Arthur's 1983 vw rabbit gl build

[kulluminati777]

im really a fan of the subtle green. Is the entire car chalkboard paint?

[racycle]

At the moment I have only done the front end of the car and all the little areas like the door jams. Still got to bondo some spots before I sand the hole car for paint. The final product will be entire chalkboard though.

[Caleb T]

Any progress on this man? This was an interesting build!

[racycle]

=o forgot I made this haha , I guess I'll keep it going. A heads up though, The wiring harness ended up not putting correct voltage to my coil , no power to the ditsy , and tons of other wiring problems under the hood so It became a Parts car. Still updating for the read .

Also if a admin wouldn't mind changing the topic to "Arthur's Car Ventures" that would be great haha <3

[racycle]

Started removing the battery tray, started raining though.



Fixed the dent at the bottom of the driverside door the best i could. You can still see how the body line has a little curve to it but It's the best I managed.



battery tray gone



paint to cover up all the bare metal from the grinding and sanding, still a a lot to go.



lastly the engine out. transmission is tomorrow hopefully.





ledges to the bumper mounts smoothed out





most of the wiring harness pulled back through the firewall



Also got the break system off and cleaned, slowly making my way to back of the bay.

Went from boykins va to lynchburg va with 2 friends in a 2002 eclipse. This was the ride home



the head says 1.6. the guy said it came out of a scirocco.

[racycle]

started removing everything to be cleaned.

















Engine is in

We didn't have a way to raise the motor and transmission up to the mounts. We removed the tires,
got the car as low as possible and got on top of the supports to weigh it down even lower.
Needless to say the car was low enough to just slide the motor mount into the spot with it on the ground ,
than we just picked up the transmission while one of us put the mounting bolt in.

--insert large mess of wiring and month of headache here--

After pricing everything and figuring out what had to be done to have all the problems fix I figured I would put that cost towards another car and use this one as a parts car.

[racycle]

Picked this car up saturday for $400.(1985 rabbit convertible, the last year the rabbit model was used for convertibles[single round headlights].)Models after this year received duel headlights and are called cabriolets. The owner was nice enough to give me a good amount of extra parts, all new gaskets,o-rings,seals , along with other nos parts still in boxes with rabbit shipping tape on them. New front and rear side markers and a collection of other misc parts. The car sat for 17 years, last owner said he put a gti engine in it but never finished the project.

I put in the new fuel pump he gave me , injectors from my other car along with a few other things. My battery seams to be trash as it hardly turns over. Using alittle starter fluid it dose try to start and run though. Took a good amount of opening and closing but the top dose like to go up and down now. Interior is in decent shape, had a few new parts for it like the plastic trim and lever for the sides of the seats to bend them forward along with other parts of the same nature.

Where the car was when I got it.
The owner wanted to keep his rims so I brought mine with me.


Got the car home and quickly started tearing into it.


Under the Karman badges it has round wolfsburg badges. the authentication of this is still undetermined.

Got most of the interior back together.



Need to get tail lights haha but I guess like this works for awhile.



This is how the car currently sits.



this months progress =
-cv axles were torn down, cleaned, regressed and reinstalled.

-after sitting for 17 years, redid the timing, put in injectors,few other fuel related parts and she runs! Not vary well and the idle is all over the place.

-found my first leak! the oil filter housing was cracked in half...walked 8 ft to the parts car .

-second leak, the cis knock box is leaking fuel. Will tackle that in the next few days

-rigged up solutions to all the vacuum leaks and fuel vapor return lines aannd she runs quite strong and extremely loud.

-Yea loud, there is only exhaust headers on the car. Tried fitting the downpipe on today and it wants to hit the rack'N'pinion and sit about 3 inches below the exhaust channel. So took the exhaust header off the parts car and now got to get the full exhaust off it.

Now we are caught up

[racycle]

Got the old exhaust off the parts car until I'm ready for new everything from the headers back. Not in the picture but I was given a new CC and tip. I had to grid the old off, it rusted as one part where the factory U clamp was.

[racycle]

Also if anyone was wondering about the theme/cosmetics, I'm no longer going with the green unless something really pushes it on me haha.

for paint (#3)\/



a new White top, euro bumpers, chrome accents(trim and such)

wheels, for the size I want along the lines of 13x7(13x8 rear)
first choice is-
ATS Classics


second is bbs rs.


for interior, Something like the porsche 911 sprredster but with somehow keeping the "age/retro" style of the interior in tact.

[kulluminati777]

Oh man great progress! My only complaint is these skills arent being out to use on a MX3

[racycle]

Thanks! Yea I do miss the mx3 . Not much of a update but the car has a exhaust now, no longer burning the ground haha.

also some photoshoped inspiration.

[racycle]

Forgot about this thread for a bit.

Got the shifting and everything fixed. It wasnt a blown motor mount. I ordered a bushing kit , and rotated the shifter rod to the spine'ed insert and I eventually got all the gears back.

The camera made it look brown , but it is black.



Redid the trunk cover and sides to it.



to anyone who has owned one of thies. \/
When I replaced my blown out springs, i noticed the rear bushing cups are both bent inward, is this normal? My other rabbit wasn't like this.



also random pictures

[Savin]

'Bout time we see some updates!

[racycle]

Haha, glad some of you still check my stuff

Got the front door panels done. Going to swap out the rear window levers for the front. Never noticed how much better the backs were in condition haha.

[racycle]

been awhile for a update, only camera i had was my crappy phone im using sence my droid kicked the bucket.