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1981 Mars Red Scirocco S Barn Find (aka Time Capsule)

73K views 305 replies 36 participants last post by  tuiterwyk 
#1 · (Edited)
So long time lurker, 3rd time poster! (I checked, I joined in 2008, this is my third post which is apparently why my pictures won't work!).

Backstory is that I had a 1980 Mars Red Scirocco S from 1980 until 1988 or so.
Stupidly sold it.

So I've been gearing back up to replace it.
I recently purchased a 1981 that has been in storage since 1984 or 1986 (depends on if the seller is accurate or the registration on the car is).
Most of you probably saw the car, was listed on thesamba, then put up for auction on ebay, I purchased it after it didn't sell on ebay.

My plan is to maintain as much originality as I can.
Minor detail, it has no engine. Which is why it was parked so many years ago.
I'm hoping to come up with an original appearing / time period correct engine that may provide a little more power.
So here are the initial pictures.





 
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#2 · (Edited)
That is one SWEET Find!!

It's not your fault in the pics, that's your hosting site,
Click the arrow on each for "Share" and then hit the "BBCode" and copy that link

They really want their advertising but I'm going to strip that out and post these for you.



 
#3 ·
That interior :eek::eek::eek:

Nice score! Just throw a JH 1.8 and fuel injection system in there from an S2 and it will still look original and most people will never know the difference. If you scour hard you could find a 3A 2.0l block to mate to a JH head and have some really fun power and still look original except for the 4 bubbles in the block for the bigger pistons :) One of the best NA motors I ever had in an S1 and kept the stock CIS system.

Can't wait to see you get it back on the road, what a gem!
 
#5 ·
fantasmagorical

That interior :eek::eek::eek:

Nice score! Just throw a JH 1.8 and fuel injection system in there from an S2 and it will still look original and most people will never know the difference. If you scour hard you could find a 3A 2.0l block to mate to a JH head and have some really fun power and still look original except for the 4 bubbles in the block for the bigger pistons :) One of the best NA motors I ever had in an S1 and kept the stock CIS system.


Can't wait to see you get it back on the road, what a gem!

Just throw a JH 1.8 and fuel injection system in there from an S2 Completely un-necessary ...I have a tuned JH in Landshark with the old 1500 CIS....runs like a scalded cat.
NEVER had a problem all the way up to 118 mph. 0-60 8.0 secs..
 
#10 · (Edited)
Interesting engine thoughts, exactly what I was hoping I'd get from the group.

His story was that engine #1 had failed, crankshaft issues.
He was going to upgrade and then life got in the way.
He had easy access to storage so there it sat.
I did get a copy of the original bill of sale from him as well as all the registration receipts.

In no particular order:

The dash has cracks, it was in the Georgia sun for at least 3 years. :banghead:
There are two small door dings, a dent on the rear hatch and a small area on the hood where the paint was eroded after an 'egging' incident. (same thing happened to my original 80 back in the day!)

I have the injection system, air box, radiator and axles in a box.

It's missing the front air dam (apparently a possum collision) but it came with an unpainted Kamei. I'll probably try and source the correct air dam.
I do have the missing bumper trim, grill, lower body trim.
 
#11 ·
totally defective

So this car is totally defective...it's missing the trim cap from the left front wheel!!!!....VWVortex rules say you have to sell it to me! God knows, I only have four. lol

A lot of guys have parts....let us know how we can help..;):p:eek:

Welcome to the 1500 club....there are only 1500 in this kind of conditon in all of No. America.
 
#12 ·
Funny story that....

I actually own two others. So does that make 1502?:D

Bought one several years ago, looks like it was painted with a spray can.
Has rust around the windshield, probably not salvageable.
But has an engine in it, that I've never had running.
(oh yeah I also own 2 Karmann Ghias)



Then, while I was negotiating on the time capsule one, another one showed up (briefly) on eBay.
My brother called and bought it out of the auction as a 'gift'.....
So we road tripped to Ohio and rescued it.
For being an Ohio car, it's not too rusty.
Also has no engine, but came with a transmission and spare windshield.
 
#14 ·
How big of a difference is there?

I have one from some racing company from the 80's, can't hardly find that company online nowdays...

Also thanks for the red VW logo pic :D Apparantly mine needs a black stripe on it, I could not find an original for my "S", although it's a resto-mod so I probably won't attempt taking it back off.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Also thanks for the red VW logo pic :D Apparantly mine needs a black stripe on it, I could not find an original for my "S", although it's a resto-mod so I probably won't attempt taking it back off.
I got the last NOS red 'S' VW grille emblem to exist in VW inventory, some years back. ;)

Story goes, I attempted to order one after they had gone Obsolete. One of my friends who also happens to be a VW parts manager reported that the inventory query showed exactly one left anywhere, at this one particular depot, but they couldn't find it. Bummer.

What I didn't know, was that she proceeded to use her connections to pull a string or two at the depot.
As warehouses tend to do, things get shuffled around from time to time, and it was discovered by accident that this last little emblem had gotten misplaced into some wrong bin nearby. Probably been hiding there for years, virtually untouched.

So for my birthday that year, my gift was that pristine emblem and this cool little story to go with it.
[Although, not nearly as cool as the story with this '81 'S'... wow! ]

And no, the emblem is definitely not for sale. ;)
 
#15 ·
Congrats. I saw this on the Samba and called the seller even though the car is an 18 hour drive away. Thought it looked like one of those rare time capsules but when he started talking about not entertaining any low balls and leaning towards 10,000.00 it frightened me off ( well that and the cost of divorce). My history is I lost a pristine 81S to vandels in 94 and couldn't resist inquiring. Am now in the middle of a full restoration of an 81 I found 3 years ago which would have been on hold should I have pursued this one any further. Got ta ask what did you manage to get it for?
 
