New sills, inner arches and arches

I am about to replace the inner and outer arches and the sills on my mk1.  I wondered if anyone has replaced these panels at the same time and what if any is the best way to do it.  I was going to put the inner arch on then outer and finally the sill but the same sections are included with the sill and the outer arch.  Any help appreciated, especially photos!.

daniboy
          Best way is to fit the inner arch , use only what you need too replace the rot . Follow with the outer arch panel at the same time , again using only the minimum part of the panel . This keeps distortion down to a minimum and ensures that both panels will fit correctly together and retains more of the original car . Lastly go for the sills , at the wheel arch end simply trim the sill to fit your new arch panels .

I have just carried out this on my MK1 and am quite pleased with the results , i used panels from Hadrian / LMC fitting with a mix of MIG and Spot welding . There are some previous posts covering the subject and if you havn't got it buy the Golf Haynes Restoration Manual from Amazon it covers it in great detail

Drop me a pm with your email address  if you want the pics i took when i did mine .
Cheers ……..

Yeah - be careful how much you chop out of the car - cut away too much and you'll loose all your datum (refernce) points and be on for ages ttying to fit it all back together again…

Does anyone have any pictures of this type of work that they could email me please.  Have pm`d chudd not sure if it worked or not but would appreciate any pics that anyone has of welding this area.  My email is daniboy123@yahoo.co.uk, cheers.

Its easy to replace the inners completely….

pic of new inner in place - very good and strong job.




these spot welds were grinded to level off as new!



heres the other side - don't have a pic uploaded of the new inner on this side but this shot shows the outer arch spliced off above the rusted edge also revealing the rusted edge of the inner arch. The complete inner was replaced on this side - it was slightly trickier but was better than a cut and splice as I had to replace the filler aperture as well so this gave more room for inner removal.


here's that inside shot painted! i love this shot - it came out black and white on the scanner for some reason so its not a true reflection of the paint colour - but it still looks sharp!

Looking nice carbs 8)  What's the colour?

Thanks for the pictures, that looks like a top job!.  I had to remove the box section that sits inside the car on the arch as there was rust behind this also. It was a bit of a nightmare although it meant the last few spot welds that hold the inner arch in place could be removed.  The inner arch is now ready to go in (N/S) but i`m not exactly sure what the best way to do this will be.  I dont want to fit the inner arch, then trim the outer off as i may well grind into the new panel if you see what i mean.  What was your method?.  I`m thinking that its going to be best to trial fit the outer arch, trim the old one off then fit the inner arch followed by the outer.  Does this sound about right?

Sounds about right to me!

I've done pretty much the same to mine, but had to learn the hard way about just using what you need of the new panel, try to keep all work on the outer arch along the arch and not onto the flat body otherwise it'll take longer to get flat again (if it'll go flat).. I still have some uneven spot's above the arch where I welded the new panel in

this was how much I cut out (I know now this was too much!)



this was half way through welding in the new arch

I used a new inner arch the same as Carbs4ever that way you know you've got the arch the right size (if that makes sense)


get some pics up of your work  :wink:

Danni , sorry about the email it was too large with 10 pictures so i will post on here .   As PhillTMK1GTI said " i cut out too much"  . My approach is only to chop out the bit that is corroded and keep as much as the original shell , it does mean you waste most of the repair panel .

Take a rusty arch and cut out the inner and outer rot leave the sill for now
use weldable primer on all parts as you go , it will stop it rusting again


Trial fit inner at the same time you are fitting the outer . Leave one side as it was as a reference in case you forget how it should look .

Trial fit outer

When your happy weld them in i used self tappers to hold the inner arch while trial fitting




Then chop off the sill to match the arch



Weld on the sill and grind down the welds don't go mad with the welder or you will distort the panels - go for a little weld then move to another bit to allow it to cool down - i use little tack welds that make one big one when they all meet up .  


Then light skin of filler ready for painting






Must pull my finger out and get painting , i have just bought an air fed mask and will be painting it in 2pack Mars Red ….
Watch this space !!

Good luck with yours …………

Ya see! much nicer and more tidy that way IMO

come on Chudd! get it sprayed :wink: looks nice and solid

daniboy, keep us posted

Thanks for all the feedback thats a great help.  My dad is actually welding/fabricating the new panels but he has limited experience with cars.
  I have only ever driven the car once (silver mk1 campaign) just after i bought it and before i took it for an mot.  It failed on a blowing exhaust and a hole on the axle mounting point which meant that the whole back end of the car had to be stripped to get at it properly.  As usual it turned out to be 10 times worse and so far we have replaced both axle mounting points, a sheared axle mounting bolt (horrible job!), both chassis outriggers, part of spare wheel well, repairs to both inner arches, replaced rot under the chassis outriggers, inner sill repairs.
  My uncle repaired the o/s inner arch and outer.  Instead of removing the inner arch at the spot welds (time consuming) he just cut out the rotten lip and replaced that then put the new arch on.  After looking at it again i have realised that there is more rot further up in the arch which is included in the repair panel.  I`m considering buying another panel and taking it all out but wondered if it would be possible to this this with the new arch in place?.  Anyway thanks for the help and i will keep you posted, cheers.

mmmmmmmmmm….

so have you the new inner in place but have found more rust….. you risk serious distortion from removing/rewelding the outer arch… you will need to take it very slowly - a wet rag too to hold close to the weld point won't do any harm either to keep the metal cool.

Chudd that's a sin that thing is not painted yet very nice welding work btw- get to it boy

Sorry lost my Photobucket links have to try them....

I see why now , "Photobucket quote"

One of our master filesystems had a disk fail. We do have raid so no data is lost, however it was slowing things down to the point where everyone was effected.

We have taken the albums on this volume offline to speed things up. It should be finished within 12 hours.

Sorry

Alex

daniboy123 said

 a sheared axle mounting bolt (horrible job!)

Tell me about it !  For anyone about to remove the rear beam on their Mk1, make sure you clean the stud threads with a wire brush on a drill, use loads of 'Plus Gas' or similar, and don't 'force' anything. If the nut doesn't feel like it's coming off easily, wind it back (tighten) a bit, clean the threads some more and use more Plus Gas. You DON'T want to snap one of these !  Easily the worst job I've had to do on any car ever !!!