New stereo

Just picked up a new receiver for the car. Since nobody seems to listen to cassettes or even CDs in the car anymore, I decided that full ipod connectivity was the most important feature to have. Alpine seems to have a good interface with the ipod and I've always been satisfied with the quality in the past. I looked online and then went to the local BestBuy and managed to get a better price vs. online: $199 for the Alpine iDA-X200 digital media receiver. I think most head units have become rather tacky looking with too many flashing colours and lights (am I sounding like a geezer now?), this unit is fairly restrained. The ipod cable can be routed into the glove box and the faceplate is detachable; the old Alpine unit that was in there is removable, but it's the whole unit that comes out...like carrying a mini suitcase around!
I also picked up a set of 4" Alpine SPS-400 speakers for the rear of the car (that's as big as will fit without making a mess of the trim panels). The front speakers (don't remember the brand) are still sounding good. Later if Stefanie (or her sister Michele) want to add amps and subs, they're welcome to do it on their dime.
Now to order an alarm system. Commando Alarms in the US seems like a good deal for a basic noise maker and starter kill system. I can get a system that will added keyless entry with door actuators and a sonar proximity sensor (it's a ragtop after all) for $127 USD shipped...just got to make sure they can ship by any other means than UPS!

Fuel tank, suspension and exhaust

The tank is now in "red" and required a few custom mounts to be fabricated. The fuel tank in 1982 was smaller than in 1987 and the mounting points were a little different. The fuel pump also had to be relocated. The rear suspension cradle complete with the rear brakes is in as is the exhaust system. The engine will be moving over in a couple of days once the electrical harness is in.
The white one is looking pretty sad now and the extend of the damage is even more evident. Any fleeting thoughts that it could have been repaired are long gone now; the floor sill is actually cracked. The UngoBox alarm system with it's awkward dial in security code, will not be going back in. Same with the Alpine cassette deck. The wiring is a mishmash for those and it's a good opportunity to upgrade to something more modern and user friendly. The rear speakers are damaged so they will have to be replaced too.

"Red" starts to take shape

The red car is back at Bero now and the guys have begun the long process of moving everything from one car to the other. The top is in the process of being refitted complete with about a million screws and fasteners! The biggest pain will be the electrical harnesses. There were enough changes between 1982 and 1987 to the systems that it's simply easier to retrofit the entire 1982 harness to the 1987 body. The fuel tank is also being moved over since the '87s was rotted out.

More dismantling

Meanwhile back at Bero, the dismantling continues in earnest. Andre wants the red car back asap so the colour sanding will have to wait until the reassembly is complete.

Paint!

Laki worked on it late into the night to get it done. He decided to go with a 2 stage process in the end (base colour and clear coat) so that he could get a smoother finish with colour sanding and polishing later.

Primer

The car has primer and will get into the paint booth in the next 24 hrs.

Body shop progress

Laki and his crew have made some significant progress on the car. The ugly US side markers lights are gone and the holes filled in. The lower sills are having some new steel welded in. The rust proofers holes are also being filled. All the little dents are being pulled and repaired. After some long discussions with family, friends and pretty much anybody that will listen to me, we decide to keep the colour red for the "new" car. My reasoning is that, no matter how good the paint job is, I would always know that it wasn't the original colour. Laki still needs to get the BBS front spoiler off the white car before he can paint it all.

Body shop...

Well things are looking up. Went over to Cosmo Autobody on Olivewood Rd. in Etobicoke and met with Laki the owner. What a great character! We spent a longtime getting to know each other and discussing the project. I feel very confident that he will do a great job since he is a car enthusiast. His new toy: a Porsche 964 that he's restoring back to health with the mechanical help of Andre at Bero. They've started to do some repairs on the body but really not much to report yet. I'll go back in a week to see where they're at.
Meanwhile back at Bero, the white car is up on the outside lift and I am able to take inventory of the suspension and exhaust components. The Gillet muffler has a hole in it and will have to be repaired since it is no longer being produced. Hot Rod Scott will be entrusted to that task later on. Andre found 4 BBS rims for $400...good price considering how rare these are now. This will leave me with 3 spares. I'll probably keep the best 5 and ebay the last two to recoup some of the costs back. The shocks and springs are all in good shape and the plan is to swap the entire suspension assemblies out as a whole.

