Zentral Krap MK1 Jetta

Jetta Zentral
Owned and built by Wayne Richards
Photography & words by Rachel S Lovatt
1981 1500 4 speed manual Mk1 Jetta 3 door saloon
Factory fitted opening quarter lights
Factory fitted sliding steel sunroof
Dealer fitted Catalytic converter
Chassis:
Weitec coilovers
Fully Poly bushed
MK1 GTI Disks and pads
Wheels:
13” Caddy steels banded to 7”& 7.5” rear with Fulda Carat
175 50 13 tyres all round
Exterior:
Full respray in original Diamond silver
Custom Jetta boot decal
Engine:
Standard 1500 detailed with painted and chromed parts.
Scirocco 5 speed gearbox
Catalytic converter hollowed out and refitted
Interior:
Recaro seating in grey tweed with red pinstripe
Porsche 924 steering wheel
Porsche 924 glovebox catch
Original texture fronted radio
... Up until now the project had been kept very discrete, only recent visitors to the garage
had seen the car itself as it had been tucked away at the bodyshop. Not a sniff of it on the
internet, and just a few abstract phonecam pictures were floating about, so a debut at the
last show of the summer would finish things off nicely...
Initial plans were to leave the body as
it was, and just drop it on stylie
wheels, but the wings had been treated to some of Munichs finest streetfighter bump park panelbeating, and it
had gone too far. A phone call to a
friend at a bodyshop revealed that by
the time the wings, bonnet, rear quarters and doors had been tidied up it
might as well have the full treatment,
and get done properly from the
ground up. This was in December
2005, but it wouldn’t be until the summer at the earliest that they could take
the car in for paint. Plenty of time to
gather the rest of the parts for the
rebuild you would think, but time ticks
away rapidly the moment you take
your eye off the clock.
Years passed, until one misty evening,
pulling out of the Leisure Centre car
Park, a glance in the rear view caused
minor palpitations. It wasn’t the after
effects of 30 minuets of shuttle cock
battering, but through the sticker peppered rear screen was the elusive Jetta.
On went the brakes, and the old
Rabbit was thrown sideways across
the road, stopping the frightened
German girl in her grandfathers car.
Out of the darkness and sprinting
towards her was a man sporting a
hoody and a pair of wild eyes, who
was quite prepared to hold up all the
traffic to get his prize. By now Kat had
realised that the driver of the funny old
Volkswagen, was probably just interested in her funny old Volkswagen. In
answer to him banging on the window
and babbling, she casually wound
down the glass, and gave him a smile,
the English boy didn’t faze her. Phone
numbers were exchanged, and a
promise to call if the car was ever up
for sale.
The moment Wayne clapped eyes on
this 2 door MK1 Jetta scooting through
the streets of Bournemouth he knew it
had to be his. The traffic was against
him though, and despite a swift U turn,
and a quick jaunt the wrong way up a
one way street, he lost it. The Rabbit
truck just wasn’t fast enough for this
kind of urban pursuit. Months passed,
and yet more frustratingly fleeting
glimpses of the silver sliver were
caught, always heading in an impossible direction, and just out of reach.
Asking around didn’t shed any light on
the owners identity or location either,
so the desire to acquire it was almost
relinquished as a lost cause. The
German plates were genuine enough,
no doubt about that, so was that the
reason it was being so tricky to locate.
Six months passed before the call finally came through saying the car was
available... if he still wanted it. Of
course he still wanted it.
1. New headlights, indicators, bumpers and paint make it
fresh as a daisy.
2. Having a fetish for early 924’s manifested its self in the
inclusion of it’s steering wheel and crested glovebox catch.
3. Franz at wolfsburgstore.be did the honours with a set of
Caddy 13” steels, banding them out to 7 inches wide for the
front, and 7.5 inches for the rear.
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Deciding on what to do with the interior was a puzzle. Firstly a mint MK1
Golf GX gave up it’s soft bits, but that
wasn’t quite cutting it. Finding anything
more suited to replace the sun
bleached and sand blasted seats was
proving a seemingly impossible task.
What it needed were some interesting
Recaros. A few weeks later, and completely by chance, he heard whispers
of a rare car being broken, this lead
to the turning point of the build. With
the special interior now safe, it was
becoming apparent that this was
going to be a bit more than a tidy
daily driver. Newly revitalized for the
project, the shell was stripped down to
a rather sad looking bare minimum,
and wheeled off to the paint shop to
be doused in colour.
On a previous trip to Belgium, the
chaps had swung by the Wolfsburg
Store to order a set of widened 13”
steels from Franz, and they were now
ready to collect. This coincided with
the Essen motorshow, so the trip was
made, and in addition to the freshly
banded steels, a set of ‘show price
only’ Weitec Coilovers and a bargain
lower brace were exchanged for a
bunch of euro’s. This was going to be
easy, all it needed were a few bit’s of
plastic and a different set of seats.
Over the next few months the globe
was scoured for a clean set of rear
lights, a single new one was eventually tracked down in Germany, but
arrived in shards. This seemed like it
was just the start of a long haul to
locate all the necessary trim, but
ended in success when 3 turned up at
the Stanford Hall show. There they
were, large as life, all faintly splattered
in random shades of overspray and a
bit mouldy, but complete, no chips,
cracks or shoddy application of superglue or bathroom sealant. A damn
good clean, a little wet flatting then a
good polish got them sparkling and
ready for action.
4. Stance is the key to getting it right... that and a deep blue
sky, with little fluffy clouds.
5. Negative camber is an optical illusion that is also apparant when you see the car in the metal, it just sits right.
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Many years ago, when VW/ Audi
had a shared dealership, all manner of
what are now regarded as priceless
gems, were casually tossed in the bin.
