Vw A1 diesel Gli, start of something old

[Dwob]

Well, the rust repair on the Squareback, while being more or less completely done, sucked all of my desire to keep the car out of me. I had wanted one forever, so i fixed it, drove it for a little bit and decided to take a deal when one of my all time favorite cars came up for grabs.



1981 A1 (mk1) VW Jetta GLI 4door. The original motor was swapped with a Diesel

The good

Diesel motor
crack free dash
clean carpet ,interior is overall in really good shape
NO RUST on the shock towers or inner fender

The bad

Paint is pretty rough as you can tell
needs new hood, this one is way too rusted underneath to salvage
wiring on the dash needs a rework

over all, super excited about whats to come on this thing. wheels are already ordered, nothing too fancy yet, but something better than the almond steelies

[Dwob]

started sanding to prep for paint. motor will be out this coming monday hopefully





also added this awesome french yellow fog light, just wired straight to headlight for now

[ChuckNDicks]

Do more work!

[Tubaman]

Very nice. i would love a mk1 dezzel

[kittenpuncher]

Awesome cant wait to see what comes of this. I know the guy who owned it and the guy who helped him with all the mechanical work to get her proper, quality guys for sure, in for new wheels and paint.

[selah777]

I have had my mk1 jetta diesel for 4 months now and I absolutely love it! Are you pulling the motor just to paint the bay or are you going to swap it?

[ChuckNDicks]

I have had my mk1 jetta diesel for 4 months now and I absolutely love it! Are you pulling the motor just to paint the bay or are you going to swap it?

For now, its coming out so the bay and motor can get cleaned up/painted. I don't think we'll be doing anything crazy in the bay with this one, pretty sure the rain tray will stay in and everything will stay mostly stock, probably just some seam sealer removal and general clean up, maybe some slight shaving here and there, but nothing too crazy.

I could also be dead wrong and we could end up shaving the whole damn bay one the motor is out. We have a tendency to create a ton of extra work for ourselves.

[Dwob]

what he said ^

slight shave here and there for un-needed holes and mounts. but painting the block and valve cover and cleaning up all the wires. i wanna keep it slightly modified stock, the paint wheels and interior will be kept clean and to the point, no bags or anything too crazy....for now

[JoeMallett]

Really need a Mk1 Jetta in my life, excited to see where this goes, tidy sounds good.
Sub'd

[ChuckNDicks]

More updates please.

[Dwob]

small update, other than sanding my ass off, i shaved the passenger mirror hole, started shaving the trim holes and fixed a rust spot on the trunk. more very soon! sorry for the terrible photos, forgot my camera so only had my phone












and got my wheels in, yes they are mesh, but i got a deal on them i could not pass up. currently at the powder coaters and waiting on tires to get here.



also...

the color for the complete respray

[Queef|Chief]

Cant wait to see this after paint! Cars in great shape, should turn out amazingly

[99sil-teg]

Already excited for this one, gotta love a clean mk1

[Dwob]

took the bumpers off to take care of the small amount of rust on the front clip. not much to update, slowly but steady





big tail pipe looks big

[P78]

i liked the patina it had