'83 Golf - BBS Bodykit - After crash Resto Project - Off to paint again!!!

Tel me about it Nige! - I gave myself 6 months to get it re-painted and back on the road so I could take it on a Euro road trip. The gearbox I stripped using a large flat bladed screwdriver haha!

Really want to get it in paint within the next few months! Otherwise I'll threaten to burn it.. like I do every year!

Spent an hour yesterday rearward of the main floor pans and I'm focusing my efforts on the rear chassis rails and cross member - the good news is though that it's only superficial surface rust and seems to be cleaning off fairly well...

Not much has changed but always nice to have pics!







Hopefully spend a bit more time on it this week as I need to get the rollover jigs back to their rightful owner fairly sharpish!

Alfie

 

Animal! lol

 

Right well after thinking I would have the car back from Spikes for 10 weeks max, It's actually been just over 8 months A LOOOOOOOOONG 8 Months The bonus of having a family I guess!

So after the initial investigation of the underbody of the car, apart from a few small areas around the rear chassis legs and the rear beam mounts, the car looked pretty sweet

Despite this, and for reason's i'm still unable to quite figure out, I decide to embark on a perfect lesson of "how to waist a LOT of time for no real gain", and started to remove ALL the underseal you know, just to make sure!! I also didn't want to use a wire wheel and go back to bare metal, as this will just get damp, start to oxidise and then that's a whole new pain in ass to deal with.. So I opted for a heat gun, chisel, plastic scraper, scouring pads and a lot of thinners. Had I used a wire wheel I'd have been done in a few weeks, this way though..Waaay slower, but I got to keep all the original factory primer coating in tact which is a real bonus in my eyes.

Anyway, it turns out that wasn't really necessary as the cars almost completely rust free! Oh Well! Despite this, I'm pretty happy with the end result (even if the end result is not having all the original underseal on haha)

I also took all the running gear, brake pipes, fuel lines, suspension etc off so I can renew this before putting the car back on its wheels.

I'll let the pictures do the talking

 

Love that you haven't given up after all these years and it's slowly becoming something really special and reflects the mammoth effort you're putting into it.

Keep up the great work and keep us posted.

Cheers

Paul

 

Cheers Paul, thanks for the kind words! Doing the underside has put the project back nearly a year, had I not bothered I would have had it back from paint by now! But part of me needed to know that if the Top half was getting some attention the bottom half was also sound.. It did almost push me to breaking point though, even wrote up a for sale advert earlier this year!... But to be honest it owes me way too much of my time to let it go now!! Just wish I had more time, skill and money...

It's my 30th this year so I really want to make some BIG progress - 5 years is a long time to be messing about!!

 

30? I've got jumpers older than you! lol

Just to give you the sh*ts here's what I found under the arches of my MK2.



That's a line of dust which came off with a wipe of a wet rag and all 4 arches were like that, we don't get much rust here in rural Australia. Even my MK1 has very little rust, just a couple of small patches that are easy to fix. That's why I'm in awe of the work you've done and the persistence you've shown.

 

Hi Alfie.
Are you still here?

 

Still here..

 

Back to the paintshop round 3!!!

SO! It's been a LOOOOOONG time coming but the car has finally gone to paint again (in fact I got the shell back a few weeks ago after just over two months away and I'm just waiting on the panels)!!

I was hoping to get the paintwork done by Spikes, who put the roof on and had the car for a bit a year or so ago, but with my budget being quite tight, more work required on the underside, a second baby last November and the fact that he is over 2 hours away from me, made things a little harder to come together.

I have done some web work for a company in my home town over the last few years who currently do dashboard flocking but had previously owned a classic ford restoration company. They recently moved to a larger premises with a huge booth and have started to do more paintwork again.. Last time I was down there they said that once the Ferrari F40 was out the way they had a slot for mine IN TWO WEEKS!!! So rather than burn the car to the ground I took it to them to make some progress on it!

I'll let the MANY MANY pics do the talking!

Off she goes - knocked on a guys door round the corner from me who had this van and asked if he could help me move a car, was happy to help for just 20!



New home for the next month or so



Intricate rub down across the whole shell to remove any surface rust picked up whilst in storage



Rub down inside



Started working on the underside (I went down a few days and helped out with this part)





Bit of filler work on the arch (was in two minds whether or not to completely re-do the arches, so bought some panels, but in the end decided that as long as I was happy with a skim of filler we'd stick with what we have)



Bit of filler work to sort out a little dent in the quarter, pretty much the only other filler on the car



Onto the fabrication and rectifying the issues from the previous paintshop.







Car then went off the the blasters to have the rear chasis legs, petrol tanks and boot floor area a bit of a cleanup.



Lower rear panel and arch repair and a full coat of primer


















New lower rear panel on, I have LOADS of pics of the repair work in this area behind the panel but it's taken me ages to get this far, might put them up later.










Scuttle tray repair





Second coat of primer




Next up PAINT PIIIIICCCCCCSSSSS!!!!!!!!

 

Hats off to you for carrying on despite all the setbacks!

I'm starting a resto of a MK2 and I can only hope I'll have half of your perseverance and dedication!

Did you end up paying full price for that original respray?

 

Cheers bud, it's been a tough ride when you consider that it's just a car, the perseverance comes and goes and is only helped by long periods of not looking at it!

The original job was a straight swap for a website so technically I lost out the fee that I would have been paid for that, however no actually money changed hands which was some consolation.

 

Just finished sorting through the paintwork pics so here we go..

Missed this one from the previous set of pics, just before it's seconds prime..



Wasn't 100% on the colour choice (still even at this point, and was undecided between original Diamond silver and a more modern Reflex silver)..



Engine bay in paint



car in the booth ready for the underseal to go on




Underside in tinted underseal and base coat





Inside painted



Guide Coat




Masking of the bay and re-paint of the front of the chassis legs after removing the rollover jig



Base coat




Lacquer






Shell out the booth ready for collection




Safe and sound back in the Garage until the new year!!


Stone Chip


Inside



There you have it... Only taken nearly 4 years to get to this stage since it last came back from paint!..

Just waiting for the doors, boot, wings and bonnet now..

 

Fantastic job it just goes to show the amount of work that goes into a paint job, even though you probably missed the masking up etc in between each stage
Look forward to the build pics coming together!

 

Yeah, not too shabby! There was a lot of work involved just on the paint side, especially as I had the whole under side painted too!

Will be cracking on with the build in a week or two so I can get it back on it's wheels, so should have some more pics soon!

 

YES!

 

Cheers buddy lol

Found some time this week to pull the rear beam and front hubs apart in preparation for refurb and powder coating.

Also put together a little facebook page to document the build along side this thread. I know some of my friends and family don't go on here so thought what better way to bore them with all the details! Like and share if you get a spare moment!!

https://www.facebook.com/mk1project83/

Cheers Guys

 

Got my decal set in the post too. Hopefully they will flatten out..

 

Bit of a update, although I haven’t really worked on the car other than attempting to strip the suspension, since around March this year!

I still need to find some locking rings for my Koni Coilovers before I can get the thing back on four wheels and get it back to the paint shop for the wings, doors, bonnet and tailgate which are still yet to be painted!

Anyway a few of the most recent pictures for your enjoyment























I think the poweder coater may have misunderstood the masking point on the spindles!!



Luckily after a few painful hours with a Stanley blade and some very fine emery paper, I think I’ve managed to save them!