been chasing rust...

I knew the rear arches on my Campaign were crumbling away, so I aquired some repair panels for the job. A friend offered to cut away the rot and weld in the new panels, so I thought I would assist him by chiseling away the old underseal around the inner arches.

My car looked good and had done me proud for so long, but chipping away the underseal and mastic seam sealer revealed tin worm where even the hardest of MOT testers could not. The underseal was keeping my car together   .

The area spread up each inner arch where they meet the sills, and around the back into the rear valance and the spare wheel well. Luckily the new panel sections met the rear valance (itself, stitched back together and a new section welded into the spare wheel well) and ran along the outer sills for about 6cm covering the external carnage.

Inside the arches, the inner edges were welded together where the rot had been cut away and the open sills (and rear valance corners) were closed off with intricate shapes of new metal in continuous seam welds.

These are "prescribed areas" to suspension and seat belt mounting points in MOT speak, where the only acceptable patch repair is a continuous seam weld, unless the complete panel is being replaced, when welding of equivalent quality to the originel spot welding is acceptable - count the number layers along your sill - originally there would have been two where the inner and outer sill skins met with spot welds - if you can see three layers then your car has been repaired and probably not to MOT standard. If you cannot see the inner and outer skin then the chances are that your car has been seam welded to a good standard..

The whole inner arch and inner valance area was primed in zinc rich primer before the body seam sealer was brushed on, and the lot was primed again and stonechipped. Waxoyl was then applied to the inner panels from inside the car (seats and trims removed). A thin skim of filler was applied to the outer panel to smooth the welded join and the lot was etch primed to provide a good key for the next stage … the full respray.

Its a common area to rust on the Mk1 Golf, and you're right in saying the area is difficult to see and easy to repair poorly.

Sounds like you've done thorough job there :y: got any pics? Not sure If I'm reading it right, but you mention two skins not three where the inner and outer sills meet up, but this should be three. The outer sill, inner sill and floor panel all have flanges that are spot welded together.

Cheers

hi there

I have am currently under taking a similar job to use but also im doing the rear beam mount and what you said about the skins on the sills is incorret along the whole lenght of the sills there are 2 skins fro the inner and outer sills but at the front end for about 8 inches there are 3 skins the extra is for the inner front wing i think and at the back for about a foot there is 4 infact there are so many peices in there i almost gave up but its done know and know i need some advice please

where I have replace pannels there is know no sealer, i noticed vw primed it then seal then top coat. what is the best sealer to use? also it looks like vw sprayed it on how much is spary on sealer? altho i can imagine it being very messy.

Rich

Okay, I will have another look closely at mine, but the business about the number of edges you can see along the sill is a general rule of thumb. I was pretty sure that I could only see two lips along the sills (looking towards the car - not from underneath) but then the paint and underseal is so thick it is difficult to tell. It's been a while since I've looked at the front (fitted new wings 5 years ago and thoroughly checked out the flitch panels, back then).

Always prime bare metal if you can see it, and waxoyl only on hot days any cavities you can't see. (Waxoyl is great but oil and water don't mix, so any damp or condensation present will get "locked in", causing any areas missed by the wax to rust even more quickly )

Red oxide or zinc primers are the best (and certain zinc primers can be welded through). Any brushable seam sealer will suffice - I find a splodge on the end of my finger preferable so I can really work it in and smooth it off. So, I prime, seal, prime and stonechip to the rear. Only when all the paintwork is finshed do I underseal and deal with any overspray on suspension arms, etc with Satin Black (or heat proof silver on brake calipers - although I like the red or blue hues on the new Golfs; not so keen on the green of the Skoda RS' though)

Also, drill the new holes for the arch trim screws or body kit rivets before painting and dab the screws or rivets and clips in Waxoyl as you are fitting just in case the paint is compromised, if only to prolong all your hard work…

Sorry if i seemed a bit pompuse on my other thing.

Thank you for that advice thats kind of how I have gone put the first coat of red oxide today. whats this stone chip stuff you mention? im guessing its similar to the sealer to soften the blow from what ever is picked up along the way?

Regards

Rich

Glad to hear that everyone feels that the Mk1's are worth saving - after all, good MK2's are currently in the ?500 - ?800 banger class and you can easily spend that on a ropey MK1. Most of my mechanic colleagues cannot get their heads around the amount of time and money I spend each year on my car, but then they drive throw away cars like Mondeos and Vectras. I reckon, year on year, they spend as much on replacing their cars as I do keeping mine up to scratch - I have something that just gets better and better, and they don't! I think they're just jealous…

Just for interest, how much do you guy's think you'll spend on your restos?

