Right, 'ere we go then... The carcass was then handed over to the body shop guys for media blasting and the panels went off to a third party to be acid dipped. The intention was obviously to reveal any hidden areas of corrosion. I wasn't looking forward to this bit as I knew it could lead to more than I bargained for... Panels Wings Like new! Hatch and Driver Door Can't fault the VW paint quality, they're so clean for 30 yr old bits of steel. Passenger Door (and Repair) The only repair found on the metalwork. I was starting to get nervous, this was going too well... Body Shell I'll start at the front and work towards the rear. Just to say the bare metal was zinc phosphate primed to prevent any areas of rust from progressing any further. Front Panel Nice and clean, just a couple of small patches on the bonnet lock plate... Front Inner Wings and Fire Wall All good... Except for the battery plate. Windscreen Sill The reason my fuse box got wet when it rained. Right Rear Quarter Not too bad but the rust around the fuel filler would still require a repair. And of course there was the wheel arch... Right Rear Wheel Arch Not as bad as the left side but still shocking considering I could only see a bit of bubbling on the surface. Left Rear Quarter Wait for it... Left Rear Wheel Arch This was the worst of the damage found. Glad I caught it in time, the inner sill wasn't affected. Rear Panel Tidy except for where the valance meets the left arch. Wheel Well Apparently in the usual place, under the bracket next to the rear valance where the water collects in the gap. Floor Pan Excuse my ignorance, I don't know what to call it but one of the 'ribs' reinforcing the floor pan was rusting on the fixing plate. It had also been bent (presumably from a misplaced jack) so would require replacing. In all, I was very pleased that the blasting hadn't revealed any bodged repairs or hidden surprises and it justified the timing of the restoration (all be it more by luck than judgement ). Anyway, eyes have gone square so I'll be back next week to show off the metal work. Thanks for reading...
It's quite fascinating seeing the shell after being media blasted like that. There's quite a lot of work to do now, but you can really see what you're dealing with.
Got some free time again so here's the next chapter... Once the stripdown and blasting were complete (end of November 2012) the panel beater started to repair all the damaged areas. Most of the small or complex sections were fabricatied from scratch only the rear wheel arches, rear valance and fuel filler were repaired with preformed panels. Body Shell Front Panel The bonnet lock plate was cut out, measured up and a new piece welded back in place... Sorted, 'scuse the blurry image... Battery Plate This was removed as we decided to put the battery in the boot to help with weight distribution. Scuttle Tray After removing the cover we discovered the middle section had a few holes in it. So it was replaced... All done. Windscreen Sill Having a leaky seal ment the section had a few areas of corrosion to address. Cut section... Replacement... Welded and primed... Fuel Filler The inner panel was not in good shape so... New panel ready to go. In place... And of course the corrosion affected the outer panel as well. Huge number of images for this instalment so I've split it into three parts. This is the end of part 1, part 2 below...
Left Rear Wheel Arch Start at the front... Nice new shiny arch. Onto the rear corner, inner panel... Outer panel... Right Rear Wheel Arch Start at the front... Corrosion removed... Inner sill repaired... Outer Sill Repaired... Rear Valance Wheel Well New bracket and repair... Rust removed and ready for welding. This is the end of part 2, part 3 below...
And finally, Chassis Rail Quite a big hole on the fixing plate which had gone through to the floor pan underneath and a reasonable dent on the front half. Floor pan... Fixing plate and rail... Floor Pan/Sill Some damage and corrosion to the folded join between the floor pan and outer sill, situated just behind the front right arch. Damage removed and primed... Repaired... Floor Pan Adjacent to the damage described above was an area of rust which looked to be slowly working it's way through the floor pan. Rear section in place... Front section in place... In all, this work was complete by mid December, taking just over two weeks. As you would expect I was chuffed to bits as my car was now rust free and I could stop stressing about any potential delays to getting the body shell painted and fully protected again. Looking at the pictures after all this time, I'm still amazed how precise a skilled labourer can be, with just a lick of primer my untrained eye has trouble spotting the repaired areas. As usual, thanks for reading...
WOW!!! The pictures are excellent, they realy show whats been wrong and how it been put right!! Love this thread!!!
