OK, here is a little project I picked up recently for me and my oldest son to work on together. It's was cheap, local, came with no paperwork but seemed genuine. Original dealer plates front and back, generally good condition apart from a shonky respray at some point in it's life and a recent, very shoddy MoT repair to the drivers door step. Have a look at some pics.

…and that shoddy doorstep repair.

Interior looks pretty mint mate

whatever are people thinking making a repair like that lol

are you capable of sorting that ?

That sill is a disgraceful mess but the car is lovely and clean. I have a new centre section of sill that you could let in to tidy it properly.

Edited 21 November, 201411 yr by Vic

Interior looks pretty mint mate

It is mate, I'm really pleased with the overall condition. The interior is currently sitting safe and sound in the attic.

whatever are people thinking making a repair like that lol

are you capable of sorting that ?

That sill is a disgraceful mess but the car is lovely and clean. I have a new centre section of sill that you could let in to tidy it properly.

The sill repair is a joke. I bought a pattern sill to make a replacement but the quality of the metal is poor and the shape of the doorstep is completely wrong. I'm corresponding with another forum member at the moment who is cutting a section of sill from a breaker. Seeing as the rust in my sill was caused by the rivets that held the sill cover on, its localised so letting in a patch should do the job. I'll post up some more pics as I go. Thanks for the interest guys :)

PS: Loving your car by the way Vic. I popped over at Retro Rides for a good look around. There were a couple of cars there that provided inspiration :)

So this is how the car currently looks...

And up in the air so I could drop the tank out. The rot behind the filler pipe hasn't been investigated too much yet due to work commitments. The sill repair has also been chopped out and proved to be really localised so no major welding required as yet.

Dam that sill repair is rubbish.. but apart from that it does look pretty good. :-D

Dam that sill repair is rubbish.. but apart from that it does look pretty good. :-D

For £500 I'm quite happy with it Mark. I just want to get the rust sorted, get some decent suspension (I'm thinking 60/40 or coil overs, advice, prices, supplier suggestions are appreciated) and get it painted. I'll keep the running gear stock for now but put some decent ICE in for those long, slow journeys :)

People rate the H&R Cup kit which is 60/40. Its what I'm going to put on Huyi. The cheapest 'coil-overs' are around the 400 mark. PhilJ on here sells most of the stuff and you can get really cheap 60/40 kits but I think they are really harsh.

Will you use Venom Motorsports for the H&R kit Mark?

I was going to get it from here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110706240237

AwesomeGTI are doing them for £320 delivered today.

This is lovely and the same year as mine. I'm in the middle of doing a restoration at the moment and undecided on what suspension to run so very interested it what you go with and your thoughts.

Ps, stop slacking on the updates lol

You're right of course dirtydubs, I'm always a bit slow with the updates! I do have good reason though. I gave up on trying to weld to a standard I would be happy with and decided to find someone to take care of it properly.

In the meantime I've been doing little things like having the engine tinware stripped and powder coated. And I also picked up a cheap set of wheels. I bought some snowflakes for £40 thinking I'd do a cheap refurb myself, then I thought they needed more love so I had a full pro job done including having the rims edges filled with weld to remove all knicks and scrapes, had them machine faced and then lacquered. I could've bought new for what they finally cost me...

I'll let the pics do the talking but the car is now due to be picked up in the next couple of weeks to go for welding and paint. The next updates should be far more interesting!

Snow flakes are one of my favorite wheels and will suit your project down to the ground. Depending on how low you go I've run 195/45/14 and they looked great but coooooome on your teasing me you call this a update

Those wheels are dam nice! :)

Thanks for the snowflake love guys, they always seem to be the poor relation when you see them on eBay for £120 a set. I think they look awesome when they're cleaned up properly. And quite a 'period' mod for the age of the car I reckon

Have you made a decision on the suspension yet? Oh just a quick tip from someone that has run diamond cut faces for years IF you have had the lacquer applied after the faces wear cut then if you happen to get "spidering" under the lacquer simply remove the lacquer with 800 then 1500 then 2000 and finally polish then leave DO NOT re-lacquered, leave them bare as this is far easier to keep looking good than having them refurbished every two years.

I have 15" castelets on my Passat that have been un-lacquered for four years and there doing just fine.

Still no decision on the suspension yet. My head says to go with the H&R 60/40 kit but I worry that it might not sit 'just right'. Only coilovers will give me all the adjustment I need. The suspension is still a way off being needed so I'll wait to see what you order then decide

I have the very same train of thought and I,m leaning towards the TA Techixs coilovers. I have 60/40 Spax adjustable's on my square back and the stance is great but I want to be able to fit allsorts of wheels to my saloon.

Show me a pic of the square back Dubs. What wheel size are you running?

You asked for it lol. First up 195/45/14 on 6" golf steelies. I think this may have been on a 40/40 spax kit

Now for the 7.5x13" Smoor's if 175/50/13 on a 60/40 drop on Spax.

I've ran loads of 14's on it one of my favorites were 16v bottle tops they looked sweet but sadly I never took any pics.

Hope you like.

Golf bottletops? I had a set, really nice. Love this beige breadvan, such a rare colour too

To my eyes that looks perfect. What a cracking looking breadvan! I also think the pic with the Smoors and 60/40 is spot on, I couldn't see me running any lower than that. I just need to decided between the H&R kit and the cheaper AP. Cheers for the pics Dubs.

Your choice between the suspension is a easy one, I've used AP Tuning kits on a couple of cars now and there total shit I wouldn't touch one again with a barge pole. They are exactly the same as the cheap kits you buy on Ebay for £120 just sprayed black. The last kit I had was fitted to my partners 6k saloon and the front shock failed after just three miles of use!! I had the car jacked up on axle stands, I was laying under the car just about to set the tracking up and there was a huge bang and the front wheel shot downwards towards the floor. As I had only fitted the kit the day before I thought it was something I had done, tbh I thought I had left the top mount nut lose and it had come undone but on closer inspection a weld inside the shock had failed so I stripped it all off and had a closer look and it turns out that there just standard oil filled front shocks with a stopper welded a couple of inches above the standard stopper to shorten the travel, I've totally stripped that shock and compared all the internal components with a standard front shock and guess what? There exactly the same!

I had no help from the company directly as they said they would asses the shock absorber once it was sent back to them via the dealer but the problem was I bought them from philj on here and he stopped taking my calls after i reported the problem to him so its safe to say I won't be dealing with him again.

After replacing the front shock at a cost to myself and buying it through venom instead the kit has only lasted just over two years/8k and the seals are shot on the front shock and one of the rear shocks makes a knocking nose over small bumps GRRRRRRRRR Sorry rant over lol

I've never used a h&r kit but It would be my choice with 14's fitted I would say it will look perfect. My 13's are great fun but harsh as hell on the roads lol.