My 80 sport 8v has 162k miles on the clock and am thinking of an engine rebuild . It seems to perform OK  but unsurprisingly is a bit noisy. Any ideas of cost and any recommendations for who will do a great job. I am in Kent.

Also I would like to have the car resprayed in its original colour. I have not gone this far with a car before so would appreciate some guidance from those owners who have.

Hello Wayne,

If the car has been well maintained, oil and filter wise, then 162K should not dictate an engine rebuild. Noisy? Well worth getting the degree and origins of the noise diagnosed, before doing anything. 
Engine rebuilders (if necessary)? Comparatively few and far between these days, since engines last far longer than they used to, so you are going to struggle to find someone to do this - at any (considerable) cost. The only possibilities would be via. specialist classic car engine rebuilders - Google should come up with something if needed, but expect to pay well into four figures. 
Respray? If you are contemplating again spending four figure sums in this direction, then I would be approaching some local classic car owners and asking advice there. Body shops have generally developed into accident repair centres, allied to insurance companies, and they tend to turn away general full scale respray work on older vehicles, due to encountering the ‘unknown’. 
Perhaps you could let us know how you get on Wayne.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Many thanks for your help.

Will post how I get on. I may be panicking unnecessarily about the engine, it just sounds old. I know it has had the head skimmed at some point. The previous owner had it for 7.5 years and is used to older cars, he has a Scirocco and a TT he looks after so has kept it maintained .

Hi if you get the compression checked and that is ok chances are it is probably the timing chain if its not belt driven, apart from that the other thing could be worn cam followers, either of the above are cheaper than a rebuild.

Steve.

Many thanks, that's very helpful