slow dismantle

The red car is at the bodyshop now, but nothing has been done to it...they are still too busy. Meanwhile, I ordered a short shifter kit to go with the new Gti transmission which will make the new car a blast to drive. The white car is slowly being dismantled and with that comes a few more discoveries of the damage. The front right wheel is toast with the back of it bent and broken, the driver's seat is bent and twisted from the impact and the lower part of the dash (knee bar) is buckled and cracked. Thank God, Stefanie was okay.
Speaking of which, she's slowly easing back into driving and gaining confidence back. She's asked to use her mother's car a few times, which ironically is an Infiniti FX35, the same model of vehicle she had the accident with. She loves cars and driving and I don't want this one accident to scare her away from ever getting behind the wheel again. To help her remember the enjoyment of driving a manual, I let her drive my Porsche C4S home from work one evening (with me in the car, of course!). She takes to it like a duck to water, shifting smoothly and even blipping the throttle on downshifts. Her smile is priceless when she hands me back the keys.
She'll be alright now.

Ready for the body shop

The red car is stripped and no sits on the back lot waiting for an open slot at the body shop. The delay is mostly due to the fact that this brutal winter is finally over and lots of cars are in need of a little cosmetic repair. Because of the prices I'm getting, my car is not high on the priority list. Hopefully next week.

Things are starting to happen

Stopped by to see if anything was happening yet and lo and behold, the red cabriolet is in the process of being stripped. The engine is already out, most of the interior has been stripped away and all that will remain is the suspension and wheels and tires so that it can be pushed/towed to the body shop when ready.

The convertible top is about to come off. We decided to swap the trunklid so that we could keep the rubber VW Motorsport spoiler; it wouldn't fit on the '87 lid since it has the 3rd brake light. Both doors and both front fenders are being replaced as the rust and damage is too severe to properly repair.

waiting...

Well the work hasn't started yet for a variety of reasons. Bero Motors has been quite busy and one of Andre's employees injured his knee while slipping on some ice on the back lot. The winter has been relentless and we just got back from our ski holiday as well. Next week is Easter, so not much will happen before then.
The good news: Andre has found a close-ratio Gti 5-speed transmission that we can use in the "new" cabriolet. Cost: $250...deal!

Meeting

I stopped in to see Andre and to make sure we were in agreement as to how to proceed. I mentioned a few upgrades we might want to make: getting rid of the US-style side maker lights and getting a close-ratio transmission to replace the long box that the car has had since new.
He mentioned that I should think about what colour I want for the "new" car.
Work won't really start until March break in a few weeks from now. He anticipates completing the project by June.
Stefanie is ecstatic at the thought that the cabriolet will be resurrected; she offers to start paying for the repair. We agree that she can pay up to $3000 in her own time...dad pays the rest.

The budget

Got an email from Andre and it looks like we can do the transplant/rebuild for $6000-$7000. He really wants to do it and feels it would be a fun project for some of his younger techs. I'm intrigued by the thought of having a restored 1987 (0r is it still an '82?) VW Golf cabriolet.
I think about it for 5 mins and my response is: lets do it!

Waiting for the budget

Well, we're getting hammered with snow so the cabriolet is still sitting at Bero Motors buried under a couple of feet of snow. I think Andre is away skiing, so no estimate yet. I've been looking at used cars online in Canada and in the US. Part of me wants to forget the Golf and move on and buy an interesting car...hmm, older Audi TT's are in the 10-12K range in the US. Even BMW Z3's are getting affordable. My wife thinks I'm nuts and she's right; can you imagine what the insurance for a 17 yr old would be for a sports car!?!
Let's see what Andre comes up with.

The accident!...a solution.

Andre at Bero Motors has just informed me that he has a red 1987 VW Cabriolet sitting in the back of his lot. The body needs work; probably new front fenders and maybe doors as well. The top is in sad shape, the interior no better, and the engine if in reasonable shape is hampered by the automatic transmission. So what's the upside? He wants to strip the red one down to a shell, repaint it and them move all the good parts of mine over to it. Sounds expensive.
I told him that I don't want to end up paying $20,000 for a 1987 VW. He's going to work on a budget and get back to me. Meanwhile the anxiety of my daughter being in an accident is haunting me.

