Filthy Diesel Jetta Sitting for 14 Years Outside: Crazy Detail Cleaning 

This video makes you realize what a timeless design the Mk2 Jetta and Golf are. You've done an amazing job fixing her up.

There's an interesting story about the 1989 diesel Jetta. Just like virtally every other automaker, VW had discontinued their diesel models in the U.S. after 1986 due to lack of demand (gas was cheap again). But in 1989, to test interest in reintroducing a diesel option, they test marketed 200 diesel Jettas -- all or most of them in this same red color -- by putting them on dealer lots with no announcement or advertising. (Supposedly this was the result of a fleet order that fell through, but I'm not sure I believe that part of the story.) To VW's surprise, the cars sold out quickly, so then they kept making more of them. Another quirk was the 1991 diesel Jetta 2-door "coupe", which I definitely know existed because I've seen several of them in person, even though all of VW's brochures at the time specifically indicated that the diesel was only available on the 4-door Jetta.

Try spraying a little water for lubrication while you're doing the cutting Michael - it does help! 👍

The seats and carpet in that can be done with a pressure washer. Had an older Jetta back in the day. The seats looked black/dark grey. Took them out and just used the pressure washer on them and left them to dry. Suddenly there where grey/black checkered. Carpet went from mucky to black.

After the end result, I'd absolutely drive this car daily.

Those old VW have some sort of sweet charming, I love them. Very good job.

Hey Michael (and dad) subscribed a while ago but didn't see the past stuff, but i'm catching up! One of the things I enjoy the most is that you look after the cosmetics of the car, rather than just getting it running. I'm an auto detailer so I truly know how much time goes into presenting a finished vehicle. Hats off to you, you're doing great!

Great litter project car for someone looking for an easy start. 16 year old me would’ve loved it!

I love videos like this one. Sitting for years to running, cleaned up and ready to roll. Always wanted an early diesel car.

The sound of this thing is amazing

Subscriber for 6 months...appreciate your skills, +attitude, motivating us recliner warriors to get to work! Respect for your Father is very much appreciated, hardly ever see that these days. This VW Jetta project was A-1+! from start to finish. Thanks to you and your Dad!

Looks lovely! 23 years ago I was tempted by a 1987 1.3 litre petrol engined Jetta in a metallic beige colour (UK spec). Probably about as slow as this diesel model. Always liked the styling of these.

the Jetta was always underappreciated. I'm amazed at how well the paint held up under all that muck, except the horizontal surfaces for obvious reasons. Nice original rims and solid body after this long time, looks like she was parked in a rather dry spot. Nice job bringing this baby back to life!

Where do you find all these abandoned cars and motorbikes?!

Wow the car looks amazing after them years of just sitting with muck on it with the polishing it looks amazing you did a great job keep up the hard work and thanks for the content stay safe and hope you and family are doing well

Found this video so satisfying to watch, Michael! Great work on putting in lots of elbow grease on this 1989 VW Jetta. You're quite the entrepreneur to fund your project Porsche this way! I can relate. Keep up the great work with more great content like this that inspires others to go out there and do the same.

The best thing about your results….. you ended with an honest car. It’s a beautiful modern classic that has been saved and preserved. Good on you!!!

As always another great effort! A couple tips. 1. Presoak car before pressure washing. Use detergent. half cup to two gallons water and add either bleach or hydrogen peroxide as well half cup. 2. Wrong buffing pad. Use sheeps wool for heavy cutting and clean frequently by spiinning and applying a screw driver blade to wool pad to prevent buildup. 3. Rent an ozone machine to deodorize a car like this

You did an amazing job on this beautiful Jetta. I am working on my 88 Jetta that has sat for about 9 years after it was wrecked by my uncle. I can't wait to have mine up and running. Keep up the great work!

My second car was a Red 1990 Jetta GTI that looked almost identical this this - Brings back such memories - Great restoration so far

I remember when my parents bought a new diesel Jetta in the summer of 1985. It was silver. They had it for years. The interior of this car brought back memories of family trips. So nice to see this car being cared for. Keep up the nice work.

Nice job! These old Jettas are great drivers, designed to drive, not to look at. Very ergonomic, easy access to front, back and trunk. The range of view to the outside while driving is outstanding with minimal obstruction to a 360 degree view. Very stable at high speeds. I think the speedo goes to 130 mph and they will go that fast. Nothing fancy and "just enough to do the job" German engineering and quality. Great cars. If I could only drive one car for the rest of my life, this model of Jetta would be at the very top of my list. Not sure about the diesel version as I never owned one....

