my "new" mk1 and first ever proper project. who me

ok so I posted in the newb section earlier today and as promised here is the start of my build thread.

I took the bumper grille and lights off to start as figured this would be easy. it was didnt even need and wd40.

despite being 33 and having owned quite a list of cars ive never really done anything too any of them. I acquired this car for a very very small amount of money (keeping it secret so i dont get linched!!) so im going to tackle the whole project!!

In that light expect a LOT of questions, i know the dub scene is full of lovely helpful people. please point me to threads for questions that have been asked before.

so question 1! how many bolts should i be looking for holding on the front wings? i have taken out 7 so far and think they may be 3 more hidden under mountains of sealant on the inside, is this correct?

will post pics of all the rusty bits tomorrow and what ive yanked off so far!!

Welcome! If you have Haynes manual it shows you all the bolts. From memory, there's three bolts on the inner upright end of the wing where it meets the door post and one on the underside of the wing at the front of the sill.

This is of course on top of the ones on top of the wing in the engine bay and I think one at bottom front bolting it to front panel.

Hope that's right - don't tug too hard in case I'm wrong!  You may find that wing still needs a bit of a pull as will often be held on with lots of sealer.

Look forward to seeing the pics

Cheers
Andy

Theres 4 bolts across the top in the engine bay, 1 bolt at the front on the very bottom where it meets the front panel, 1 at the bottom again but next to the sill, and 3 on the inside arch at the back. If ya putting a new wing on just bend yours rite back to get it off. It will be well stuck on with sealent and are sometimes a proper pain to get off

thanks guys, thats what i thought was the case but there is soo much sealant on the inside!! will have another crckat it today an put some picks up later

grinding stone on a dremel makes light work of the sealant. or a heat gun!

ok so here are some pics of rusty bits and the strip down so far

offside sill and door bottom new outer sill perhaps?



offside again, crunchy!!



an old nasty repair both sides are the same





rear quaters, super crunchy




nearside crunchyness


offside door










another dodgy old weld









anyone have any idea how i check if this is genuiine or if its on its second turn round the clock?

hope your not all bored from all the pics!

as you can see i have some work ahead of me mainly complete rear quaters on both sides one new wing (the other one might be reacently new as there was no sealant at all!)

Some of the bodywork is in really good nick for its age. I think it has been used mainly as a farm run around and then sat stationary in a damp barn for the last 4 years. yes its and actual barn find!

I was toying with a complete colour change but as some of the paint is still pretty good i think i will stick with the blue, especially as im planning on doing everything myself, its going to be a steep an probably slow learning curve but im having a blast so far.

where is the best place to get repair panels and wings from? And what do people use for sanding back the body work, I dont want to be pouring chemicals all over the place if i can help it.