1987 Scirocco 16v

[Imatk]

I haven`t posted on here for a while so figured I`d share this.

I had an 84 Scirocco right out of high school and I loved that car.


I had to sell it when I went to school and ever since I`ve thought about that car!

I remember when the 16v Sciroccos came out and I was in love. I went to a VW dealership and just sat in one... dreaming of owning it. But I didn`t have the cash.


I searched on the internet for years until I found the right car. I was looking for a silver car (my original one was silver) but never found one... but this red one was all original, or as original as I had seen one in a long while so I jumped at it.


I got the car about two months ago.


After many weeks of working on this car I finally have it finished.... sort of


I started with a very good car to begin with, it just needed some TLC and a few mechanical things done.


Here`s what she looked like at the beginning... a small dent in the front fender.





The Rear Quarter.. notice the dull paint/shine





Interior... nice interior, just needed a little cleaning





Sun roof seal in need of replacement... also notice the faded/oxidized paint





The worst panel... must have been out in the sun more than the others.. notice the B-Pillar vinyl has perished.





Closer look at the dent





Closer look at the rear panel (worst one)





Engine Bay... quite dirty... behind the rain tray it looked like some critters might have taken up a little home.





Hood Insulation is shot





Now the start...


Removed the perished vinyl after A LOT of work





After replacing vinyl





Removed sun roof and replaced seal... notice the paint is in pretty bad shape... Still haven`t been able to get the roof to operate correctly after re-install.. still working on it.





Replaced roof and polished roof... the faded part is where I taped off the seal... it was taken care of after





Beginning work on rear quarter





Half and half on hood... that beautiful red is coming out!





Another half and half





Engine Bay after cleaning








Put down a blanket over the engine bay and scraped off all the perished insulation.





New replacement insulation installed





Here are the finished pictures.

















Finished up the bodywork and paint, waiting a few months before I put on the molding which is coming from a member here and replacing the pin stripe




Products Used:

M105/205 for polish with Lake Country Orange pads for compounding, white pads to finish.

Armor All Outlast Trim restorer on all exterior rubber/plastics

McKees wheel coating for wheels

Armor All Tire Foam for tires

303 Aerospace for interior plastics, dash, etc. Also used for underhood rubber plastics etc.

Chemical guys leather cleaner diluted per recommendations for "medium" strength
LeatherMaster Vital for 30-year-old seats to help soften the leather
LeatherMaster Protectant for protection on seats

Rain-X 2-in-1 for windows

Simple Green Automotive de-greaser for undercarriage cleaning

Chemical Guys BareBones for sealing undercarriage

Blackfire Crystal Coat Paint Prep to remove all polish or any other residue

DG105 to seal

DG Auquawax as final layer coating

[DBAILEY]

Reborn

[nickclark08]

Loop 360 bridge!

nice work on the car

[Oneheadlite]

Awesome work! Looks fantastic.

Brings back a lot lot of memories- VWs are where my passion for cars really started (had a ‘92 Jetta that was my first and longest term, an ‘86 GTI, ‘92 Corrado SLC). Love the sound of the 16 valve. Around here you just don’t see 16v cars anymore. Also cool to see one that hasn’t been totally modded over (although back in the day I was guilty of that!).

Thanks for sharing!

[LEDetailng]

Very impressive restoration detail. Neat looking car. I really like it!

[SWETM]

Awesome work and write up! Beutieful car that is rare know days. You brought it back to almost new.

[Accumulator]

lmatk- Wow, what a great post/car/job! Simply wonderful, thanks for sharing it with us.

[hot_h2o]

Beautiful. I love older watercooled VW`s

[Imatk]

Thanks so much guys, your comments mean a lot. I know you guys are as crazy as I am when it comes to detailing so I appreciate it.

It was probably the toughest job I`ve had to tackle. It`s single-stage paint as well so I went through A LOT of pads.

[GearHead_1]

I’m not a huge VW fan but I think that this fact should make this comment all the better. Oddly, my aversion had something to do with the way I remember early VW’s smelling, go figure. That finished product is very nice. Much the way I remember the new ones looked back in the day when I used to service them. One of the women who worked the customer service desk had one and she always had me do the work on it. That car really looks good.

