Golf Gti MK1

Spitfire666

Found a MK1 golf gti the other week parked up in a tow truck yard.
Made a few enquiries and found out it wasnt for breaking and that the bosses brother owns it.

Its a 1981 gti in red with (i think) the old style irish reg, ***EZO.
Took it for a spin amd was nearly going to buy it there and then but found some sense somewhere, i think it was in my back pocket.

Had a car dealer/mechanic/ex gti racer look over it for me and was a mixed review.
The paint need a good buffing and possibly a respray (expected as its been parked up in a tow yard over a year without moving.)
The car is hotwired at the min as the ignition broke and a new one is in the back seat but hasnt been fitted. (had it checked and it wasnt stolen)
The rear spoiler is missing from the boot.
The tracking needs doing as do the brakes again due to it being parked up so long.
most of the door/window rubbers need replaceing as does the hand brake cover and the stearing wheel is damaged.
The under body is solid. the car has very little rust. a small bit on the tray at the back of the engine bay. the front crossmember is damaged indicatng a bang at some point again replaceable.
It needs a good service/timing belt change.
the cars done 117000 miles.

What you guys think of it as a project?
The owner was looking for 2.5k and ive been told with all the niggly bits that need doing it should be more like 1.5k.

MercMad

Lovely car and getting rare !

You could either buy one that has been restored, in the UK they ask stg£6k or more, or buy a resto project and pay the asking price. Folks know what these cars are worth and they are hard to get, especially an original Irish reg (***EZO is 1981 Dublin)

I'd say both your prices are in the ballpark and realistically €2k would not be a bad price !

Apply the old rule, more that 3 strikes and its out, the 3 strikes being 3 major jobs, Mechanicals,Bodywork,Interior.

If it needs more than one of the above, it will be big money, but still worth it. After that...................who knows !

I looked at one about 2 years ago, 1982 Dublin, but the floor was bad, the interior was poor and since I wanted it as a runaround while I resto'd another car I reckoned it was a bigger project than the one I had. The guy wanted €750 for it.

I'd still love one though !

RobAMerc

I am a bit of an optimist so to me it doesn't sound to bad compared to some of the bags of rust some guy's try to build a car out of.

I'd luv one, and in my view a true classic, even if the tax man doesn't say so.

Dades

Just back from Cape Town where every second car is a VW "Chico". I don't know how these compare to the orig GTIs of course.

And they were just one of the huge selection of eighties cars driven every day.

Spitfire666

It actualy has nothing major that needs doing. its just alot of small things. I was in two minds about what i wanted from a MK1 project, i.e. weather or not i wanted to go the restoration route or the modernisation route by fitting leather seats from a newer golf gti or even an audi tt and fitting a new dash but keeping the overall look distinctivly VAG.
Then i though about getting a car from england with good mechanicles and putting them into the irish one to restore it and use the english one to modernise and have both at some stage.
My heart is telling me go for it just so i can have it and own my first gti but the guy i had look it over is going to ask around for one for me (he raced MK1s for a long time and is in the trade) but the only thing is i know it wont have the irish plate that this one has.
Im gonna speak with the owner of the car on monday and see if i can get the price a bit lower and also look into buying 1 (or 2 if the prices are right) from england.

PaulK_CCI

I don't see the point of why you are so keen on having an original Irish Golf GTi, if you're planning on modifying the car anyway: as in ripping out dashboards and fitting modern Audi-TT seats

The only reasoning I can see for going after an original Irish car, is with the intention to bring it back to its former glory and above all try to keep it as original as possible!

BostonB

http://www.futureclassiccars.com/stocklist/index.php

TBH.

Spitfire666

Thats why i am in two minds about the coarse of action i should take.
Naturaly i would be restoring the irish car if i get that and not modifying it and my thinking is if i got a second car at resonable money from the uk i could do both by using the parts from the english car to restore the irish car.
then use the english leftovers to modify.

BostonB

Seems like two different projects. One is a restoration and a classic car. The other is a modded VW car. Parts for VW are not hard to get, so why the need for a donor car. Do one project at a time!

Spitfire666

I was thinking it might workout cheaper to use the unwanted parts from one project to restor the other project? An i getting to far ahead of myself?

Anyone got an idea what a set of P-Slot alloys are worth?