About me

I've loved cars since I was a little kid, particularly classics, but never had the space to learn about them, nevermind buy something I could tinker with. One day I was wasting time snooping around on Gumtree and saw an ad for a little old Golf convertible. I recognised the shape, but didn't know much about Mk1s at all. Regardless, I phoned up the seller and went to see the car.

The Cabriolet was parked at the back of a shed, covered in dust and storage boxes. The roof was not installed and it looked like a stray cat had made a home in the interior. Popping the bonnet we found a plethora of Red Back spider egg sacks (thankfully empty). The seller and I found a battery lying around and we were able to turn the car over. It coughed to life - barely, but wouldn't hold an idle.

Not knowing what I would get myself into I half jokingly offered the seller half of what he wanted...and to my surprise he accepted.

Over the years I got the car running again. Most days I would work out on the street, lying under the car in the gutter. Eventualy I got it registered and for a long time it was my only car and daily driver.

I can say it's been a pure joy to work on. Parts are easily accessible. Things are simple enough they make sense. The car almost encourages you to explore and fix more - you find common sense solutions to common problems all through the car. It feels like this was one of the last cars where they expect the customer to get their hands dirty with maintenance.

During my time learning I spent a great many hours scouring the internet, reading forum posts, asking questions online, watching YouTube videos and bookmarking old PDFs. I thought I would give back as best I could by making my own site with guides, tips and links to resources in hope that others might find what I've learnt useful themselves.