Torsion Beam (rear)
Not just an A1-chassis VW Rabbit GTI–the quintessential hot hatch–but one turbocharged by Callaway.
Fixing rust usually involves a bit of cutting and welding, but we needed to go a different route to better preserve the original paint on our Volkswagen Rabbi GTI
Sure, we got rid of some broken and rusty bits, but our 1984 VW Rabbit GTI still needed a lot of work.
You don't have to be a professional to do a professional detailing job. You just have to know the right techniques and put in the effort.
Now that our VW Rabbit GTI has been retrieved, restored, and rejuivatned, we're comfortable calling this project complete—for now.
What do you do after you detail your classic? Add cocomats, of course.
After deeming replacement trim for our VW Rabbit GTI to be too costly, we instead decided to refurbish what we had.
What caused some of the panels on our VW Rabbit GTI to be out of adjustment? There were no signs of an accident, just a case of being driven hard …
Since our VW Rabbit GTI already had speaker holes cut in the front doors by a previous owner, we set out to replace it with a system that looked period-correct.
Our 1984 VW Rabbit GTI badly needed a new windshield. We called the Body Werks, who pointed us to Precision Auto Glass.
Our 1984 VW Rabbit GTI now ran properly thanks to a new turbo and a CIS injection tune-up, but now we had a smaller problem on our hands: the odometer …
Was an exhaust leak in our 1984 VW Rabbit GTI just a rusted-out downpipe, or something more serious? There was only one way to find out.
Our Callaway-turbocharged VW Rabbit GTI now looked good, but we still needed to get it running again.
Sure, there wasn't too much wrong with our 1984 VW Rabbit GTI, but that didn't mean it was perfect. In fact, there were some deferred maintenance issues to deal with.
Even though the rear brakes shows were in decent shape, our GTI still had a noisy wheel bearing and a leaking rear wheel brake cylinder.
We tucked the stock U.S.-spec bumpers on our 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI to make them a little less intrusive.
Even though the body and interior of our 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI were both solid as could be, we still faced plenty of deferred maintenance plus some mechanical repairs.
Before we started to spend serious time and money on our Callaway turbocharged VW Rabbit GTI, we wanted to give it an initial detail.
Those driving lights had to go. We have nothing against add-on lamps, but these were too big, too close to center.
Upon taking possession of our 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI–one turbocharged by Callaway–we towed it back home. Then, finally, we could put it on the lift and see what we had …
We found a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI turbocharged by Callaway. One small catch: The car sat more than 2500 miles away. And had been sitting for years.
After writing a report on these cool little cars early last summer, we received a letter from a reader offering up his 1984 Rabbit GTI. There was one bit of …
