CAPTAIN RATBAG (Mk1 #6) Pt1

Now even though I am taking this build pretty seriously I realised there is no reason why I can’t have a bit of fun with it as well, and with that I introduce… "CAPTAIN RATBAG"

A 1977 Mk1 Golf Auto 2 door rolling shell is where we start.

First up, out comes the top of the firewall, for no reason other than I like the look of the bay better without it.

The original plan was to build a show car, but the morning after a big night the decision was made that a rat race car would be a lot more fun. Time for some paint, and yes they are paint brushes on the roof!

A mate gave me this flashing light many moons ago, apparently it was removed from a very old fire engine.

Those angry eyes...

So silly.

I know haha but I did say I wanted to have some fun with it ;)

You may be wondering where I'm going with this? I decided to base the look of this car on the livery I made for my Mk1 in the xbox game Forza Motorsport 4. I did say this decision was made the morning after a big night :D

Anyway... with the more powerful engine there has been some shell problems in the past (which I will get to later) so reinforcing the front engine mount with some 5mm steel plate became a good precautionary measure.

All welded up... badly I know but I'm not a welder and I did it myself so that's all that matters.

Cutting the battery plate out, along with some rust.

Welding the strut seams for strength and putting in some new metal.

All primed up.

Getting funky with some atomic green.

In goes the steering rack from an ‘83 and a Auto to Manual pedal box swap.

Next is my donor car. I know it looks clean but that's only on the outside. The shell was hiding lots of rust and was VERY flexy accelerating and under heavy braking. Unfortunately the frame underneath was badly bent and distorted. The previous owner set it up as a hill climb car but it just wasn't up to the punishment of racing anymore.

Besides, it's what's under the hood that I needed. An imported 1800 KR twin cam taken out of a MK2 Golf GTI, twin 45mm Weber carbs, a 5 speed close ratio box with a 80% locked diff, all controlled with a Haltech ignition management system.

I did a few hill climbs in this car during 2009 before making the decision to pull it apart and build something faster.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was bad underneath. This is what was left of the front engine mount. which led to the reinforcement of the one in Ratbag, and welding up the top strut seams to help minimise the body flex caused by the engine.

Time to clean this thing up.

Continued here.