B1 Passat Estate

[ajbull88]

Well we started the repairs to our Estate today. Plan is to replace motor with one from our donor car, repair a few minor dents & repaint. Lots of small thing need to be fixed too, dash clock doesn't work but we have spare, replace hand brake cable and maybe reupholster interior. Hope to get the car back on the road again a.s.a.p

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF0064-1.jpg

[Peter Jones]

Very cool!

There's not nearly enough Passats on the road.

Looking forward to watching the progress.

Good Luck.

Pete

[ontarv]

nice body looks in good nick
keep the updates

[16v_kid]

Looks like its never been restored...(which is good!) very original car.

Great project mate.

Keep us updated.

Cheers.

[ajbull88]

The car is original paint, last owner had it for 18 years and was sad to let it go. He updated to a new Volvo Estate. I have never owned VW before, but thought this too good to let go. I'm restoring it for my daughter and she is helping with the resto. Were going through everything, CV boots, seat track rails and even the dash clock. It's going to be her ever day driver so I want it to be in perfect order. Luckily I found a donor car with lots of spares too (1974 4 door hatch) on ebay which had been in a shed for the last 20 years with only 98K on the clock.
I'm amazed at how good these car drives!!!!! Haven't seen any others on the road, but i think the parts will be hard to get now, especially the tailgate.
Will keep updating as we progress.

[tassie_euro_mk1]

Excellent!!! :cool:

I really like the B1 passat estates. I have an original 76 passat sedan, two owners in its life one being for 31 years!!! The drive great. Suspension is a bit soggy though. Its a very simple car.

Parts are a little bit difficult to find. I always cruise the international ebay sites, there can be some cool, retro rare stuff on there for the passat. But in America its called a Dasher, in Germany its called passat 32, UK dont have alot but its passat B1 or mk1, and the Brazilians have a few good passat parts also. Worth a look.


Anyways its great to see another B1 passat having a resto. There arnt many left on our roads and they are a very underated car IMO.

Keen to see more pics and updates :)
Cheers
Eric

[Jarred]

good luck with it all, keep us updated!

[auditwmba]

ajbull88,

Thanks for reminding me of our B1 Passat days - we had a '76 LS sedan and a '77 GLS wagon for about 13 years. We travelled many thousands of kilometres in them and our kids learnt to drive in them.

The sedan had a Weber 32/36DGV carb with TS manifold as well as GLS (four light) grill - with spot lights, it would light up the road with 580 watts of power! An 80 amp Audi alternator was mandatory. I still have the GLS grill (for sale).

Good luck with the restoration. By the way, the headlight reflectors look a bit sad. Also check the plenum chamber for rust - the sound-proofing retains water rusting the metal underneath. The worst case is rust holes leading to water dripping onto the fuse box (it happened to me); big effort to fix.

Good luck

Rob

[vinderliker]

Old skool rules! OK!

[ajbull88]

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone, as I'm new to VW's it is a learning experience every time I undo something. Pulling the motor out was straight forward. Luckily with the donor car we have replacement head lights, spare parts for repairing our seat track rails as there worn. As for rust, under the plenum is really good condition. There is some small rust holes on the passenger side-sub frame where it bolts to the engine cross member. With the motor now out this will be easy to weld up. The car is almost rust free, a little surface rust under the drivers door and a little above one of the side chrome moldings. As we are painting the car, I'll remove all the moldings, bumpers and door handles to get a good look under everything and a nicer paint job too. We are going to repaint it sky blue in Acrylic, as I don't have a booth at my workshop.
more pic's soon :-)

[RedVR6]

I had the same prob with rust in the plenum on my audi fox (sedan version). Lucky for me, my mate's dad was a ***** hot welder and could braze a new section in for me.
I friggin loved that car. I've still got a stack of bits under Mum & Dad's house. Let me know if you need anything and I'll have a look.
If the clock is not working, see if you can find the factory tacho from the TS to replace it. You may be lucky enough to find a centre console with three cutouts for gauges where the clock would slot in nicely.
If you get really excited, the 5 spd manual trans from an Audi 80cc does fit in there which really makes it a much nicer car to drive.
I had a 1.8l 8v in mine with the 32/36 Weber. Certainly not a rocket ship, but it sounded fast with a cold air intake and sports exhaust!
Great cars. Under-rated and getting rare these days.
Kudos to you for restoring one. Enjoy it!

[ajbull88]

Well some update pics, the work has started and don't you just always seem to find more to do.....

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF0075-1.jpg
A previous repair to tailgate, paint had crazed so repair it again

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF0058-1.jpg
Rust in the sub-frame to be removed, plated and welded

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF0060-1.jpg
A good looking plenum chamber

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF0071-1.jpg
Not that noticeable when white, but you'll see these dents in blue

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF00631-1.jpg

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/10/DSCF00641-1.jpg
If under boots an tire wells all looked this good...

