Volkswagen Golf GTI: devil in the detail

By Ross Alkureishi

| 26 Feb 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Volkswagen Golf GTI: devil in the detail

Factory-fresh restorations are all well and good when vast sums of money are thrown in the direction of a marque specialist, but far more impressive is the owner who juggles a multitude of things – including various work and family commitments – to achieve the same result.

Walking around Dave Hirons’ spotless 1982 Volkswagen Golf GTI, there is little, if anything, to cause the slightest murmur from even the strictest concours judge.

It’s all there, right down to the barcode sticker on the inside of the door with the chassis number on it.

“They are the little details that nobody notices,” says Dave, “but they really make the car.”

But wait – what about that gearlever? “Genuine Kamei accessory.”

The Volkswagen Golf GTI’s famous badge

The original plan had been for a daily driver, but then Dave’s meticulous nature kicked in: “Even when I built race cars in my spare time – which I did between 1986 and 2011 for series including Mini Miglia, VW Cup and Masters Classic – I’d have to do it to a certain standard.

“With the GTI, I restored it at my lifelong friend Dave Kirkham’s workshop.

“His wife Joy used to laugh at me: ‘Why are you painting that? Nobody will even see it.’ Maybe not, but I would have known.”

Having hung up his racing tools, Dave decided to restore a road car and toyed with the idea of a Mercedes R129 SL, before settling on a Mk1 Golf GTI.

The VW Golf GTI’s cabin is pristine, but sourcing a good set of seats proved a challenge

“The SL might have been a better fit for my current role in passenger technical support at Mercedes-Benz, though,” he laughs.

Not that there was anything amusing about the restoration of the Golf’s body.

Dave bought an MoT’d Mars Red example, even though it came with a non-standard factory sunroof, and set to work.

“I started by replacing the front panel, then the rotten inner rear wing,” he explains. “As I went round the car, I found more and more rot.

“On one of the rear wings I experienced the bit you dread when you’re cutting: a big white cloud of filler exploded.”

This Volkswagen Golf GTI has the 1588cc engine – the 1780cc variant was introduced in 1982

He estimates that it took 12 months of working evenings, weekends and holidays to complete the bodyshell.

“When you have been sitting in an office all day, taking an angle-grinder to metal, or a wire wheel to underseal, gives you something completely different,” he says.

Likening it to having two marriages, Dave adds that it was always family first and then the car: “It allowed me to de-stress, and indirectly that was good for everyone.”

With the body complete, there was just one problem: he wasn’t happy – not with his own workmanship, but the fact that he had replaced so much metal.

This Volkswagen Golf GTI drives beautifully, as you would expect after such an exacting rebuild

“I began looking for another car and saw a stripped-down, ex-track-day GTI bodyshell on eBay,” he says.

“I bid £400, then forgot about it… and won. It was the same year, colour and type as mine, but had original sills and arches. I thought, ‘What do I do now?’”

The answer was to sell the repaired shell and start again with the new one. “I was completely open and explained that I had a better, more original body,” he says.

So began yet more metalwork, although this time it was rather less involved.

Dave’s original Golf GTI shell starts to come apart

“The chassis rails had been dented from people using them to jack up the car,” Dave continues. “You can get repair sections, but it’s quite intrusive and they never look the same.”

So Dave thought outside the box – or rather, inside it.

He removed the sound-deadening panels, sliced open the floor for access and straightened the rails from within, before welding everything back together again.

With the body away being painted, Dave set to work on the engine.

Knight Engineering Services rebored the block and reground the crankshaft, while he sourced new shells, oil pump, pistons, valves and guides.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI was placed on a chassis tilter for ease of access

“It was a bit of a journey,” he recalls. “The pistons were a challenge to find, and the oil pump – I didn’t realise how different Mk1 units are, but VW Heritage helped out.

“If you’re doing something like this and parts are available, you’ve got to buy them while they’re there.”

Before Dave rebuilt the engine, the block was painted with new core plugs fitted – he had the aluminium aqua-blasted to keep it as close to the original finish as possible.

His example is a crossover between the Series 1 and Series 2, so it is fitted with a 1588cc engine, S1 fusebox – correct for an early S2 – and, most importantly, a five-speed gearbox.

Taking the VW Golf GTI’s body back to bare metal

“Everyone thinks that the gearboxes are the same,” says Dave, “but they’re not. There are three versions: short shaft, long shaft and 16-valve long shaft.

“Mine was the short-shaft, with closer-ratio gears, but one of the bearings on the end has a different internal diameter to the other ’boxes, and you just can’t get them.”

Dave came up with a solution, but didn’t have a lathe to make it. Luckily, his uncle is an engineer and fabricated the bush Dave had designed to take up the play.

“It solved the problem and I’m now able to replace it in future, if necessary,” he says.

The second VW Golf GTI shell, freshly painted

Then came a gamechanger: the return of the bodyshell. As soon as he saw it painted, the idea of a daily driver subsided. “It was just too good,” Dave says.

Couple that with the buzz of finding hard-to-get parts, and suddenly the concours bug had bitten. “I thrive on challenges,” he says, “and sourcing things was exactly that.”

