# B1 Dasher Project



## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

I figure i might as well post up my thread in here since this seems to be about the most active place that i can find with other dashers and quantums. definitely a rare and dying breed, but i'm still excited to bring this one back to the road! 

because barn finds... 










and as a result, i am now the owner of this 1980 Dasher Diesel 5 door fastback. i had almost forgotten about these Dashers, the B1 Passat to the rest of the world. couldn't resist this ugly duckling, esp for it being so rare today. so i decided to pull it out of the barn, clean it up and get ready to bring it home. 



































i love this car's sculpted door cards that have a swept back design, and its two tone gold & chocolate interior 


















dirty! 


































prolly one of the most satisfying car washes that i've ever done to watch this thing sparkle back to life 


















MOUSE! 


















































i'm really excited to find this car really. this was the first watercooled VW ever, and the first not to be based on the beetle platform. it started the platform sharing between audi that underpinned passats for many years to follow, and was designed by the same pencil that also greated the MK1 golf and scirocco. i'm really looking forward to breathing new life back into this car and putting it back on the road. 

my plans for this car are pretty simple -- its got some rust on the frame that needs immediate attention, but aside from that i'm going to get it running, lower it, and rock it patina as-is. might go further than that, might not -- body overall is in pretty decent shape all considering (rockers are **** on the passenger side) and its got a nice interior, so a full resto wouldn't be completely out of the question but we'll see. this car will be something all new to me being diesel, but i have to say i am looking forward to 40mpg in this thing. 

stay tuned. 

Dasher. 

_The elegant Volkswagen._


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

more pix of bringing it home and more cleaning! 










this also marks the first time i've towed with my range rover -- its never towed anything its entire life till now, and she towed like a boss. i also found it somewhat amusing that the dasher looks more areo-dynamic going backwards than it does forward  


































time for a little before and after photos following a much more in-depth cleaning yesterday! 

starting off opening up the dasher: 


















and some extra parts: 









engine bay before: 









engine bay after: 

























the back hatch was gross before, with heavy soiling and stained carpets: 









power washed & shampooed the carpets: 









also found these in the hatch, a never been used spare and original tool kit, along with the color code sticker, helios metallic 

















interior was dirty and had that trademark mousey barn smell 

























carpets shampooed, sterilized, dash conditioned, and seats were vacuumed, shampooed and fluffed 

























i'm excited with the results!!


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## cabrlicious (Jan 27, 2008)

cool man. seems like these fastbacks are rare, this is the first 4 door I've seen hah. 

I have the silly idea of getting one of these cars in the future and using a porsche 924/944 transaxle with a VR6, 1.8T or turbodiesel engine bolted up. 

I want to get a feel for size of this car ... can you compare it against something common?


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

cabrlicious said:


> cool man. seems like these fastbacks are rare, this is the first 4 door I've seen hah.
> 
> I have the silly idea of getting one of these cars in the future and using a porsche 924/944 transaxle with a VR6, 1.8T or turbodiesel engine bolted up.
> 
> I want to get a feel for size of this car ... can you compare it against something common?


 its a little bit of an awkward size by today's standards -- but for its time it was more of a midsize sedan then, today it'd be more on the compact size. i would compare it in size being just slightly between say a MK4 Golf and a B5 A4 sedan. With its engine layout, a 1.8T swap i think would be possible, and if this engine turns out to be bad i'm considering it. I do also have a spare VR6 laying around that i think would be a fun transplant into this car...but the VR6 might be more of a challenge since those engines were usually transversly mounted, rather than this audi style longitudinal layout that is common for Audi vehicles. 

I also think the added weight of the VR6 being that far forward in the B1 might really make the car feel nose heavy in the corners. i think a 1.8T swap out of a FWD Passat would be your best canidate for a more modern powerful engine.


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## dasherinoz (May 19, 2011)

Oh wow, nice score there! How long had it been hiding in a barn for? It's the same model as mine  http://www.vwdasher.com The facelifts are so much fun but a gigantic PITA to find parts for, at least in my neck o the woods. Great to see how intact yours is! Lovely colour too. I look forward to watching the evolution of this car. :thumbup:


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

dasherinoz said:


> Oh wow, nice score there! How long had it been hiding in a barn for? It's the same model as mine  http://www.vwdasher.com The facelifts are so much fun but a gigantic PITA to find parts for, at least in my neck o the woods. Great to see how intact yours is! Lovely colour too. I look forward to watching the evolution of this car. :thumbup:


 its been in the barn for 4-5 years so not all that long, but still long enough. ran fine when it was parked spare for a bad oil line that the alternator sliced open and failure of the alternator itself. 

overall the car is pretty clean, but there is some nasty rust on the frame where it meets the subframe which i will need to address. aside from that the other areas of rust are only on the far lower rockers, which i will prolly replace. the body overall is OK, paint is decent, and interior cleaned up well. 

i'm anxious to bring it back to life over this winter.


