Stealth TDI
Pre-Forum Veteran Member
It's hard to believe so much time has passed. Where does it go?
Not much to report, but there's still a little:
My daughter, Diana, took much longer to get her learner's permit than expected. That's okay. I had a lot of other stuff going on and wasn't ready to work on the car. She's been driving the wife's Mk6 with a permit for several months now. We expect she'll be ready for the driver's test in February. Now that the weather is cooling off, now seems like a good time to get moving on this car.
I'm not ready to really tear into it, but she wanted to do *something* with it. So I had her clean it out. Here's how it sat before she cleaned the interior...
No wasp nests this year! The car sits on a trickle charger. It started as though it had sat for 10 minutes instead of 10 months. We let it run at a high idle for about 20 minutes. We cannot drive it. The tires are shot and the Texas registration expired long ago. Here's the plan:
1) Reassemble the interior. I had pulled it apart in 2015 to move the electronics to my Mk6, which has since been traded for a Mk7 GTI. Diana wants to be involved with reassembly. So I'll supervise as she rewraps the wiring, tucks it, and reassembles the interior.
2) Pull the front suspension and grind away the fender well finish. I have what I hope is surface rust in there. I want to ensure it's not severe or affecting the structure before I commit to rebuilding the car. If it's just surface rust, I'll refinish the area and reinstall the suspension. I'm questioning whether I should replace the struts with new since they've sat for so long. If the rust is too much, I'll reassemble and let her drive it as a beater until it's too bad to continue.
3) Replace the brakes. It's time; and the fluid undoubtedly needs to be flushed. Diana wants to do it. So I'll supervise.
4) Refinish a set of wheels and mount new tires. I still have four sets of wheels for this car. I want her to get used to the torque steer on wheels that are close to factory spec before I expose her to the offset 15" wheels that I used to run. Diana's going to refinish a set of my old BBS's. I'm going to mount some "high performance" all seasons. That's a relative term in the 195/60R14 size, but I want to give her as much grip as possible since the Mk3 does not have the same braking power that she's learned to have in the Mk6.
5) Swap the seats. Those who have these old cars know that the bolsters blow out on the seats. I have three sets of front seats for this car. The seats that are in the car are a second set. I blew out the bottom cushion on the first set and the seat back bolster on the second set. I will mix-n-match the best bolsters and seat parts to make the interior as good as it can be. Diana is much lighter than me, so the seats should last longer with her driving.
6) Once that's done, the car should be ready for registration and inspection.
7) Recharge the AC. I may need to replace a component. I forget which part usually goes bad if the system is uncharged for extended periods. Is it the evaporator? Regardless, my AC guy will tell me; he's done good work on the car in the past.
8) PAINT. If things go well with the rebuild and if the car is driving well, then I may decide it's worth a paint job. I'll decide later how I want to have the body shop address the rusty fuel filler door. For now, I've coated the affected area with a rust inhibitor, which will hopefully keep it from spreading. I suspect I'll also replace the trunk lid. I bought a new one during a clearance in 2011 just in case I decided I wanted a lid that does not have a hole cut in it for a radio antenna.
Nearly anything I do to the car will cost more than the car is worth; doing it all is certainly a labor of love.
IF I take it all the way to paint, then the car will be fit to show. Diana already has a mild interest in driving it to a BugOut next year. It would be good to see the car in show form again.
Hopefully, I'll have a few reports to make over the following weeks or months.
My daughter, Diana, took much longer to get her learner's permit than expected. That's okay. I had a lot of other stuff going on and wasn't ready to work on the car. She's been driving the wife's Mk6 with a permit for several months now. We expect she'll be ready for the driver's test in February. Now that the weather is cooling off, now seems like a good time to get moving on this car.
I'm not ready to really tear into it, but she wanted to do *something* with it. So I had her clean it out. Here's how it sat before she cleaned the interior...




No wasp nests this year! The car sits on a trickle charger. It started as though it had sat for 10 minutes instead of 10 months. We let it run at a high idle for about 20 minutes. We cannot drive it. The tires are shot and the Texas registration expired long ago. Here's the plan:
1) Reassemble the interior. I had pulled it apart in 2015 to move the electronics to my Mk6, which has since been traded for a Mk7 GTI. Diana wants to be involved with reassembly. So I'll supervise as she rewraps the wiring, tucks it, and reassembles the interior.
2) Pull the front suspension and grind away the fender well finish. I have what I hope is surface rust in there. I want to ensure it's not severe or affecting the structure before I commit to rebuilding the car. If it's just surface rust, I'll refinish the area and reinstall the suspension. I'm questioning whether I should replace the struts with new since they've sat for so long. If the rust is too much, I'll reassemble and let her drive it as a beater until it's too bad to continue.
3) Replace the brakes. It's time; and the fluid undoubtedly needs to be flushed. Diana wants to do it. So I'll supervise.
4) Refinish a set of wheels and mount new tires. I still have four sets of wheels for this car. I want her to get used to the torque steer on wheels that are close to factory spec before I expose her to the offset 15" wheels that I used to run. Diana's going to refinish a set of my old BBS's. I'm going to mount some "high performance" all seasons. That's a relative term in the 195/60R14 size, but I want to give her as much grip as possible since the Mk3 does not have the same braking power that she's learned to have in the Mk6.
5) Swap the seats. Those who have these old cars know that the bolsters blow out on the seats. I have three sets of front seats for this car. The seats that are in the car are a second set. I blew out the bottom cushion on the first set and the seat back bolster on the second set. I will mix-n-match the best bolsters and seat parts to make the interior as good as it can be. Diana is much lighter than me, so the seats should last longer with her driving.
6) Once that's done, the car should be ready for registration and inspection.
7) Recharge the AC. I may need to replace a component. I forget which part usually goes bad if the system is uncharged for extended periods. Is it the evaporator? Regardless, my AC guy will tell me; he's done good work on the car in the past.
8) PAINT. If things go well with the rebuild and if the car is driving well, then I may decide it's worth a paint job. I'll decide later how I want to have the body shop address the rusty fuel filler door. For now, I've coated the affected area with a rust inhibitor, which will hopefully keep it from spreading. I suspect I'll also replace the trunk lid. I bought a new one during a clearance in 2011 just in case I decided I wanted a lid that does not have a hole cut in it for a radio antenna.
Nearly anything I do to the car will cost more than the car is worth; doing it all is certainly a labor of love.
IF I take it all the way to paint, then the car will be fit to show. Diana already has a mild interest in driving it to a BugOut next year. It would be good to see the car in show form again.
Hopefully, I'll have a few reports to make over the following weeks or months.