Farrah Fawcett | Dasher Remastered

[D78Q85V87]

This is the story of my 1979 Dasher.

Some might say this is a rare find, a diamond in Africa sort of discovery and for those who treasure the 70s and 80s Volkswagens as I do, they would be right. Craigslist, a few hours of driving, and $600 bucks later and we were driving back to Idaho some 216 miles, breaks barely working with no history of how well she ran. I figured if she made it home it was going to be a good deal.

She's a yellow/cream 1.5L diesel with a 4 speed transmission. The odometer stopped at 100k miles which may mean low miles, but likely not. She made it all the way back with no issues averaging speeds anywhere from 55-75 and getting 40 mpg.

From my research, the jury is out about which car gets the "first water-cooled imported by Volkswagen into the USA" award, the Rabbit or Dasher, but here are the facts I've discovered and think are cool:

1. The Dasher was designed by the same renowned car designer as the coveted Audi Quattros famed in rally racing and shares similar quirky component layouts.

2. The Dasher is sometimes called the Passat B1 and is the root of Volkswagen's Passat, Fox?, and Quantum vehicle lines. (I think...)

3. The Dashers were more popular in South America and Volkswagen made later versions of these with features of mk2 Jettas and called them The Passat Pointer.

Initial photos of the car will be coming soon. I will post all updates and questions here as this project goes. Let me know if there are any specific things you are interested in seeing or any questions you have. I am excited to get this car more road worthy so I can daily drive it. The long-term plans may or may not fall along the lines of a resto-mod project, but that really depends on how it all unfolds as I go. I'm mostly just excited to learn and restore this vehicle.

For the extra curious among us, I have decided to call the car Farrah Fawcett after a song by Capital Cities called "Farrah Fawcett Hair". If you like good music or are looking to expand your shop tunes, definitely go give the song and album a listen. If you got this far, you are a champ for reading all this and thank you for following along.

[TornadoRed06]

Hey congrats on your latest purchase!
I've subscribed this already.

[oprn]

The Dasher was the first here in Western Canada. If memory serves it was only offered for maybe 2 years. Very few of them were around then and none at all now. At one time I had an Audi Fox that shared the same mechanicals. Great cars all of those early water pumpers but the sheet metal worms ate them up very quickly in colder climates where salt is used liberally.
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Butcher]

There is a white [with green moss] on the side of Rainier on the shores of Lake Washington in the Renton area. It's a sad piece of metal. I bet the owner would love to get rid of it.

[scottyrocks]

The Dasher's first year in the U.S. was 1974 (MY). The Rabbit arrived here in 1975 (MY).
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“If you care for a thing long enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? Mending old things, preserving them, looking after them – on some level there's no rational grounds for it.”
– D. Tartt, 'The Goldfinch'

[oprn]

Sounds about right!
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Rome]

[D78Q85V87]

I wish I had more of an update to give, but too many projects and I have ran into quite the hangup. Phase one on this project has been to just get it road worthy: New tires and alignment, fluid flushes, new timing belt, lights all working.

The big bottle neck I have run into is needing a specialty Pully puller for the intermediate shaft puller to complete the timing belt change and water pump replacement.

Which brings me to my next issue. I am a tooth or two off on my timing belt now which might mean I need to pull the engine, or do a head gasket replacement to get the timing of the engine top to bottom reset.

Here are some more photos of the vehicle. We will see how this progresses. I would really like to get this road worthy first before starting to tear it apart but open to suggestions.

The chronic rust through the floor pans might need to be addressed sooner rather than later and has me thinking about carbon fiber floor pans and a tube chassis which is way outside of my skill set and tool set at the moment.

[raydog]

Unbolt the pully from the crankshaft sprocket. This will give you room for the timing belt removal. You really should have a manual, it will be worth the investment.
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Come on, It's not rocket science. KISS

[TDCTDI]

[D78Q85V87]

[D78Q85V87]

[TDCTDI]

Crank TDC mark will be a 0 or notch, seen through a sight hole of the bell housing on the transmission, just below the battery/water outlet on cylinder head.

This is on a Jetta, your car will NOT have the threaded sight hole, but it will be in the same place.

DO NOT remove the seal carrier bolts behind the intermediate shaft pulley, this will allow the intermediate shaft to come out with the pulley.

The intermediate shaft pulley cannot be removed without the belt pulley still attached to the crank.

As said before, the cam is locked in place with a special fixture plate,

My go to is a 17mm Snap On wrench.


and the injection pump is locked in place with a pin
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[D78Q85V87]

[D78Q85V87]

BIG WIN THIS WEEKEND. It turns out my suspicions on the timing belt issue were wrong. what ended up being out of time was the P-pump. Got everything lined up and timing belt back on and we are good to go! No smoke and idling clean with plenty of power. Next improvements are: hoses, tires, fluid flushes. I am very glad it is running again.

[TornadoRed06]

That's fantastic, great!

[Rome]

Good going with determining the actual issue and getting the engine going again. With that major hurdle behind you, the other tasks should be easy and predictable.

"Plenty of power"- I remember Mr. Wu's comment to Jim Douglas on holding back Herbie at the night stop of the El Dorado race in "The Love Bug"- "the stlength of fawlty holses!". Your Dasher remarkably has only 8 more! But from my many years of driving my '80, I could bury the (federally mandated 85 mph) speedometer given a long enough stretch of highway.

Will you rivet on a long patch piece of metal to the right front floor to connect the sill with the actual floor section that rusted away? If you find a scrap piece of galvanized metal, that'll work fine. Then spray over it with black undercoating for edge sealing and cosmetic "hiding".

[D78Q85V87]

I would like to weld in a new floor pan section, but for now I am just trying to get it so I can drive it around. The drivers side floor pan is great so there are no issues with the seat on that side. I think to truly fix the issue with the seat mounts on the passenger side will require welding. Maybe I will do a full repaint, down the road as part of the restomod phase.

For now the focus is on getting it mechanically sound and then drive it around town. I am still planning and assembling inspirational resources for the restomod build project.

[Rome]

[D78Q85V87]