01x06 - Volkswagen Golf Mk1 GTI Part 2

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to Wheeler
Dealers, the show that's mad

about buying, restoring
and selling modern classics.

Our challenge is to find
cars like this and return

them to tip-top condition
for no more than £1,000.

Now this is the cracking little Golf GTI
that I bought for a song only £650.

It's a nifty little motor, this GTI.

The bodywork and interior
are great, but even so there's

plenty of work for my
mechanic Ed to get stuck into.

So far Ed's concentrated on the mechanics.

He's overall the complicated gear linkage,
so our hot hatch now changes gear cleanly.

And he's replaced the master cylinder,
so now the brakes work reliably.

A vital job on a car this quick.

Cash wise we've spent £130, which means
we've still got £220 left to spend.

But there's still plenty of stuff to do
before I try and sell the car later on in

the show because so
much of the original GTI kit is

missing, like the side
stickers and the front spoiler.

Now these are small
things, but they make a

big difference when
you come to sell the car.

So later on in the show I'll
be on the hump for some rare

campaign alloys and Ed gets
the grips with a dodgy electrics.

But now it's time for some stargazing
because I met a guy who's got a concourse

Mark 1 Golf GTI to see how this one would
look when it's finally finished.

Right, Drew, this is the car that tugs my
rug.

It's the car that excited me, the Mark 1
Golf GTI.

This is what I wanted when I was a kid.

But what made it so special?

It's the original hot hatch.

It's the one that
started the entire ball

rolling with these
sporty little hatchbacks.

Before this car, there was no hot
hatchback.

It's incredible actually when I think
about back then we were driving around in

Austin Maxis, and the Germans come up with
this, which was a real winner, wasn't it?

Absolutely.

And the incredible thing is
that the sales and marketing

people of Volkswagen didn't
think it was going to work.

It's an engineer's car.

They're the ones who took it from its
original idea of a sporty fast car,

developed it, stuck a big engine in it,
lowered the suspension, put the brakes on,

and took it back and said, look,
we reckon this is going to work.

How's it aged over time?

Well, the design is nearly 30 years old,
but have a look at it.

It doesn't look like an old car.

It drives beautifully.

It's a modern shape.

It doesn't look out of place.

It's not a venerable old classic.

Yeah, it's a modern car, but it looks
great.

It still goes well.

And what's it like to drive on a daily
basis?

It's fantastic fun.

That's the main thing about it.

These cars are fun.

0-68 seconds, top speed, 115.

It'll stick with anything on a motor,
even now.

And many cars that
you would think were hot

hatches, you know, it
still leaves in its wake.

What are the problems to look out for?

Mechanically, the gearbox occasionally
gives you a crunchy second gear,

which is the synchro mesh wearing out.

They can soldier on for quite a while,
so it's not a k*ller.

But the rest of the car is pretty strong.

You haven't got much of a problem.

Right, now you absolutely love your Golf,
don't you?

I do indeed, yes.

Fantastic car.

But you don't love it enough to trust me
with a go, do you?

You can have a go.

These cars are meant to be driven.

You're a chap.

Oh, listen to that engine.

It's got such a sweet exhaust mode.

It's fantastic.

It puts most modern cars to shame in terms
of the sound and feel.

It just makes you feel alive.

This car really is an icon.

It really is a special motor car.

This particular one is in stunning
condition.

The steering is dynamic.

It's straight.

It's tall.

There's no modern dampers on it.

It hasn't got power steering.

It's direct.

It feels alive.

The gearbox is wonderful.

It's snappy and sharp.

The brakes are incredible for a car at
this age.

But the paintwork on this car and the look
and feel of it is just exceptional.

They knew what they
were doing when they

designed this, and my
God did they do a good job.

Now the thing is, is getting our car
looking anything like this one,

which is going to be a bit of a mission.

But if I can get our one
looking and performing anything

like this car, then I'll have
a fat smile on my face.

What a motor.

Back in the workshop, Ed's hard at it.

The rev counter on the GTI has died.

So that's next on his to-do list.

First up, I'm checking
under the bonnet to see if

everything's okay with
the engine's connections.

So just connect up.

And there we go.

Continuity.

Excellent.

I know the engine's okay, so if the
wiring's not a problem at this end,

it's a problem at the
other end, which means

I need to look at the
back of the rev counter.

Now the bit of the rev
counter I need to get to is right

down in here, in fact
behind all of this stuff here.

So before I can get anywhere near there,
I've got to take all of this off.

I've got to take off the surround,
the actual binnacle itself.

I've even got to take off the steering
wheel.

And here's a tip.

Always make sure the
wheels are facing straight

before you lift off
the steering wheel.

