Black '82 GTI. Resurrection.

Luckily my gutters were OK, but it was suggested to me by some one, that I should just chop it on the pillars and weld it there. I didn't fancy that, and wanted to keep as much of the original car as poss.

Can't wait to get it fitted properly, and get on with the rest of it know

I've left the roof for now, I fancied a bit of chopping and welding

So started on this bit just below the drivers side rear window.







Then on to the outer skin






A quick smidge of filler and it should be OK

Just read through your project so far mate.

Big Gratz for taking this project on. Myself i have the horrible sunroof syndrome but in fairness yours looks the bigger project.  

Great Work so far mate. Looking forward to seeing this done

GaryGTi83 said

Just read through your project so far mate.

Big Gratz for taking this project on. Myself i have the horrible sunroof syndrome but in fairness yours looks the bigger project.  

Great Work so far mate. Looking forward to seeing this done

Thanks Gary, big project it may be, but I'm enjoying it so far, which is all that matters

Sticking to the drivers side of the car, I've removed the plastic arch cover, and revealed a mostly solid arch, but still going to buy an arch and just use the bits I need. So without a panel to work with at the mo, I've moved on to the sill.

It's got 3 separate bits of rot, but the rest is so solid, I don't want to replace the whole thing, here the pic of it before.




and here's the first repair, at the back end of the sill.




on to a tiny plate about halfway along the sill.



Then the 'orrid bit of rot at the front end, at the bottom of the A-post. This could be good, or it could be a right mess  :roll:






And the finished repair, I like this so much I took pictures from several angles






There is still a bit of weld left right in the corner, but after about an hour of hand filing, I had enough  Lazy I know

Time for a bit more rot reduction

On to this bit at the front of the sill/bottom of the A pillar/floor :roll:


It's only a small bit of rot, but it's made up of 6 separate pieces, so took ages.

Started by making a plate to repair the front box section bit



Also made a piece to repair the sill, but didn't take a pic, so next cut out the rot and repaired the edge of the floor and the inner sill.




Then welded the front box section up and ground the welds back



and refitted the jig fixing thingy.



didn't take enough pics so this is how i've left it today




Just need to grind back those last few welds, and another bit is done

Brilliant repair work 8) It's something which I still need to overcome the initial "can't be fixed" worries for

Nice bit of fabrication there, glad you've saved this one, as I fear it would have ended up dead or bodged without you
Alex

Very nice repair work. You do this for a living or just a talented DIYer?

Phataz1 said

Brilliant repair work 8) It's something which I still need to overcome the initial "can't be fixed" worries for

Thanks, As the old uns used to say, "There's no such word as can't" It's taken me a while though.

TwoToneAlex said

Nice bit of fabrication there, glad you've saved this one, as I fear it would have ended up dead or bodged without you
Alex

Thanks Alex, It's not out of the woods yet  Your right though, probably would have made more sense to just break it, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

AL_Mk1 said

Very nice repair work. You do this for a living or just a talented DIYer?

Thanks Al, just a DIYer, not even a talented one

Some really tidy fabrication work dude 8)

Some Skills with the fab work there I'd never have the balls to chop the roof. Seems a similar condition/ stage as mine aswell and I'm not too far away from you near Wrexham.

Hi Gazven, still haven't finished the roof off yet, want to get all the work done down the drivers side, then when the car is back on it's wheels, I'm going to stick/weld it on, cant see any major problems really, think I've done the hard work. If your car is otherwise OK, I could see how chopping out the roof panel would be a bit daunting, but mine needed loads doing so it's almost down to a shell anyway. Do you have any pics of yours on here?

Still not really managed to get a proper build thread for mine started as much I've been meaning to. Think I'll try throw something up this week. Too much to keep track of though with the gti project and keeping the daily diesel on the road

Gonna repair the arch now, bought a repair panel, but don't want to replace the whole lot, just the rotten bits. So it's a big chunk in front of the wheel and a little bit in the bottom rear corner, where it meets the rear panel. Front bit first….




Cut out the rot and repaired the inner arch lip




Not enough pics again, but here it is welded in and ground back, with a splash of zinc primer




A week or so more of this, then the Escort is coming out for the summer, so not much will get done on the Golf for a while, if I could just win the lottery, I would have plenty of time for both

Top notch work pal. Luckily the rust seems not to have eaten the inner arch also.... keep it up

Thanks Gary, the inner had rotted a little at the very bottom, but put a couple of small pieces in to bring it back in to shape

Buzzed off the whole sill and painted it with some anti rust primer, so at least it is protected for now.  Yay, it's all one colour, with no unwanted holes



Finally going to attach the roof next weekend