[auditwmba]

I agree the plenum area looks good but I strongly suggest that this area be checked from underneath, particularly above the fuse box.

I have also had to replace the rear trailing arm bushes (as well as rewelding the torsion tube inside the 'U' beam). Body roll from soft standard springs will lead to torsion tube failure. I fitted a set of rear Variant coils to help things.

I had a set of 6"x13" steel wheels which (with the right rubber) probably caused more grief with the Passat suspension design. The best option is to fit better components from Koni, Bilstein etc as well as ensuring all rubber mounts are in the best condition.

Good luck

Rob

[gldgti]

You may be lucky enough to find a centre console with three cutouts for gauges where the clock would slot in nicely.


i've got one of those floating around :-)

[AlexV11]

Good to see another B1 project...
I'm in it for the long haul with my Audi Fox, when money permits!

If you need some specific info, try the Dasher Owners Group http://dog.mp3equipped.com/dog/ just for B1 owners

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/11/IMG_1554-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/11/IMG_1950-1.jpg

[auditwmba]

Excellent to see a Mk1 Fox, which was morphed into the VW Passat, being refurbished.

Good luck

Rob

[ajbull88]

Well it has been a year since we started, but have finally started to finish things off
all the body repairs have been completed.
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/IMG_5486-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/IMG_5168-1.jpg
Sprayed inside the door shuts and outside.
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/IMG_5489-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/IMG_5513-1.jpg
My daughter didn't like the alloy wheels we tried on, 'ANY CHANGES TO BE APPROVED IN WRITING DAD' so we sprayed up the original wheels, caps and fitted new tires.
She has fitted most parts back, just waiting for the new body mould clips to arrive and the sill and door moulds will go back on.
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/DSCF0136-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/DSCF0134-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/DSCF0133-1.jpg

As this is my first VW I had no spare parts so I managed to find a donor vehicle and just the other day saved this Estate from going to the crushers, it was on a ladys front lawn ready to go. never know what you may need...
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/DSCF0131-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/DSCF0132-1.jpg

[poprocco]

Love the B1's. Glad to see another one saved....well done!!

[Nick_80]

any change you want to sell that sun hood on the Sedan?

[ajbull88]

Sun visor from the sedan has been striped to bare metal and painted white. we will be fitting it to the Estate.

[ajbull88]

Body moulding clips arrived form the States, boxes of 50 were cheaper to buy in USA including the postage than buying the 16 new clips in
Australia for the sill panel. I needed 42 clips for side moulds so 50 of them gave me a few spares.

[ajbull88]

Well we fitted the replacement engine, tidied up all wiring. Big moment for starting it and .......yes it is running.....oh no....oil running everywhere! The replacement motor was from one of my donor cars, it was tested and running fine. Now it is fitted to the estate, it is blowing the o-ring out of the oil filter. We tried another filter and same again. I'm guessing we now have some restriction in oil channels and is building up too much pressure. WHAT HAS GONE WRONG????? Well more work to be done to fix/find this problem. Bar that, it is ready to start driving, every thing else has been done. My daughter can't wait to start cruising the streets of Perth.
Any one needing B1 parts, I have 2 donor cars, a sedan and 3/4 of a Estate (missing R/H rear 1/4 panel ) And we decided not to use the sun-visor, looked out of place on the wagon.

[ajbull88]

Well Estate is now back on the road. It had its first test drive after nearly 2 years of the road. Fixed our oil filter problem. Just as we finished the car a mate accidentally broke our L/H tail light. I have searched every where for replacements as our R/H had a crack in it which bugged me. I tried ebay in the States for Dasher, tried Europe but no wagon lights. Finally I find a wrecker in Perth who remembered keeping a set of mint lights, some thirty years ago...."I knew i would sell them one day" Let me have them for $55 each, so very happy with that. So there is one more Estate back on the road, and hoping it will run for another 35 years now, well for a while anyway.
Thinking of what to do for my next project......any one have a Karmann Ghia for sale cheap????

[Phat Bug]

Nice job!!
I'd love to see some more pics ;)

[ajbull88]

So far it is running really well. we didn't spend too much on the tidy up and Kirsty is very happy with the outcome.
The original owner is glad the car has been well treated and brought back to hopefully a long future ahead.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/08/IMG_6421-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/08/IMG_64191-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/08/IMG_6418-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/08/IMG_6415-1.jpg

[huss]

Love the colour of the wheels.

[Phat Bug]

Thats really nice, The charcoal on the wheels looks great :)

Very jealous of the bumper overiders, I'd love to find some for mine:cool:

[Nick_80]

i have a single round headlight grill if your interested.