My Mot'd 1975 Golf LS

just had to say wow! u dont see many like this! with all the history and sentamental value what an amazing project! really hope you get it done! good luck!

Cheers,
Well as promised  after 14 years i moved it to the unit i'm renting and after a damn good clean i popped it on the 2 poster ramp and set about seeing what was left….
Mixed bag really, tiny bits that were worse than i thought and some parts that were much better - the Zeibart had certainly stood the test of time and saved it…..
few pics..

Ready to leave where it has sat for 8 years


Engine bay after first steam clean trying to remove some of the old Zeibart as im going to have it in the original paint as its going to be living an easy life from here on in, and the paint looks to be mostly perfect.


Then it was wings off and on the 2 poster… Drivers side was almost perfect, pan is perfect, sill needs repairing at the front half only and rot has not spread to the pan. Couple of holes on the inner wing where water has sat under the original rubber sealant.



Then got started cutting back the Passenger side, the side which is the worst, couple of holes on the inner wing form trapped water again, gone a bit at the edge of the door post and sill very thin so i cut it back.
Rust had got into the upright inner sill just a bit at the front and also just on the edge of the pan - mainly i think not from water coming in the sill but from a leak and water sitting under the wiring loom, luckily its just in the front half of the pan and i only need to trim back a cm or so. Should be very eay to fix as its flat and not ribbed.

Rear end of sill, needs a bit of repair but the rot has not spread to the beam mount which is the usual trick, again should be simple to fix.


Im only going to replace the lower half of the sill as the rest is spot on.


Had to trim just the edge of the pan where the loom had sat




More tomorrow..

Mark

Are you from Bicester, I think we have met if I am thinking of the same person .

If you are after stuff I might be able to help you as I havea friend in Australia and Sweden who can get me early stuff.  I shipped a '76 swallowtail over from Australia to get a solid shell!

good work mate, i can wait to put sum pics of my restoration….i got 1975 swallowtail.

bob

Looking forward to watching this progress 8)

Rich

Cheers

Clarksmk1 - nope im from Tewkesbury way- different person . I am after a few bits i cant find, if you do hear of them going - i need the metal water pipe that runs along side of the block on a 1471cc as mines like a sieve. I cant find one anywhere so far - Vw dont even recognise the part number?
Im also looking for a good rear bumper - else i will have to get mine rechromed i think, i suspect there is tons more but they leap out at me for now. ..

Ok so i had the day on it on Sunday, got the inner wing holes "finished". I will try and repair and put back everything seam by seam so that all welding will be invisable when im finished and hopefully it will last me many years..

Got the hole near the bottom of the A post/inner wing done - its 3 sections and took a bit of time.. the other hole above which was actually a very old repair my dad had done in the 80's, rust just come through from the scuttle seam - hadnt spread luckily. And also a couple of repairs along the top edge where the wing mounts, just tiny stuff
start - stripped the rubber sealant back on the upper edges as it was really flakey in places..

Much later on - still have the old front end accident repair to do when i do the front

put the lower edge on the inner sill, it was just the very bottom so i could repair up to the pressings

got the very edge of the floor repaired but not ground yet, wasnt really bad but had got a bit thin from water getting under the loom , i put the fold over on the sill join which you can just see in the picture above and i will spot the 3 seams together when i get the outer sill on.


So that was all day Sunday done - had another go at it tonight, main aim was to get started on the rear of this sill which is the worst part on the car really..

I managed to get the car on the 2 poster with just 3 arms on it so i could get to this properly.
This was after i had cut all the rot out , hasnt spread into the rear chassis or even the beam mount but its still about 11 panels meeting i think in this area so i knew it would take me ages to get it right


This is where i got to repairing seam by seam, made up all the parts and still the upper "inner" strengthener to repair before the outer sill goes on and some grinding of welds so its spot on (yeh i know you cant see them but……


More thursday night - hopefully get this sill finished and then i can use the jacking points at the rear and i can get the rear beam out to start looking at the rear wheel arches  - oh the fun
Cheers

nice work!!!

Cheers

Some more updates,
Spent a long old day on it today, wanted to get the sill and inner strengthener finished- i can use the sill rears to support the body so i can get the rear beam out to sort that.

few pics

got the rear inner strengthener repair finished and the lower sill paint and rust cleaned up.


 Also got alot more of the bad areas in the rear arch/end of sill cut out and started getting it derusted ready for repair..



cut the sill back a bit more and straight ready to accept the sill lower. im only using the very bottom as the top section is solid and to keep the early pressings


After alot of work i finally got the sill in, i butt welded it so that its seamless and will need no filler


As new


Front end all butt welded too keeping to the original seams, still the rubber bung hole to add at the end of the sill. i still have to spot weld up the floor/lower sill this end using the spotwelder at the unit. Just started to paint in the seams before i etch prime it and try and recreate the VW rubberised stuff.


May pop up tomorrow to drop the rear suspension out - both rear springs have snapped just from corrosion and 14 years standing, i want to get the beam repainted, new brakes and all that.

Does anyone know where i could get some Genuine new rear springs as i havnt found any yet?

Cheers

Mark

Popped the rear beam this am.


old style manual rear brake parts looked ok, shoes wierdly are like new despite being nearly 20 years old and 80K since we last changed them,
 beam heading for shot blasters /backplate and parts heading for acid and zinc tank and new coat of black

Spurred on by Chrissy's thread - I got some of the rear brakes i took off this morning plated and also sorted out one of the wheel cylinders my Dad had tucked away in the garage for 25+ years.

