Rebuild the Rabbit

Bad news, this Rabbit is rusted, and it's bad. Under the wheel wells the factory had applied some sort of tar-like coating, presumably to protect against rust... but I guess it didn't work so well. As I scrapped the stuff off, more and more cancer revealed itself, I picked and picked at it discovering ust how awful the rust really was.

One thing to note too, is that the rust isn't in some nice, easy to repair spots, no it's all around very shapely parts, parts designed to hold the entire car up in the most important places, the Shock towers and A-arm mounts. I cannot possibly patch this amount of rust in these places. Some serious thought has to go into what happens next... ugh, I don't want to send an endangered species to the crusher! Check out the Rusted Rabbit gallery for some heartbreaking photos.

Today I brought The Rabbit home! I was able to pay for the time spent in storage, the tow across town, and also one set (2pc) of jack stands with the donations raised so far, so Thank You everyone who has helped contribute!

After pulling out tons of clothing, old electronics, and other random things that were being stored in both the cab and the bed, I swept the bed out and vacuumed the cab. The carpet, dash, and headliner are all decorated with leopard print designs which I will not keep. I plan to do the interior and exterior simple colors, so far I am thinking black. I found a spare steering wheel, but it need an adaptor. I also found some bulbs and other small bits of electronics in some plastic bottles, along with 2 extra grills in the bed! Wooo~

The back windshield has no cracks, but the tinting that came with it is in bad condition. I also discovered bad rust in the floor panels on both sides unfortunately. I snapped a picture of the passangers side for reference, it's a bit worse than the drivers side. I am afraid of jacking the vehicle up in the correct spots because the rust has made the area weak, but anywhere else is just as unsafe. So I did it quickly and got the front end up in the air for now on some jackstands placed under some re-enforced bushings - was my best guess, then noticed someone else did the same thing and had no problems, so yay!

After the homecoming and cleaning wrapped up it was too dark to do much more, so for now it rests in the drive-way. Hopefully soon I can free up space in the garage to begin more work. Haven't decided where to start, but possibly pulling the entire motor out, and ripping up carpeting and everything to find all the rust spots I need to address right away. From the cherry picker I gat also try to pull everything apart, inspect, clean, and make an shopping list.

More to come, stay tuned! I added pictures to the gallery, and as always if you would like to see progress sped up you can help by donating any amount here: www.gofundme.com/RebuildTheRabbit

- Anton

Hello, and welcome to Rebuild the Rabbit! obviously here you will watch me try to rebuild a 1980 VW Rabbit Pickup. These things are known as "Caddys" in European markets. Mine has a GTI engine in it (1984 I think), and needs a lot of loving. The body is in pretty nice shape actually with mild rust where the paint is stripped off, but I haven't found any holes, woohoo!

I know it has some sort of problem with the clutch, and at a glance I know it needs a battery, steering wheel, a muffler, and some new tires. The Rabbit probably has some more surprises for me, hopefully non of which are too bad. I will be attempting to work on every part of the restoration with a hands-on attitude, only paying for services when I have no other choice. It is not just a desire to have a beautiful Rabbit, but a desire to learn more about mechanics, body work, and interior restoration. During the project I will be spending alot of time with family members who I don't usually spend alot of time with, so I am also grateful for that as well.

Currently I have a full time job, and will be attending school full time starting in the fall of 2015. I would like to get most, if not all, of the project complete by then. With my family and friends, and maybe even your help (if possible), we can rebuild the Rabbit! If you decide you want to help rebuild the Rabbit, just visit the "Help Out" section of the site, where you can e-mail me, or share the website and projects across different social networks like twitter, or even donate any dollar amount you can spare so that I can purchase parts. Stay tuned, this blog will start to liven up in March 2015 as the weather warms up, the snow melts, and the work begins!

-Anton