The accident!

My 17 year old daughter Stefanie has had her first car accident. While she is severely shaken up, she is not injured at all. The car on the other hand, did not fare so well. The fact that she was not hurt when her car was hit by a vehicle weighing almost twice as much, is a testament to the quality of VW engineering 26 years ago.
A little background on the car before we get too far. This 1982 VW Golf Cabriolet was purchased new in Los Angeles for my brother by our dad. My brother Patrick was studying to become an automotive designer at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Both my brother and I are certifiable car nuts and have always enjoyed maintaining and modifying our cars. This little car would get lots of attention over the next 26 years. By the time my brother left for Europe to work for BMW and I became the custodian of the cabriolet in 1985, it had been transformed into quite the little beast! The original and anemic 74 hp 1.7-liter engine had been transformed into a 1.9-liter blueprinted Eurospec Gti powerhouse with close to 140 hp. Euro Gti bits and pieces included: exhaust manifold, downpipes tied into a Gillet gruppe B powersound exhaust system. A G-grind cam, adjustable sprocket, neuspeed throttle body, oil cooler with stainless steel hoses and various other upgrades were carried out by renowned Porsche tuner TRE Automotive in North Hollywood. The suspension was also upgraded to the Bilstein BTS-172 kit, Neuspeed front and rear swaybars and stressbars, vented front rotors, and 15" Exim wheels with low profile (for back then) 195/50vr 15 tires to replace the 13" donuts on steel rims. The exterior lost it's bulky US impact bumpers in favor of the sleek black Euro bumpers. Black wheel arch flares were added along with a BBS front spoiler and a black rubber VW Motorsport decklid spoiler. Patrick further customized the exterior with a Hella quad light grill, red Gti trim, Hella fog lights and a rear Porsche fog light. The interior wasn't left alone with a new sound system and speakers, inflatable lumbar supports in the seats, "golf ball" shift knob, a European gauge cluster and an UngoBox alarm system, which was state of the art in 1982! Over the next 26 years the car went from LA to Montreal twice, visited the Grand Canyon, chauffeured me to the church on time for my wedding, and carried my wife to the hospital when she was pregnant with our eldest daughter and future VW driver. I made a few changes and upgrades through the years as well. The Exims were replace with better and lighter BBS wheels off a 1990 Jetta Gtx, the BTS-172 suspension blew out and I replaced it with more progressive Eibach springs and Tokico shocks along with new strut bearings. The windshield was replaced 3 times (1 baseball, 2 stone hits)! The convertible top twice (vandals)! And the radio twice (theft) as well. All in all, much more than the original purchase price was spent on upgrades to make it special. Believe it or not, but by the time Stefanie started driving it in spring of 2007, the odometer only registered 110,000 kms. The truth is, that:
1- it was never winter driven
2- I always had other cars
and
3- Well, I started getting more "interesting" sports cars (MB Clk's and Porsche) and stopped driving it in 1998.
I stored the car in my garage with the intention of selling it, but after putting up with annoying "tire-kickers", I decided to keep it for my daughters. Last year, once Stefanie had successfully completed her Young Drivers of Canada schooling and had her driver's license, I sent the car over to Bero Motors for a thorough service to get it ready for the road. The owner Andre, fell in love with the little car and how well preserved it was and did a fantastic job of insuring that all belts, hoses, fluids were renewed. A new set of tires went on as well and Stefanie and I spent many hours detailing the car to near concours condition. Anyway, back to where we are today: the accident. Again, most importantly nobody is hurt, the car did what it was designed to do and that should be it, right? Well, unfortunately Stefanie feels a huge sense of guilt and remorse at having been the one responsible for wrecking this family "heirloom" and is adamant about making it up to us; I have the best daughters in the world. As far as responsibility in the accident, nobody was charged and the police feel that both parties share some responsibility. With the insurance company, it means we will see nothing or next to it...it's a really, really old car in their eyes. Having had it towed to Bero Motors, the prognosis from a visibly saddened Andre is not good; the body is bent and unrepairable...but he says he might have an idea. Stay tuned.