1985 VW Gothwagen - FOR SALE

vulgalour · May 29, 2012

I've been umming and ahhing about putting a build thread over here for my little gothwagen. Some of it is Autoshite ethos, and some of it isn't. He's not beige and he's not standard, but he is interesting, in an odd sort of a way.

A quick potted history

I've had a few cars before getting this one, my first being a Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.6 that would have made Mr Boll's Maserati look like a concourse winner, anywhere it could have been rotten it was and it was all covered up with lots of filler. I cut my teeth on that car, finding out what was wrong, understanding why things weren't fixing and learning what happens when you attempt a roof chop without bracing anything. I was young and stupid, but I was a quick learner so I didn't repeat these mistakes. After that I had an Austin A40 Farina jointly with my brother which we found was beyond our skills to repair so was sold to someone who actually put it back on the road. There was a Volvo 240 saloon which was excellent, but too costly to run and repair and found it's way to the scrapyard in the sky and then, in about 1998 my Dad bought this Polo for my brother, mother and I to learn to drive in and pass our tests. Was okay, cost Ã‚Â£250 (I later paid Ã‚Â£25 to keep it from being scrapped) and was navy blue with the bog standard everything. If I'd known then what I know now I'd've kept everything standard as it is now quite a rare thing to have the proper povo spec Polo.

He looked like this. At the time there were Williams Renault Clios about the place, so the wheels got painted gold and he got the nickname of Wilhelm at some point down the line.

Now, it's worth pointing out here that money and I don't have a great relationship. I rarely have much, and not for want of trying, I just seem to be one of those people who doesn't have a lot of cash, or spend a lot of cash. So it wasn't until last year that I passed my test, even though I'd had lessons on and off since I was 16. The money was never there for long enough for me to get through to passing my test, but it meant I did get a fair chunk of on-the-road experience. So all the while I was trying to pass my test, I was putting ideas on the Polo. I had this vision of where I wanted to end up, it appeared in Custom Car magazine (I don't have the copy any more) and mostly involved satin black paint, Moon discs and lots of smoothing and lowering.

I got to the point with the car, doing jobs here and there and learning as I went along, that I was getting disheartened. Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes and I almost scrapped him, until a mechanic friend stepped in and told me not to give up and that he'd help me out. That was the encouragement I needed to get the seats done and new carpet fitted (the original went at some point in the past, I don't know when).

Plenty of work was done to repair the hole under the battery tray and the mechanical stuff until eventually we got through an MoT... then road tax... then I passed my test and insurance was bought (which was a fiasco and another story altogether) and I made the 250 mile round trip to drive to the top secret Polo location in Lincolnshire in Dad's Lexus LS400 and then all the way home via a wiggly grandparent-visiting and Mablethorpe-for-ice-cream route home in the Polo.

Some things needed to be redone, like the terrible satin paint job, the bumpers that I'd made a right hash of and were rotten anyway, and the interior, that was pretty shagged due to UV damage on the fabric I'd used. But all in all I'd achieved what had seemed the impossible and I was not just proud, I was ecstatic that my little Polo that I'd hoarded away and nobody believed I would ever get on the road was now in regular use. While not technically my first car, the Polo is everything a first car should have been so that's how I think of him.

So how is this Autoshite and not OMGVAGLOVE? Well, I don't really fit in with the traditional skinny jeans VW crowd. I apparently don't fit in with the Hot Rod/Kustom scene either, even though the cars from that particular scene are my biggest influence, and I don't *quite* fit in with Retro Rides. I'm not sure I fit in anywhere, but that's okay, I'm not doing this to fit in, I'm doing it to make me happy. What I think makes this car Autoshite is that it's all home-brewed, on a budget, but to the highest standard possible using traditional techniques were possible. I document and learn from my mistakes (usually) and like to share the highs and lows of owning a much abused and often dismissed little car.

I still run the original engine, and I'm happy with the original engine when it works. I do have lowered suspension, and I do have alloys, but I've tried to be sensible about those and not just do it for the lows. I have a tow bar in the garage I'm wanting to fit at some point, which is probably a bit daft, but I really fancy having a tiny caravan to tow with my silly car.

Coming up: the project in pictures.

vulgalour · May 29, 2012