That way, you'll be sure that when you
refit the steering wheel, it will be

centred when you're driving in a straight
line.

I can now remove the binnacle.

Now, here we go.

There's all the wiring.

I'll leave it attached for a second.

Now, this is where all the wires connect.

Well, you can see these two points where
they connect to the back of the dashboard.

Is it where?

Well, unfortunately, it looks like there's
nothing obvious that I can fix on here.

There's no brakes in the track.

None of the terminals seem particularly
bad.

So I'm going to have to replace the
binnacle.

It's very expensive to buy a new VW
instrument binnacle, but we managed to

track a second hand one down through a GTI
specialist.

It wasn't too pricey, though.

45 quid.

Trouble is, it's got problems of its own.

This is a real blow.

This is supposed to be our nice new
salvage binnacle.

And it's actually in worse condition than
we actually have already.

Worse still, when you look closely,
you can see that this track here,

it actually peeled off, in fact snapped
off the circuit board.

And if I follow that all the
way around on the track

up here, it's pulled away
from the track as well.

So what's happened in
its past sometime is there's

been a short circuit
and it's actually melted.

Now I'm not completely lost because one
option is that if this rev counter works,

I could then possibly use this unit in our
old binnacle.

And it's not too hard to check either.

That's a good sign.

Okay, well, the rev counter part works,
which is excellent.

So what I'm going to have to do is take out
this rev counter and put it into our unit.

Now, finally, I can get the rev counter,
that off.

There we go.

And now I have a nice, shiny rev counter.

So all I have to do now is put this back
into our unit.

Pretty much back in position, which is
good.

So what I can do now, start bolting
everything up.

Well, that's it.

Let's see if it works.

And now for the moment of truth.

Now that is a result.

Now all that messing around wasn't
necessarily for nothing, because if I'd

used the other binnacle,
I would have had to

change the mileage
and all that sort of stuff.

So now I have a fully working binnacle.

Everything's fine.

All I have to do is put it back into the
car.

Now for me to really enjoy this Mark 1
GTI, I want absolutely everything to work.

Now I can live with the fact that this
center console comes from Mark 2 Golf,

but these dials don't seem to be working
at all.

Now I've had a look
around the back, and this

one isn't wired up,
so that's easy to fix.

But these two aren't even working.

They're completely broken.

So rather than change the whole thing and
change the center console, I'm going to go

with the flow, and I've managed to find
myself two new dials.

I've got myself an ammeter, and I've got a
clock.

So what I'm going to do is pop those in,
and then I can be completely happy.

My two new dials have got black bezels on
them, and the voltage one I've got here at

the moment has got a chrome bezel,
so I'm going to put the voltage one in the

middle just to make it look a bit more
interesting.

This is going to make it look so much
better.

Playing with the electrics looks tricky.

This bundle of wires will
scare off most Saturday

morning mechanics, but
it's not really a tough job.

First principles are, work out which
cables supply which instruments.

I know what I'm doing, but a good DIY tip
is to attach small pieces of color-coded

tape to the terminals and their
corresponding wires.

Be careful to sort out your routing,
as the cables have to fit safely within

and around the bits of interior plastic
bodywork.

I'm pretty happy now that the wiring is
ready to go, so I'm going to connect it

all up to the back of our dials,
and then just see what happens,

make sure everything
works, and then once it

does work, I can put
everything back together.

Fitting these dials is actually only a
matter of sliding some connectors

together, and if you've isolated the right
wires, then it'll be fine.

Okay, let's have a little look and see if
these work.

For a horrible moment now, I thought
possibly the voltmeter wasn't working.

Here we go, it's just got
past 11 on its way to 12, which

is nice, and I think I just
saw the clock click as well.

So that's great, so
everything's working,

so I can now put it all
back together again.

Electrics are something we take for
granted on modern motors, but on a fragile

car like this, they're very unreliable,
and this has been a huge job.

It's been a full 10-hour day.

I'm tired but satisfied.

Look at that.

Now I can be a very happy man.

Everything in this dashboard actually
works.

You've got the dials working, the rev
counter works, the computer works,

these little dials down here work,
so everything goes as it should do.

Fantastic.

Welcome back to Wheeler Dealers.

The Golf is now pretty much sorted.

The only thing's missing are those vital
parts which give the GTI its street cred.

It needs the original
Flying P Alloys, an authentic

grille with red piping
and a bigger front spoiler.

Now I've just done two hours in stinking
traffic, not because I like it,

because if you're looking for a specific
part for your car, like I am for our Mark

1 Golf GTI, I think you have to put in the
legwork.

Thank God you was truthful on the phone.

These are a set of alloy wheels.

Aren't they the right ones for my car,
though?