Had one in college. Same color, with tan/brown interior. Always loved that car.

Well done! I have an Golf 1.8 "engine code RP" from 1992 sitting in my workshop. It sat in a garden for four years with water ingress. I took the whole interior out, powerwashed the carpets and shampooed the seats. Now it´s stripped, waiting to be resurrected. Damn good quality! Love your wheels, here we had them on GTI´s, Golf, Jetta and Scirocco.

Amazing job mate, congratulations. You have restored the glow without removing the scars :)

Hello from Holland 💖 I showed this to my cat He didn't understand it. He’s a cat.

It’s always nice to own a new VW but something nostalgic about driving an older VW Jetta, they never go out of style.

Nice job. A great start on bringing the car back to life. You gave the next owner a great foundation to work from. Amazing it weathered the years so well! 👍

I always feel so sad seeing cars like this not taken care of.

Pro tip , for the black plastic bumper and side trim use a heat gun to just heat the plastics enough to bring the natural oils within back to the surface , take care not to overheat any area and warp the plastic. Those 'back to black' products don't last very long.

I watched the 89 jetta how a bit of effort makes such a difference good man nice to see keep up the good work...respect man...respect

@4:35 The clear coat is gone. The compound is absorbing into the base coat. If there were still clear coat it would create the barrier that it’s meant to do, and the compound wouldn’t stick. For this car the same or similar results could have been achieved with a quick detail wax and the speed and friction of the buffer. The compound is actually removing some of the base coat/paint, evident in the red paint picked up by the buff pad.

Ótimo trabalho! Resultado muito bom e não ficou caro! Parabéns!!! Great job! Very good result and it was not expensive! Congratulations!!!

Amazing how well it turned out. About the hard start, you may need to replace the glow plugs/control relay.

Great work. I am glad that there are people who actually save and repair things, and not throw them away.

Very helpful info on detailing, but more to the point, great presentation!

I took the time to polish my 89 tornado red coupe. After a few weeks it turned dull red again. I pretty much only polished it to prove to a few friends of mine that I could bring it back to life.

It cleaned up beautifully! Nice little car!

Impressive transformation for sure. Amazing what can be accomplished with a little compound and some elbow grease. Good job!

A massive improvement. You could flip her for a decent profit from just doing that.

Howdy,your hard work on the car cleaning n detailing turn out really well, great job Michael.

Wow. Just a good cleaning made that car look completely different great job

A good tip that works on those old VW plastics is mask off the surrounding paint and gently dust back and forth on the plastics with a heat gun ,not too close and don't stay in one spot too long .the results are awesome and permanent Love the Jetta

I agree with Finn. Whip out the seats and carpets. Give them a good soak with detergent then pressure wash and watch them come back to life. Faded black carpets respond to a light coat of matt black spray paint massaged into the pile with a stiff brush. Great video

Jetta Mk2 brought me lots of beautiful memories. 😍😍😍 My father has driven a white Jetta Mk2 for many years. We travelled across the Europe and Jetta hes never disappointed us, never left us on the road. And few years ago, he decided to sell it and buy VW Passat 2020. He sold Jetta to a guy who seemed very down to earth and cool, seemed like he will keep Jetta safe, but instead of it, he made a fuking pickup truck of her. Man I was so sad and angry 😠

You sure love those vw's!!! Nice job !!! thanx for the content.

Look at the detail geek’s channel, there are some good detailing tools like the brush drill.

If it was closer I'd buy it instantly, love this red skittle ❤️

Finally, washing the car the right way ,from top to bottom. Why do so many people start at the bottom? I don't get it,but i'm glad to see you doing it correctly . Nice job.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non GLI red Jetta before. That is a rare find! It came out great

I'm no professional detailer either but I was thinking you want to use a wool cover. But yea keep it moist is what you want

Thanks youtube for letting me discover this heavenly channel

Great little fix-up project! Far less investment in time & parts for a once-over mechanical and a detail!

Brother you totally brought that little Jetta back to life!!!! She came out amazing, whoever winds up with that, should have a sweet little daily driver!!! That should last a couple hundred thousand more miles!!!

OMG your making me want to detail my dad's 91 Jetta diesel red also that is sitting in my shop now

A cheap hack for plastics is baby oil. Even on coloured plastic garden furniture that has oxidised, just coat it and leave it to dry in the sun. Then repeat a couple of times! The Jettas in the UK were with dark grey bumpers, not black! As an ex sprayer, use a little spray of water with the compound, it will make it easier to use - ok you get a little more splatter, but it'll make it easier!