Parts deemed worthless, and little other
than a waste of the shelf space that
could be put to better use housing
Audi 90 wheel trims. Some of those
parts were rescued in covert lunchtime
salvage missions and put into storage
for unknown future projects. This foresight paid off, with a fresh set of opening quarter rubbers needed to replace
the crumbling originals. Those skip dipping days are long gone, as has that
dealership, but a call to the new franchise located more pieces of the puzzle including, windscreen and window
rubbers, wishbones, track rod ends,
brakes, window winders, and luckily a
pair of chrome trimmed bumpers.
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6. Old metal, hanging out down at the old Ironworks
7. The tweed Recaros came out of a surprisingly modern
car you’d never think of, and will probably never see.
8. One piece satin black Porsche 944 door handles are
just the ticket for replacing the original plastic items and
confusing people
The Recaro interior had been sourced,
but getting it to fit was going to need
two Scirocco seat bases, some smoke,
and a couple of mirrors. A trip to a
Nottingham scrap yard turned up the
sub frames for a fiver which was a
stroke of luck, then it was time for a
trip down to the canal side Porsche
breakers; where the prices are slightly
higher. They did have the required
944 door handles, and Porsche crested glovebox catch, but failed on the
early 924 steering wheel. Franz did
have one though, so that was a good
excuse for another weekend road trip
through Belgium, taking in Golf Record
day in Germany, then the roughest,
longest channel crossing ever before
finally thankfully arriving back home.
Banded steels look great from the outside, but the weld is just visible on the
inside, so needs smoothing off before
painting. They were still sat in the
workshop in raw metal, whilst a colour
was decided upon. A shade of silver
with a little colour in it, not too close to
the cars Diamond silver was needed,
so Shaun was enlisted to help with the
paint. In an after hours mixing session,
half a dozen different colours were
poured and blended till the required
level of satisfaction was reached. At
this point it was decided to get the car
finished for VW Mania in Belgium,
and make the trip over the water for
the Jetta’s first show.
That kind of distance with four gears
and 13” wheels would be a chore in
itself, so another Scirocco (great parts
cars) gave up it’s 5 speed box and
linkage to get those tiny rims spinning
faster. In readiness for it’s installation it
was thoroughly cleaned then painted,
along with the new wishbones, starter
motor and various other parts. The rest
of the engine bays brackets, bolts, and
random items were rounded up,
cleaned then dropped off at the plating shop for a coating of chrome.
With everything going according to
plan the ideas started flowing again.
Flowing in the shape of styling it up
like a long forgotten factory special
edition. Vague sketches, and even
vaguer descriptions were given to Lee
with the instruction to magic up a fresh
Jetta logo loosely based on the early
924 boot decal.
On the first day of August a pristine
shell was delivered back to the workshop, leaving just ten days to build the
car up and get it road legal before
VW Mania. Just about possible if that
was all you had to do, but when you
have to spend all day fixing other peoples cars as well, it was going to be
tight. The next week was spent working until the small hours, and all
through the weekend fitting the stockpile of parts. On went the coilovers,
GTI brakes, a hundred other things,
then lastly the wheels. A few finishing
touches to fiddle with, but the car was
now pretty much completed so time to
roll it out into the sunshine. Moments
later it became apparent that not only
had the gearbox got a sheared selector fork on reverse gear, but the trip to
Mania wasn’t going to happen either.
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9. Holmes hanging out with the platignum faced sounds.
10. Shooting a classic car on a classic camera, for that nostalgic warmth of lost Wolfsburg press photography.
11. Luxuriate in the the summer breeze coming through the
opening quarter light, then curse the damn thing when a
tea-leaf pops it open and nicks your sunglasses off the dash.
Exhausted and frustrated is not the best
frame of mind to be in when dismantling a car you have just built, but it
had to be done, so out came the box
to be sent away for a rebuild. This
was going to be executed with new
bearings, syncros, and that damn
selector fork, to make it perfect again.
The long weekend that should have
been spent relaxing in a self satisfied
glow in a field in Belgium, was now
going to be spent down on the beach
playing crazy golf, and having nothing whatsoever to do with cars. This
got tricky when PVW was spied with
site of the month going to Zentral
Krap. Minor celebrations, ended in
minor injuries, and the magazine
finaly meeting it’s fate.
A new deadline was set for just a few
weeks time, the car would be on the
road and ready for the Edition 38
show at the beginning of September.
Up until now the project had been
kept very discrete, only recent visitors
to the garage had seen the car itself
as it had been tucked away at the
bodyshop. Not a sniff of it on the internet, and just a few abstract phonecam
pictures were floating about, so a
debut at the last show of the summer
would finish things off nicely. The fresh
gearbox went back in, and a set of
Aero wipers went back on instead of
the originals, all it needed now was
the boot decal applying. This was
done in the dark by bonfire light on
the Friday evening of the show. Yes, it
all got done, and in the Saturday drizzle it was given a quick wipe down
with a damp chamois, wheeled into
the judging tent, and the day ended
with a tin plate resplendent on the
dashboard.
That was the past, as for the future,
plans are to sell the car on to someone who will look after it, then move
on to another project. Possibly a T4,
with a few styling touches and
dropped on unique wheels. Then
using it for another European roadtrip
to collect yet more car parts for projects that don’t yet exist.
Thanks to:
Franz at the wolfsburgstore.be for supplying the banded
steels and steering wheel, and just generaly being a great
bloke.
Lee & Jon at the garage, just generaly.
Jon Tyres (yes really) for wrestling the tyres onto the rims without any damage.
Shaun for welding up the seat brackets and painting the
wheels.
Zentral Lee for helping out with a few random parrts.