82' tintop mini resto/winter work

Hairyarse said

I've missed your thread before, not sure how!!

Lovely colour that, will be nice when it's all done. Sanding filler - I hate that job! lol

Looks like you're getting stuck in well. A couple of comments if you don't mind them?

First off, I can understand if you want to do a windows in re-spray, although out is ideal (I assume that what you're doing) but take the rear lights off. It's so quick to, and will make finishing and painting the rear panel much easier.

(sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick!   )

Second, good call on zinc priming the inner wings. I had an inner sill repair on mine sit for 5 years ( ) in just zinc primer in my garage and it never rusted.   

Good luck with the resto, looking forward to updates

Thanks for the kind words, i do plan on a window out respray but im leaving the bodyshop to take the windows out, dont want to get involved with windows and seals etc haha! the info about the zinc primer has made me very happy    i wasnt too sure it would make a difference but yay!

Little bit of an update for you guys. So i started tacking the drivers side inner wing after removing most of the dash and carpeting etc.

Cut it out, made up a piece and tacked it in place.
I decided to do a bit of an overlap and weld it from the outside. I then plan to use a mass of seam sealer on the inside after treating and zinc spraying around the area, then seam sealing around the weld on the outside etc.


I also finished the inner wing mounts and sprayed with zinc spray


Only other thing i got done today was inside the front members (where the bumpers slot in), got them rust treated inside and zinc sprayed then sprayed with manilla green Here's a sneaky photo of how i left her tonight

Great work and top marks for diving in and having a go - I'm doing the same on mine and learning all the way!

I'll be keeping an eye on this one  

Yeah the zinc spray is good stuff! I did find (after advice on here) that welds are better on bare metal, despite it being weld through primer and then spray on the zinc afterwards - except for areas that you can't reach after of course.

Overlap joint is a good idea, esp. where it wont be seen as it saves blowing holes in the original metal! If you didn't already know, where you wont see welds don't grind them back as they lose some strength if you do. No big deal - the car wont fall apart! - but a lot of people have told me this.

Finally, do I take it the plate you've tacked on the inner wing you will fully seam weld it? (Joining the dots so to speak?!) - sorry again if I'm teaching you to suck eggs! lol

Good work, will be nice to see this one done  

Great work m8, your finding lots of nasties and previous owners bodged repairs but take your time and make it good and solid.

Don't worry about sill repairs just start off getting floor pan edge good and work your way out (inner sill then outer) plug welding each panel to previous. And use etch primer at each stage.

Keep it going mate will be worth it.

Hairyarse said

Yeah the zinc spray is good stuff! I did find (after advice on here) that welds are better on bare metal, despite it being weld through primer and then spray on the zinc afterwards - except for areas that you can't reach after of course.

Overlap joint is a good idea, esp. where it wont be seen as it saves blowing holes in the original metal! If you didn't already know, where you wont see welds don't grind them back as they lose some strength if you do. No big deal - the car wont fall apart! - but a lot of people have told me this.

Finally, do I take it the plate you've tacked on the inner wing you will fully seam weld it? (Joining the dots so to speak?!) - sorry again if I'm teaching you to suck eggs! lol

Good work, will be nice to see this one done  

Thanks for the advice, i wont grind it down now then haha, i was going to just because im picky but i'll leave it now. Yes i'v welded all around the patch now, applied some filler (very thin) and now seam sealed it all around after some zinc primer. I started doing another thing today on the top of the inner wing, i have a peice that im overlapping. Iv had a nightmare welding it!!! I seem to just burn the edges away of the piece im welding on and the welds arnt sticking to the metal. just sort of sticking to the edge and melting away the edge of the new metal. Such a pain, so tips with that?? angles, more wire? point right in the join or point ontop ? im really just unsure.

Welding old cars is so much fun! lol

If the weld isn't penetrating then you need to turn up the MIG. Trouble is, you'll blow more holes!  

Make a weld as you are, then do another spot next to the first, aiming your torch at the first weld. This should help you not blow holes (wont guarantee it though) and allow you to turn the MIG up a little.

If you have holes to repair and they're small, cut a length of copper pipe, slit it down the length then open up and flatten so you've got a flat piece of copper.

Clamp this behind the hole and weld it up - the weld wont stick to the copper  

Hairyarse said

Welding old cars is so much fun! lol

If the weld isn't penetrating then you need to turn up the MIG. Trouble is, you'll blow more holes!  

