Howdy All,

I thought it was about time to share my restoration story with you all.

About a year ago I got hold of an original GTi that I think you all have seen

Here she was at POL last year.

a couple of weeks after someone did this...


and didnt own up.

As she was quite rusty in places, and no one could get me a door i pretty much gave up on her, filled the door and decided for some reason just to go all out tatty to hide the ruined door







all the time getting less and less interested in keeping her going before finally borrowing a better car and lending her to a friend of my missus.

Her MOT came around this march and I decided with POL 2012 looming to set myself a little challenge - If she passed I would do a complete resto within a month and bring her to POL a changed car!

Passing with flying colours and loads of nice comments about the mechianical condition the challenge was on....

Starting with a complete strip down...








Before Priming and then getting a good friend of mine to apply some fresh paint - taking a few styling ideas from the Euro and dub scene....













Also, thanks to this forum, managed to source a new door to relace my ruined one...













After all this she is now almost finished (even though two days before POL she ended up on her side in a hedge thanks to a lorry driver!)

Here she is at POL 2012 - Mission Accomplished!!!











Oh, and the day after POL, I finally painted my mirrors and door jams!





After all this I now cant get enough of the GTi again, think she will be in the family forever now after so much graft & help from some great mates!!!

So There you Have It - thanks for looking, sorry about all the Pix!!!

Looks brilliant!

I can't quite put my finger on the colour (perhaps its my monitor?!) - Is it White, Grey or Silver?! Obviously was silver originally!

Epic

Great looking car, i did see it at POL on the weekend but thought you had put a clear coat on grey primer But seriousely great resto, and that gives me more of an incentive to do mine now, all you need now is the twin cam conversion just like my SLi

Thanks for the comments guys, it's actually a light grey solid mix, made by morleys in derby.

Just need it to harden so it can be cut. Its actually lighter than the primer underneath.

Glad u like : )

Tell you what am now motivated to get my coupe back on the road!

My issue is I am in Essex where there seem to be absolutely no members I can go to to get advice \ help.

Good effort though seriously liking the 3 doors!

i remember seeing your car last year at pol and it looked quite nice. started scrolling down on the pics and thought what the hell have you done to such a nice car. im not a fan of the matt black and sticker bombed look. wouldnt have known it was the same car and if that bit of damaged got it to where it is now then im glad it happened.

if you had said that you was going to paint it in this shade i would have thought big mistake but every time i looked at your car at pol i liked it more and more. good on you for trying something a bit different and pulling it off.

I was really getting into it last year with the idea of keeping it standard. In truth the paint was not so good and the rust needed doing.

The smash ruined it for me but I guess its worked out better than id ever hoped!

I love the fact that the colour got you all talking, that was my plan!

Ive seen these solid colours on the euro and dub scene and could just picture it on the rover scene!

Plus Its made a rare 3 door car even rarer : )

Glad to see that the black GTi in the breakers at Leamington is being put to good use!

Love the colour, you can see its a lighter grey than 'primer' grey, either way an excellent colour choice, bet it looks even better in the flesh.

You just need some Rover badges for the MG centre caps now.