cabby rear replacement? Advice needed

Hello chaps - unfortunately it's been a while since I've had time to restore my GTi cab due to being in my final year of part time masters degree. Anyway I've got a photo of the back and need some advice. How do I go about fixing this? Do I have to find a rear section of a cabby and weld it on? Any advice would be appreciated. See attached:
Jord

8O  8O  8O

looks like you got your work cut out for you there mate  :wink:

itll be worth it when its done though :mrgreen:

Hi guys - I've still had no response - can anyone advise me if I need to replace the whole rear section of this car? If so  - is this something you have in stock Crazy?

Thanks,

Jord

Hi Jord,

8O Thats pretty nasty rot you have there. Is the other side just as bad? Whats the rest of the car like in general? The arches look pretty bad too.

I don't want to put you off as anythings repairable, and people restore classic cars with far worse rot than that, but that is pretty bad for a Mk1.

I'd say you need to cut it out and see what you have left.

I think you have 2 options.  
    o  Cut out the rot and make up patches to weld in. But you'll probably get a bit of distortion in the panel from the heat and it will probably be difficult to get it looking spot on. But it depends what you want.
    o  Replace the whole rear quarter panel. I dont know if they are still available from VW, so you may have tocut one off a donor car. You could replace the panel from the trim line upwards or replace the whole panel, arch included.

If you can get a VAG panel it will come as the whole panel… including the arch. As far as I know you dont get the lip at the top though that the hood attaches too.

I expect the panels behind that rear corner are bad too are they? If they are then they'll need patching up and treating with a rust converter first before you do stuff to the outer panel.

You wont be able to get rid of it all permanently without replacing a lot of panels. It will be very hard to get to all the rot without removing the lip at the top. I think you'll only be able to rub it down a bit and treat the rust.

Prowler had a nasty bit of rust on the lip of his GTI cabrio, it would be interesting to find out how he sorted it.

Hope this has helped and hasn't scared you too much :wink:

Ross

Jord,

I have a very sound Cab shell - I'd reshell into that.

Give me a call on 01491 202054 for a chat if you are interested.

Cheers

Rich

Thanks Rich (Crazy),

     I will give you a call over the weekend - may have to wait a month as my MK4 has just cost me a ?1000 this month in servicing and insurance costs.

Thanks for the advise Ross - The photo I've displayed is the worst part of the car with the arches in desperate need of being replaced - The rest of the car is actually sound on the rust front - I made sure during the strip down that I exposed every bit of rust possible! I'll get some other photos up soon! Think I will do the welding side of it. If the two bits that are welded are hammered in slightly - would I be able to fill in the gap and therefor make the surface flat maybe?
Also  - how easy is it to weld it on - would it be sensible to get someone in to do it professionally?

Thanks again for the advise!

Think I will do the welding side of it. If the two bits that are welded are hammered in slightly - would I be able to fill in the gap and therefor make the surface flat maybe?
Also - how easy is it to weld it on - would it be sensible to get someone in to do it professionally?

If you are going to repair it cheaply and get a half decent job done then that would be the way to do it. If you havent welded before then this will be a steep learning curve for you, but if you are determined enough then you'll be able to sort it out… at least the top of the car is easily accessible, you'll find the arches to be a bit of a mare.

If you have the money and want to get it done professionally then thats a good option too, but I think it will cost you more than the cars worth just for the welding to be done. Older cabbys are cheap at the moment.

You might find that reshelling it is the best option for you though, like Rich has suggested and use your car as a donor car. If you buy a shell just make sure you have all the paperwork for it and it hasn't been marked down at the DVLA as scrapped. I'm sure Rich's shell will be fine.

Cheers again for the advise!

Rich - sorry I didn't call you at the weekend, I left my bl**dy phone in the office again - only a few missed calls though . Anyway - I don't suppose you would have a photo of this shell? Also how easy is it to swap over and does it affect the cars structure?

I'll try and give you a call in the week to discuss price maybe

Thanks,

Jord

hi the rear quarter panels are in two havles on a cab upper and lower they join along the trim line, if u look u will c the spot weilds, you could just replace the top half of this quarter that should sort the worst rust out, then an arch repair kit 4 the arch, u will only get a used quarter though vw ran out of them years ago!!