[Frankie442]

Hey everybody. It's been quite a while since I've owned my last VW(7 years or so), and this is my first cabrio. It's a white '98 with a 5spd manual. It's a little rough(the interior took the brunt of the beating) as it was owned by a teenager prior to me rescuing it. I plan to restore it to all its former glory, and in the very near future I'd like to swap in a VR6. My first VW was a '97 GTI VR6, so I'd like to get back to that. The body needs some very minor work, but I'm already in the process of those repairs. For now, I just want to clean it up, I'm already giving it a full tune-up, and then just enjoy it for the season as-is, with the top down and the wife in the passenger seat. I've already posted a WTB thread for some interior goodies that I need to restore the interior, and I'm sure I will be hunting down further items. I will post pictures in the morning, hopefully. Mind you, they wont be pretty, as I've already got the car half torn down. But I am looking forward to having it up and running soon to be able to enjoy the warmer weather. And I look forward to reconnecting with the VW world. Cheers.🍻

 

[Frankie442]

Only picture I currently have is the day I picked it up.

 

[Northernwabbit]

Welcome to VW Vortex. Lots of good people and good info here. Looking forward to your resto.

 

[Frankie442]

Few more photos. Started stripping the interior out a day or so ago. It’s pretty disgusting. Got a new carpet on order and I’m trying to track down some new rear trim panels in black to go with the black door cards I picked up the other day. Also sending the rear seats out to get reupholstered. I picked up a roll of vinyl wrap, so I’m going to try my hand at that once I get the body straightened out.

 

[Frankie442]

So things have been moving slowly as far as the restoration is concerned. I’ve been stuck waiting on parts for the past few weeks. Horrible time to be ordering parts, with the holidays and all, but it is what it is. In the meantime, I’ve got the entire interior stripped down, waiting for the new carpet. In the process, I found a small hole in the passenger floor just behind the seat. So I cleaned out all the rusted area and patched up the hole. Now I’m currently undercoating the entire floor and underneath the car for a little extra protection. Also got bored waiting on parts and decided to use some fabric I had laying around, as well as some foam board to make a new trunk floor piece, as the old one was trash. Came out okay, I think. Hopefully I’ll have more substantial progress soon.

 

[waspman]

I admire your project. Keep posting with your progress and please accompany your nice pics with a commentary.

The VR6 swap will be challenging, and doing it "right" even more so. It may even take some one-off parts if you want to keep a/c and/or cruise control if you are using a 24v VR6 instead of one from a Mk3 GTI. From the pics posted so far, you have a nice starting point.

Good luck.

 

[Autofahrer]

Looks like a good start - Where was the hole? I have a 99.5 that I'm working on too. It's overall pretty nice but trying to tie some looser ends together in the interior. Mechanically it should be good finally. Where did you get the fabric too? I want to do that with mine.

 

[Frankie442]

Looks like a good start - Where was the hole? I have a 99.5 that I'm working on too. It's overall pretty nice but trying to tie some looser ends together in the interior. Mechanically it should be good finally. Where did you get the fabric too? I want to do that with mine.

The hole was on the floorboard behind the passenger seat. Wasn’t too bad, easy patchwork. I got the fabric off eBay, just google GTI plaid fabric. I’ve been sort of slacking on the build lately. Went on vacation and I’ve been waiting for the new motor to get finished at the machine shop so I can start reassembling that. More updates will follow though. Good luck with your build as well.

 

[Frankie442]

On the slow build note- I have the new carpet in, mostly. I haven’t completely smoothed everything out, but it’s in place for the most part and I’ve got the front seats back in-even though I don’t plan on keeping them as the front seats. It just opens up more room in my tiny garage.