With the metal work complete the car was passed onto the body shop for the prep and paintwork to be started. Even though I did toy with the idea of painting my car a different VAG colour I did chose to keep the car it's original colour, Alpine White and when you see the results I think you'll agree it was a good decision... Surface Preparation First things first, the panels were sprayed with a coat of filler to create a constistent surface to which a 'guide coat' is applied. The surfaces are then block sanded to identify any surface or inconsistencies. Panels As you may have noticed from previous posts, the bonnet wasn't acid stripped with the other panels. As there was no corrosion and the paintwork was still in good condition the body-shop wanted to ensure the sealer between the panel and frame was kept intact. Plus initial guide coat... Body Shell Primer Coat A beige 2K primer was then applied to every square inch of exposed surface. Again, a guide coat was applied to all the surfaces to help identify any surface inconsistencies. Panels Body Shell Underside Coat The floor pan, inner wings and the inside of the outer wings were given a coat of 'specially mixed' bed liner to match the body colour. The aim being to provide a good protective coat for the exposed surfaces of the vehicle without comprimising the 'show car' appearance. Laquered Base Coat The base coats were applied iteratively and laquered with a grip coat and two final coats to give that extra depth to the finish. Panels Body Shell And here's the final look, body shell with all the panels all lined up. What can I say, it's just like she stepped out of a factory... Actually, even better than that, considering the materials and techniques used are bang upto date and the surface preparation was anal to say the least. So happy with the results... Well, that's me for the day. Hope to get onto the assembly write up next week. Thank you for reading...
Great reading, great work and looks fantasic, Like the way you have shown the repairs, looks like a busy workshop!!
Back again for my usual Saturday therapy session... It was now January 2013, the paintwork was complete, I was buzzing and it was time to finalise the specs for the build and start the assembly. After much contemplation I had decided that I wanted a responsive set up to compliment the agility of the original car. This meant I would have to upgrade the engine and running gear to ensure it was reliable and safe so the workshop put me in contact with a man who could build me an engine before we started to spec out the rest of the build. Decisions, Decisions... Engine Rebuild With my lack of engineering background I had some vague ideas of how to achieve the response (throttle bodies) I wanted from the engine but no clue what impact that would have on the whole build. After talking through some alternatives with the engineer we plumped to keep the engine 8v and increase it's capacity slightly to 2.0l, which meant I could keep the original head and replace the lower end with minimal fuss. He also presented a whole spectrum of options when considering how far I could go with the rebuild, ranging from the simple to the ridiculous and everything in between. At one end of the scale; a straight forward rebuild with new standard parts and throttle bodies which would deliver about 140 bhp, alternatively a fully tuned engine with forged internals, larger ports/valves, upgraded cam, forged crank (lightened and knife-edged) and engine management system (Omex 600) to deliver the potential 210 bhp to the wheels without them bursting into flames. With the mechanical injection system gone, I would be effectively doubling the power of the original engine and reducing the weight over the front axle. Was I mental? This wasn't my initial intention but the thought of it raised the hairs on the back of my neck every time I looked at the specs. This was a big decision to make as it would push my limits financially and I didn't know whether it would suit the car. After a couple of weeks of umm-ing and argh-ing I jumped in with both feet and got the workshop to source a 2.0l block, then went to the bank to borrow some money. Running Gear In the meanwhile, I had to revise the specs for the running gear to cope with the revised engine output. So I sat down with the guys from the workshop again, to say we were excited would be an understatement... Transmission - O2J Gearbox. Low mileage, stripped and rebuilt. - O2J Hydraulic clutch conversion. Stronger and removes the need for any cheese wire in the engine bay. - G60 flywheel, lightened. - VW Polo GTI 6n2 cable shifter. - Gripper LSD. Recommended as one of the most progressive diffs on the market I hope it will counteract the potential for huge torque steer. Steering - New MkI rack gaiters. - New MkI rod ends. - Quaife quick rack kit. Suspension - Refurb'd front wishbones. Seam welded to reduce flex. - Refurb'd rear beam. - Refurb'd MkI front hubs. - New MkI front bearing kit. - New MkII rear bearing kit. - Bilstein B12 kit. - Eibach lowering springs (-30mm). - Eibach front/rear anti-roll bars. - OMP upper/lower front and upper rear strut braces. - Superpro polybush full kit. Brakes - New MkII disc stub axles. - New G60 front discs (280mm) and calipers. - New MkII rear discs (239mm) and calipers. - Custom brake bias box (Wilwood master cylinders). Wheels and Tyres - 15 x 7'' wheels to cope with the extra power and larger brake discs. - 195/50 R15 tyres to maintain the original rolling radius. Assembly (Part 1) As January progressed the engine went off to be re-engineered and the guys at the workshop got down to ordering parts and putting my car back together again. I started to source the hard to find parts and extras that I wanted for the cabin, a strangely absorbing task (geek alert). Sound Deadening The assembly started with lining the body shell with Dynamat to reduce road and engine noise in the cabin. Shiny Bits The parts had started to arrive at the workshop. I just love opening presents... All the brackets and bolts went off for zinc plating and came back looking better than new. Steering Nice rack... Fitted, including the new Quaife quick rack kit. Suspension Original, MKI/MKII components looking like new. Seam welded front wishbones, phwoa... Primed... And ready to go. Bottom mounts colour matched to Bilstein dampers. Once all the refub'd components had dried they were lined up ready for assembly. Front dampers complete with lowering springs (-30mm). And fitted... Rear dampers complete with lowering springs (-30mm). Ready for the rear beam... ARB fitted... Mounted to the chassis, love the dash of red. Body coloured strut braces to blend in with the rest of the paintwork. As usual, I'll continue the assembly in a separate post so I can show all the images. Part two to follow...