[Stokdgs]

Imatk -----

That is really great, detailed, work !!!!!
A labor of love to be sure !!!
Lucky for you there was a lot of single stage paint on there and you brought it back so beautifully !
The whole car looks about new again - how nice to have that in your garage so you can go out there a hundred times a week and just look at it..
Thanks for sharing, you really did great work here !
Proud of you, man !
Dan F

[Wknd Dtlr]

Imatk-

Awesome job resurrecting your car!

How did you go about detailing the engine bay? Was it more challenging with the electronics, etc being this is an older vehicle?

[Imatk]

Imatk-

Awesome job resurrecting your car!

How did you go about detailing the engine bay? Was it more challenging with the electronics, etc being this is an older vehicle?

It took an entire day to do just the engine bay :/

I doubt it had ever been cleaned before so there was a lot to do.

I took off the rain tray (the black looking thing at the back) and underneath that looked like a nest or something. I think a bird may have been hanging out in there at one point.

But basically I did the bay like I do any other bay.

I don`t like the spray down the whole bay and cover the electrics method. I find that I still wind up having to do a lot by hand that way, and I also have to spend more time getting water out of crevices like spark plug wells and so on.

I prefer to just do it the old fashioned way by hand. I started with just some ONR and washed everything I could really well that I could reach. Then I got some wheel woolies and used those in the areas I couldn`t reach.

I have a couple older wheel brushes I use for dirtier jobs like this and they came in handy. Also I use compressed air. I don`t have a compressor so I just use the stuff you get for computers. That air can be a life saver getting water out of areas you don`t want and blowing leaves and debris out of tiny crevices.


Some of the areas I used diluted Simple Green to get 30-year-old oil/grease off the paint and other surfaces.

Once I got it all clean I sealed all the paint with DG105 and went back over it with Aquawax. Used 303 for all the hoses, belts, and anything else that was rubber.

[Wknd Dtlr]

It took an entire day to do just the engine bay :/

I doubt it had ever been cleaned before so there was a lot to do.

I took off the rain tray (the black looking thing at the back) and underneath that looked like a nest or something. I think a bird may have been hanging out in there at one point.

But basically I did the bay like I do any other bay.

I don`t like the spray down the whole bay and cover the electrics method. I find that I still wind up having to do a lot by hand that way, and I also have to spend more time getting water out of crevices like spark plug wells and so on.

I prefer to just do it the old fashioned way by hand. I started with just some ONR and washed everything I could really well that I could reach. Then I got some wheel woolies and used those in the areas I couldn`t reach.

I have a couple older wheel brushes I use for dirtier jobs like this and they came in handy. Also I use compressed air. I don`t have a compressor so I just use the stuff you get for computers. That air can be a life saver getting water out of areas you don`t want and blowing leaves and debris out of tiny crevices.


Some of the areas I used diluted Simple Green to get 30-year-old oil/grease off the paint and other surfaces.

Once I got it all clean I sealed all the paint with DG105 and went back over it with Aquawax. Used 303 for all the hoses, belts, and anything else that was rubber.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I assumed you probably approached it that way. Takes a lot of time but when it is a labor of love on a classic like this you can never be too careful. Sounds like the key is to just take your time and methodically work your way through the engine bay. I`m an enthusiast so if I ever have the opportunity to detail a vehicle like this I`ll know this not something you can rush and get done in a short period of time. Thanks again for sharing your info.

[Imatk]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I assumed you probably approached it that way. Takes a lot of time but when it is a labor of love on a classic like this you can never be too careful. Sounds like the key is to just take your time and methodically work your way through the engine bay. I`m an enthusiast so if I ever have the opportunity to detail a vehicle like this I`ll know this not something you can rush and get done in a short period of time. Thanks again for sharing your info.

No problem man

The REALLY intense part was the undercarriage. I didn`t even take photos of that hehe. But I have a "QuickJack" setup that`s awesome and I can get enough room to work under the car to do other things like oil changes, suspension work etc.

I did the undercarriage with a week break in between. Worked on it one weekend and then the next weekend.

I know a lot of folks probably would think I`m crazy for detailing the undercarriage, but I like to know exactly what`s going on with my cars. So it gives me the opportunity to spot rust or other things that might need attention.

Fortunately there was no rust on this car. But I did find a power steering boot that was torn, the under-shift boot was torn, and I had a nicked front brake line.

So I was able to identify that stuff and fix it as well