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## MFND (Mar 14, 2011)

:thumbup:


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## dasherinoz (May 19, 2011)

I am amazed that the seats are in such good condition. They tend to be frayed, saggy and torn after 30 years in Australia. Good thing the mice didn't eat them!


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## tinworm (Oct 2, 2011)

what a find! that barn looks like it had some other interesting stuff in it, all VWs? 

ive never seen this model dasher in person, will be a blast to get up and running again 

looks like you got that dasher out of the same barn the bimrpwr got his 85 quantum from. That place is sitting on some cool old cars


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

tinworm said:


> what a find! that barn looks like it had some other interesting stuff in it, all VWs?
> 
> ive never seen this model dasher in person, will be a blast to get up and running again
> 
> looks like you got that dasher out of the same barn the bimrpwr got his 85 quantum from. That place is sitting on some cool old cars


yup its all VWs and Audis. lots of cool stuff in there, also a 2 door dasher as well that i was very interested in but it had some quarter panel damage that i didn't really want to deal with. it is indeed the same garage that bimrpwr got his quantum out of, the guy that has all these cars is a good local member of ours. several cars recently have been pulled out of this barn


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## dasherinoz (May 19, 2011)

> I want to get a feel for size of this car ... can you compare it against something common?


It's the same length as our 2002 VW Bora (Jetta) and just about as wide. Slightly longer wheelbase than my Mk1 Golf.


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## cabrlicious (Jan 27, 2008)

1FastB5 said:


> its a little bit of an awkward size by today's standards -- but for its time it was more of a midsize sedan then, today it'd be more on the compact size. i would compare it in size being just slightly between say a MK4 Golf and a B5 A4 sedan.


Ok, how about this: do you think three adults can fit in the back? are there even three seat belts back there?


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## IHC (Aug 15, 2011)

Had one of these with the diesel, back about 22 years ago. Was a one owner, old lady owned and garage kept. One of the nicest cars I ever drove , even had the heigth adjustable seats and 0 rust. Then the injection pump went out one day and the only replacement I could find was over a thousand bucks. Sold the car for 500 and bought a new car. Still miss the Dasher. Hope you enjoy your project:thumbup:


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## tinworm (Oct 2, 2011)

IHC said:


> Had one of these with the diesel, back about 22 years ago. Was a one owner, old lady owned and garage kept. One of the nicest cars I ever drove , even had the heigth adjustable seats and 0 rust. Then the injection pump went out one day and the only replacement I could find was over a thousand bucks. Sold the car for 500 and bought a new car. Still miss the Dasher. Hope you enjoy your project:thumbup:


good god, a 1.6 diesel injection pump for over 1000 dollars?!

Whole running 1.6 diesel engines around here are between 3 and 4 hundred dollars pre-pulled from the yard. Who was selling that injection pump for that price?

EDIT- 22 years ago, ok I could see that. At the time would be like buying a 2000 1.9 TDI injection pump now. Still pretty high though. Shame


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## IHC (Aug 15, 2011)

Back then the only yards that had the VW diesels were 4 local You Pull. I checked them for over a month and was never able to find a pump. They were the first thing to get stripped. The local VW dealer qouted me the price. I ended up selling the car for $500 and they also could not find a pump at a reasonable price. They resold the car for the same and the guy that bought it put a gassser in it. Last time I saw it was around late 90s.


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

cabrlicious said:


> Ok, how about this: do you think three adults can fit in the back? are there even three seat belts back there?


Yeah but prolly not comfortably. I wouldnt exactly call it generous on rear seat leg room either.


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## MtnDewBro (Jul 18, 2011)

I got a new dasher?!?! Awesome!


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## gogolfIII (Aug 9, 2010)

SICK find! Watching this. opcorn:


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

gogolfIII said:


> SICK find! Watching this. opcorn:


should have more progress to update soon, about ready to pull it inside to see if we can get it running.


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## Maggiolone (Aug 20, 2007)

Nice Dasher. Great car, too. There's a middle-aged lady in my area who drives a Dasher wagon daily. She's fast too - I was trying to pull up next to her and offer to buy it from her; it had OEM grill fog lamps. 

I'm intrigued with all the wheels in the barn...I want some 13's!


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## vwovw (Apr 2, 2004)

nice save


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

IT RUNS!!!!