#30 ·
I found a Paintless Dent Removal guy that'll come to the house and spend a few hours taking dings out of our cars (we have two boys...). He normally charges per dent, but since I have him come and do all the cars, he basically spends as much time as needed and comes up with a number at the end, highest was $850 (first time, he was here all day), lowest was $300 (a few hours of work). Maybe you could find a guy like that. I bet he could even get that hatch ding out and you'd still have the original paint.

And if you can't find a good dash, there's a place that'll reskin it with vacuum formed modern plastic for about $1000.

Those two items tended to will result in one of the best examples left :thumbup:
 
#35 ·
Same thought here.
It looks nice from the one picture we can see. I'd still want to know if the miles and overall condition of 'time capsule' are actually comparable. But for equivalent value, it should have the factory sunroof or none at all.

The claim of 'exact same car' became null and void the moment someone took a saw to the roof.
 
#38 ·
I'm having a hard time taking that comment seriously... are you having a laugh? :D

As I know you know, because you've been around here long enough:
  • Dashes are easily swapped
  • Holes in roofs are not, however, easily reversed... and perhaps worse is the structural integrity compromised.
Retro or not, it's a devaluation in my book... and I know I'm not alone on this.
 
#37 ·
I would concur. My first S model and second Scirocco which I bought in 86 off the original owner had an aftermarket sunroof which he explained was necessary for him due to the loss of headroom with the factory sunroof option so kinda makes it period and retro in my opinion.
 
#48 · (Edited)
Just wanted to update, haven't fallen off the face of the earth.
I bought a Heron head locally, and I'm working to assemble an engine around that piece.
My intent as stated earlier is to maintain the appearance of originality as opposed to a 16v upgrade or similar.

I have now taken 4 (yes 4) 1.6/1.7 engine blocks to the machine shop.
The good news is that I've removed 4 bad blocks from circulation here in Atlanta.

Block #1 was part of a complete engine, purchased on Craigslist. It was cracked (identified via magnafluxing).
Block #2 was purchased from Brian @ Twin City VW parts. (https://www.facebook.com/twincityvwparts/) It was cracked (identified via magnafluxing).
Block #3 was purchased from Pat locally here in Atlanta. It was cracked (identified via magnafluxing).
Block #4 was purchased from Pat locally here in Atlanta. It was NOT cracked. But the piston bores are so worn out my machinist predicted that pistons would be bouncing around like BBs.

I'm thinking that to most people the early VW water cooled cars were such cheap transportation that they were just driven into the ground.
So now I'm trying to determine my next steps.
I've got leads on at least 3 other used motors/blocks.
But no guarantee that they aren't in the same shape.

More to come!
Ted
 
#49 ·
Sorry to hear about your lack of success with finding a viable block. I have the complete engine I removed from my car (is a 1.8l from a 92 golf) which is yours if you want it - ran great before removal. Of course we have the problem of a lot of planet between you and me but just putting it out there.
 
#55 ·
Thanks for sharing all the back story on this interesting car!

Considering all the hassle with the blocks you've been thru, I'll throw my opinion out there. To get the most enjoyment out of this sweet car and still have it look normal I feel strongly it would be happiest with a 1.8 JH or similar block( combined with a really good exhaust) that you could source from a Scirocco II, Cabriolet , Rabbit Gti, or Jetta GLi from a bit newer car like up to 1987 in the case of a Scirocco II for example. I would stay away from older pre 83 blocks, as so many were pushed really hard like you said and I've seen a lot of abusive overheating go on over the years and head/gasket/warpage failures.

The difference in feel going from a 1.6/1.7 block to a 1.8 block with a exhaust moves a car like yours from OK to great in the feel of the car. Bigger displacement moves it into the awesome realm but really isn't necessary imo for the fun factor.
Most of the later model cars I've dealt with just weren't thrashed as much. A block is still a gamble no matter what size your'e rebuilding or refreshing.

The front spoilers that Vintage Rubber reproduces are so worth the money compared to others I've seen because they take the least amount of finish work by the body person prepping and painting it or by you.

Will.look forward to your progress.
 
#56 · (Edited)
I've got some leads on several engines, including one with 74K miles that was removed for a 16V swap long ago.

Admittedly, I may be being a little too particular with wanting the engine to look 'correct' when very few people will know that a later 1.8 is 'wrong'.

I did get a nice Christmas present, period correct Blaupunkt stereo upgrade. Car won't go but I can at least listen to music!
 
#59 ·
Slowly but surely...
I've got a transaxle.

Chris Barnes @ Mk1Engineering had a really neat close ratio FM code 020 Transaxle in his inventory.
Had him rebuild it and since the whole thing is overboard anyway I went ahead and had him install a Quaife while we were at it.
Car parts aren't supposed to be pretty but Chris does really nice work!!!

 
#60 ·
And in other progress.

After going through 6 (!) blocks, I've got a 1.7 H block that has no cracks but needs an overbore.
So having it bored and sourcing custom pistons to work with the Heron head.
And since there's no such thing as overkill, will be using this NOS 77.4 Stroke crankshaft and 144mm rods.
 
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