Yeah, for the Mark 1 GTI campaign.

Yeah, perfect.

It is a little fact for you.

Did you know, in between
the P's, it's an eight mil

gap for the Mark 1 and a
10 mil gap for the Mark 2?

You want to get out a bit more,
do you?

But you're at me in there, you know that,
aren't you?

Nice set of five there.

Need a little bit of work doing on them.

How much are they?

Because they are rare.

I've looked everywhere at them.

You look 100 pound plus the back.

100 quid plus the back, I'm not even going
to argue.

Down to me.

The wheels are a bit rough, so we'll
probably get them professionally refurbished.

And there was more gold in the yard.

A Mark 1 grill.

I was definitely having that at 35 pound.

And a proper deep front spoiler.

A deal with a mere 30 quid.

This really is a one stop feed up shop.

Cracking.

Got all the bits I need.

There's enough there to keep Ed happy.

And I've saved us a fair few Bob.

Only problem is that two hour journey back
home.

Mike's done really well finding us these
Pirelli Allos and they look as good as new.

They're going to make our Golf GTI look so
good.

And the best bit is, our old tyres are
actually in pretty good nick.

So rather than buy new ones, we're going
to put the old tyres on the new rims.

Now I'm lucky enough to have a tyre
changer in my workshop, but if you haven't

got one at home, the
easiest thing to do is take

down your wheels and
tyres to your local tyre centre.

And here, time for the tyre.

You'll hear the bead pop in a second.

One more big one, I think.

There we go.

That means the bead is actually seated
properly on the rim of the wheel.

So we should keep the air in and the tyre
on the rim.

I can't wait to see what these wheels
actually look like on the car.

It's often handy to let your
feet take the strain and the

weight of the wheel when
you're putting a wheel back on.

Especially when you haven't got studs to
line you up with.

I'm just tightening up the wheel nuts.

And I make sure that
they're particularly tight

because I don't want to
lose my nice new wheels.

I love putting new wheels on a car.

It makes such a difference.

Now look at this corner now.

It's totally transformed.

But I think we need a finishing touch.

And here we have it, the centre cap.

Now these were silver and they're a little
bit tired.

So I've painted them black.

And I'll just pop that on there.

That is awesome.

Well, to be honest, that's pretty poor.

Mike has managed to get us a lovely little
lemon on this one.

This is supposed to be my replacement
grille.

And as such, it should be better than this
one.

But as you can see, the
condition of it is really very

poor and actually worse than
the one we have at the moment.

Also, this chrome strip here should be red
and it isn't.

And this badge should be black and it
isn't.

And this little badge here is actually in
worse condition than that one.

All is not lost.

First of all, I can take
off these bits of chrome

here, which I haven't
got on our original grille.

And I can paint those red.

I can also take these ones off here and
paint them red too.

I can take off the badge and paint that
black.

And then pretty much we're going to have a
sorted car.

It's going to look very GTI after that.

And hopefully I'll have rescued the
situation.

Sounds like an easy job.

But actually, Mike's landed me with a lot
of unnecessary work.

I can't just spray paint straight onto the
VW grille and the GTI badge.

First, they've got to be prepared.

It takes a good hour
of rubbing down to get a

flat, keyed surface
which will take the paint.

Same with the chrome grille trim,
which I'm going to spray red.

The only way to
prepare this is to spray on

acid etch primer, which
reacts with the surface.

Probably have two coats of acid etch primer
and then a couple of coats of red paint.

The original GTI had a red grille trim and
I'm going to do my own bit of faking it by

spraying up my standard
chrome grille with

the right coloured
paint, which is Mars Red.

Once it's on the car, you'll never know.

Same with the VW grille badge.

A quick spray over with satin black and
the badge has been GTI'd.

Now comes the fun part
where I get to put it all

back together and it
starts to look fantastic.

I don't know what to say, really.

It looks so good.

Such a transformation.

It's fab.

Now I have to do... Let's
put the badge in the centre.

Okay, here we go.

Now what does this car look like?

A GTI.

It's pretty awesome, really, when you
think about it.

All it's taken is a little bit of prep
work, some red paint, some black paint,

and it really has brought this grille back
to life.

A GTI isn't a GTI without its go-faster
stripes.

These are quite hard
to get hold of, but we

found the one UK company
who still make them.

The black rear window insert was £26 and
the side decals were £20 a set.

For the back window, I got the help of a
professional window fitter who lifted the

glass out and then refitted it when the
insert was in place.

Along the sides, it was
just a case of careful

measurement and then gritting
your teeth and going for it.

I put a lot of hours
into the restoration of

this GTI and now
the exterior is finished.

I'm really proud of it.

It looks brilliant.

