1984 VW Golf Cabrio - 01/12 - On the Road

[Vince70]

I suspect that the spare blue wire near the washer bottle is for the rear washer pump - not fitted on your car, of course.

The rev counter may respond to resoldering the joints - very much a 1980s problem.

The hood leak may be water coming through the stiching - try some Fabsil if you haven't already

I vote "unlower" - the whole retro rides style chavvy "slamming" thing really gets on my tits.

The dry joint problem was always a problem with the mk 1 golf dash also you would get loads of flashing warning LED bulbs from the dash when it went wrong.

As for Fabsil its a brilliant product and it works better if you paint it on rather than buying it in aerosol form, but it will only work on a material roof and won't work on the plastic/PVC hoods.

[PhilA]

@PhilA: I'll agree, the ride height isn't too offensive but the comfort is.  It'll be wheels first at any rate, smaller wheels with bigger tyre wall might counteract some of the discomfort. The copper washer is out of necessity, it's all I had in the stocks, but it's a greased joint and is showing no signs of binding since it was done so it'll do for now.  Not an ideal solution since ideally you need to knock out a great big rivet to refit a steel washer.

 

Fair enough. Is it really sat that low? Looks like there'd be quite a lot of suspension travel left, but if not, I can agree. Aesthetically I like it, but I've grown to appreciate a comfortable ride as I've gotten older.

 

Having never ridden in a mk1 Golf, I don't know what the standard ride is like. I recall the mk2 and up having a somewhat squidgy jelly-for-springs ride quality. Maybe the ones I rode in were worn out.

 

--Phil

[vulgalour]

I think the Princess may have spoiled me on the comfort side of things so it's probably not as bad as I think it is.

[Mike D]

It won't be as bad as you think, they ride like shite! Sterling work so far VA. I *might* have a set of body side trims in my garage off my old 3 door, i'll have a look if theyd be of any use?

[vulgalour]

Which side trims, the ones on the sills that I'm missing on the ones higher up, of which the driver's door is broken?  Either would be handy if they're a match.

[vulgalour]

After being thoroughly annoyed with collecting new dents and scrapes down the side of the car every day, it's been decided to move it to somewhere where technically it shouldn't get them, though it doesn't really fit properly... never mind.  Instead, I made myself content by tackling some more of that overspray and got the bonnet half done which shifts the very worst of the overspray from off the car.  It's tricky to photograph, but hopefully you can see how much sharper and deeper the reflections are on the passenger side.  (This was yesterday, but Autoshite was down so I'm updating today).

 

 

 

 

 

I'll keep plodding away at this, I know the bonnet is the worst panel on the car so it'll be pretty easy once I've done that.

[purplebargeken]

VA, your hard work is really paying dividends on the Golf. It can be soul destroying in the tediousness stakes but is very worthwhile. 

[vulgalour]

That gaffer tape 'repair' I did fell off as I knew it probably would.  This is what needs patching.  I'm going to tidy it up, get some suitable materials and patch it more properly.  I reckon I've got enough material in the patch that was on this side to repair the hole on both sides of the roof in this place.  It'll have to do until I've got money to burn on a new roof.

 

The Golf didn't have any valve caps when I got it, so I dug out the ones I kept from the Polo and put those on.  I might repaint the dots blue.

 

Happily, a bit more brown interior arrived today in the form of the rear seat/hinge trims.  The black ones I've removed will go up for sale and may even pay for the brown ones.  Ã‚£1 on eBay, plus the postage cost, seemed a bit of a bargain.

 

 

Next weekend I collect the brown seats, door cards, parcel shelf and carpets, I'm looking forward to that.  The existing black/grey interior is up for grabs as soon as the brown arrives if it's of use/interest to anyone.

[Vince70]

I was enjoying your threads on the old Golf Cabriolet,

I just wondered how you got on with the old girl in the end.

[vulgalour]

Sold it to my brother so I could acquire another Princess.  It's currently sat in his garage with the roof stripped back.  The tub is very, very solid and the interior awaiting a retrim.  The roof frame has a bent bar and appears to be slightly twisted so he's looking at having to fit a whole roof frame and cover.  He's still talking about restoring it to original spec, but it's going to be a very long term project.

 

For the time being, it's sitting in his dry garage.

[Vince70]

So glad to hear you saved the old girl,

it looks like its going to be a nice motor once your brother has sorted it out.

[vulgalour]

Certainly, he has a greater invested interest in it than I do.  I was going to do enough to get it road legal and use it until I found a replacement.  He's wanting to restore it fully and sink a fair amount of cash into it.  He's even talking about returning it to the original horrible gold-brown colour and unlowering it!

[vulgalour]

Thread bump time because the Golf is now taxed, insured and MoT'd and in regular use.

 

Initial test was a fail on split track rod end boot, rough wheel bearing, headlight aim too low one side and a small hole with advisories for an oil leak, a blowing exhaust and underseal on the brakelines.  For the retest the headlights were realigned, split boot was glued, the wheel bearing sorted itself out, the small hole was welded and it passed.  Really solid little thing and received compliments from the MoT station for being in good nick.

 

 

 

Looks like my brother is going to do this one proud, one or both of us will keep this thread updated in future.

[Skizzer]

Excellent news.

 

Plus one vote for putting it back to that metallic brown colour and unlowering it, just in case your brother cares what anyone else thinks   You almost never see these as factory standard any more, especially the earlier ones.  Dare to be different.