DEL - starting again.... (1.8t 5 door)

So, some of you may have seen my mk1 on the Facebook page after its recent paint job.  Sadly, it looked so much better in the pics……



Anyway, shortly after I ditched the RMs and air (I just felt the air wasn’t the right thing to do on a mk1), and replaced them with coilovers and votex wheels -



I did a bit of progress with the bay.  Mocking up boost pipes, wiring and all that good stuff….it’s now time to make fully hard pipes and make them shiny.  





I also mocked up stub axles and rear discs.  I need to decide whether I go mk2 calipers (I’ve got some, they just need a rebuild), or buy mk4 and rebuild them.   Time will tell.  





Anyway, sadly the paint job wasn’t all it seems.  Bits that was still bare primer, bits that were bare metal, raptor flaking, damage that wasn’t there when the car was dropped off, wavy panels, painted over mud, I could go on.  In short - it’s a mess.  I’m not going to bombard you with pictures of all the s**t, but here are a few….













You get the jist…..With that, it’s back on the spit, this time for some DIY action. If you want a job doing right……

Basically, it’s going to have to go bare metal and start again.  



First off, let’s get the floor pan sorted.  It’s the job I least want to do on the body, so it’s what I’ll get done and out the way first.  





As you can see the raptor was pretty much thrown on.  There was bare metal that was rusting out from lack of primer and trapped moisture, there was original gunk, 35 year old muck, and a load of other nastiness.  

I’ll keep this updated, as hopefully one day I’ll be able to look back and laugh.   Right now, it’s a long long long way away from seeing the light in the tunnel.  

Cheers



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Mate I’m so gutted for you, have to admire your determination to dust yourself down get up and start again.
Sounds like you’ve got a very definite vision of where you want to end up which i think is half the battle, keep moving forward and you’ll get there I’m sure.
Keep up the good work


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Cheers mate.  It’s been sat pretty much idle with the exception of fitting coils, wheels and rear discs since November, but it’s time to make it happen now.  


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What a pain, why oh why do body shops do this?

I had similar problem with my Mk1 Scirocco but no where near as bad as yours, I just had the top painted as I did the underneath, they talked the talked and take your money and give you a rubbish finish…..

Seems you are doing the right thing and taking it back to metal to protect it for years to come and I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.

I'm sure someone on here can recommend a good body shop in your area if you need to get it done again?

Keep us updated on progress.  

Is there no comeback on the Bodyshop, trading standards perhaps?

Not seen those wheels before, look cool.
 

I got my money back, so not really sure what else they could do.   




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Fair enough, they should be ashamed with that abysmal effort, anybody in a trade should have pride in their output. Look forward to seeing this evolve.

I got my money back, so not really sure what else they could do.   




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Ok, so I’ve had a few hours on the underside now.  Thank god for spits is all I can say.   The plan of attack is get their s***e off, then at least I’m kinda back to square one.  

It’s mainly scraping off with a scraper…..



Under the back seat area, it’s not even been key’d.  Just original paint/coating.  The bare metal is me going through it with a wire wheel……





Then another surprise.  I asked them to repair the battered chassis rails.  They’ve obviously been the jacking points for previous owners.  Anyway, poorly cut and sized patches, welded in, then dogged up with filler.  I was always taught that filler had a place in car restoration, but I don’t think that covered chassis rails!!!  





Probably too much to expect them to actually attempt a repair…..



Anyway.  Back to the grind, literally.




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I’m done for the day.  I’ve got a good chunk of under the rear seat cleaned off, drivers floor pan is almost stripped of the blue stuff, and passenger floor pan is pretty much bare metal.  

If anyone is intending on doing this, after questioning your sanity, I really recommend Norton Blaze strip wheels.  Awesome tools.  

Mid way - loosing the will to live.



How the passenger floor pan is looking.



The eagle eyed ones amongst you will notice I’ve cut the brake and fuel line clips off.  I’m going to weld studs on instead.  

More this coming week hopefully.


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Keep up the good work boss , every time I see the work they did it makes me annoyed


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Remarkably, it continues to get worse!  

I got back on with cleaning the floor pan up today.  This is easily the single most tedious job I’ve ever done.  Anyway….

The last chassis rail was questionable, this one is a disgrace.  The first (and incidentally the last) welding I saw after cleaning the filler off….





That was it for welding.  Gaps were filled with, yup, more filler.





So I cut the two welds and removed the “repair panel” - turns out it was a bit of 4mm thick square box cut down to almost fit.  Filler made it fit though…



As you can see - the repair was awful, and their attempt to remove the damaged section (it was just crushed, not rotten) was shameful….





I’ve cleaned it all up though, and it’s ready for new metal.  

I also found another little rotten hole that the restoration experts decided to just spray raptor over, so I’ve cut that out as well.  

Something not the fault of the restorers, although ignored by them was a crushed sill seal.  A bit of beating and it looked like this….









I managed to get a small wire wheel in and thankfully it’s sound, so I’ve cleaned with acid, primed and reshaped it - pic next time as I forgot to take one.  

And this is where we are at now…..



I’ll try get the welding done one night this week, then all being well a quick clean up, mask off and I’ll have that in epoxy by this time next week.  



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