Humble Beginnings...........

Been a while since I updated this, don’t worry the build continues…………

Manifold for the bike carbs, needs a bit of tidying up but Im planning on getting this, and some other bits and pieces, shot blasted and painted up before fitting to the engine.



Car on the rollover jig courtesy of handling solutions, has made mine and my brother in laws job that much easier not having to be led on a cold garage floor, especially in December! Lol



Offside rear outer arch spot welded into place to make sure the panel didn’t warp during welding. I’ve also replaced the inner rear arch





Managed to get hold of some G60 discs, callipers, carriers and conversion brackets, bit of a difference in size compared to the original discs! Lol
Then had to just make sure (for my piece of mind) that the alloys fitted over them!









Ill let the pics do the talking…….





















Getting there slowly with the bodywork / welding, just takes a lot of time which is quite rare for me to find these days! Lol
Plan is to get the welding and bodywork done to a standard I’m relatively happy with then maybe let a body shop finish it off properly when it’s in to be re-sprayed (colour is yet to be decided!).

So so far Ive replaced rear offside inner and outer arch, offside sill and a couple of other small areas, hopefully tomorrow should have the rear panel sorted then I'll be turning my attention to the nearside inner / outer rear arch and sill, a couple of areas underneath near the rear axle mounting points and then the front panel……………..So yeah that's where I am at the minute, will try to get a bit better with updating this in the future!

First time I have read this one bud. At first thought you had bit off more than you can chew but you have impressed me with gettin it under way.

Haha yeah that'll be alright mate, once I get started I'm pretty stubborn so I will finish it! lol

So to todays antics (in and around the snow and hale storms!!), the original lower rear panel:



Over halfway cutting it out:



And now the new (pattern panel) lower rear panel welded in, fibreglass just administered and edges adequately seam sealed which is why it might look a little shoddy, don't worry this will be tidied up!





I have to say up till now the pattern panels I've been using have been a pretty good fit, but this panel needed a little more manipulation than the others, but still (in my opinion and my brother in laws) has worked out pretty well. Once I've spent a good few hours sanding it down and making it look pretty then I'll be more than happy cos at the minute it looks pretty straight as it is.

Hopefully within the next couple of weeks the nearside rear inner and outer arch and nearside sill will be fitted………………………watch this space!  

reading this has frightened me a little bit! oooh rusty rust.

this is where i dont have the patience, bodywork…

fair play to you for cracking on with it. should be sweet when its finished,


post a pic up of the colour your thinking?

Yeah I hope all the hard work will pay off, it's just difficult finding any spare time to work on it at the minute.

I'm hoping to send it away for paint this June/July and at the moment it's a 50/50 decision of either going OEM and respraying it in its original colour of Gambia red: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d87/marksmith1973/5140180255_66118e0ac4_z.jpg

Or having it resprayed in Mars red (L31B): http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7080/7248111902_504019a645_z.jpg

so your doing all the prep and getting someone else to paint it?

pretty much what im hoping to do, i id paint the bora front end on my mk4 wagon, but its not the best, so ill leave it to the pros!

i thought earlier in the thread you said you were going haybusa blue?

ive got two very different colours in mind for mine!

Yeah pretty much, I'm not a pro but I'm going to do as much of it as I can to help reduce costs as much as possible.

I was originally going to paint it the same colour as my brother-in-laws bike which is a mix of Pearl Nebular Black and Phantom Metallic Grey, but as I was told this is a 3 stage mica pearl paint system and so the cost of spraying the car this colour would have been loads, plus if I ever needed any touch ups for stone chips/scratches etc. then half the car may be needed to be resprayed to blend it all in.

I love the car to bits but I have to be realistic and I don't have an open cheque book! lol. Plus I also think that by keeping it to an original colour will help to achieve the overall look I'm going for.

So what colour is yours now? And what are your 2 options?

Looks great so far mate..
Keep up the good work!
Good choice of colours to..
What ever you decide it will be very nice..

ah, sounds expensive and complicated.
original red sounds good, although im not a huge fan of red cars :/

my cars black but has been resprayed lhasa green….badly!

as soon as its in the unit, it'll be getting stripped right back

It's gonna be a belter once painted and back on the road matey. For what it's worth I would go OEM with the colour

Cheers for the comments, hopefully if the weather improves over the next few weeks some more progress will be made! 