Make a weld as you are, then do another spot next to the first, aiming your torch at the first weld. This should help you not blow holes (wont guarantee it though) and allow you to turn the MIG up a little.

If you have holes to repair and they're small, cut a length of copper pipe, slit it down the length then open up and flatten so you've got a flat piece of copper.

Clamp this behind the hole and weld it up - the weld wont stick to the copper  

Hairyarse said

Welding old cars is so much fun! lol

If the weld isn't penetrating then you need to turn up the MIG. Trouble is, you'll blow more holes!  

Make a weld as you are, then do another spot next to the first, aiming your torch at the first weld. This should help you not blow holes (wont guarantee it though) and allow you to turn the MIG up a little.

If you have holes to repair and they're small, cut a length of copper pipe, slit it down the length then open up and flatten so you've got a flat piece of copper.

Clamp this behind the hole and weld it up - the weld wont stick to the copper  

Thanks! i had a play around with welding this evening, iv been using normal sheet steel with everything else, but with this piece i found hard to weld was cut from a door skin panel that i bought a while ago (now iv decided to buy a new door) which turns out to be galvanised which i think is where my problem is! I'll have another play about tomorrow. I'll also try your other trick! And the copper trick does work, i'v done that already with 2 holes i blew on my first ever patch in the spare wheel well thanks again

Quick little update!
Theres not much to update on, but the bodyshop have come round and seen everything, just waiting for quotes! I'v seamsealed and finnished off everything i'v started and i started grinding down any surface rust in the engine bay that i could get too with the engine still in. Treated and zic sprayed etc.

This weekend i'v got nothing done at all. Been very busy but…. i have bought a set of Twin 40 dellorto carbs on sytec throttle's AND picked up an 8v manifold! All very cheap, so im very happy with that! not looking forward to the poor mpg but hey, it'll be worth it! 

Hi guys,
Update for this week, got quite alot done this weekMy friend sent me a photo of my wheel centres being drilled, they're going off to the powdercoaters tonight to be re-done!
Should be all built up and done by next weekend! Only bbs e75's i know of in this countryRecieved my twin carbs in the post

So i went about stripping any bits of underseal underneath that was peeling or looked asif there was rust underneath. Good news there was nothing badEverything i found i wire wheel'd, treated then zinc sprayed.







I then cracked on at the least bad windscreen corner. I made up the inner wing top mount piece and welded it onto the other repair i done. (forgot to take a picture!)
Then cut up the repair section and tacked it in place. Im glad it was a good fit!




I then got it all ground down, zinc sprayed and seam sealed.

Dont know why my wheel picture disapeared off the last post but here you go…
 

Anyway, so i then applied a skim of filler and smoothed it out. Left it like this tonight, does need another skim of filler though.


i finnished off seam sealing round both turrets to a factory-ish look..



Thats all for now!

Hi all!

Its been a long time now since i did an update on here, and with the terrible weather outside i actually have some time now.
Been very busy since the last update, had alot of engine/carb problems etc.
Anyway, i'll start off from where i left off on the last update.

So after stripping underseal off the underneath, i then treated and zinc sprayed any surface rust to stop it from spreading and rusting any more!
I then stone chipped the whole underneath of the car, including all wheel wells/arches and inner wings.
Then i painted accordingly…










I was quite happy with how it all turnt out, looks alot better in my opinion!
What do you guys think on colour coded underneath and wheel arches etc?
 

