To get the car from current condition to the point it is worthy of a national raffle, ideally it need a professional paint job, and interior refit. 

If anyone knows of any Parkinson's friendly car painting facilities, or a leather factory that might be willing to help the cause in return for some national publicity, can you please get in touch., 

"Just" the anti roll bar mounting brackets, but blasted, painted, and as good as new (as are the bumper mounts, exhaust mounts, wiper blades) ... all original and sympathetically restored. 

Not posted as much recently, possibly through frustration at our repeatedly thwarted attempts to start her, and the partial loss of our "Chief Mechanic" who is in the throes of a new relationship, partly because I'm clearly getting lazy in my advancing years. Apologies to all readers..

Because of the starting (or non-starting) problems, we had the injectors professionally tested and cleaned. They came back well within tolerances, which saves a few quid and meant we needed to look elsewhere for possible problems.

We removed the distributor, as trying to set up the stock timing was impossible (insufficient rotation to line up rotor arm with mark on the casing), then reset everything, fully recharged the battery, and with the help of some damp start, she fired up.

​SHE LIVES!

Calipers looking like new, huge thanks Remanufactured Systems Ltd (http://www.rsltd.co.uk)

The rusted on bolt holding the rear backplate in place was finally "persuaded" off the car ... the new ones from VW Heritage are going to look fantastic and make subsequent maintenance far less frustrating.
The 944 front plates have been offered upto the car - a finger tight rebuild of the front corners will define how much re-engineering is going to be forced upon us.
Rebuilt the fuel system from the tank forwards, but a perished hose has delayed the big engine start again...

The rear backplates are the same as off a 1969 Beetle, available from Heritage VW (made in Denmark)

Pipe was split, and wiring needed tidying, but that's now sorted...

The excitement regarding "the big engine start" was curtailed when the in-tank pump refused to function! It has ceased to be.
Stripping the rear backplates proved a major challenge, with one brake cable bolt refusing to budge and then rounding.
​Front backplates sent for shot blasting, with "interesting" results... replacements are not easy to find.

Currently working on a full end to end fuel system check, refurb/replace and potentially sympathetically upgrade (braided hoses if we can find some at reasonable cost).

Fuel tank pump removed and tested, fuel pump (external) replaced. Fuel hose (pump to accumulator) badly perished so replaced with new.

To do: Test accumulator, WUR, injector flows and full pressure test of the fuel system to pre-empt those dreaded hot start problems.