New, unregistered Irish-bought car from 1976 - where do I start?

Of the two the early variant could be more of a money pit to restore.

Given the scarcity of body panels to replace any rusted out panels, of which there will probaly be a few.

Mechanical parts are plentiful enough if you know where to go, and reasonably priced. Given that it was a non runner
when it was put into the shed , its definitely seized now. With flat four engines pistons laying down on the barrels,
its not long before they form a rust attachment to them,this sort of thing occurs,

[IMG][/img]

And parts are available to fix this, but engine building is labour intensive and expensive.

Body panels on the fastback variants are basically unobtainable, or extremely expensive for the later variants, and moreso for the early ones.All the fastbacks and squarebacks and notchback variants have the same design flaws that allow rust to destroy them in similar areas.

I'd be very surprised if this variant is untouched by the dreaded rust, but if it is that would be great. But there are rust free examples from south africa that sell in the UK for less than 12k. And you definitely would not restore a rusty squareback to its former glory for less than that.

Rare cars can often end up costing more than their value to restore which is often the case with classics.

Does your skilset allow you to do any of the work on either car?

saabsaab wrote: »

I know what you're saying but it depends. it won't take much to see fi the engine turns or not. If it does good news. The garage may be heated or adjoining a house or other warm building driving out damp. The blankets and the cover may have been enough to keep it fine. brakes would be the main thing to check change fluids etc.

You are correct, it wont take anymore than 2 minutes to see if the engine turns.

But turning or not, the engine will need stripping to inspect it properly. Whether the current owner does it, or the next owner does it. Someone has to, and like i said its labour intensive. Plus the fact that the history says it was a non runner going into the shed.

My money is on a seized engine. And there are a few tips to unseize it along with brute force. But a turning engine in this situation means very little.

But you are correct it wont take long to see if it can turn. But thats all you will find out without stripping it.

If you are very lucky you might end up with this. It was an engine of mine that was taken
from a car years ago, and dry stored. After many years slumber, I spent a day or two
checking the engine settings. Prepped it the tried for a start.

Happy days, i got this result.



I then stripped it for a rebuild. Although it started and sounded ok, the piston rings were seized into the pistons, and the pistons had marked all the barrells from laying on them un oiled. So the barrels had to be crosshatch honed, new rings, new seals, and case savers added. All labour intensive but necessary

If you get organised with access to the vw, and you want a hand from to try to squeeze life into
the vw , I'll throw my name into the hat along with another vw nut and anyone else here ,
to try to help you out, just fire a pm at me, tim