Ok so just a mini update, been mainly doing bodywork to the car as and when I have been able to so just a couple of pics I’m afraid. I’ve been mainly sorting the offside rear arch and am pretty happy with it so far, the most awkward part is going to try to replicate the small ridge that exists along the top of the sill and below the door; it’s going to be a right pain!

Also I’ve found a painter so hopefully all being well the car should be getting re-sprayed this July / August time!?!?





Next on the "to do" list is weld the inner nearside rear arch in (which is cut and ready to go) then take off the nearside sill, weld in the new sill then tackle the front panel, just a couple of spots underneath and then it's pure bodywork until it goes for paint…………………………

So another small update (the more I can do means I am slowly getting there! lol); managed to get the nearside inner rear wheel arch welded in yesterday, also made the decision that I don’t need to completely replace the nearside sill. After some structural investigations (mainly involving a screw driver  )  to the top, bottom and sides of the sill it seemed to be in a pretty good condition except for a small hole located to the rear of the sill where I believe there was originally a drain hole or something!? So I’m planning to just repair this small hole and save the original sill.

Also managed to get a skim of filler onto the nearside rear arch and also cleared the garage out.

Now there’s only 3 small holes to the underside of the car located near to the rear axle mounting points, the hole in the nearside sill, remove and weld over the aerial stub which a previous owner had put through the top of the roof at the back and then the front panel to replace and all the welding should be done!!??!?!?

I’m aiming to get her sent off around July time to be re-sprayed so fingers crossed so long as the bodywork comes on OK (if I can find enough time to spend on it that is!?) then I should be able to meet my self-set deadline! 






View through the inside of the sill showed very little in the way of rot / rust to the inner sill (thankfully!) so by just repairing the small hole will save me a lot of time in welding and bodyworking!

Nice work dude. Going to be great when all painted.  

All good stuff.

Looks like the old tin worm has had a good munch. Nom nom

E  

Wow been ages. Ok so a mini update, progress has been a little slow of late mainly involving some welding and bodywork and cleaning and under sealing areas which will never be seen however need to be done for my peace of mind and to protect the old girl. Today I managed to remove the manky cream coloured headlining which was pretty disgusting. Also removed the aerial which some person in their wisdom (cough cough stupidity) installed in the roof after drilling a hole through it, it was probably the worst addition to the car that I have found so far but it’s now no longer there and will be welded and covered very soon! Anyway just a couple of pics this time for everyone.









Original sound deadening above the headlining was still holding up ok, just a couple of bits to re-stick however. A new headlining will be ordered shortly 

This is a pic after I had removed the aerial from the rear of the roof - sacrilege! lol

So theres just a few more pieces of welding to do, still a fair amount of bodywork however I have now booked her in for the respray so now have T-minus 6 weeks and counting until she heads off to get her new lick of paint, it’s only taken me about 10 years since I first bought the car but I can’t bloody wait!!!!!
So hopefully in the next few weeks the bodywork should take shape, the welding will be done and then the body shop will finish the rest, good times! 

So I set myself the target of getting the O/S rear arch finished to a half decent level and get a coat of primer on it which I managed to achieve so happy with that. Have to say bodywork really is tough, hats off to anyone who does this full time as it’s a black art getting it perfect!
So anyway a couple of pics form today:











It's by no means perfect but hopefully a good start for the painter and will hopefully save me some pennies in the long run!? Next on the agenda body work wise is to sort the rear panel and get that in primer. Will probably only get 4 more full days to work on her before she heads off to paint so time is against me.

I've also had delivered a gear shift tower from a MK4 1.8T AGU which I’m going to fit underneath the car in the tunnel , mainly due to it being a lot thinner allowing the exhaust to pass underneath it. I also thought the cables would be shorter than the 02A shifter I got from the Corrado but they seem to be the same length…….……..so I’m going to check to see if they are too long, if so I might try and fit some lupo cables to the shifter tower as I think they may be shorter!?

Looks like a good effort to me mate. Well done. Onwards and upwards.

Very nice work there

Thanks, yeah getting there slowly, going to try and squeeze a couple of days holiday in the next month as well so will hopefully have 6 more days to work on her before she goes to be painted then the fun will really begin!