Jump to content

Barn Find 1980 VW Rabbit Convertible


Autonut

Recommended Posts

Posted

I picked up this 1980 VW Rabbit Convertible that has never seen any winters. It has been sitting in storage for the last three years. As you can see it's covered in dust and bird droppings. With a little cleaning it will be ready for some summer fun. The wife has told me that she is not going to give up her parking spot in the garage for it. It may be time to build an addition to the man cave!

 

No, I'm not from the future. My camera just has the wrong date.

post-87602-0-71491700-1323691888_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-95048200-1323691957_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-80995400-1323692087_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-71491700-1323691888_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-95048200-1323691957_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-80995400-1323692087_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-71491700-1323691888_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-95048200-1323691957_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-80995400-1323692087_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-71491700-1323691888_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-95048200-1323691957_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-80995400-1323692087_thumb.jpg

Posted

One of my teachers at technical college had one of those. It was a diesal and he said he was getting close to 50 miles per gallon. Cool find!

Posted

Some luck was involved. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time and first in line. Also the price was right. It was pocket change compared to the price of my truck. It's my first VW and it does need a little work, but I have all winter to do it.

Posted

One of my teachers at technical college had one of those. It was a diesal and he said he was getting close to 50 miles per gallon. Cool find!

 

My 98 TDI Jetta gets 50, and if I'm lucky 55, miles to the gallon. Can't beat it.

 

Now if there was a truck that got 50 mpg....

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I took the Rabbit into the GM dealer where I bought my truck. I had my friend who is a mechanic there go over the car. I had the oil changed and he did a mechanical safety check. The only thing it needed was a licence plate bulb. The boys were impressed on how clean the undercarriage is and the lack of rust on the brake lines.

post-87602-0-77121900-1325098437_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-77121900-1325098437_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-77121900-1325098437_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-77121900-1325098437_thumb.jpg

  • 3 months later...
Posted

Just a quick update on the progress of my barn find. I sent it to my buddies for a paint job and it turned out awesome.

 

He took some pictures of the paint job. The gloss is just like a mirror, as you can see in the pictures.

post-87602-0-86777600-1333195712_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-01617800-1333195726_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-02758500-1333195737_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-98847300-1333195747_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-37905600-1333195758_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-11163700-1333195771_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-16428700-1333195783_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-86777600-1333195712_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-01617800-1333195726_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-02758500-1333195737_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-98847300-1333195747_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-37905600-1333195758_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-11163700-1333195771_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-16428700-1333195783_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-86777600-1333195712_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-01617800-1333195726_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-02758500-1333195737_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-98847300-1333195747_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-37905600-1333195758_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-11163700-1333195771_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-16428700-1333195783_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-86777600-1333195712_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-01617800-1333195726_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-02758500-1333195737_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-98847300-1333195747_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-37905600-1333195758_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-11163700-1333195771_thumb.jpg