VERY excited! pretty happy we got this thing going with pretty much no prior experience with diesel. when we first started to play with it a few days ago, the injection pump started to push some diesel then stopped. we let the pump soak up some ATF for a few days and tonight we cranked it until we got fresh fluid out of all the injectors. she started up on the ATF on her own and smoked out the whole shop which was pretty friggen awesome.

mind you, there is no fuel tank in it right now since the straps rusted through, so we poured some fresh diesel into the pump to see if she would run and move under her own powe sure enough she wants to go again!! 

now that i know she will run and run well, its a green light for this project to continue indefinitely!!


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## type1xperience (Apr 9, 2009)

Cool find! 

Waiting for the outcome of this Dash!


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## K.macocker (Sep 25, 2011)

I had a 77 or 78 gaser in 1987!! loved it!!
mine looked just like that with sunroof and had greenish/gray paint and interior..

gave that car he11!!

can't wait to see the finished project!! 

Kmac


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## tinworm (Oct 2, 2011)

1FastB5 said:


> IT RUNS!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


nice, I was wondering why you were trying to drive it without letting it settle and warm up, but no fuel tank makes sense! 

Hook it up to a gas can full of diesel and let it run for a while, even though it starts, it may not be totally in good shape. I have an 83 TD that after tinkering for a while, will start and run, but the injection pump needs to be rebuilt, and it smokes like crazy. 

The fact that it was restarting without another glow plug cycle after that first start is pretty good news. Why was this car originally parked again? 

Good thing about the 1.6 and 1.5, easy to take apart and repair, and parts are cheap.


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## neverthesamecar (Dec 2, 2006)

Nice. What did you find as far as fuel lines, etc? I'm hoping to revive a diesel that's been sitting for years when I go 'home' for Thanksgiving, and the more I can plan for ahead of time the better...


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

so last night we decided to work on the dasher a bit, right now its bottle fed. i'd like to get it running up to operating temp since our last run was only for a few moments since we just didn't have a good system to get fuel into it since the fuel tank is currently out of it.

sadly, we couldn't quite get her to go this time but we're going to try again prolly tonight or tomorrow. 

next step is going to be removing the front clip so we can get to the frame to do some repairs and clean up the bits of rust that are concerning.










i wonder what would happen if i trailered this thing to a tire shop, only to drive it in and request a rotate and balance only?

i think they look just fine


























i can't wait to see this ugly ducking going down the road!!


















more to come soon


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## vwovw (Apr 2, 2004)

Looking good!


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## HATCHET (Oct 22, 2009)

My grandfather had one of these when I was growing up in Ireland. I still remember him trying to cram suitcases in the back when he picked us up from the airport. Rear window popped out and shattered on the concrete. Pretty funny. 

More pics of the 6!


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## tinworm (Oct 2, 2011)

Those rims need to go to the sandblaster, then powdercoated


That looks like a nice toybox


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

anyone know a good place were i can either buy or get my injection pump rebuilt?

i'm not 100% sure if its bad or not but i would not at all be surprised. any one know of some good sources?


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## tinworm (Oct 2, 2011)

haven't used these guys, but this is the recommendation I got on the TDI forum- I called them and they seemed super competent. Never ended up using them, sold the car first


"_DFIS (Diesel Fuel Injection Service, Portland, Oregon)....have 'em rebuild the pump and injectors....they are awesome to work with!

http://www.dfispdx.com/index.html _ "


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

tinworm said:


> haven't used these guys, but this is the recommendation I got on the TDI forum- I called them and they seemed super competent. Never ended up using them, sold the car first
> 
> 
> "_DFIS (Diesel Fuel Injection Service, Portland, Oregon)....have 'em rebuild the pump and injectors....they are awesome to work with!
> ...


i might have to give them a shout if we can't get this pump going again. i will say though, their site is really out of date! 

tonight i gave the injection pump another treatment of ATF since we just can't seem to get it going again as well as it did before. so hopefully another round of soaking will bring it back to life. but i still got a lot to learn on this diesel, i'm almost wondering if the reason why its not going could be due to the diesel cut off valve or switch? so we're going to be looking into that as well as a few other things.

starting to come up a list of parts to get however, and after being so used to getting parts for the BMW 635, the range rover, etc. its such a pleasant change to see how cheap engine parts are. definitely going to be much easier on my wallet to get this thing running again.

so the dasher got a new IV life support bottle containing atf that the pump is sucking on. i think the new bottle adds a touch of class










after that, i decided to do a little experimentation. i have a pretty healthy stock pile of parts from the 635, and in our shop we also have a ton of random bits from all types of cars. so i have a second set of BMW ellipsoid projectors from the 6 -- they're a beautiful projector beam housing that i upgraded to on my 6 series and then converted them to a modern HID setup that looks factory-perfect.

i removed the DOT sealed beam unit, and to my pleasant surprise, it looks like with very minimal modification to the carrier, they're going to fit perfectly!










one of the other guys in our shop also just happens to have a pair of e-code fogs as well, and they're exact size that i need. they fit right into the carrier without any modification nessary. he's had them sitting around for years and i think i'm going to buy them off him for sure.










i think HIDs and frenchies will look very unique on this car with its color, and the wheel selection that i have chosen for it, which is a gold basket weave from OG wheels. 










i'm loving the car the more and more i get into it.


