Started on July 11 by chinman

1981 Volkswagen Rabbit

This is my 4+ year long father and sons VW Rabbit project. Now it’s mine because my son got sick of waiting for it to be finished so I bought him out. It’s like a lightweight GTI Almost everything is new but there are still a lot of little things to be done to finish it. I repainted it the original color (Royal or Regal red). It’s an American built Rabbit, so it originally had square headlights and large tail lights. I have back-dated the body by swapping the radiator support, front fenders and small tail lights from a 1989 VW Cabriolet. I shaved the side marker lights and the fender antenna hole. (I was going to mount a roof antenna like the 16V cars have.) There is no rust on the car and no crash damage. It originally had a 1.7L “EN” motor with a 4-speed transmission. I swapped in the 1.8L big valve “LH” motor and close ratio “ACD” 5-speed transmission from the same cabriolet. The motor is all stock except for a SS Raceland header and a full (no cat.) Techtonics Tuning exhaust with a Borla muffler. All of the suspension, brakes, and fuel system are new. It has: Front adjustable Koni red struts. Rear non-adjustable Koni STRT shocks Urethane suspension bushings, swaybar bushings, rack bushings, and motor mounts Stainless Raceland header with O2 sensor bung added Techtonics Tuning full exhaust with Borla muffler. Stainless braided brake lines, front and rear Hawk HPS front brake pads New gas tank Lower front euro spoiler Euro bumpers New master cylinder, front calipers, vented rotors. All new shift linkages and bushings Added front and rear swaybars from the Cabby Cabriolet springs cut to retain proper ride height 80s fresh 14x6 Fittipaldi wheels To Do: Install no-name lower strut bar Install ported intake and larger throttle body Recover the Rabbit GTI sport seats Maybe rebuild the very old front and rear Koni Sports I have with Neuspeed springs. Install the Quarter windows with bolt holes instead of glue-on hinges

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