Hi everyone,

 

I am joining you all from across the pond. I live in California and I own a 1977 polo base with only 50k original km. Mine is only one of 2 pre-facelift Polos in the U.S. (not including the blue Audi 50 GLS that some of you may know). The other one that I am aware of is basically a shell and is being heavily modified due to lack of available parts. This is partly the reason I am reaching out to this forum. Because the early Polos were a euro market only car, I came to get help with some restoration info, gain some mechanical knowledge and see if I can get some help getting some very hard to find parts (at least for me). I've searched the European Ebay sites and was able to get some of the stuff I need, but as always interior and rubber parts are hard to find. Thanks and here's my little beast. It's currently up for sale, but I figure I'll continue to enjoy it and restore the remaining details while I still own it. Currently I am trying to locate the original black and white plaid interior fabric so that I can take care of the driver's side front seat. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

 

 

Here she is after I was able to get the wheels refinished and locate the very hard to find center caps. The center caps were a pain in the ass because they had to be laser machined due to the ever so slight conical shape.

 

Edited 26 April, 201610 yr by veedubman72

thats beautiful!

 

I'm sure you'll find a lot of what you need on this forum!

 

A member of ours is currently travelling the US in his Mk2 Polo "Huyi" so it might be worth getting in touch with him too :) if you search insta and facebook for HuyiTravels you'll see his posts

That is lovely, so clean :)

I looked up Huyi and it looks like they are staying mainly on the east coast (4500km away). Hopefully they can venture west because that would be fun to meet in person and chat over a pint or two :)  

Looks super clean that mate, you must feel pretty special having one of the only 2 pre face-lift polos over there lol. 

Thanks! It's actually kind of weird. Hardly anyone over here in the States knows about them or has even heard of this car. I say Polo and people ask me if it's some kind of rabbit (golf for you guys yes?). Then I have to go into the history and some of the unique details that distinguish it from a rabbit. It's fun to drive, but that little 895cc motor can barely get out of it's own way. I'm lucky to hit 100 kph . I have a collection of other VWs too. Some really old aircooleds (oval bug, conv ghia, and a samba), an '84 rabbit GTI and an '80 rabbit pickup (or caddy) which I'm in the process of restoring. This little Polo came up for sale a couple years back and it was so unique I had to have it. Here's some pics of the rabbits. Never mind the wheels on the caddy. They are just there for rolling around while I'm restoring it

 

 

 

 

 

Story that was passed on from the previous owner was that this was purchased brand new in Germany by an U.S. army soldier stationed over there and had it brought back to Virginia in 1979. He garaged it because he had purchased a more suitable car for his family and it stayed preserved for this long. The last owner (a young kid who just happened to be into the VW scene) stumbled across it and worked out a deal to buy it from him. He took it out a few times, but was afraid to drive anywhere because of its rarity and mostly original condition. He did put it on coilovers which I didn't mind because I like my car lowered. He actually has the other pre-facelift polo, but that one is RHD and he wanted to do something much more custom to it. He decided he wanted to sell this one to fund his other polo project and I was the next lucky buyer, so that makes me only the 3rd owner. I'm learning a lot, but since I have the other cars unfortunately this one doesn't get much attention. The other thing was the lack of local community interest in the car. It was hard to stay motivated to keep working on it or drive it because there was really no one that could answer some of the questions I had, help me trouble shoot or to share experience with. I hopped on this forum hoping to gain that interest back and give this little car some attention that it was lacking.

 

I actually played around with it last night. My hatch lock was missing the little plastic bezel around the face of the lock, so I went looking on ebay germany and was able to get a new hatch lock/ opener. I thought I could just take the little ring off the new hatch lock mechanism because the original one still works and is keyed to the ignition key. It came yesterday and it was slightly different from my original one. The lock cylinder was longer and it had a hard bezel around the face of the lock that allows for hand turning the lock. I guess that's an upgrade? The rest of the mechanism was exactly like my original one. My only complaint is that the new lock doesn't sit flush against the hatch now, so I'm not sure whether to keep the new one or try to find the right bezel for the old one. Pics of the original hatch lock with the missing bezel