AT LAST! Hairys Resto!!

Perfect excuse to fit coil overs !!

LOL, already bought a Bilstien B12 kit Ade

Always fun welding these old cars, think hole blowing is a standard procedure     

Great work though, coming along nicely  

Matt

Cheers Matt

So this morning I've been making repair patches for the floor by the front of the arch tub and the inner arch where the fuel lines come through. Just having a spot of lunch then will be welding.

One question in the meantime however. I had a nice big box of parts arrive from VWH this morning - mostly suspension fixings - but also my new (next!   ) fuel filler neck repair panel. Looking at the rear of the panel, where the filler neck pipe would sit there is a flange on the rear of the large hole. As you'll see in the pic below my last repair panel didn't have this flange.



My original one is so rotten so I have no reference - holding the filler pipe against each panel I'm guessing I shouldn't have this flange but would be grateful if someone knows and can confirm

mine looks like the silver one, maybe not as deep though..

zorg said

mine looks like the silver one, maybe not as deep though..

Ah ok, cheers for that

Another day done - still amazes me how long it can take sometimes just making and welding in a couple of patches! So floor by front of arch tub done;




…then used the section cut out the arch tub to fill in under where the fuel pipes come through;



…and then welded in a filler strip to close the gap;



Still a little bit to finish off and tidy up but the tub itself is fully welded in now so I'm happy  

That's a good repair on the tub mate. Really good to see you tackling that job, you'll have her done in no time

  What's next on the list?

Thanks Andy - I am really pleased with the tub now, just hope the turret height doesn't become a later issue.

I need to finish patching the floor - that's doing my head in as keep blowing holes!!    Next major task will be OS chassis leg which is about ready to go on with little prep, then OS outer arch and filler neck panel.

The OS sill and bottom of B-post will take a bit of work too I think but once this rear corner is done it's the bulk of the welding work I think - although there'll still be plenty left!  

Not sure I'll get in the garage today as the bottom of my drive is flooded. Oh well, I'm still on track to get it done on time, although it's early days!

re the turret height, have you tried a straight edge across the spare wheel well to see if the floor is down/up 10mm on that side?

I hadn't to be honest - good point! I had put a spirit level on the bar I had across the two turret tops and that seemed to be pretty much level with the floor but it will be worth checking this too for sure.

The big test will be when it's back on wheels again, my fat ass could level it up though!  

i really impressed mate, thats a lot of work your putting in there especially without a roll over jig. .... keep up the good work

Cheers mate, it's challenging when you're on your back welding!  

Coming along nicely Andy    

Hairyarse said

With some gentle pressure applied by him with his feet on the inside of the tub, I was able to put about 6 or so of the welds in to hold the tub in place enough for me to finish it off.

I assume this was so the panels clamped together enough to plug.  Another way to clamp the panels together if you've not got a helper is to drill very small holes through both panels adjacent to your plugs and use some self tapping screws. As the screws go through they clamp the two layers of metal together.  Just don't screw too far as it's the taper on the screw that helps pull the panels/flanges together at different rates so they clamp.

Give it a go, it pinches panels together really nicely.  Fill the holes with weld after and you'd never know they'd been there.

Excellent work btw.  I've just found exactly the same rot in mine as you have in yours and seeing how you've gone about it will help no end.

Oh yeah, forgot about that neat little trick - cheers!  

This one was an issue as at least 20mm gap before putting any pressure on - and needed a fair bit.

I think most MK1's rot a lot on this rear corner as there's so many items on this side in the fuel system for mud and crud to get trapped on - it's the bulk of the body work I need to do I think.

Good luck with yours

Thanks again for the tip

Andy

think most MK1's rot a lot on this rear corner as there's so many items on this side in the fuel system for mud and crud to get trapped on - it's the bulk of the body work I need to do I think.


…….if you had a diesel there would be non of that melarkie lol
Bert

Yeah, all that chip fat would act as a rust preventative!    

Well just realised I'm a bell-end!!  I posted an update last night on yesterday's work - I think I must have just hit the preview button as it's not here!!    

So yesterday….

Had to fab another small panel to patch in the lower corner of the arch tub as it doesn't follow the line of the chassis rail. Almost ready to weld…



All done. I couldn't get good access to grind all the welds back due to the contours of the tub. However, it will be seem sealed and stone chipped so wont be seen…



All zinc primed in the bare areas and jobs a good-un. I'm really quite pleased with it actually!  



So on to today;

I started off on the OSR chassis leg. When I was patching up the boot floor I was conscious that the patches may conflict with the chassis leg flange but thought I'd get around it no problem. However, it was so uneven I was really struggling. In the end I've had to cut a big hole out of my floor where the flange goes so it will sit flat, I'll have to rebuild the floor afterwards.   On the upside the welds in my floor patching were solid - every cloud and all that  

I'll be looking now to buy a section of floor off a breaker to replace this area.



The chassis leg needs cleaning up and zinc priming still but it's a VW panel so quality is excellent   Another frustration though is with the arch tub now in place I can't get the chassis leg in place with the tow hook as it's in the way, so I had to cut it off! Oh well, can weld it back on!



Whilst getting close to welding this in it occurred to me that when I fit the outer rear arch and corner it could conflict in places, so thought better to fit that first, then the chassis leg. So I've now moved on to that.

I had recently purchased an oversize arch panel from VWH to include the rear corner. It's now cut down to size and sandwiched between the inner tub and rear quarter panel.



One issue though is there's a section on the rear corner which my new panel doesn't cover - my separate rear corner panel doesn't either so will have to fab something up for this.



Once I'm happy with the fit I'll strip and zinc prime the areas to be welded. I think the join between the rear corner and rear panel will need some body solder too to get the look just right.

Looking great Andy !!

Makes me want to get a project and back to welding :-)