Possibilties running through my head with this motorless car i began to look at the shelfs for parts. F-diesel. i have had my fair share of those guttless marble crushers, and especially in the winter when you gotta walk snow storms home cause battery ran dead from crankin her over and no tow chain to drop first at 35 through a parking lot
So no diesel. 1.8 8v,,, 1.8 16v it is, so with the motor comes the borlja 2.5" from the tt scirocco dual down, and the short throw shift with the weighted rod from abd, also in the scirocco section on the shelf i see neuspeed sway bars and 4 wheel disks. those are nice, but from the this diesel mess i shall save the 4 speed. good gears being after 81. but being an 81... and a diesel the wiring will not quite work. so from the 150 pound of copper snakes once belonging to various VWs i decide digifant. Digi 2 for better reference. from a 90 jetta gl. complete harness, with cluster epoxy welded to the mk1 dash trim. Also Fited an mk2 pump and box. ..sawzall rocks. oh and i got a roof rack!
first drive... ballzy but jeez do my tires rub!! and the windsheild looks like the milkyway crashed into it.
Now for the actually cool part cause who doesn't have a 16v bunny right! Even if its not a 16v bunny there still around. so to cap with personal touch i cloned it into a jack rabbit. The setup first came about back when i had my first rabbit, which was diesel... but i had stared to get into ralleying pretty hard so i had some trouble keepin speed on those roads due to clearance A, firmness B, and lastly, i really felt the need to jump the rabbit alot so, changes had to be made. at the time i had acquired an 87 gti (hense the origin of the 16v) and i parted it down hard, with a rabbit and golf next to each other you can see the golf is kinda a little chubby, so the springs must be heavier, and they look like mk1 springs...hmm. with the mk2 suspension in hand i started with the back on the mk1 rabbit. removed the the two in the rear and replaced them with the ones from the mk2, with effort great scott they fit and with such heaight!! then with the same intentions of putting mk2 components on the front things got complicated. Mk2 Springs will fit on mk1 Strut casing. thats great, huge amount of stiffness added to the front and it sits higher but not as tall as the back, not even close, the rabbit almost looks like a 70 muscle with too much rake. so back out come the front struts and there i am like a little kid with building blocks but the were shock componets, upper strut bearing assembly. so with out concern to driveshaft angle, i simply stack two of them together, one on top of the other, welded together in the middle where they met, knocked out the studs and put long enough bolts through the two holes on each side and reassembled them to the shock, then put them back in, driver side worked great, passenger side i had to take off the driveshaft, put the strut on then jack up the A arm to compress the strut to ride of the load of the car and then conected my drive shaft. rubs here and there on the A Arm where it bolts to the frame but thats under extreme launch and hard right hand corners.
Jack Rabbit V.1, Diesel, 78' expanded steel rear windows, 13" steelies
Jack Rabbit V.2, Gas, 82, expanded steel rear windows, 215/75R15's, JH, webber carb, diesel cam, side pipe
Four wheeler pulled me out, broken drive shaft, coolant hose, rear motor mount.
Jack Rabbit V.3,
The V.1 Launch
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIz-5_cD0x0[/youtube]
