Transforming the 81 Scirocco

[boomenstein]

Hey all,

I've been playing around with these V-Dubs for quite a few years now and have never made a build thread, think the time is right.
I have had a solid but rather unattractive '81 as my summer ride for a few years now, unfortunately due to electrical issues I was not able to enjoy it much last summer.

The time has come for a restore and I have been collecting parts for a few years now, the interior in the '81 was on the losing end of a fight with a battery and the rear seat and carpet had acid burns in it. Finding a complete interior for a S1 is impossible in my part of the world so I ended up buying a 1975 barn find parts car.
Unfortunately it spent too many years in the barn and the bottom of the car is missing lol. It did have a lot of tasty extras on it not to mention the unique old skool parts.

So my plan is to salvage what is left from the '75 and use the '81 as a base.

I hope I am not offending the Scirocco purists

A few pics to get the build rolling

Here is my '81


And here is the '75




The previous owner took out the drivers seat in the '80s and put in the this prinz race seat, so the original seat is in pristine condition


Apparently the orinal 1.5 has had a lot of work done to it, I wonder if it will run after sitting for 15 years??


I will try to get some pics this weekend.

It's going in for paint is a couple weeks so!!

[MickR]

Wow. That '75 has a lot of goodies on it (body kit, Kamei cowl thing, etc.). Also, somebody went though all the trouble of blacking out the trim. OK, well I would take the bumpers and front fenders/grille from the 75 and put all that on the new car. Basically back-date the body style and then of course use the interior as well. Nice project you have going. I hope you get different wheels

[boomenstein]

Wow. That '75 has a lot of goodies on it (body kit, Kamei cowl thing, etc.). Also, somebody went though all the trouble of blacking out the trim. OK, well I would take the bumpers and front fenders/grille from the 75 and put all that on the new car. Basically back-date the body style and then of course use the interior as well. Nice project you have going. I hope you get different wheels

Yeah has a nice Zender kit, it's pretty banged up so I ended up buying another lol.

Threw the 17" rims on there cause they were the only rims with good rubber
Already have me a couple options for wheels, I have been parts hording

[ginster86roc]

e-a-r-l-y fenders on a mkI....DO WANT!




the hotness!


wish i had a mkI though...dang.

[ziggirocco]

Too bad the 75 looks good in the pics, do whatever it takes IMO to make your car look the way you want it to!

[TBerk]

I hope I am not offending the Scirocco purists

Dr. FrankenBerk attends this thread...

[boomenstein]

Well nothing to exciting as far as progress goes, started tearing apart the front end, I have taken fenders of a lot of Rabbits but never a scirocco. it seems the the guy at the factory got a little glue happy. Think I am just gonna leave it to the body shop to get them off, I will probably just bend the hell out of them lol

Pic

[roccodingo]

Heat gun, patience, knife, screwdriver, patience, time and you will have the fenders of intact.

dont bend them as their almost at the point of unobtainium....

Both cars look good

[Mtl-Marc]

e-a-r-l-y fenders on a mkI....DO WANT!




the hotness!


wish i had a mkI though...dang.

^^ Zender kit.

[85roccoZ400]

Big Wheels are Big

But serious that 75 Can't wait to see what you do with both!

[boomenstein]

Big Wheels are Big

But serious that 75 Can't wait to see what you do with both!

Well currently the red one is all tore apart at the painters....who hasn't touched it since I put it there, getting pretty frustrated, the worst is I had to give him $1000 deposit...so he has my money and car!!

[TBerk]

[boomenstein]

Well a little update, the body shop has made a little progress, I am hoping to have it back before October to get the ball rolling, looks like I have missed driving it for this year.

[scotttu]

Buddy of mine that sold me teh jetta eng/trans found a Scirocco down in Puyallup - wanted me to do the old style fenders - and I honestly WOULD have except that I've had the car for 20 years now, kind of just wanted it left the way it is.

But that's gonna look great!

[Dahlphin]

Buddy of mine that sold me teh jetta eng/trans found a Scirocco down in Puyallup - wanted me to do the old style fenders - and I honestly WOULD have except that I've had the car for 20 years now, kind of just wanted it left the way it is.

But that's gonna look great!

Was that Ryan?

[sure rock oh]

Sweet on the 75! I was warned I would regret selling my 75 Project. They were correct

[ArsenicPants]

Sweet on the 75! I was warned I would regret selling my 75 Project. They were correct

Ya dude, if I were you I.d call the 81 a parts car and do a proper restoration on the 75
You said the floors are gone, but the 81 has the same floor pan and that 75 is MUCH more rare, and cooler

[boomenstein]

Ya dude, if I were you I.d call the 81 a parts car and do a proper restoration on the 75
You said the floors are gone, but the 81 has the same floor pan and that 75 is MUCH more rare, and cooler

The '75 is deceiving from the pics, it sat so long that it rotted out from the bottom, floors, rockers, the doors will move up and down about an inch and the fire wall is rotted...I will get some pics!

