THE TROLL

I thought its about time I put up a build thread on here,
I got this off ebay for a steal from a local guy back at the end of February, he acquired it from an old guy who had it in his barn since 1998, its a mk1 1980 jetta 1.5.
the old guy tried had tried to do the body work on it but after a good look its obvious he didnt know what he was doing. When i picked it up it seemed a lot of it was just surface rust especially in the boot where the boot rubber had gone missing sometime in its life.
So as soon as I got it home I started work, taking bits off for cleaning, removed the front seats and rear bench, i've started taking off the front wings and i have started de-rusting the boot area.
While i was doing all this i found a few holes that need welding, 2 on the n/s sill, both rear arches are holed, the front panel and front wings need work and a bit of welding, i need two new n/s doors as the bottoms of both of them are rotten, and the rear panel needs work and both rear quarters.
But all in all its not a hard project to be honest, i'm gonna leave it rat looking for this years show season as i have an old roof rack and loads of retro crap to put on it lol and it also gives me time to work on it this year without worrying to much about how it looks, and then after players i will take it back off the road and restore it properly for next year.

Here are a few of the original advert photo's from ebay.

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It looked a lot worse in the photo's than it did in real life so hardley anyone bidded on it but luckily is was lucky enough to view it before bidding so i knew what i was buying, the only part i was worried about was trying to source a new rear light cluster but even that turned out to be pretty easy.

Here its as i bought it home, cleaned bonnet and boot to see the real colour and started taking parts out and off, and finding rust and holes and lots of red oxide paint lol

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You maybe surprised to know that on pulling up the carpet there was not rust or grime or anything bad at all, it still looks factory fresh


I've not been well the last few weeks so have been cleaning a few interior trim bits and had a go at cleaning the front grill parts as well

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New rear lamp

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And here is a little something for the guys driving behind me to look at lol

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Tomorrows to do list

Sand and paint boot gutter
Rust treat, fill, sand and paint n/s rear light area
Take off rear n/s arch trim
take out drivers seat
Take out carpet again
Finish removing tow bar
Remove front wings
Delete aeriel hole in wing
Start de-rusting, fibre glassing and filling rear arches
Seperate headlight glass
Sand and paint headlight brackets
Mastick broken rear light rubber
Underseal inner front arches
Start undersealing rear end
Take door cards off
Route the amp wiring
Clean roof gutters
Fit stickers
Start sanding A pillar
Fit 6x9's

Oil change, fit new oil filter
Change air filter
Change coolant
Fit new thermostat
Fit new fuel filter
Change Cam belt
Change aux belt

Hmmm i think that might take longer than 1 day lol

Well that was short lived coz i had to cut the day short, but i'l get to that in a mo.

Didn't do nearly as much as i want to do today but here's what i did get done

Started puting stickers on,
Fitted 1 6x9 speaker and then the hacksaw snapped grrrr
de-rusted the rear panel and filler primed it ready for sanding
de- gunked all the crap off the gutter rails, i havn't a clue what it was but it was a pig to get off
had a little play with my coil
de-rusted and primed the boot gutter
removed drivers seat

and then tripped over a open tool box twisting my ankle and went flying into the garage door runner hurting my already buggered shoulder

i didnt get all the photo's i wanted to get as my phone ran out of battery but here's a few

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owwww
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coming on nicely buddy you doin the full resto yourself?

Way to put your shoulder into it!...lol

Nice work!

Reaver 'Ant' wrote:coming on nicely buddy you doin the full resto yourself?

I'm doing most of it myself mate apart from the welding as i dont have my own welding equipment atm. I have have a mate coming over thursday to get the majority of the holes and structural welding done and dusted.
its slowly getting there, it was never going to be a looker so i'l be happy as long as its strong and back on the road before all this nice weather dissapears

Good work dude, just watch out for those tool boxes lol
Good luck with the rest of the project hey

Buddy its not always about the looks just the love for the car it is afterall to be done the way you want (well thats the way i look at it) i got some serious hard for sticking a VR in my GT but then i did it for me no one else

You cant beat the look of the Mk1 anyhow they are becoming far more popular and really rare too keep up the good work

cheers everyone for the nice comments

Well after 11 years of being sat in a barn it is now alive and kicking and all it took was new plugs, air filter and some fresh petrol.
I'm well happy with it and cant wait to get it back on the road now.
i know it sounds a bit rough but after a new downpipe and a good service it should purr

video
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Good work fella keep at it you can't beat that feeling when you get them on the road after all the graft

i cant wait mate, its all coming together now. just a bit more welding to do, lots of filling and sanding. new fuel lines and brake lines then hopefully it'l be ready for its mot.

i'l add more photo's tomorrow

Quick photo update.


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Nice work buddy. Keep is going. What plans do you have for paint? Original or something a little different?