Great thread and excellent progress!

I spotted an advert in the back of Practical Classics at the weekend for a stainless steel fabricator who can reproduce water pipes. I'll get the details for you tonight and post them up tomorrow.

Cheers

Excellent stuff - really nice welding of the sill… Must do the same to mine soon!

Keep up the good work

Rich

http://www.stainless-exhaust.com/index.htm

Hope they can help you with the water pipe.

Thanks GavB95 - Just rang them - very helpfull chap on the end of the line - said he could quote from a picture and if that's ok i can send it to them and have it copied.
Will let you know how i get on - thanks again. 8)

Thanks Rich - your looks to be a simular project welding wise been following your thread - great stuff.
I'm back on the welding tonight

Cheers
Mark

if u cant get it made up, i got a friend who can make the pipe for you....he cheap aswell, post a pic of it....i mite even have one....(if its the same as 1.1)

Swallowtail_uk said

if u cant get it made up, i got a friend who can make the pipe for you….he cheap aswell, post a pic of it….i mite even have one….(if its the same as 1.1)

Cheers - Thanks for that  8)

I made a mistake with the part number - its actually 055.121.065A not 155 as i had thought it was.
I think they are different to the 1.1 version unfortuantly but i may be wrong- they are stamped on the mounting bracket with the PN.
I checked it at Vw and Classic parts and neither came up with anything so its obselete- i will see how the man does and let you know.

Where are you getting your bumpers rechromed?  - i need my rear one doing after i have straightened it from the few dings we gave it over the years. For a front one i have a good spare luckily.

Been up welding this week, started on the rear part of the rear arch which is a nightmare.Rear brakes nearly done and rear suspension parts found but not here yet.

Going to have the day on it tomorrow, it will be 2 weeks since i started and would like to have about a 1/3 of the car welded.

Got Dad hopefully pulling out some old pictures of the car out and about from many years ago- see what he can find- also found a lot of the old paper work for the car so will see if anything interesting in there too.

75golf said

Swallowtail_uk said

if u cant get it made up, i got a friend who can make the pipe for you….he cheap aswell, post a pic of it….i mite even have one….(if its the same as 1.1)

Cheers - Thanks for that  8)

I made a mistake with the part number - its actually 055.121.065A not 155 as i had thought it was.
I think they are different to the 1.1 version unfortuantly but i may be wrong- they are stamped on the mounting bracket with the PN.
I checked it at Vw and Classic parts and neither came up with anything so its obselete- i will see how the man does and let you know.

Where are you getting your bumpers rechromed?  - i need my rear one doing after i have straightened it from the few dings we gave it over the years. For a front one i have a good spare luckily.

Been up welding this week, started on the rear part of the rear arch which is a nightmare.Rear brakes nearly done and rear suspension parts found but not here yet.

Going to have the day on it tomorrow, it will be 2 weeks since i started and would like to have about a 1/3 of the car welded.

Got Dad hopefully pulling out some old pictures of the car out and about from many years ago- see what he can find- also found a lot of the old paper work for the car so will see if anything interesting in there too.

place in birmingham is doing the rechroming……and i found a guy that used to make knight body armour (old skool panel beater) he straighten them out for me…….if you get stuck, drop me a PM and i'll sort summat out.

Cheers  8)

So with the hot weekend i only spent sat morning on it working on the pass rear inner arch - got a bit done  - few pics later on when there is a bit more to show.

Started checking out the other side which i thought was ok but unfortuatly the rear part of the arch is toast into the valance area and the rust has got into the seam where the petrol filler is and it all totally disintrigrated and a bit where the breather pipes go into the box section.
Luckily the original fuel filler is fine and not holed





Ok so Dad found some old pictures - here we go these are both circa 1983. Given the car was 8 years old by this time you can see how well he looked after it..its on forces plates

This one is taken at Lake Constance, not sure but i think the German side.


Embarising Picture time..
I think this is in Switzerland again around 83, yes that's me, sister and Mum. No idea where the chrome bumper is - Dad probably took it off to polish behind it


This one is around 1990 i think when we bought it home to sort it out to use as my first car


Dad thinks he has some pictures when he first bought it on slide in 1975 so fingers crossed he can find them.

More welding this week

lovely this thread

so much history with it!!!

Ok tiny update….Promise i will get some more picture updates on here this weekend. Project is far from stalled and is now flat out… Im working on a part of the car 7 days a week when time allows.

Engine is now out and been completely cleaned up and painted as it was new, engine bay has taken over 20 litres of petrol and about 10 hours with a paint brush to strip all the zeibart back to the original paint and that is almost done now to try and keep all the original paint.
The phoenix red paint has been very well preserved as has all the selector parts/steering rack and everything alse which got a coat

Just got a massive stack of parts back from the powder coater tonight including the rear beam, engine tin and mounts- everything that was black and coated at the factory i have desided only one way to do it right
Im plating and passivating every zinc part/nut and bolt and repassivating it where it was originally which is just taking forever , i have found 90 % NOS or OE springs/shocks components all round and will hopefully strip all the front suspension soon to shotblast and powder coat that too.

I have nearly all the repair panels and while i have given myself a break from welding for a bit i have finished repairing the rear beam mount the one side i was repairing.

I have so many parts and bags of parts in the car /shed/unit or in the car i cant stop now because i just wont remember where it all goes …

Dont get me wrong im not going for concorse or to show the car - i just don't want to be not happy with something and have it on a redo list. Basically i never want to restore it again

anyway pics very soon of the progress -literally back to the plating…
Mark