[boomenstein]

Here is a lame update...car is STILL at the body shop, hardly any progress...anyone have any tips on how to motivate a body shop without pissing them off and they do a crappy paint job?

[obsidianghost]

Bring them holiday goodies and tell them how much you appreciate them. People like it when they think somebody cares about them. I worked at a small ski resort in the shop, when somebody remembered and appreciated us and how we busted our asses for them, they went to the top of the priority list. We could be bought with cookies. The race guys always made sure we were on the list to get hoodies and t-shirts. So during race season we made sure there stuff always got done. A plate of cookies, a smile and a handshake can go a long way.

[boomenstein]

Well after a long unproductive winter the body shop has finally got to the stage before paint.
Here are a few pics, hopefully it will come home in a few more weeks and the work begins!!

[echassin]

It's odd that the shop took some of the glass out and removed the grille and headlights, yet they're taping a lot of stuff off instead of removing it

[rallyedude]

Hey you picked that 75 up at my shop . That car is the worst smelling mouse infested car I've ever seen . You better be fully suited up to work on it . Neat old school parts though . As I understand it was a 1.5 originally bored over to bring it to 1.6 , had a four speed originally , swapped to five speed . Keep those mk1 Rocco's alive . Great cars .

[boomenstein]

It's odd that the shop took some of the glass out and removed the grille and headlights, yet they're taping a lot of stuff off instead of removing it

I took it in with the grille and headlight out, and they took the front and rear window out to fix minor rust issues, I understand not taking the side windows out due to the vent rubber being fragile.

[boomenstein]

Hey you picked that 75 up at my shop . That car is the worst smelling mouse infested car I've ever seen . You better be fully suited up to work on it . Neat old school parts though . As I understand it was a 1.5 originally bored over to bring it to 1.6 , had a four speed originally , swapped to five speed . Keep those mk1 Rocco's alive . Great cars .

Yeah the '75 is long gone now lol, just took the parts I need, that shell was toasted lol...gonna attempt top get the motor running but not sure if it will go...

[Guano]

what did you end up keeping from the 75'

[boomenstein]

what did you end up keeping from the 75'

I pretty much gutted it, there was not a single usable body panel and the wire harness was toast, took the interior, drivetrain, and glass...still have the ownership lol

[Guano]

you didn't happen to keep the trim around the side windows did you? I'm looking for some to work on my 76.

[boomenstein]

you didn't happen to keep the trim around the side windows did you? I'm looking for some to work on my 76.

Yeah I kept all that stuff, what piece are you looking for?

[munrod]

Wow. That '75 has a lot of goodies on it (body kit, Kamei cowl thing, etc.). Also, somebody went though all the trouble of blacking out the trim. OK, well I would take the bumpers and front fenders/grille from the 75 and put all that on the new car. Basically back-date the body style and then of course use the interior as well. Nice project you have going. I hope you get different wheels

The 75 was my old Rocco. It was my 1st nice car, I put a lot into, loved that car. The engine also had a lot of work. The floor got rusty & it stayed in my garage way too long, hence the mice ****! I ended up trading it & a Audi CQ90 parts car to a buddy of mine for a Sony 55" LCD tv. He used to have an old Rocco too & wanted to restore it. He dumped at RallyDudes shop for a year & then I helped him sell it to the new owner Mike (boomenstein). My daughter was pissed at me when I traded it cause she grew up with it & wanted it for her 1st car.(just got her a little Toyota LOL!)

I really miss it but Mike's right, the body was too far gone, but alot of cool parts were on it from Weber carbs to body kit to suspension etc.

I'd love to get the custom vavle cover back to hang in my garage, it would something to remember it by.
Dave

[Guano]

I was actually looking for all the chrome around the side windows. The ones on my 76 are a bit worse for wear.

[boomenstein]

I am probably going to hang on to most of the stuff until my car is done and decide what I want to use for the project.
As far as the trim goes I may have extras.

[Guano]

sounds understandable to me. Thanks

[Spankenstein]

I once bought a scirocco from my phillipino friend named Malphy. It had a big beaver, so I figure it was from the early 80's. But it had a patch of missing hair.

[boomenstein]

So I started tearing down the engine that was in the '75 today. Cylinder 4 looks pretty rough, maybe some of you motor gurus can give me some opinions on the state of this motor.


You can see there was a lot of crap in the cylinders, it did sit for many years..here is the valve side.


Cylinder 3 and 4 seem to have more rust on the valves.
I cleaned up sthe piston top and 4 piston looks pretty rusty

I cleaned up the cylinder head and found it had all this scoring on it, most other heads I took off have a smooth head surface, is this normal for this vintage of head?


The block cleaned up okay


I checked the block and head with a straight edge and there is no warping. I checked the lifters to the cam shaft and they are way out.

Think this head is toast?
It's a carb head with no injector holes so its pretty rare.