New addition idi

Well I went ahead and got that 1980 Rabbit 2 Door IDI. The engine is an 82 1.6 with new TB (less than 5000 miles), New Alternator, brakes and a few other goodies. The engine fires right up and sounds very good. Drives fine. I will be going to pick it up tomorrow. The photo looks better than it really is but it's not that bad. A real good cleaning will make it much better. The original color is not white but that ugly tan color. Interior is tan as well. Blaaa! No air. It was removed.

Do you want to know how much it cost? Your gonna puke when you hear it!

Right on. It looks just like the '79 Horizon that I used to have that was the ugly tan color (so was the interior). $300 bucks?

I'll guess not a dime under $600.
After all a good running 1.6L is worth $1000. as a generator set engine. Marine or stationary.

Im gona guess 250 being that I paid that for my 81 rabbit turbo diesel truck

Good guesses. but .........................

OK! here it is.............. $100...........

killer! You stole that thing, ill give ya 250 for it anyday

gottdi said:

Good guesses. but .........................

OK! here it is.............. $100...........

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Yep. But image the addition of a huge VNT20 and the newer transplant of the PD motor, injectors and transmission ...and the all-wheel drive out of a european GT-TDI.

One-hundred dollars just begins the wallet leak. You got suspension, interior and a complete brake up grade coming too.

It will be a cover photo of a car magazine by the time your done.

Glad.

or?

You can wait until the new election year when price of fuel goes up to $4.39 a gallon and sell it stock on e-bay for $6,000.00.

Just a thought.

Good luck,
great price and good find.

Brian

Not sure what I'm gonna do with it. Maybe a Gen Set. Maybe Vegie Rabbit. Maybe hybrid Diesel/Electric project. Who knows. Suspension is good-N-tight and no rust on the shock towers. Brakes are new so no $$$ there either. Might take a good amount of cleaner but thats chicken scratch. Some electrical work but I can do that and have extra wire and shrink wrap.

Who knows. Any ideas what should be done with it? I know the first idea is to sell it but hey, I just bought it. Lets start with the second thing I should do with it.

1. Sell it
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc ...................

gottdi said:

Who knows. Any ideas what should be done with it? I know the first idea is to sell it but hey, I just bought it. Lets start with the second thing I should do with it..

1. Sell it.

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2. DA the entire body, take down to bare metal, dissemble all weather stripping, body molding and repaint [incl lift back, door jams and engine compartment] back to OEM colour
3. Write the show MTV "Pimp My Ride" and tell them you have a longing desire to restore this car to mint because you use to watch the cartoon network with Johnny Bravo and Chicken and COw?
4. Find a rich elderly woman, single, who loves to support a guy who owns a car she use to drive when she had retired? [she'd be way old man.]
5. Just drive it dude. Best advise

BrianCT said:

2. DA the entire body, take down to bare metal, dissemble all weather stripping, body molding and repaint [incl lift back, door jams and engine compartment] back to OEM colour
3. Write the show MTV "Pimp My Ride" and tell them you have a longing desire to restore this car to mint because you use to watch the cartoon network with Johnny Bravo and Chicken and COw?
4. Find a rich elderly woman, single, who loves to support a guy who owns a car she use to drive when she had retired? [she'd be way old man.]
5. Just drive it dude. Best advise

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#3 sounds like it should be your #1, or perhaps one better it and have it done by foos.

TDIoily said:

#3 sounds like it should be your #1, or perhaps one better it and have it done by foos.

Click to expand...

Read about this guy over at vortex restoration MKI GTI. Why not redo your car into a GTDI? Silver with black trim and stripes... etc.

BrianCT said:

Read about this guy over at vortex restoration MKI GTI. Why not redo your car into a GTDI? Silver with black trim and stripes... etc.

Click to expand...

Yeow, nice ride!

IDI is now home. Smokes like ........ when accelerating. Had the brakes lock up. Cooled down and was just fine the rest of the trip. Gotta look into that. Shifting into first was a pain so mostly I started in second. Gonna look into that as well. Power is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Pretty peppy for a non turbo diesel. Well that's it for now. 4 speed Blaaaaaaaaa.

TDIoily said:

Yeow, nice ride!

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You never realize how small these bodies are on a chassis roller.

Like I had said, if you strip down the car [40 hrs wk] and then prep correctly [20 hrs wk] you should be capable of restoring anything you'd image.

I could see an ALH dropped in with a 5-speed and a 5th gear conversion upgrade.

By the time your done, with a lot of GTG intiative from the members here ...it could be a very nice ride in short order.

Brian

I've driven a '78, '80, and '81 manuals and always found that first gear had a grunt going in. Pull 'er into second and then push into first and you'll see that 1'st enters smoothly. Not sure about the syncrho configuration, but pulling those transmissions into second, and then into first surely helps.

Check the brakes! Lube up the guides and pistons and make sure the boots are not deteriorated.

1980 Rabbit Fuel injected converted to 1.6 IDI diesel. Timing belt done less then 5000 miles ago by the seller. He did the mark and pray method Eeeeek. I will check the proper timing. Might be some of the smoke issue. The brakes are no problem as I am a brake mechanic. The body work is no problem either. Neither is the electrical stuff. Mostly small stuff. I have the manuals (idiots guide to keep the rabbit alive) and (chiltons). I checked the manuals real quick and found how simple the mechanics are for these early diesels. I also found that the engine is not as noisy as I had expected. Sure its more but not unbearable. I'm going to lower the idle which seems to be a tad high. All for now. It's still a butt ugly color.

I had an 81 IDI that I put 275,000 miles on. Gave it to my sister and she put another 100,000 miles on it. I did have some brake issues at 225,000 miles. Had front calipers locking up so I rebuilt them with no success. Next step was to install replacements from VW. Had same problem. Eventually tracked the problem down to the master cylinder. The seals were almost gone and the piston was not returning after removing my foot from the pedal.

Another problem that is endemic to those older Rabbits is the front suspension. Weak, basically, because the A-arms of the McPherson struts are just brackets spotwelded to the body. I was always re-doing wheel alignment on my 78 Diesel, every time I hit a bitty pothole. Drive softly and it will live longer.

I had that 1st gear problem, its either your shift linkage needs replaced cheep 15 bucks at the most which Im sure it needs replaced anyway, or your shift rod undernet the car needs adjusted, that is also simple but adjusting it correctly can be a little bit of a pain. you just take of one holding bolt, pull out the rod its splined and your turn it counter clock wise 1 or 2 teeth. Hope that helps. Oh and ploping a 5 speed in my 4 speed rabbit was the best thing i ever did!