Ok so after all that work on the underneath, i still had lots to do on the visible part of the car So i set at getting that windscreen corner perfect.. I dont think that was the final result but it was definatly the near last time i added a skim of filler haha. I set about tacking the rear arches and also the bottom of the rear wheel arch where it meets the sill, my rear door had dropped and took a massive chunk out of the corner and made it start to rust. so i'v sorted that out as you can see… one of the rear arches.. Im sorry for the lack of photos, i'v really not been taking many and this wasnt the finished product, i kept adding a skim and sanding back, adding a skim and sanding back etc. i'll get some final photos of things this week before it goes away for the final repairs and paint next weekend. Bodywork wise thats all iv done. But engine wise alot has happened. Now the engine bay was a complete MESS before, i really wanted a clean bay with as little wiring as possible. So here is the bay before, as you can tell the wiring was a COMPLETE MESS… Really not good, someone had really hacked away at the loom when doing the conversion and to be honest, just bodged the hell out of it. So me and a friend set about ripping off all the fuel injection and ecu etc and all the stuff that wasnt going to be needed with the carbs. There was a nightmare with the inlet manifold, it was wrong. So i had to quickly somehow find an inlet manifold for a 1.3 polo gt for twin carbs, which really wasnt going to be easy… but i found one from a guy local to me aswell So i went and picked it up along with 2 coilpacks and 2 dizzys for use with carbs. The dizzy is a mk2 golf 1.3 dizzy which has had the vacume advance removed and its been re weighted and balanced inside. So it turns out the PROPER inlet manifold was an absolute night mare, its a sorg motorsport manifold which is rare, but i HAD to grind the manifold right now to even get a stud and nut onto it and still there is no room to even turn a nut! had to grind the bloody nut down aswell! so im on a hunt for some thinner and slimmer m8 nuts! Iv ordered a service kit for the carbs, a friend is servicing the carbs while its away for paint etc. Then he's going to re wire the whole car for me once its back, i had no idea when it comes to wiring, compleatly baffles me, especially something this badly wired! Anyway heres the manifold problem.. Very stupid design, god knows what or how that was ment to be attached to the block!!  

Ok, so i thought i'd update this seen as i havent done it in such a long time!!
Very sorry for posting nothing for a long time, i didnt want to just leave it as an unfinished thread!
So.. alot has happened since the restoration stage..

The past 2 months iv been working on the engine, twin carb conversion and wireing. (i'll get to that later )
Back to the restoration stage.. After the last post it went to the bodyshop, hence why i forgot to post anything!
Because of the lack of room in my very small rented garage i couldent do the passenger sill.
So i bit the bullet and paid extra ontop of my paint job for the passenger sill, inner sill edges and floorpan edges to be done at the same time, along with that horrible rear seatbelt mounting point. I would of done these bigger jobs myself if i had the space. Anyway, so she went off to the bodyshop (westhertscustoms in hemel hempstead).
Work commenced after a little delay, along with frequent visits, heres some pictures i took/got sent..


Could be alot worse i suppose!


Peek a boo through the filler neck area, can see the rotten seatbelt mounting point.


Now onto the engine bay quickly Prepping the semi smoothed bay for paint..




All prepped and ready..




anddddd ta-da..

After abit more building up just before she got recovered back to my garage

 

Continuing on from the last post..
So i got the car back and currently the past 2 months iv been trying to do the carb conversion, re wire the whole car and get it running. Its been a massive ballache.
Its been 1 step forward 5 steps back the whole journey, couldent of done it without my mate darren so thanks for all the help so far!
I cant remember how far i got about the carbs on the post from ages ago, but i ended up getting a new set of carbs, fully reconditioned and jetted ready for my engine.
Finally sorted the inlet manifold, got the carbs on and worked on the ignition which was the biggest problem we had. Trying to work out the mk2 golf ignition module and wireing with the modified mk2 golf dizzy was just annoying. Turns out i needed a new ignition module in the end but thank god the custom dizzy worked. I bought all the stuff off a guy in bedford for only £40 i think! well worth it!
So, i wanted the engine bay to look nice, and i know you are all going to moan at me.. yes i should of done it when the engine was out but.. i painted the engine, gearbox and brake servo with brushable engine high heat enamel. I think i spent a total of 10 hours painting by hand.. well worth it though and i didnt spill a touch of paint 


Not bad if i say so myselfShe now runs (as of a week ago to this post right now) and idles nicely. Wire tucking and rewireing has started and the carb tuning man is coming tomorrow to properly set up my carbs! Wheels are also done, although 2 are currently being resealed due to slow leaks (what you expect with 3 piece splits) but here they are! 


And thats all for now folks. I plan to make " FUELED SOCIETY", "THE BIG MEET", "FITTED UK" "DC15" which are all in july, so if you fancy a chat or having a look, pop down! Hopefully i make them all  

corbyn1234 great transformation mate, you must be really pleased with that!

Are you coming to the AGM in a couple of weeks with it?

Hairyarse said

corbyn1234 great transformation mate, you must be really pleased with that!

Are you coming to the AGM in a couple of weeks with it?

Cheers andy, just wire tucking left now really.
Its a shame the agm is on the same day as another show my friends and i have planned to go to

Ah nooo! That's a shame.

AGM is three days if your show isn't, maybe you can come to one of them?

Engine bay, wheels, paint, everything looking great, well done  

Matt