If he wanted the car to drive like new, then even the smallest part had to be replaced or refurbished.

Fresh Sachs suspension came from VW: bushes, balljoints, suspension arms, dampers, springs, struts and strut inserts.

“If I could, I got genuine parts, sourcing new-old-stock where available,” he says.

New suspension and brakes for this VW Golf GTI restoration project

The wiring loom had some damage, but the grommets were good: people often cut them to run accessory wires through the bulkhead.

With some repairs, as well as a new fusebox and connectors, it was brought up to standard.

With body and running gear back together, Dave set to work finishing things off.

“It took six months, paying attention to the smallest detail,” he recalls. “Sourcing the right parts was critical to making it look right.”

He bought a good secondhand set of fuel pipes and had them repassivated, while those around the accumulator came from the original supplier, now based in Poland.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI’s replacement dashboard

Richard Masters at Crazy Quiffs, meanwhile, sourced the correct new steel brake pipes.

“The originals had a green plastic coating on them and I wanted the same,” says Dave. “They were absolute horrors to bend and get all the right shape.

“I had to do it by hand, using thumbs and forefingers. It was incredibly time-consuming, and I had to be in the right frame of mind: if I wasn’t, I just walked away.”

The original dashboard had been drilled and cut multiple times, but luckily the brother of a friend in the Mk1 Golf Owners’ Club was selling a GLX, and Dave was able to enact a swap.

This VW has had plenty of use since its completion, even if the original plan of building a daily driver was dropped

The interior was still a headache, though. “The seats are notoriously bad for fading, particularly in the back,” he explains.

“You could still buy the grey-and-black material, but not the red-and-orange.”

He bought a number of seats and went through a process of mix and match.

“It was roughly four complete sets that I had to use,” he remembers, “and I had to travel all around the UK to collect them.”

Newton Commercial then supplied a new headlining, and Dave retrimmed a blue parcel shelf in black to replace the broken one.

An original windscreen came from VW Heritage for £100, but other parts were “crazy prices”.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI’s original alloy wheels were refurbished

Fresh badges came from the same source, while an aerial arrived from the USA. The original wheels were powder-coated and shod with Uniroyal tyres with a retro tread pattern.

The final job was to fit the plastic wheelarch trims. “I wanted to put the rears on,” he says. “But the ramp didn’t have a wheel free.

“I put axle stands under the jacking points and whipped off the wheels, but it fell off the stands.

“Luckily, as the back swung round, the central hub of the brake drum caught the edge of the ramp and stopped it. There was no damage.”

After this lucky escape, and eight years on, the GTI was finally finished.

The VW Golf GTI’s slender doorhandles

“I completed my apprenticeship with Dave Kirkham many years ago, so I knew him pretty well,” says Dave. “Even so, when I started the project in his workshop, I said it would take only two years.

“Everyone I’ve been in contact with has just wanted to help. When you mention you’re restoring a Mk1 Golf GTI, their eyes light up.

“That’s been refreshing after so long in the retail side of the motor trade, where people don’t always have that passion and interest.”

Response to the VW has been fantastic, with it securing Best Standard Car at Edition 38 and runner-up at GTI International, then placing in the top five at the 2016 Mk1 Owners’ Club event and the top 20 at the GTI Festival.

To top it all, it appeared on the Golf Mk1 Owners’ Club stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show.

This classic car enthusiast went above and beyond to create their perfect Volkswagen Golf GTI

“It’s nice to have the recognition for what we have managed to achieve, and for all the blood, sweat and tears,” enthuses Dave.

“In standard form, these cars are few and far between now.”

Everything about this VW Golf GTI is a timewarp, transporting you back to the early 1980s. The best bit is that it drives as well as it looks.

You can see why, in their day, the accurate controls and level of communication, combined with sheer practicality, set the benchmark in terms of all-round ability.

The sound, feel, vibration and noise connect you to the Tarmac like nothing today.

Clubs, enthusiasts and friends helped Dave finish his Volkswagen Golf GTI

“I even love the rattles and squeaks that come with it,” explains Dave. “Finding them simply adds another challenge.”

Fettling is an ongoing process. Coming back from GTI International, the gearbox started making a funny noise.

“I changed down then up, and there was a ‘tick, tick, tick’,” says Dave. “I knew it wasn’t right, and when I took it out and stripped it, a part had snapped off the synchro hub and gone through the gearbox, damaging the crownwheel and pinion.

“It must have been cracked when I fitted it; that’s 35-year-old parts for you.

“Richard at Crazy Quiffs helped me to source an incredibly hard-to-find replacement.”

The rest of the Hirons clan loves the car, and they all go to shows together with a picnic in the back.

“Club events are a real family day out,” he says. “My wife didn’t understand why I needed to go to that level of detail, or why I spent so much money – £4000 on the paintwork alone. Now, though, she appreciates all the time I put into it.”

Almost anybody can restore a classic car, but to get one back to near-perfect factory specification takes time, patience, tenacity, money and ingenuity.

All of those values are perfectly reflected here.

Images: James Mann

This was first in our February 2017 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

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