Decision Time

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

To make the decision about my Rabbit rot issue, I called on a few of my friends in the MkI VW world. The answer was unanimous: major frame repair on a unibody car is an expensive ordeal that is not always successful. Even if I restored the rear end, I’d still have to deal with the front end, which has its own host of rust and rot problems. By the time I got done with it all, I’d have the most expensive 160K mile VW Rabbit on the planet. I put out some feelers to see what I was looking at in the way of replacing it and turned up a tired but structurally sound example sitting in a field about 50 miles from my house. It was delivered last week for the princely sum of $50, and I’m well into stripping it bare after filling up every trash can I own with the ratty interior. It’s another 1982 (yay!) – a big plus as all of my year-specific trims will transfer over nicely. The few parts that require welding can be cut out of Jinjur’s shell. So here it is – meet my new bunny, Tip!