'82 VW Caddy
1.6L Diesel
4 (should be 5) speed tranny

Looks:
On monday I'm taking it in to the shop, going to completely strip it down to bare metal, inside and out. Fix some of the body damage (very minimal for a vehicle with 200K on it), fill in the 'ditch' that the trim piece fits in on the side, and replace the tailgate.
Remove entire core-support and replace with single-round setup from Mk1 Cabriolet.
Possibly euro-bumpers (all black), or none at all.
Repaint will be Viper Red
Tint windows to 15% or 20%
then drop 2.5"
new wheels are undecided as yet, but will most likely be 14's or 15's (13's in there now).

Interior:
after it's stripped, I will have almost nothing inside. just enough to run the defroster and a speedo.
Once the funds are aquired, I will use a Mk1 Scirocco dash, narrowed down a bit will fit great.
seats are another undecided item at this point. It's either going to be something prelude-esque, or mustang type seats

Performance (can I call it that?):
Right now I'm leaving the 1.6L in it. 40mpg means something at this point in my life. Long term, I'm going to take the TDI AWD Passat drivetrain and shove it under there. Add propane and NO2, then have some fun.

 

Cool project. Not something you see everyday. Keep us posted with pics. Id love to see the progress on this. especially with the exterior mods you mentioned.

 

+10000!!

 

little bit of progress, got it into the shop yesterday, started the disassembly process. got hung up on the engine a little, as I didn't have the correct 12-point allen to take off the half-shafts, and then there's that whole thing of the wheel not wanting to come off. interior is mostly out as well

custom made wheel puller. It's rusted on damn good, so I soaked it with PB and used the hammer on it a lot, left the tension on the strap overnight, so hopefully it's off when I get to the shop today





engine removal sponsored by bud light (hey, it was free)

 

keep us updated..

seeems like you have a lot to do.

 

got that wheel off, had to dremel the edges of the hub, more PB, then tighten the strap a lot, and hammer on it like hell. once I got it off I took the dremel around the whole hub to shave it down a little. still a snug fit, but it'll come off much easier with no rust on there. And of course the other wheel just dropped right off once I got the lug-bolts out.

After all the, the engine came out

oh yeah, the reason for taking the wheels off was to get to the bolts on the tranny output with the 'serrated wrench' (what a weird name for it, envision a 12 point torx-like bolt).

 

Doesnt look like there is to much room in that engine bay! But definitly different!

 

don't need much room with that engine. It'll get pretty crowded once I swap drive-trains, but that's a way off. and it's not too hard to save some space, get some slimline fans off ebay, and mount them between the grill and the radiator, using them to push the air through the rad, gives you about 5 extra inches between the rad and the engine

 

number one reason why climate controls would not work:


view from pass side

view from drivers side


the now emptier engine bay


worst spot of rust that I have found thus far, bettery tray was killed by acid, some of it ran down onto the lower corner of the front sheet metal


preview of stripped metal


did almost all of that today, tomorrow I will pressure wash the **** outta the engine bay, and take a grinder w/ wire wheel to the interior and bed, then strip it all. I don't expect to get it all stripped tomorrow, but will make some good progress

Also, I have possibly found a different engine. A friend's dad has a Mk1 GTI that his daughter destroyed the front end on. I might be swapping that in. For sure I can get the seats and dash out of it, so at least part of my problems are solved

I also am no longer going to change the front end. turns out that grill that I have is desireable, so I'm going to keep it.

 

keep us updated

 

nice project, back in the days when i was into watercooled vws, i wanted to build a gas rabbit pickup 2.0 16v

 

updates?

 

got the engine bay completely gutted (as much as I'm going to remove anyway), degreased, pressure washed, and got some undercoating on the bottom portions where I had not planned on painting. Got some pics, but the camera is out in the car, I'll put those up tomorrow

 

it very interesting

 

Hellaciously sweet, Tyler.