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Wedding Present - 1980 Rabbit Truck

69K views 321 replies 59 participants last post by  hasnfefr 
#1 ·
So a good 4 or 5 years ago, I was driving around back roads just looking for old cars in people's yards/garages/driveways/etc. Came across a house with a few early watercooled vws (rabbit truck and a mk2 jetta). Stopped and talked to the dude and the diesel rabbit truck I could see in his driveway was not for sale. But he did mention that he had a gas truck in the woods beside his house that wasn't easily visible from the road. He and I went and took a look at it and this is what was in the woods.



Talked to him for a while and he said "Yeah, I'd sell it. Let me get around to cleaning it out and finding the title and whatnot and I'll let you know." I stopped by a few times over the next few years and always heard the same thing from him. Ended up moving to a house less than a mile from him during that time, too, so now I was driving by it every day.

Also got engaged during those few years, too. A month or so before the wedding, my (soon to be) wife told me that she had written the gentleman a letter asking about the truck so she could get it for me as a wedding present and that he had never responded.

Come our wedding day, she gives me a wedding present (we agreed no wedding presents, but that's ok) and it's the title to this truck. Apparently he actually did reply about a week after she told me and if she hadn't written him a (handwritten) letter, the truck would still be sitting there. He got the truck from his friend's daughter after his friend died years back, so he had no intention of selling it. He drove it into the woods back in '02ish after the clutch went out.

Few weeks later, we pulled it out of the woods using his diesel truck and we put it on a trailer and took it the mile to my house.



First thing to do was wash it...



Then get it on some wheels with tires that hold air and get rid of that ugly damn camper shell.




Which just happened to fit in the back of a friend's Chevy truck with less than inches to spare all the way around.



Took a good look at what exactly I had and started dis-assembly.













Found a pen. Upstate SC changed from 803 area code to 864 area code around '95ish.


Doors have been cut for speakers



Started getting the engine compartment ready to pull the motor/transmission


New wheels for the truck



Tank is out



That's about where I am so far. Taking the tank to a radiator shop later today for them to clean it out. I pulled off both feed and return lines and both ports on the tank were clogged with varnish... :banghead:
 
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#296 ·
Started messing with this a little bit, again. Ordered a new set of tires for it and was disappointed to find how few companies are making 195/50/15s at this point. Ended up getting a set of Kumhos. Dropped the wheels off to be powder coated, but they're still working on them.

The last time I filled it up (back in January), I got home and realized that gas was pouring out of somewhere at the top of the tank. Let it leak down to where it stopped leaking and then figured I'd just have to take it all apart to fix the leak. I'm thinking the filler neck hose was the culprit. I replaced it back in 2015 and was disappointed at the time because it was the wrong size (41mm vs 40mm); but just hulked down on the clamps and it didn't leak, so I left it. In any case, I knew that the swirl pot in the bottom of the tank wasn't right since it would run out of gas on right turns if it was below 1/4 tank or so. Pulled the tank and filler neck and all that to finally correct the issue.

A new tank isn't exactly cheap, so I figured I'd work on trying to fix mine. It's not hard to get inside the tank, just gotta reach inside this hole.


Granted, you have to cut the hole first. I asked a local friend if he'd be willing to weld up a big hole in the tank if I were to cut one. He said he normally doesn't like to do it, but has done a few in the past.


If you recall from 7 years ago, I had a local radiator shop clean out the tank and then line it after the bottom of it was full of goo from sitting in the woods for almost 15 years. Turns out the liner basically glued the swirl pot in place. And because o-rings had gone bad years ago, it no longer swirl potted. Took me quite a while to dig out the swirl pot, but eventually got it out. The bottom o-ring sealing the swirl pot to the tank was just gone. The o-ring sealing the swirl pot to the outlet pipe was hard as a rock and no longer sealing anything.


You can see all the crap in the bottom of the tank, as well. Need to clean everything at this point. I'm not entirely sure what I can use to clean up the plastic swirl pot, though. I'll figure it out and work on it more as I have time.
 
#309 ·
Excuse my ultra-professional drawing; but as far as I can tell, there's just a void between the bottom seal for the swirl pot and the bottom of tank that would never see fuel. I'm guessing it's a bit of redundancy to prevent unfiltered fuel from being delivered to the pump. If my understanding is correct, then I could simply replace the NLA bottom seal with an o-ring and have it still work as intended, but without the redundancy. The o-ring will compress into the bowl in the bottom of the tank, so assuming the swirl pot sits down as far as I think it does, then it should be fine.