I will eventually have it resprayed florida blue, the same colour as it is now but i'm gonna have some fun and keep it ratty looking for a while coz i cant wait to get it on the road lol

Quick update

finally finished de-rusting the boot, and i have now turned my attention to the rear arches as they are in a bad way, I was going to get replacement panels and do them properly but i now need the car on the road so i'm doing a quick fibreglass fix on them just for the mot and then i'l worry about welding repair panels in at a later date. I've also been poking about with a screwdriver and found 3 new holes on the rear inner arch. NICE
I have my mate James coming over at the end of the month to finish welding patches on for me and then all that is left for me to do is the body work and to make it it look presentable and hopefully that wont take to long.
I have lots of new parts in a box ready to fit as well.
rear wheel cylinders
rear brake shoes
new set of brake hoses
new fuel lines
all the service parts i need
new filters
RCA Cables
speaker bolts as the screws wont work into the metal parcel shelf
lots of hose clips
and lot and lots of filler and fibre glass lol :lol

here are some photo's but its still not pretty lol i should have a bigger update with more photo's by monday

the worst arch
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the better arch, (modelled by joel lol)
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the inner arch holes 2 of them have gone through to the boot :doh
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Joel working in the boot making it look nice and low lol
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the arch work has started but nowhere near finished
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random photo of paul trying to look busy lol
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Here's a couple of teasers for you

I have plans for these over the next few weeks (those of you who were at school in the 80's will remember these)

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and i have this planned for sometime next year after a rebuild

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Small update.

managed to get some bits done today but not as much as i wanted as a migrane stopped play

blacked out the bumpers but they need a few more coats

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fitted new rear brake shoes and wheel cylinders

old
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new
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fitted new fuel lines

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and finally a bit of sticker bombing

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tomorrow i'm going to be tackling the arches and getting the body work tidied up a bit. i also want to refit the front
of the carpet rca leads and front seats

Nice one mate keep at it

done a little more sticker bombing today
in the olden days (1980's) when Garbage Pail Kid stickers were all the rage when you completed a series you were able to make a bigger version of one of the cards by putting together some of the backing cards here's what i did with it.
and i also started my headlining, the stickers were very old and not very sticky so I used pva in the end and its worked a treat still got loads more to do though as i want the whole headlining covered but it took me two hours to get this far, i've got a crook neck now lol


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loving the work dude, shes is gonna look funking sweet when shes finished.

cheers mate

Had a massive list of things to do to the jetta on sunday but i was so bloody hot that i gave up after 6 hours.

done a bit more sticker bombing to the boot

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done lots more to the headlining but it still not finished, i'l be glad when its completed coz i dont think my neck can take much more lol

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and pottered about getting inside ready for the carpets to go back in and start rebuilding it at last. cleaned loads more parts and detailed the engine bay a little and gave it an oil and filter change
11 year old oil mmmmm nice lol


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hopefully when the weather gets a bit cooler i'l get a bit more done and take more photo's

Had a ver constructive day on the Troll yesterday, my mate James came over to help complete the welding and there was loads of it to do, o/s rear inner arch had 4 holes the n/s rear inner arch had 6 holes and both front inner wing panels needed rebuilding. While james was doing the front wings (which he made look easy) i managed to complete the rear brakes and started tidying the inside of the car ready for when the carpets go in.
Didnt take him long to comlete the front so i moved to the front of the car with the fibreglass and under sealer while he takled the rear arches.
I've now also stopped the fuel leak with the cunning use of a jubilee clip lol
All in all a really good 8 hour day and i couldnt be happier, all i need to do now is put the lights and grill on, interior and then change the front brakes then hopefully if all goes to plan it will be MOT time

here's some photo's from yesterday. i'l have more tomorrow

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And here it is with the front wings back on properly, james had to weld the ower lip of the wings to the front panel as the metal for the screw holes was none existant. Can i take this oppertunity to say sorry to James for pouring pepsi over his head lol. when he was welding the drivers side wing at the bottom the seam sealer went up in flames and i had not water to hand so i grabbed the nearest thing to me which was a can of pepsi and poured it over the fire and over james who was on the floor under it trying to slapp out the flames lol

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Note pepsi stain on the road lol

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back end is nearly done

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It's nice to see your car "in person" muttley. My mate's Mk2 isn't in such need a "remodelling" but I'm sure (with your help) I should be able to get it back on the road : )

Here's another little update for you.
The rear arches are finished and mot ready, all the inner arches are welded and sealed. Wings front bumper and front lights are back on. The headlining is nearly finished but i ran out of stickers so i have some more on the way from ebay. Coilovers are ordered and i'm picking up a new set of 14” steelies next week

here's some photos

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Stickers

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This is my new dash ornament

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And this is the reason why he is call ed the troll, this came with the car

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