So, six months ago my friend and fellow VW diesel enthusiast, as well as resident mechanical genius texts me a couple of photos of a car that he saw sitting in a field while driving back from up North.
![Tire Automotive parking light Vehicle Wheel Vehicle registration plate]()
![Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle]()
I was thinking probably 300K miles with half a rusty engine hanging by a mouse nest. Anyway, I figured that I had bargained every chip I had to get spousal permission for all of the half finished projects and parts cars that I already have, with a solemn promise on my part, to get rid of one, before acquiring any more.
Fast forward through swapping the engine on my beloved daily driver Caddy from the 1.9D that I have driven for the past decade to a 1.6TD K24 that I had built over a couple of years.
After the The Wife got to drive the truck with the new engine built by me and tuned by @fastinradford, she suggested that maybe another 'parts car' would be OK with her if it was another one of them sweet little 1.6TDs, like she just test drove. 😘
I didn't wait for her to change her mind. I made the call. They still had it and just wanted it to go away. 1985 1.6L TD Jetta.
I figured it would be junk, but I thought I could take the engine, or whats left of it, as a spare and ditch the rest. Maybe there would be some useful interior bits for my MK1 Jetta Restomod that already has a 1985 Jetta interior.
So, I went and met a very nice gentleman and new friend who is really into old internationals and Jaguars, but he drives VW Jettas. Still does.
His favorite and most prized VW was this 86 5-Cylinder AWD Quantum wagon. It gets garage space over some of the Jags.
![Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Hood Automotive exterior]()
He said that this 85 TD just never ran right for him. He had just put a freshly rebuilt head from ?? on there along with a bunch of new parts, but it ran so bad when he started it that he hadn't touched it again for four years and just didn't want to even look at it anymore. He sold it to me for a nominal fee and signed over the clean title noting that he had only managed to put 6K miles on it since he bought it 10 years ago.
So, as I'm looking over this 'parts car' there is a problem. It's too nice to part...
My good friend and VW diesel guru; @fastinradford agreed that this Little Red Jetta deserves a chance. So we freewheeled it down to dub city.
Not 24 hours later, Fast has it running with some adjustment to the IP timing along with a few other tweaks and fluids.
Now we either have the nicest donor car I've ever seen or maybe Little Red has come along to make the greatest sacrifice of all to my MK1s and become my new daily?!!?
Two days ago I would have said that I had no interest in the MK2 platform, (except to for parts for MK1) but you know, I never saw one up close or like, ended up owning a complete runner with 95K original miles.
Needs brakes and electric, but It's kind of cute. Let's get it going and stopping then see how it handles. Even has good tires, though on goofy wheels.
I was thinking probably 300K miles with half a rusty engine hanging by a mouse nest. Anyway, I figured that I had bargained every chip I had to get spousal permission for all of the half finished projects and parts cars that I already have, with a solemn promise on my part, to get rid of one, before acquiring any more.
Fast forward through swapping the engine on my beloved daily driver Caddy from the 1.9D that I have driven for the past decade to a 1.6TD K24 that I had built over a couple of years.
After the The Wife got to drive the truck with the new engine built by me and tuned by @fastinradford, she suggested that maybe another 'parts car' would be OK with her if it was another one of them sweet little 1.6TDs, like she just test drove. 😘
I didn't wait for her to change her mind. I made the call. They still had it and just wanted it to go away. 1985 1.6L TD Jetta.
I figured it would be junk, but I thought I could take the engine, or whats left of it, as a spare and ditch the rest. Maybe there would be some useful interior bits for my MK1 Jetta Restomod that already has a 1985 Jetta interior.
So, I went and met a very nice gentleman and new friend who is really into old internationals and Jaguars, but he drives VW Jettas. Still does.
His favorite and most prized VW was this 86 5-Cylinder AWD Quantum wagon. It gets garage space over some of the Jags.
He said that this 85 TD just never ran right for him. He had just put a freshly rebuilt head from ?? on there along with a bunch of new parts, but it ran so bad when he started it that he hadn't touched it again for four years and just didn't want to even look at it anymore. He sold it to me for a nominal fee and signed over the clean title noting that he had only managed to put 6K miles on it since he bought it 10 years ago.
So, as I'm looking over this 'parts car' there is a problem. It's too nice to part...
My good friend and VW diesel guru; @fastinradford agreed that this Little Red Jetta deserves a chance. So we freewheeled it down to dub city.
Not 24 hours later, Fast has it running with some adjustment to the IP timing along with a few other tweaks and fluids.
Now we either have the nicest donor car I've ever seen or maybe Little Red has come along to make the greatest sacrifice of all to my MK1s and become my new daily?!!?
Two days ago I would have said that I had no interest in the MK2 platform, (except to for parts for MK1) but you know, I never saw one up close or like, ended up owning a complete runner with 95K original miles.
Needs brakes and electric, but It's kind of cute. Let's get it going and stopping then see how it handles. Even has good tires, though on goofy wheels.