Assembly (Part 2) Through January and into February the build kept going at some pace... Electrics An all new wiring loom was installed and modified to accommodate the new engine, management system (Omex 600) and ICE. Transmission Whilst the chassis was being worked on the O2J gear box arrived, was stripped and rebuilt from scratch. New bearings fitted. The resident engineer sets the end float for the gearbox shims (two were replaced and one was in perfect working order). Exterior and Interior Trim/Fittings Unfortunately, I don't have many photos of the exterior fittings being installed but here's what I have got... Fuel System New fuel tank in place. Fitted the refurb'd swirl pot with a new stainless steel bracket and connected with a braided hose. The finishing touch... Brakes The up-rated calipers arrived and were fitted without any fuss, thank you V.A.G. for your interchangeable design. I had also finally made a decision about the wheels, as you can see from the images above, albeit from a distance... Wheels and Tyres With the larger discs on the front and rear I had to look at going to 15 x 7'' wheels and 195/50 R15 tyres if I was going to keep my rolling radius. The larger wheels proved a bit of an issue stylistically as I wanted to keep the car looking as stock as possible on the outside and I didn't want to go down the usual BBS route. I started to search for something period and European, I found plenty of options in thirteens (the Ronal Kleeblatt and Spiess RS2 were my favourites) but nothing that really stood out in fifteens. So I resorted to looking at custom and JDM wheels (RS Velgen, Image Wheels, HTN, Watanabe, SSR), unfortunately they were all out of my price range so I kept on searching, Photoshopping everything I came into contact with onto my Golf. Then I found some nice understated, 'race' inspired alternatives by Work (Meister CR01) and started to price them up, still too expensive but in my search I found that Rota did some copies, in black and +38 offset, exactly the same as the original Tarantulas. Plus they were within my price range but would they suit the car? I was very pleased with the result, a little of left field when it comes to the usual VW scene but the colour and inner bolts visually reduce the size of the rim. Combined with the Michelin Pilots I achieved what I set out to do, keep a performance stance with a an 'over engineered' flavour. The only issue the workshop had fitting them was with the centre bore plus the rim wasn't flush with the outside of the wheel arch so they commissioned some custom spacers to fix both issues with one solution. . Current Status Due to personal reasons I run out of funds at the end of last summer so she's standing idle at the workshop at the moment and it's driving me nuts. I'm working hard to purchase the outstanding parts with the aim to get her back on the road for summer, whether that is achievable remains to be seen. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the engine arrived back at the workshop with the Jenvey throttle bodies... All the major elements are in now ready to drop in when I'm flush again... I will add more pictures of the engine rebuild when they arrive, along with the final specs. The piece of paper sellotaped to the top has the measurements for the custom 4>2>1 manifold and exhaust system written on it ready to go, boy that is going to sound awesome when I finally get to fire her up. And on that note... (no pun intended) As usual, thanks for reading and keep those replies coming in.
Really like this and how you have went about the rebuild Proper Job with the right fellas working on her. Your thinking on the rims's is spot on my friend why be a trend follower when you can be a trend setter
Nah worries Dan, I knew they were going to be a Marmite subject but I hope they might inspire a conversation or two.
Quick update... Two weeks ago, I had an unexpected brush with fire (not being too specific) this experience whilst shocking did have a silver lining and I've got my financial situation sorted again. So the guys at the workshop have officially been given the green light, with the aim to get the car finished by the August bank holiday weekend so I can hopefully show it off at the Retro Rides Gathering. I will keep posting any more completed work as it happens over the next few months so watch this page. Thanks very much for reading. Please feel free to add your comments below. P.S. Here is that picture of the Jenvey throttle bodies I promised :
