This car is now for sale.
One person's trash is another person's treasure. Or in this case, one person's smashed GTI with 52k miles is....well just gold to the certain person. Finding these types of cars are becoming more difficult to find with such low miles, unmodified, and clean. For a change this project belongs to Doug, as a result, he can take all the time the car needs to bring it back to how it used to be...better then it used to be.
Doug picked up this low mile beauty last December, with the intentions of bringing it back to how it once was. He had no plans of pulling the low mile VR6 but when thoughts of major increases in horsepower and the words "ABF" pop into your head...well original plans tend to change.
Ouch that looks bad
On it's way to a new home
Checking out the damage
It turned out all it needed to safely be driven was a lower control arm, inner tie rod, brake line, and minor strut repair.
Now comes the serious repair
The A post was completely bashed in (no frame damage) and the rocker panel was also severely damaged. The plan was to peal off the bad outer skin and replace it with a brand new side from the dealer. Yes you can buy the complete side of the car at the dealer, at a decent price!
The new side
Getting ready for the new side
The new side glued on
The reason why Doug sectioned the rear quarter panel instead of replacing the complete panel was to make the repaired section not visible. By keeping part of the original rear quarter, this keeps the original jambs for the hatch. If he replaced the complete quarter panel, the average person would be able to tell the car has been repaired by looking at the hatch jamb. When it is finished, it will be very hard to tell the whole side has been repaired.
The new A post sectioned in
New door hung on
Everything hung and gapped perfectly
Bye bye VR6, hello ABF turbo
Update: 10/26 1:00AM
It has been a few VERY long night getting the ginster ready for final paint. Tonight was the night for final paint :-) The paint came out awesome. It is still semi wet in the pictures. The ginster will make a long drive from FL to NH over the weekend. Once it arives it will get a wet sand a full buff.
Update 3/5/08
Sorry for the long delay...we have not had any time to finish up the ginster. It is back in one piece but still has a 2L motor in it. We are hoping to have the new vr6 motor in over the next few weeks. Once that is completed the car will be for sale.
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dealer. 