Also heard back about my wheels. Three of the four are done. The fourth didn't come out nicely, so they're stripping it to re-coat it.
 
#316 ·
Tested the seals by just filling the tank with water and seeing what happens when it gets low. The fluid all drains from the swirl pot like it should. If they leak, it's not enough for me to worry about, so I went with it.
Welded up the hole on top of the tank.



And ended up just welding the outlet pipe to the tank, as well; which didn't turn out quite as nice as the top of the tank, but it didn't leak, so I'm not worried about it.


After painting the bare spots, I must have filled the tank with water, then siphoned it all out about a dozen times trying to get all of the crap out of it. I think most of the crap was burned RedKote from welding on the tank. There was still a little bit left, but I wasn't too worried about it.


After that, I started working on putting everything back into the truck. Started with the vent hose on the filler neck.


Then did the vent hose from the top of the tank to the "gravity valve". I mentioned back on page 5 that mine was clogged and I deleted it with a piece of tubing.


Got the tank in place.


Got it all bolted in place afterward, but haven't taken any pictures. Still have to connect the feed and return hoses to the bottom of the tank before I can fill it with gas and start it up.

For anybody that is wondering, the two vent hoses are from McMaster-Carr.
Here's the filler neck vent hose. I pulled the spring out of the original one and put it into the replacement.
And the smaller vent hose from the level sender.

For the filler hose connecting the filler neck to the tank, an E46 BMW uses the same hose.
 
#317 ·
Got the last couple hoses put in place last night.



Dumped in a few gallons of gas and nothing dumped onto the ground. And then it started up just fine, so that's definitely a plus. I'm still waiting on my wheels to get back from the powder-coater, so it's still on jackstands at the moment. I'll be curious to see if it drives any different.
 
#318 ·
Got wheels on it and got it out of the garage. Filled it up and it's been running good. I've put almost 200 miles on it since getting it back together. Doesn't seem to run any different, so that's a plus.


Also swapped the BFI drop plates back out for the 3" drop plates that I had a friend make years ago. They're thicker than the BFI plates. And I think it looks better. I ordered a set of air shocks to help increase load capacity without tire rubbing, but haven't put them on yet.
 
#295 · (Edited)
Guess it's time for a small update on this.

Did front pads/rotors, which fixed the squeak that I couldn't seem to get rid of with the old pads/rotors. Win.

Then swapped out the front coilovers for a pair of Solowerks coilovers that I bought a couple years ago when they were on sale. I couldn't replace the inserts in mine for what the solowerks cost, so I went with it. They don't have a provision for using the factory camber bolts like the weitecs do, which I don't really like, so I may still end up replacing the inserts in the weitecs at some point.


Ended up ordering all new brakes/bearings for the rear. I pulled them off of a mk3 in a junkyard, spindle to drum, when I went through the truck years back and never changed any of it. Driver side rear brake got stuck on a few weeks ago (adjuster got jammed) and that wheel got super hot during a few mile drive up to the dump and back. Got it unstuck, but figured I should probably go through it all since it's all junkyard parts. Also ordered another set of drop plates for the rear. Mine are 3" plates with no provision for any other height. Ordered a set from BFI so that I could raise the back of the truck slightly for more weight capacity.
 
#302 ·
Usually gas, acetone or lacquer thinner are my solvents of choice. Obviously gas wouldn’t have worked in this instance…

Not sure why cleaning the weld would be necessary. I’d just be sure the weld doesn’t have pinholes and call it quits. The only thing you’ll need to worry about is rust at the weld, but maybe you can keep the tank upside down and slosh another sealer in there until it cures.

POR15 works, but not sure if it’s worth the effort. I did this years ago on a hatchback tank.

Pretty much what I expected to see, but I was expecting the o-ring groove to be on the bottom, not on the side. Thanks for the added pics. First time I saw a truck baffle out of the tank.

-Todd
 
#303 ·
Pretty much what I expected to see, but I was expecting the o-ring groove to be on the bottom, not on the side. Thanks for the added pics. First time I saw a truck baffle out of the tank.
I had the same reaction. I always noticed the little "bowl" on the bottom of the tank, but never figured that the swirl pot sealed against the sides of the "bowl".
 
#306 ·
Is there supposed to be a pre filter in there like this?
I know the other model cis cars have that. I can't remember about the truck.
That rubber diaphragm looks like it stretches over the lip of the swirl pot. Not sure how you will get an o-ring to work? Interested in seeing how you accomplish it. I love this truck by the way.
 
