New Member with Barn Find

[Autonut]

Hello,

I'm new here and to owning a Volkswagen. Being a GMC Truck guy this will be all new to me. This is my barn find. I picked up this 1980 VW Rabbit Convertible that has never seen any winters. It has been sitting in storage for the last three years. Fall of 2008. As you can see it's covered in dust and bird droppings. With a lot cleaning and a good mechanical check it will be ready for some summer fun. The wife has told me that she is not going to give up her parking spot in the garage for it. It may be time to build an addition to the man cave!

I'm sure this forum will get to know me as I keep coming back to ask a lot of questions that you have been asked and answered before.

No, I'm not from the future. My camera just has the wrong date.

[Briano1234]

Welcome to cabby hood, that is a nice looking 80..
www.cabby-info.com
and
http://reflectionsandshadows.com/a1-tech/

Are gonna be of some use to you in the future.
What part of the country are you in?

[eric4321]

WOW!! Nice find! Don't worry we are the friendly bunch over here. How many miles are on the car and what city and state are you in? Have fun with it and congrats on the find.

[Calimus]

Very nice find. Shouldn't take too long at all to whip her back into shape. An just wait till your wife get's some top down driving in, she'll end up in the garage before you know it.

[CalAltaDubber]

Hi and welcome to TRF.

Assuming from the Ontario plate in the second Photo, the Canadian Flag in the third and the lack of snow, you must be in Southern Ontario. I'm origionally from Willowdale.

Very nice find you have there and I assure you you will have a lot of fun with it. I have had my '87 since new.

There is a lot of good advice here and (yes a shamless plug for Kamz) http://www.caby-info.com.

It would also be cool if you would register your car in the registry she has there.

Hope to hear from you soon.

[Autonut]

Thanks for the warm welcome to the forum.

CalAltaDubber you are right on with where I live, that would be Belleville Ontario. For those of you who don't know where that is. Belleville is between Toronto and Montreal on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The Rabbit has 210,000 KMS or 130,500 Miles on it. It needs a good cleaning. This car was in the same family since 1985 and always stored for the winter. The car was bought by my neighbour for his wife in 1985. It was well looked after until it was passed on to the daugther in May 2008, who just drove it and did not do any up keep on it. She just dumped her discarded garbage on the floor. It started to leak anti freeze by the end of the summer that year and was just put back in to storage. Her father was telling me that she had fallen on hard times and said that the storage fees have not been paid. Without checking it out first I made an offer for it and he passed my offer on to his daugther. She jumped on it, but she had to work with the owner of the storage so that I could remove it. As you can see by the pictures the rest is history. As for the leak, it was just a loose hose clamp. I haven't decided on just what to do with it, but I will get it back in better shape then it is now.

Thanks again for the welcome.

[CalAltaDubber]

Bellville eh. I used to live in Trenton, so I know exactly where you are. In fact I bought my '87 from the VW dealer on North Front St. (although the car was delivered in Europe). I have a very good friend who lives there too.

Trust me when you start driving with the top down, you will love it. These cars are simple, and fun to drive. Parts are still fairly easy to find and (Brian might have something to say here) fairly easy to work on.

I had one of my cars in the World of Wheels show last year, and the judge commented on the score sheet that it was a "Nice summer cruiser!".

We are glad you found us. So do keep in touch.

[Briano1234]

Naw, I can find parts, if I think in Advance.....You have to remember that there are more CIS folks out there then Digifant....

[CalAltaDubber]

Autonut, I thought I would mention this site to you too. http://helpvideos.therustyrabbit.com/Ru ... chool.html

[Autonut]

CalAltaDubber

Thanks for the info on the Rusty Rabbit site. This is a small world Eric owner of the Rusty Rabbit is in Moncure,NC and I have a friend in Willmington, NC. I was just down there in the second week of November and will be back down sometime in March. Maybe I'll look him up and pick up some useful information. I used my buddy's dealer plate, took the Rabbit and put some fresh gas in it. I took it down highway 401 to Trenton on Wednesday for the pre-mechanical / safety check and oil change. I took it into the GM Dealer where I bought my truck from. I have friend that works there. The boys were impressed with the car and fact that there was no rust on the brake lines. They were still just like new. I attached a picture that I took with my iPod. My friend Jim is on the right. The only thing it needed was a licence plate bulb. The car ran really well on the highway for sitting in storage the last three years. I think it's going to be a keeper.


Merry Christmas everyone!
Autonut
aka Doug

[CalAltaDubber]

Great to see! I bet you will love driving it when the weather is better.

That's pretty funny about the Rusty Rabbit.

One of these days, I am going to have to make a trip back there.

[kamzcab86]

Welcome! That's a heck of a barn find!

Phil missed a "b" up there: www.cabby-info.com .

And, Rusty Rabbit is good, but he does have some minor mis-information; namely, confusing CIS-lambda with CIS-E.

[CalAltaDubber]

Phil missed a "b" up there: http://www.cabby-info.com .

OOPS

[Autonut]

I took my barn find in for some cosmetic work yesterday. She’s getting a new black paint job and some debadging done. I took the car to my friend’s body shop to get done. He knew I wasn’t in a hurry, so he said to just leave it there. That way he would keep his man working on the car during his slow times. The rabbit should be ready for the road this spring. I ordered and received a Bendley manual for it. It will be good reading material, I’m sure. I’ll try and get some pictures of the work in progress. Here is a before picture of the car in my garage.

Doug

[Autonut]

Update as of today. Coming along.