AT LAST! Hairys Resto!!

Hammer lol. Where the sill meets the rear arch, I had to flatten the arch panel a bit where the sill runs into it if you know what I mean. The swaige line is barely there on mine. I'm just hoping that the sill trim doesn't look too pronounced.

Good work with the welding   I have never welded anything in my life being a pen pusher  

Must be great to see the progress taking shape

A good tool to make yourself is a nylon or delrin drift.
About an 8" length x 40mm diameter and shave the end down to a wedge shape like a chisel and round the end and corners off. its good for knocking in if used gently along with a shaped metal dolly on the back of the panel.
Put the shaped dolly in the vice and knock the drift along the fold / swage line you want to increase/create. you need to get a lump of steel to make the "female" dolly and grind in the shape. The better you make the tool the better the outcome.

Andy - Yes that makes sense, I understand

Bronze - me too until this resto as I'm a bit of a pen pusher too but have always liked to get my hands dirty!

Graham - Ah got it, can see how that can work. I'm not sure I've got the wherewithal to make that all up - I guess CBA!!   Seriously though I do want it to look even at least so will employ some method along these lines perhaps to get it sorted. Cheers for the tip  

wow, lots of great work gone into this man. hats off to you!

Cheers Browner

Well another 'spot the difference' update pic!  



I've not quite finished tonight but not many welds left to go. Hopefully I've got a full weekend shut away in the garage this week so can get this done and crack on with the sill, B-post and filler panel too if time permits!

One question, I've been gradually filling the gaps with welds, and mostly getting a full seam of welds. If you look at the pic below you can see that there are clearly spaces I need to fill, but where you have a really small gap such as <1mm, should I fill these too or just leave? Any advice on that point appreciated  

Leave them Andy but I can tell you stopped clamping at some point as your welds aren't  ground down!

Ha ha, busted!! Actually I have been clamping still but found because of the lift I was getting in places clamping was making no difference as it's such an awkward place to clamp.

I've got some narrowish clamps so managed to squeeze these between welds where needed

I'll see what it looks like when all down and ground down. The body solder kit arrived the other day so will be having a play with that  

Glad I never had to do this to mine, much patience needed  

Looks good though, bit of grinding and will look brand new.  

Matt

Hope so. Got my body solder kit at the ready if needed

Morning update whilst I have some lunch. Well I say morning, I didn't hit the garage until almost 11am  

So the arch is finished - well the welding is at least;





I will have a bit of 'sculpting' to do on the rear corner where it meets the rear panel. Will see what can be done with the body solder kit there.

I almost forgot about welding inside the arch panel where it meets the rear panel - the clamp that's been holding it the last week reminded me!    It wasn't the easiest to access being upside down but was pleased with the welds;



Got good penetration on the backside too! (haven't used that one for a week or so   )



I also had to clamp down the edge of the inner arch tub (black panel) and weld that to the outer arch panel too. A pig to reach up there but again, I'm pleased with the results;



I haven't ground any welds down yet, will look at that later. In the meantime I've started to turn my attentions to the OS sill which will need a lot of fettling to get it fitting right I think - not due to the panel but due to the mess left by the previous owner welding a sill straight on top of the original  

Before I stripped the car fully 'some' years ago, I took two measurements between the A and B posts, so I could check nothing had shifted. Maybe I should have braced it too? Anyway, below pics you can see where I wrote the dimensions on in black pen;




I checked them roughly with a tape measure - the bottom dimension seemed bang-on but the top one was showing 20mm more!!      Talk about a twitchy ring moment! I trial fitted the door again and at first that didn't fit right either, it was fouling against the B post near the bottom. PANIC!!!  However, I got a length of string and held it tight between the two measuring points, marked it, held it against my tape measure and it is still bang-on. Phew, panic over!  

Sadly as my garage is so narrow I can't properly fit the door but managed to get the lower hinge bracket clamped together after 'inserting' the door in to place. This is the first time a door has been on the car for over 6 years!  



This is the original door, which wont be re-used as the bottom is rotten but as it's got all the seals fitted still it's good enough for checking fitting and after a bit of messing about it looks like it will be ok.

So a productive few hours this morning. Back out in the garage shortly to start getting the sill to fit  

Andy, your doing a cracking job considering you don't have a roll over jig, fair play to you mate!!  All your welds are spot on now

You'll get this done in no time

Cheers Andy   I am really pleased with it as I didn't get any distortion so the patience paid off - something I struggle with sometimes! Also I didn't blow any holes, happy days  

Progress is less obvious this afternoon. I have started to grind back the welds but don't want to go crazy and put too much heat in to it so this will be done over time;



I've turned my attentions to the OS sill now, which I think will take much patience and time to get right, compounded by what was done by the previous owner. They had just taken a whole sill panel and welded it over the top of the original. When I removed it, it looked like the original sill rust was minimal and could have been patched. Sadly though, they didn't do a great job and water had got in behind the outer sill and rotted the bottom of the B-post area. When I removed the sill at the beginning of the resto, I removed the bare minimum of metal until all the rot was gone. To see the issues I now have you can see the big empty spaces between the original bodywork and my new sill panel  



I have got a section of lower B-post cut off another MK1 to weld in, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to butt weld it, not overlap so the door aperture shape is not compromised - thoughts welcome on this one!

Where the left edge of the sill panel meets the new arch panel I've joggled the edge so I can overlap the joint here and keep it relatively flush;



I'll continue with this tomorrow. I hope I can at least get to a point of being ready to weld, so can continue that during the evenings next week. The panels from VW Heritage now come unpainted, so I'll have to treat and paint the whole panel.

 

Good work man  

More good work mate, your on fire atm

Re the bottom of the 'B' post, I'd butt weld if it were me. I'd repair the post before fitting the sill, that way you can overlap the new sill on top of the new B post. I'd butt weld it the same way I did with the 'A' post scuttle area on my car(see pics), leave a slight gap between the new piece and the existing. This way you haven't got 2 overlaps.





Hope this helps mate

Coming along nicely    looks like you're on a mission  

Yep, on a mission to get it done for AGM - fingers crossed!  

Cheers for the pics Andy, yes I'm that way inclined too, Been thinking about it all day and had thought best to butt weld. Also planned to weld in the b-post section first. Just want to get sill ready to go on too so I know B-post alignment is spot on too.

Hopefully it will turn in to an exact science and not hit and miss!  

You can do it mate!!

Did a little job on the MK2 this morning, then on to the MK1. I'm now fitting the lower B-post repair. Cut and ready to go in;





It's not quite aligned in the first pic but it's now zinc primed on the rear and ready to weld in. Thanks to Chris Gordonthegolfer for double checking his door bottom to sill gap for me and Andy Melteddrummer for welding tips and general support - fretting a bit I may mess this one up but here goes!  

It's a bit tight for space today, with a door to keep to hand which I keep lifting on and off to check panel gaps and general fitting, there's not much space left for me!



Behind me is my MIG set so what you see is what you get - Cramp!!  

That's some cramped conditions right there! hope you've got your confined spaces ticket!!

Looking good on the B post mate!!