have much money, so it would have to be a resto/project.
After several weeks of being outbid and seeing mk2s go for staggering amounts more than I thought they would, a little gem was offered up to us.
After seeing the photos, it was clear the full exterior would need paint, as someone had keyed every panel, but the interior was mint, several nice options on it and it looked like it could get snapped up by a breaker. So a deal was done and we sent up our tame car transporter to collect.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr
BTW, Jason is excellent, really cares about classic cars and is reasonable on rates too, so if you need anything moved, give him a shout.

Didn't take long to coax the old girl off the back and start to have a good look around.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Put the jump leads on and she fired up, no worries!

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Engine sounded sweet enough, but lots of rust everywhere, so it'll be coming out as part of the resto.
Will be refreshing to put this one back in again though...

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Best part was the interior

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Leather steering wheel, electric windows, electric mirrors, adjustable headlights(!), but the best part was the previous owners taste in music...

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152481044@N07/50897797817/in/album-72157718117532981/

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Think I'm going to like this one...

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #1 – February 16, 2021, 06:21:36 PM

Does the title need tweaking.....'Red Rescue Lockdown Rebuild Son's first car'

Is this going to be completely standard...no aircon?

Neither of my kids are into cars like me. Elder son never cleans his car and wants a Caddy Camper. Younger happy with his Fiesta. Both have copious amounts of spare time playing #mindnumbingMinecraft !

I can't understand them. Gimmie a screwdriver/spanner and I can enjoy hours of relaxation working on the car!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #2 – February 16, 2021, 09:51:53 PM

Very nice and following with interest. Nice tape collection included as well - bonus.

Prices do seem on the rise. My garage kit gets delivered tomorrow and then I can finally start on my one!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #3 – February 17, 2021, 08:04:00 AM

Cheers!

The only mods I'm allowing myself are suspension and stereo.
I'm thinking Eibach springs, possibly koni shocks, a stereo that will interface with my phone and speakers that will fit in the standard locations. For some reason it came without PAS, which is wierd, considering the amount of other options that were ticked and how many GTIs were coming out with PAS at the time. But I'll probably correct that, just to make life easier for Paulina if nothing else. You could call it a mod too, I'm calling it a correction

As for the boys first car, well, I don't think he'll be able to drive it, I severely doubt he'll be able to find an instructor that has a manual car in 17 years time, so it'll be an auto only licence for him.
God only knows what would happen if he got hold of the blue one!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #4 – April 14, 2021, 09:38:18 AM

Ok, so it's about time I updated this one.
Wasted no time in pulling the car apart.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr
First off, found that at some point in the past, it had been home to a furry rodent of some variety, but he seems to have long gone.
Kind of odd, as there was no obvious entry point for him.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr
But to be honest, I was just happy there was no body or chewed wiring.
Speaking of wiring, I found three (!) immobilisers/alarms that were also rattling around in there, some of the wiring involved was downright dangerous!

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

But on the whole, the inside of the car was pretty good with minimal rust

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

There is always some though.
Found the typical filler neck one, fortunately managed to source a new one, which will find its way on soon.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Also, popped the engine out and found both the chassis leg tops were well past saving, so on went the new panels.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Once all the rust is taken care of, I'll go over the whole of the engine bay with the wire wheel, take off any surface rust and then rust proof/underseal where is needed before the whole thing goes off for paint.

At this rate, there's a good chance this one will be cleaner than the blue one!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #5 – April 14, 2021, 01:58:25 PM

lovely job! top work Dave

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #6 – April 14, 2021, 04:23:17 PM

Quick work. there

If (when i mean) I have a car painted again this is the way i'll be doing it - send it off as a shell once the issues have been fixed. Rather than do what I am doing now and pulling it all apart and fixing issues. Hopefully it will work out cheaper as well!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #7 – April 15, 2021, 07:45:39 AM

That's what I'm hoping too, I've never pulled a car apart to this extent in one go before.
The furthest I want was the blue one and that had to have the engine stay in.

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #8 – April 15, 2021, 09:15:19 AM

I think you're doing the right thing from my experience - you know the warts and all and the person painting it can give you realistic quote as they can see it all. I would recommend, but think you're ok on this front and have done it, is wire wheeling back any suspect areas so the bodyshop can see and deal with.

I've re-stripped down my Corrado after painting last year as my rear arches were starting to rust and wasn't happy in other areas - underside really but that wasn't part of the respray. If I had done as you have done I wouldn't be in this situ. After wire wheeling I found suspect metal and filler. I don't think they treated the metal and I don't have the budget for another load of paint so have fixed it myself as have learnt to weld this year. Fortuatnely it was behind the bumper line and away from the body and can be covered in epoxy and stone chip but i have still ground off the arch lip to be sure. I will be able to paint as made a good job on the front arch lip with no visible paint line (bodyshop used cheap screws that rusted in situ and transfered their rust to the wings). The joys.

The great thing with the mk2/mk3 is the black plastic arch covers can hide the sins, or at least you can do your best if like me and make a solid repair and not affect the overall appearence and also you can get repair panels - starting to go off my corrado this year - if it's not careful it may end up with its running gear in my mk2 haha!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #9 – April 15, 2021, 09:59:38 AM

Haha! I've done that before actually, bought a written off VR and chassis swapped it, even down to the interior and dash, took me ages!

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #10 – June 07, 2021, 10:55:09 AM

Ok, may be time for an update.
We have been working weekends for what seems like forever, chasing the rust, but I think we finally have it beat!

Had to remove the back panel, as it was just past it and easier to replace the whole thing

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Also, the back of the rear wing had to come off.

Next, I moved to the front, to clean up the inner arches
Not bad, just need to get on it with the raptor now

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

While I was on at the front, Sean sorted the filler neck and the rear arch

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

That will all get cleaned down and a dose of Raptor too.

Then once all the hard to reach bits were complete, the rear panel and tow eye went back on

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

And with that, the (majority of the) welding was done!

So we moved on to body work, never done it before, but the idea is to do the prep as best possible, then hand off to a proper body shop to perfect and paint.

You may have spotted an odd red patch on the drivers door, turned out it was some horrible paint, that never actually set.
It was a right pita to remove and had to go all the way back to bare metal to get shot of it.
Odd thing was, there was no repair under it, no idea why it went on!

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Whoever keyed the car, done a bloody good job, every inch was either metal or primer.
Someone must have been VERY angry!

We didn't have any masking paper to hand (turning up soon), so had to leave the windows in for the time being.
But got on as best we could and it currently looks like this.

Untitled by Dave Ackerman, on Flickr

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #11 – June 08, 2021, 07:50:46 AM

This is a feeble excuse for not getting on with the R32 aircon 😂
Lookin good though.

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #12 – June 08, 2021, 11:11:31 AM

Nice Project!! It's is one of the dream ones I wise I could part take in... but need a shed to pull it a part and just some more basic knowledge on the cars.
Looking forward to following your journey here!
/D

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #13 – June 10, 2021, 05:09:38 PM

Boom! epic little project mate

and some great progress

Re: Red Rescue

Reply #14 – June 11, 2021, 07:54:08 AM

Cheers guys!
Yes, I've kind of neglected the blue ones air con project. Something I'm currently regretting!!
Got a couple days off coming up soon, plan is to pick up some spares (PAS kit) and crack on with the sanding.
Be nice if by this time next week I had the whole thing in primer.