#3 ·
Despite how bad it looks, it's not really all that rusty. The front valence and the passenger fender are junk, but the rest is relatively solid. I'll have to do a little patch work (at some point) behind the passenger fender, but strut towers are solid, floors are solid, bed is solid, etc. :thumbup:
 
#8 ·
Thanks!

Love the look of the patina on the sides with the blue color. Great work by mother nature there. Hope you keep it if the rest of the rust isn't so bad.
Planning on leaving as much as I can for now. Down the road, I'll probably end up repainting it, but that's not anytime in the near future.

If rock it even with the rust on the front! I hope you didn't just pitch that topper lots of people look for those for hauling or camping still.
Gave it to a friend with a rabbit truck. He's not sure yet if he'll use it, but we'll find out. :thumbup:
 
#5 ·
What an absolute beauty. Reminds me of my 80 rabbit. :beer: in for this build.
 
#9 ·
Dropped the tank off at the radiator shop last week. So far, it's all cleaned, and leaks fixed. They are working on lining it right now. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if there was any possibility of them doing the filler neck, as well... We'll see.

It was raining all day today, so figured I'd do something I could work on inside. So I took apart the cluster to try to fix the clock and anything else I could immediately see wouldn't work, as well as clean everything. I also tried gluing the circuit thingy back together. It didn't turn out great, but turned out better than it was.


All back together. We'll see what works/doesn't once the truck is running again.
 
#12 ·
Congrats on the wedding and the gift! Looks like the truck is in good hands...
Thanks!

What are your plans for it?
Mostly just clean everything (interior is nasty...) and get it driving again for right now. I'm bad about buying project cars and then selling them after a few years and never actually getting them back on the road. This one, my plan is to do about the minimum required to get it driving again, then just go from there to make sure that it doesn't turn into another project that I never finish. :thumbup:
 
#14 ·
Topper is already gone. The more I look at it, the less I'm sure I'll be keeping the towing mirrors... We'll see, though.

Got the carpet and padding out. What the hell kinda glue did they use??? Not really sure how to go about getting that crap out... At least the floors are solid. Except for the one hole where the driver side ebrake cable guide got ripped out of the floor. Hopefully that won't be too hard to fix.


After that, I got the back end back on the ground (still waiting on the gas tank) and got the front end up in the air and started pulling apart the front end.


In the interest of getting it back on the road quicker, I think I'm going to just leave the motor in place and pull only the transmission to change the clutch. Also realized that it'll probably be cheaper to just get another filler neck/gas cap than to try to have mine fixed. Bought one of the 3 that are on eBay. Hopefully there's no issues with that. We'll see. It's just about time to finally start using some of the parts in the giant box of new parts that I have in the garage. :thumbup:
 
#15 ·
Love this. What are you going to do with the buildup along the truck? Leave it? Clean it off?
 
#16 ·
I'm just going to leave it for now. While a lot of it probably would come off, there's a good bit that wouldn't come off; and I don't think it would look nearly as good if it was cleaned up.
 
#23 ·
Little update. Worked on it for a couple hours yesterday. Only thing left to pull from the passenger side is the control arm and the tie rod off the rack. 5 of the 6 bolts holding the passenger axle in place were loose... Started pulling apart the driver side. Also started pulling the A/C compressor off the motor. That looks like it's going to be a bear to do.

Picked up my tank from the radiator shop. I still have to paint it, but the inside looks a LOT better. :thumbup:

 
#24 ·
Small update. Got the control arms and calipers off of both sides. Going to stop by this week and have the front bushings swapped out. I'd rather just pay somebody a few bucks to swap them out rather than doing it myself.

 
#26 ·
Augusta Road Radiator did mine. I'd definitely have them do another, if I needed another done. They've been great to work with.

Went to grab the control arms bushings this morning to take them and the control arms with me only to find that while I ordered crap tons of parts, I neglected to order control arm bushings... :banghead:
 
#27 · (Edited)
Ordered control arm bushings and front wheel bearings on Monday. Just waiting on them to get here. Also realized that nobody has a truck sending unit in stock, so I'll either have to try to make a rabbit one work or try to get mine cleaned up enough to use it (and hope that it works). Not particularly fond of either option, but gotta do what you gotta do...

In the meantime, I made a first pass at cleaning the carpet. I didn't think to get a good before picture, but you can somewhat tell in the pictures above that it was nasty. $10, a quarter wash, bottle of simple green and a scrub brush, and about an hour of my time go me this far. Going to let it dry and then see where I am. I'll probably do it at least one more time before putting it back in the truck.

 
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