post-87602-0-16428700-1333195783_thumb.jpg

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • Evan Williams Bottled in Bond   So pouring the last of a bottle of Evan Williams Black label last night I set off the the state store for a refill only to be denied the by an empty shelf. Rats.    What the did have was a bottle of Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. 100 proof. Hum, a few bucks more but a known distiller. Lets have a swing at it. ( I have before )    Cracked it open and pour a serving over ice. Hum.... more heat, yes. More alcohol naturally. But the barreling not the proof brings the taste and this one came up short.    Oh is was familiar but the heat ran the barrel over like a Peterbilt runs over a squirrel. Could use a heavier toasting of the oak me thinks or perhaps a longer barreling. Who knows. But what I can say is ice or a water back isn't the answer. What kills one kills them both. Sad. It is a pleasant drink....if you have little to compare it to.  
    • I've had exactly one set of Bridgestone. Lasted five year and 125,000 miles and had I known better 15oK would have been a cake walk. I would have bought a like set had they not tripled in price since the first set. I removed them at said mileage with 5/32" remaining in dead even wear all four. They were fuel efficient, quite, comfortable and predictable.    Early on I got a very good alignment checked at least once a year, sometimes twice; kept the tires properly inflated, balanced and rotated. And I've found that many a tire issue can be avoided with great maintenance practices. Lot's of tire dealers will do rotation and balance (simple) for free for as long as you own the tire they sold you so no excuse not to.    Bead prep, alloy integrity and stem health have a huge impact on inflation stability. There are more mountings done poorly that perfectly. Finding a good tire guy is gold and as important as finding a tire you like.    That 3X price increase now two sets of "other tires' later is starting look like a bargain.      Bad maintenance kills more tires than bad tires. 
    • Atlas, you kill me As aggravating as a project like this can be you have been unable to hide your fascination with learning and using that angst against this beast like a Ninjitsu Master. It amuses you, admit it now.      BTW, love your writing style. 😉       
    • I gotta say, I'm enjoying your narration. The troubles you've been having are amusing as you describe them. It's good to see that you're finally getting some satisfaction out the old beast though.
    • Declaring victory would upset the demons that possess this Blazer, so I won't. But I did make progress today--after it put up a fight. Always a fight.   I had the day off so I spent the morning cleaning up the shop and I thought I'd get ahead of things by filling the cooling system in prep for the final part I needed to arrive: the driver's side knock sensor. Glug, glug, glug....and then the unmistakable sound of liquid hitting the shop floor. It induces the same chagrin when the sonar and targeting laser temporarily malfunction during a late night bladder evacuation over the toilet with the bathroom light off. D'OH!!! That made a mess...   Oh, hey, that knock sensor I removed? It threads into a wet port. Who knew?! Learn something new every day. Put a pin in that chore, I'll fill it the rest of the way later.   The knock sensor arrived at about 1pm. I threaded it in, connected the wire, filled up the coolant, checked for leaks, and... drumroll.... fingers crossed for a perfect start, excellent timing, model fuel trims, and ...no squeaks... Here goes.....   No, it didn't start. At all. I cranked it a few times and it wasn't sounding good. Furthermore, I heard leaking again. Jesus H Tapdancing Christ, stop leaking all over the dang floor. This time I had accidentally overfilled the coolant reservoir and the churn of the water pump via cranking caused a bit to burp out. Ok, just, breathe... Put the flamethrower down. Dang thing wouldn't burn anyway, leaks too much...   Did you know the rotation of a round crank sensor in a round hole, matters? I do now. Took me about half hour to retrace steps and realize what I had done. Then it started right up.   No squeaks. The squeak was the old balancer.   Once it entered closed loop, fuel trims are dead on, hovering right around zero at idle. No more -30%. I'll credit the injector rebuild on that one.   Timing? I think there's an OBD 1.5 translation error with my Actron scanner. It's anywhere from -20 to -30 at idle, sometimes as high as -40 cruising. Sorry, the engine just isn't running that smoothly at -40 degrees ignition advance. It's just not. It's smooth all through the rev range and has decent power. I'm going to have to trust the seat of my pants on this one.   The new exhaust is very quiet. The old catalytic converter? Not melted, but definitely not healthy. Rains glitter when you turn it on its end...all the precious metal is flaking out. Once the new exhaust system burned in/smoked off a bit, the engine's exhaust smell is normal again. Not that I'd recommend going around huffing car exhaust, but, you know what I mean?   One problem to correct. The new exhaust has the opposite problem of the old spliced up exhaust. It wants to hit the floor where the old one wanted to rest on the cross member. Happy medium, please? Still noodling on that one, need to look at how I can adjust some hangers.   I don't know what's next. On one hand I want to run away from this thing as far and as fast as I can -- there have been a lot of NOT fun moments. On the other, now that it kinda drives nice, maybe drive it around for a little bit?   Shhh... it's not currently dripping oil all over the floor. I can see just a little wet at the bottom of the timing cover where it meets the oil pan seal. It's not dripping multiple drops with every ignition cycle, in fact, after some driving this evening it has yet to even form a drop that could drip off yet. But the weekend is young... I fully expect this could turn into Exxon Valdez by Sunday. Because this Blazer hates me. LOL.      
  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...