I had a 1985 same color, 5 speed manual just like it! Man I miss that car! Great video and I just may have to go our and get me one now too! Enjoy your Jetta! They are super fun to drive and super cheap to keep! And the gas mileage is incredible from what I remember!

Nicely done! If ever I'd find such a beaut, in that condition, I'd spray it with clear coat sealing all that moss etc, keeping its patina! :D

Nice vw thos things run forever, well the older ones. You made this jetta look very nice... I would love to own this

What a difference! Nice work!

Great job on that car, had no idea it would run far less clean up that well!

Future reference for smells. I learned from this older gentleman when I detailed cars for a used car lot. He would set the car out in the sun on a 90+ degree day or roll up all the windows and blast the heat and have chlorine in a cup in the cup holder and just wait a few hours. It would clean any smell out of a car within a few hours.. if not. Wait longer.

Always love a good detail video

Excellent work!

That Volkswagen Jetta Diesel,Gt,or Gts is starting to look good for an 1980s car once it is fully detailed inside & waxed outside bringing that shine out it will look awesome.

Looking awesome. Well done,

Oh sweet gotta love the vw's. I picked up a mk4 jetta from lady I work with $100 needs a slave cylinder 👍. Gonna keep it and vr6 swap my current jetta engine into it.

I have owned 3 MK1 and 3MK2 and they by far are my favorite

Nice job, great little flip will make someone a nice little economical runner. Good work keep it up.

Looks great, with all the effort and time spent. Would sell quickly in California. No Smog late model Mk2. Perfect car for engine swap. Really enjoyed your content. Thanks for sharing.

Looking so good!

Cracking little car, I had a 97 mk3 1.9 tdi Jetta (Vento here in the UK) and I loved it!!

The jetta is sweet!!!! I have been a vw person my whole life..manuel tranny rocks! I've been detail cleaning my car interiors for many years to showroom quality regularly..I enjoy the hard work put into it..and the results are spotless everytime.

They all have a story. TY once again!

I'm fixing up a 92 Jetta so this was especially nice! My interior was just as nasty, too! It's great to see the old Jetta shine, even if it's one of those stinker old rattletrap diesels.

It´s looks great, it´s a nice car !! Good work again !

Grear looking lil Jetta great to see every project your learning summat new

Great job, greetings from Hungary, keep going, I like your videos :)

That’s the sound of every taxi in the U.K., for the whole of the 1990’s 😂

Your job is very important to us, the VW and Audi fans!!! Thank you!!!!

Great job! Be blessed!

Looks great!

Amazing. Well done.

Looks good!

She came out brilliant :)

A neighbor of mine has one, mint condition, same color, refuses to sell it...I’d drive this car everyday, love the style and reliability of this particular model.

I was thinking all along please remember detailing the bumpers and sidetrim. My Golf mk2 85 also ended up having this strange black/gray/whiteish color which looks like c... the solution and result was the same as yours🙂

Nice. She cleans up really well.

In England I used to own a 1985 Mk 2 VW Golf CL 1300, it was the same colour ( think it’s Gambia red). It was my grandfather’s car from new. Seeing this video makes wish I still had it.

Great video, cleaned up nice , love all your projects, problem is I would want to keep them all. Good luck, thanks.

Holy damn that cleaned up very well.

@6:50 pops is bored back there, give him somethin’ to do 🤣

My 91 coupe sat inside for 6yrs and looked all chalky like that , a little polish and it's poppin almost like new. Single stage paint ftw

Really great job my friend 🥇

Location and asking price did you get all the dash functioning as well as everything else or where does it stand?

Amazing paint recovery... very satisfying video recording, thanks for posting. Use more polishing compound, use more water from spray bottle as you go, then simply hose off residue when moving on to new panel, polishing is complete just hose off compound with lots of water water maybe wipe if you have to. Use stiff paper or cardboard when spraying product to block overspray to areas you don't want to hit.

I wish you could buy a car of that quality today. We had a Rabbit diesel and it was a great car and lasted for ever.

It's good to see you have another bill going it will make your channelkeep up on the little projects as well it'll make you glow up and I'll keep watching because you're hilarious and good to watch

Nice job fellas👍👍👍

Perfect audio music for the perfect way you cleaning up that car2😊