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My First Car, a 1983 Rabbit GTI

16K views 89 replies 26 participants last post by  orrcj 
#1 · (Edited)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/169416243@N04/shares/88gkuB

I just joined Vortex so I figured I'd introduce myself, and my car. The car is an 83 Rabbit GTI. It was recently purchased from Iowa and shipped out to me in CT. The craigslist ad showed that the car was in decent shape, no visible blemishes in the paint or major body damage. So upon arrival I was expecting a pretty good project car. When the car actully showed up, it was covered, and I mean covered in dirt and salt. Its the beginning of February, which means cold and snow up in CT. My first instinct when the car got here was to wash it and see what I'd got, which seems like a good idea until you factor in that its 9:30 at night and probably low 30's for the temperature. Lemme tell you, it wasn't fun. Even worse than the cold was seeing it in the garage the next day, still covered in dirt in some places. Oh no big deal, its daytime out so I'll just roll the car out and finish up the job. Nope, the hose froze rock solid overnight.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/169416243@N04/shares/38D0c8

Whatever. Now that it's inside and I have a general idea of what the car needs, its time to order parts. My dad and I, orrtj who you might know if you hang around the Scirocco forums, recently completely rebuilt an 81 Scirocco S. I've been around A1 chassis Vws for most of my life, so I already have a pretty decent understanding of what's what on these things.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/169416243@N04/shares/1NkNUu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/169416243@N04/shares/5925oY

And we wondered why the brakes were so bad.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/169416243@N04/shares/Jq370L

The plan of attack on this GTI was to get it to be as good, if not better than it would have been in 1983, which means a complete rebuild of the brakes all around, and then move on to the suspension.
 
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#82 ·
Ref: channel rot, maybe use a rubber gasket plus a thin bead of sealant under the outer edge? That would look better than what I did. I tried to keep it discreet but it is visible. That larger rubber seal above used with the glue-in glass looks like a good option too.
 
#85 ·
Hi all, after a 5 month vacation from the vortex, I am happy to announce I now have a mostly completed and registered GTI. I drove it to school Wednesday to the surprise of a lot of my teachers. One of them told me she had a mk1 scirocco and a rabbit. She crashed the scirocco when it was only a few years old. I was able to get the windshield put in. I was trying to find a good OE window but the one I had was cracked and I never realized it, so when the glass company came to install it, they said they couldn't legally put that one in. I ended up buying a brand new windshield which I'm pretty glad I did, I feel better about that. I've driven 150 miles so far, some of that was with my friend Mason who got his first car, a 1999 bmw 3 series. There are some new problems that started after I got the car to temperature/ long drives. Its started to make a high pitched scraping noise that goes away on left turns, it shouldn't be wheel bearings because I got new ones this year. I also had a poor idle after hard driving. It would sometimes die if i put the clutch in or went to neutral, other times it would almost shut off, but then go to 900 RPM for a second, and then almost shut off again. I somewhat remedied it by adding a vacuum line that wasn't there before but the problem still exists except not as bad.

[/url]Untitled by C Orr, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]Untitled by C Orr, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]Untitled by C Orr, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]Untitled by C Orr, on Flickr[/IMG]

Looking forward to seeing other GTI drivers/ enthusiasts on the road. Already getting thumbs up from people around town.
 
#86 ·
Your car looks great! I love the black GTIs.

I looked at your bay pics and it appears you’re missing an idle valve. I’m used to seeing two, on AC equipped cars. There should be a black one next to the white one. This may be the cause of your stumbling idle. I forget which one does what, but the Bentley goes into detail.

-Todd
 
#87 ·
I tried looking around for a pair of them, best I could find was one off a vanagon, which I can't tell if it even works. My dad and I found that there was no vacuum at the port on the throttle body and when we make vacuum the idle gets fixed. I don't know how it goes from making vacuum to not making vacuum after the car gets hot.
 
#89 · (Edited)
Red

The 83/84 GTI uses the JH engine which should be similar in setup to the 85 Cabby, it means you should be able to use most of the stuff in Cabby-Info site. I know there are a few differences with the fuel pump (no pick-up pump in GTI) and the fuel supply (some strange inline valve that the cabby doesn't have) setup but thats the biggest difference AFAIK.
Both my cars pictured should have the same engine, although the GTI came with a 16V PL which I am attempting to get running.

The 90-92 Cabriolet uses a Glue-in windshield which should fit all MK1/A1 cars. I need to do the windshield tray at some point on this GTI so I may try to use one of those later model Glue-In Windshields.

 
#90 ·
Time to sell the GTI

It's been a great 2 years and awesome experience building my GTI, but as winter is coming I need something I can daily in the winter. So the time has come to sell it. As you all can see the work i've put into it i don't need to explain that. Link to the facebook listing here https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/634803360564464 I go over it in the listing, but i am asking 12,000 for it. Car is TMU (True Milage Unknown), more on that in the ad.

Thanks everyone,
-Carter
 
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