My 1980 Mk1 Scirocco

[Davegrohl99]

So as of yesterday I bought my first mk1 and I'm in love! It's a fairly rust free car few bits along the sill and floor and no doubt more will be revealed when I go digging.
I'm based in southern Ireland and I presume they are few and far between here . Would be great to get some advice on what to do restoration wise and the parts search

[mark1gls]

Welcome to Mk1 ownership.

I don’t think there is many in Southern Ireland, couple of things I’ve noticed in the picture is your wiper arm is parked on the wrong side of the car, it should sit on the passengers side, simple fix undo the nut on top of the wiper motor lift of the metal plate, move the wiper arm over to the passengers side then reconnect the plate to the motor, lift the wiper arm off the screen and try the wiper and make sure it swipes the right way and parks in the right place.

You are missed my the front spoiler, they are different to Mk1 Golf Gti spoilers and can be tricky to find.

Fit some front wheel arch plastic liners as the inner wings front corner is a great mud trap and wings rot out in no time if you use the car on wet days, wings are expensive and getting hard to find.

Mechanical parts are easy to find as some running gear etc as Mk1 Golf, Mk2 Scirocco and Golf cabriolet.

Post up any help needed and we will try and help.

[mr.brown]

The best mk1 is a red one

Best place to ask for parts is here or on the Facebook group. Also, keep an eye on ebay and ebay.de - there are plenty more mk1s and parts available in Germany but it sometimes takes a bit of persuasion to get sellers to post here.

I see from your pictures that you might be missing a parcel shelf clip or two. Contact Essextom on here or look on his site for some indestructible replacements - https://dreadnoughtcustoms.co.uk/produc ... shelf-clip

It looks like you're also missing the clips on the front wing that keep the front bumper straight. Those are a lot harder to find but not too difficult to make yourself if you're happy bending metal.

Aside from that, pretty much everything mechanical is mk1 Golf so readily available.

Is it my eyes or has someone slapped mk2 badges on the rear?

[Davegrohl99]

The first job on my list is to upgrade the suspension nd brakes what would you guys recommend ?

[mark1gls]

Suspension all depends on what you want to do with the, lower it a little or a lot, not worried about ride quality, how much you want to spend....

I have a Bilstein shocks and Eibach lowering springs which gives a good comfortable ride quality and good road holding, I bought a kit with new shorter bump stops and dust covers.
A few guys on here run the same sort of set up.
Good price as well.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eibach-Lower ... 35ecbca24b

If you want to go lower then coilovers is what you want but you will find the ride harder as the lower you go the stiffer it will get and to get a good quality kit with good road manners then you need to spend £600 upwards....
Cheap coil overs are cheap for a reason.... they rattle you and you are to death and can course bump steer if driving on normal roads.

What brakes do you have? Are they the type with the small square pads or the bigger pads and VWII stamped into the calipers?
Fitting a VWII calipers will give you more brake pad touching the disc which helps over the smaller pads.
Making sure the rear brake shoes are probably adjusted makes a huge difference to the feel of the pedal and stopping power, the automatic adjusters do not always Work very well.

Braided hoses help firm up the pedal.

If the brake fluid is more then 3 years old or you don’t know when it was last changed, change it as that’s makes the pedal feel firmer. DOT 4 is what you need.

Bigger brakes can be fitted from Vauxhall’s and bigger master cylinders from 16v Mk2 Golfs if you want to go mad but only really needed if fitting a 200+bhp 20v turbo engine.

Don’t compare the brakes to modern cars with over servoed brakes and ABS as with the Mk1 without ABS you don’t want to lock up the front wheels when stopping as it takes longer to stop if the tyres are not turning but you should be able to lock up the front wheels if you press hard enough.