Ah thats interesting, it states in that brochure that the steel sliding sunroof came along in 85, my car is a late 84 and has one. I swear even someone who worked for VW back then would be confused with all the changes that were made over the mk2s life span
That is the sort of material I would use to build information into posts like these. Thanks for the picture and link. I believe the rear caliper on early models was a 36 mm diameter piston. Later MK2 cars had a 38 mm piston I believe. I would have to consult the parts catalog for the exact change over data, if it is still there.
Likely to be the same spec as an A reg and certainly an the first of 3 general iterations of the "19" chassis.
I used to own a B reg. 'Launch Spec' GTI that was built in November 1984, so your car is definitely one of the first. It's just had some later mods which were common as the cars aged and VW upgraded the specification. The very first MK2 GTIs featured a textured black headlining, 3-piece hatch decal and a MFA toggle switch above the rev counter, as opposed to on the stalk. My current car (below) was built in May 1984 and has these early features. The November 1984 car had the later printed headlining, one-piece hatch decal and MFA switch on the stalk. Both of my '84 GTIs had factory-fitted sunroofs so I assume that they were an option in the UK from the beginning of production, despite what the brochure states. In fact, it's unusual to see an *84 GTi without one.
Thanks for the reply and the info, my car is a long way off from being as nice as yours but I'll get there eventually. Mine is the same colour as yours and the black decals really do look good agaisnt the red so I'm definitely getting them sorted out. The shopping list keeps getting bigger and bigger the more I work on it, I've gone from "just get it road worthy and drive it about" to "factory fresh is the way to go"
OEM is the way to go for these early GTIs in my opinion. Good luck, I look forward to following your progress. I have a few spares for the early cars so may be able to help you along the way.
Thank you I appreciate it, I've got the car moved up to my garage now so as soon as I get some free time I'm going to give it a good once over again and see what I need but first thing is to change out the cambelt since its well over 10 years old and a good full service of fluids ect.
Yes very true,in my country there very few GTI's imported new due to them costing so much like any european car back then,there was plenty of Japanese cars that were much cheaper and folks went that way. New Zealand was one of a few countries that started importing JDM cars very early on ,Golfs of all specs started coming in a bit later but not a lot of GTI's and the ones that came here were very low spec ,things like leather seats/door panels were rarely ticked on the option box. Not sure if the 16v versions ever came in as have never seen one however I think some did come in.