I'm going to be really sad to see this go.

The Golf GTI is finally finished.

Just a few weeks ago, I
tracked down its original but

down-at-hill car through
the owner's club website.

The solid body working on this interior
attracted me and we shook on £650,

a good price for this rare car.

But Ed had his work cut out to mend the
mechanicals and give this car a GTI makeover.

Refurbishing the gear
linkage took a lot of time

and effort but paid huge
dividends on the road.

The brakes needed a new master cylinder
and then they were bled to make sure that

they would give 100% when you throw out
the anchor.

The electrics were a nightmare.

But came good after a lot of fiddling.

And then the fun stuff.

A few decals, a new front grille and a
spoiler.

And then the final touch, second-hand
alloys.

Overall, we spent £30 on the brake parts
and £100 on the gear linkage.

The second-hand dash Pinnacle was £45 and
the GTI trim pass came to £340.

A large part being the
wheels which were £100 on

their own and the same
again for the refurbishment.

Including the £650 purchase price,
we were a shade over our £1,000 budget.

But I'm really chuffed with the results.

It's like turning back the clock and
walking into a VW dealer in the mid-80s.

Ed, that looks fantastic.

Look, you've done the red grille,
you've done the spoiler.

Well done, fella.

Looks like a proper Mark 1 Golf GTI.

It's coming along now, isn't it?

What else you do?

Well, you've got some lovely wheels but
the centre caps are a bit scuffed.

So painted them up, this is quite nice.

And you've got some vinyls on the sides
and on the back.

And the dashboard, I think the dashboard.

You bought us this puppet of a dashboard,
it was rubbish.

So managed to rescue the rev counter.

So it got all that worse in the end.

So that's good.

Last time I come, you'd done the gearbox,
you'd done the brake.

That's right.

So it must be ready to go.

Can't wait.

To be honest with you, when
I give Ed this car, I didn't think

you had too much of a chance
to pull it back up together.

But he's done.

A cracking job.

It now drives with a much more satisfying
feel.

The brakes work brilliantly.

And when I'm at a junction
like this one, there's no more

danger of engaging reverse
and hitting anyone behind me.

It goes up and down through the gearbox
beautifully.

So it's well worth doing.

Also the dials work at last.

So I can now see what speed I'm doing and
the rev counter works and the computer.

He's also done the nice little details
like the alloy wheels.

The Pirelli ones are very
important and those stickers

down the side has made
such a difference to this motor.

In fact, I'm really proud to own this car.

I just hope somebody else will be.

The R1 Golf isn't
a difficult car to sell,

especially the rare
campaign model like ours.

Now I put our car on the Golf website and
I've had a lot of interest.

This young lady called Becky has turned up
and she looks pretty keen.

It's right up her street.

Let's see what I can do.

All right then Becky.

Hiya.

How are you getting on?

Um, the interior is nice but how's the
gearbox?

Has that been sorted?

Because I know there can be a problem.

Yeah, funny enough you should mention
that.

They do have a problem between first and
reverse as synchro goes.

But we've sorted this one on this gearbox
and we've also done the brakes.

It's got really good spot on brakes now.

Drives beautifully.

Steers lovely.

It's exactly what you want the Golf to do
to be honest.

Well, there you go Becky.

The GTI lump.

Let's do anything to it.

No, to be honest with you
because Golfs are really good news

for that because they're
pretty bulletproof these engines.

They usually have been fresh with an inch
of their life.

But as long as they start stop and go and
they sound right usually they are right.

And this one's got
none of that aftermarket

rubbish bolted to it to
make it go any quicker.

It's just an honest original engine.

Okay, brilliant.

Becky is a young driver.

So I told her over the phone that the
insurance would be pretty high on a GTI.

It's best to be honest.

So far she's playing at call but will she
splash the cash?

Okay then, Beck.

You like the car?

Should we have a deal?

I mean, I know you're selling it for
$1,600 but I was thinking $1,500.

$1,500 quid?

Yeah.

I'm not going to muck about with you.

Make it another $50 quid.

$1,550 is yours.

Go on then.

Sold.

At $1,550 I'd made about $400.

That's good enough for me and we've made a
great car better.

Sounds like a happy ending.

Well, that was good news.

Becky bought our lovely little Golf GTI.

However, she has paid me by check and that's
going to take a couple of days to clear.

So I'm going to hold on to the car until
that's done.

She's also got to sort out her insurance
which I'm sure is going to cost her a

couple of quid but then that's her
problem.

But what it does mean is I get to use the
Golf for a few more days.

So I'm smiling.

So you make sure you join us
again on Wheeler Dealers when

we'll have some more modern
classics to do up and flog.

C'est la!