1984 Volkswagen Rabbit Mk1 A1 Golf Vw

1984 Volkswagen Rabbit Description

Up for sale is my 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit. I’ve had it for about 10 years, and it’s been mostly used as a Sunday driver and autocross car in that time period. There are some quirks for sure, but it cleans up nice, is surprisingly reliable, and it’s a lot of fun to drive. I drove it to Pittsburgh from the South Jersey shore two summers back, and it behaved perfectly and gave me no problems at all. I eventually wanted to get into hill climbing and track days with it, but career stuff and moving mean I need to slim down to just one car for a while. This would be a great option for someone who wants to get into old euro cars on a budget.

I encourage anyone interested to read ALL of this. I know it’s long, but this car comes with A LOT of good stuff, and I have tried to show as much as possible, good and bad, for those that may be located far away.

I’ve always taken good care of the car, and it’s always had regular oil changes/tune ups/etc.

The following stuff has been done in the last 1500 miles:

-Timing belt

-Thermostat (water pump was done about 20k ago and seems in good shape so I left it)

-Clutch

-Rear main seal

-All trans seals replaced, trans flushed and filled with royal purple synthetic gear oil

-New speedometer cable

-Spark plugs/cap/rotor/wires

-All suspension bushings replaced

-Rear end aligned with alignment shims behind the stub axles

-Head lights relayed so they would stop frying switches (common mk1 problem)

-Carb rebuilt/cleaned

-New axles and wheel bearings

-New tail lights (the old ones were warped up and filling with water)

And in the last 5000 miles:

-All new hard brake lines with braided steel soft lines

-All brake drums and calipers completely rebuilt

-New brake master cylinder

-New ball joints

-New inner and outter tie rods

Modifications:

-Has miata seats with some foam scooped out of the centers for more bolster support on homemade brackets

-Bilstein rear struts w/ Neuspeed springs in the back

-Raceland coilovers up front

-Front strut brace

-Grant leather wrapped steering wheel

-Cibie fog lights

-Duckbill lip

-There’s an auxiliary gauge pod where the radio once was. I haven’t hooked them up yet.

-Kamei golf ball shifter

Body wise, the car is pretty solid if a little scruffy for an east coast Rabbit. It has an old ‘meh’ respray in a base/clear close to its original color. Clear coat is starting to go on the roof and other spots have been touched up with spray paint that matches to ‘10-footer’ standards where needed. As you can see in the photos, it still cleans up pretty nice. About 6 years ago I welded in fresh metal where all of the typical floor rust was present, and more recently repaired a few small rust spots in the inner aprons along with a few rust spots in the rear of the car underneath. It’s all been well undercoated to protect against future rust. The only noteworthy rust left that I can find is in the rear arches, the lower rear quarters, and the hatch. None of it is terminal. At one point before my ownership, it got dented slightly near the right rear tail light and the thin coat of filler is starting to crack there. I took photos of this from the inside and the outside so you can see it is a pretty minor dent, and maybe has a ¼” deep filler spot the size of a volleyball at the most. I included as many photos of all this stuff as possible.

Mechanically, the car runs pretty good, though it could use a new exhaust, and it takes a while to warm up from a cold start (a lot of the things that help it to warm up when cold were broken or removed when I bought the car). It weeps a bit of oil and coolant here and there, but nothing crazy or alarming in the slightest.

The car comes with 3 sets of wheels. It’s currently on a set of tarantulas with old but useable tires that I use for winter wheels. There is also a set of 15x6 Hayashi 3 piece wheels that just had new tires put on them. One of the Hayashis has a bad valve stem that will need to be replaced, but otherwise they are in near perfect condition. I only got to drive them about 60 miles before the valve stem and the winter caused me to take them off for the year. There is also a set of 13” mk2 steelies that I will throw in that I just had laying around.

The car also comes with a ton of other performance and maintenance parts, and a set of fenders and a grille I (was considering switching to round lights before an eventual repaint). Performance stuff includes a G grind cam, a solex addhe side draft carb w/ intake manifold, a 4-1 header, an upper strut brace (it won’t fit with the current carb). Maintenance stuff includes various parts, tons of gaskets and seals, various belts and hoses, etc. There are also some trim pieces. I am also throwing in a book on Solex carb tuning, a MK1 VW Bentley manual, and a Chilton manual.

Not in the pictures are 2 spare engines. One is an ABA and the other is a 1.8 JH out of a mk1 GTI. I honestly have no idea what kind of shape they are in, as they’ve been sitting in my friend’s shed about 10 minutes away from where the car is being stored for the past 3 or 4 years. I imagine they are rebuildable, or could provide a lot of parts for an aba/jh hybrid build at the very least.

500 dollar non-refundable Paypal deposit due within 24 hrs of auction end. The rest in cash upon pick up. I will be out of my lease on the garage that the car is being stored at as of February 5th, so it needs to be gone by then. If you really need more time to pick it up than that, contact me BEFORE the auction end and we can try and work something out. Otherwise I am assuming you flaked and relisting it. You are probably going to want to bring a large vehicle that can easily fit all the parts and spare engines, but the car runs and drives on it’s own just fine.

I make no promises or guarantees of any kind about this car, it’s 33 years old. As is, where is. However, it’s never stranded it me, and I tried to present it as honestly as possible so you know what you are getting into. It really is a fun unique car with just the right amount of patina. You can drive it hard without feeling like you are killing a piece of history, but it still looks nice enough to turn heads at traffic lights and car meets.

I will answer any questions you may have, and encourage anyone interested to come look at the car.

PS I am keeping the Isle of Man grille badge. Sorry!

PPS In the event that this ends up on Bring A Trailer, I'd like to thank half the commenters in advance for not getting way too bent out of shape about the gold wheels for once :p