I'm in the trade, so I couldn't really comment, because mine is funded by pocket money and free time, but I would be interested to know.

Are you doing it for love or as an investment in something that will no longer depreciate, or both (like me?).

just had a little work out on what ive spent and what ive still got to spend
think in total its going to be ?1400 for the resto + cost of the car ,doing all the work myself


so will be a total of ?2600 for the complete package wich is not bad at all ,but not really  worried about it being profitable just keeping another gti on the road and the enjoyment of seeing all your hard work .


the cost is for a complete restoration as well all parts underneath shot blasted ,new genuine rear panel ,rear arches ,rear brakes,front brakes ,fuel lines ,brake lines ,all bushes and bearings
all underseal removed ,primed and resealed .


luckily the golf i bought had a engine,head and gearbox rebuild by a classic car mechanic with fourty years experince ,who maintained the bosses classic collection (approx 40 cars !!)all his life ,so been done properly and not a company who need to get it turned round to make a profit .


the best advice is DONT add up how much it costs in case the wife see's it  or you frighten yourself to death  

I'd say thats about what I've spent on mine so far, and it still needs a respray let alone all the prep work…

Then, I'll hit the interior with Newton carpets and sound deadening; deal with a rattle in the dash; fit some trims around the demister holes, and finish the speaker mods I've been playing with (didn't want to cut the shelf, so I reinforced the plastic apertures with birch ply and fitted lightweight Kenwood 4x6's.) Will fit central locking to complement the Gold Life electric windows…

The days of buying cheap and selling high have gone (if you don't bodge, that is), but at least our cars don't depreciate. But every penny that I have spent has been worth it just for the joy of driving it, and the comments people make - like "I used to have one of those, best car I ever had"…

It's great to see that over half of the Campaigns sold in the U.K are accounted for on the register - must be unique among all the marques…

id say i spent that on mine, plus the paint job….

thats including all the chrome goodies etc…just been lucky, there was 4 or 5 scrap gtis for free parts off m8s in the local area… although its off to the mechanics to have its pre mot lookover so im sure the resto budget will be stretched massively….

i feel its worth it, takign out all the nuts and bolts, greasing up /loctiting stuff, repainting, i have no ramps, proper big jacks or indoor facilities, i have a wet gravel drive on a hill, and doing this resto in the winter, wiht limited tools, but still struggle massively to make things mint…


i bought my car for 200 quid, only just running really, and have gone from there, made a good job of it, will look after it and hope to have it for a while, once it has somethign bigger than a 1.3 i.e. 1.8 16v all nice n smart, in a mint shell with all the trick bits, i feel ill see a bit of return on an investment

a 1.3 wont ever break out of a particular price bracket no matter how nice..cos its a 1.3, not that i want to ever think abotu selling, jsut nice to know ur cars worth more!!

simple equation-

more effort=more satisfaction



ideally theres alot of stuff i would like to do differently i.e shotblasting, but instead its wire wheel on a grinder and hammerite….definetely do the job anyway,

some things people do i think are a bit anal, like making a car so mint ud be afraid to drive it, nothign wrong with a mint car, i just couldn't live with not being able to drive it even if i do know its gna b there for years to come….(by anal i mean using electric buffers on UNDERNEATH of car)

totally agree ,want mine to be reliable as poss ,and to know that its going to last for as long as possible .

shot blasting is definately the way to go ,the guy who is doing my parts is shot blasting the rear beam,rear drums,drum backing plates,front wishbones and a few small parts for ?50.00

will get a far better job and i wont have to do any more than drop them off and pick them up.main reason for getting them shot blasted is i dont want to take them off again .

as far as bodged cars are concerned i think that a few people will get caught with the bodgers motor,start restoring and then run out of enthusiasm and money  then scrap it for high price parts ,not very good.


i dont even think about when i will be getting it on the road just that when it does its going to be awesome

Alas run out of funds, car is in the For Sale with pictures...

I suspect that folks see MK1's on ebay and expect to pay next to nothing for cars that have had a significant amount of restoration work done on them.

Of course I may be wrong, but the cars on the bay seem to be very cheap - is it simply a case of getting what you pay for…