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

fixed the fuel shut off valve but still no go. time for new glow plugs. 

took #4 and #3 out and they looked OK but badly worn, then i got to #2... 

one of these things is not like the other (disregard dasher's paw) 










and then it got worse 










it doesn't look like they broke off as much as it did that they burnt up. so i'll be ordering new injectors as well this week. 

SO with that bit out of the way, i got bored and ambitious. 


















nasty nasty timing belt cover 


















more to come


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## bimrpwr (Jun 9, 2008)

send the pump to the dude in Canada. He may even be able to give that dash some power after the rebuild.


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## gravityjunkie (Sep 4, 2010)

opcorn:


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## Helltime (Jun 3, 2009)

Anymore progress on this tj?


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## vwovw (Apr 2, 2004)

:thumbup:


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## Snarkle (Jan 22, 2012)

Was that a cat paw in above photo of glow plugs ?


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

Snarkle said:


> Was that a cat paw in above photo of glow plugs ?


 yes it was. cat is also named dasher, she loves the car. 

small update on this little project, i put on a different set of wheels and tires for free that i picked up from a friend, giving it something to roll and drive on for the time being. if i can get this thing on the road reasonably i would like to run on the original hubcaps since i have all of them. so i'll keep the original wheels so if i choose to i can sandblast and paint them, and eventually put new tires on them if i choose. 










also picked up a new timing belt, tensioner, and a few other odds and ends to see if i can get it running under its own power. hopefully with a little bit of elbow grease i can enjoy it over the summer.


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

today i installed a new timing belt, tensioner and a few other small odds and ends. 

so now its back in time, new glow plugs, clean glow plug wires, freshly lubricated injection pump, cleaned injectors and more. i was happy to find that while timing the engine it turns really smoothly and at least the top end of the engine, still looked really clean and in pretty good shape for this cars age. 

tired to fire it up, and she wants to go, but the weak battery won't. both alek and i ran out of time this afternoon, so its on the charger over night, we're going to bleed the injectors again and it SHOULD fire up, we can hear a lot of life ready to come back out of that engine. that familiar diesel knock was trying real hard to get out. 

so hopefully with a little bit of effort tomorrow, she just might roll out of the shop under her own power  

so provided that it is running in reasonable order, i'll address some of the other details that will need attention before being road worthy: 

-replace or rebuild the alternator 
-a/c delete -- the compressor is totally ceased and with A/C parts almost impossible to find, i doubt i'll get it in working order 
-brakes on all corners. new discs, pads, lines, and drums. master cylinder looks new so it should be fine. 
-suspension -- i MIGHT do air ride on this car if i can find something that will work for the front struts. thats the big thing i'd like to do to this car...i want nothing more than it to be low, and slow. with its patina status, i think it would turn a lot of heads with it being so rare on a nice set of wheels. otherwise standard suspension may be modified for it to sit lower. new shocks are readily available...springs less so. 

other problems i foresee: 

-wheel bearings? will see how these are on the first few drives. i can buy complete hubs cheap, so its an easy fix... 
-tie rods and other front end components need to be checked or replaced 
-clutch -- after sitting for years it may be dried out, and i'm anticipating replacement.


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## vwovw (Apr 2, 2004)

looking good


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## bimrpwr (Jun 9, 2008)

good luck with getting it going.

Also i know of a TD from a quantum that will go right in the dash..


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## 1FastB5 (May 30, 2005)

bimrpwr said:


> good luck with getting it going.
> 
> Also i know of a TD from a quantum that will go right in the dash..


it runs, we know that for sure. just need to get the timing just right and she's ready to go


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## Moshua (Jul 20, 2010)

any updates on this project. i have personal interest as i have a B1 also. Any good places to get parts that you have found?


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## foxygrandpa (Jun 2, 2012)

Awesome car man, a true unicorn ha. I would love to see one in person, maybe someday.
Anyway, hope you're making good progress on it!


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## dasherinoz (May 19, 2011)

Moshua said:


> any updates on this project. i have personal interest as i have a B1 also. Any good places to get parts that you have found?


Looking for anything in particular? You could try the guys at Classic Parts in Germany if you have part numbers, otherwise have you thought about buying a second car to use for parts? It does help


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