Scuttle replacement

Morning

 I am looking for advice as to repairing my scuttle panel, i have a fair few holes along the windscreen seal and wondering if it would be easier to just cut the rough parts out or replace the panel all together.
I have a welder but i am by no means a professional and i have zero bodywork experience, just the will power to want my mk1 back on the road asap!

Here are a few pictures..







Any help/advice will be much appreshiated.
Cheers

id replace the lot mate, get a repair one or one cut from a solid car, drill what spotwelds you have left on the seams, chop the A pillar, don't think the repairs go quite that high though if im honest.

Thanks Brad. Do you know of a thread which explains how to remove the panel? Ive had a search but can only seem to find dead end posts

I don't mate sorry, if you was to bare metal the full area and it should be apparent. 

The lip is 2 sections, inner and outer spot welded together. Hardest part will be cutting a pillar neatly. 

Yeah i see the spotwelds, other than the lip and cutting pillars where else does the panel join? Is it only joined by spot welds? 
When it comes to welding a pillars will i have to build it up as they are layered?

Still yet to remove wings and bonnet but once i get those off hopefully it will become clearer.

Sorry for all the questions!

On top of inner wing will be welded too a small bit each side lad. 

Melteddrummer did work on his A pillar, he can guide you on that point as I've never had one open. But if the second layer is bad and you need to do it all, your gunna have to brace that gap good. 

Got one wing off yeaterday, what a pain in the ass! So much seam sealer..

I see the tab your on about looks like its spot welded in too. 
Im hoping its just the top layer but still need to cut the rotton section out to see.

When you say brace it you mean the roof if i do need to take the whole A pillar out?

Lastly, what did you do with inner seal(where it joins scuttle) mine has rusted through there too, does this come with replacment panel, different panel altogether or will i need to fab something up?

Cheers
Tom

Yeah if you chop the full a pillar, brace it so it doesn't move far lad. 

Which inner seal are you talking about bro? Pic would help. 

Wings are a pain, heat works 

Not that this helps much but someone might remember. 
A member had pretty much the same issues. 

He cut out the whole bottom section and both A pillars. 
But he only cut the A's as high as he needed to, so not the whole pillars so that when he had donors he could chose where the join was. 

It was about two years ago and he made an excellent job, when painted you really couldn't tell the difference! 

Not much help I know but I thought I'd mention it. 

Sent from my Mobile Phone. 

Got ya i am hoping to only have to cut out the top layer but we shall see!

If you have a look at the second and third pictures down at the begining of this thread it shows the holes as if you were sat inside the car looking out of the windscreen(dash has been removed)
Thats the bit im on about!

Any info/help much appreahiated i did read somewhere that it is best to cut the replacement panel to fit the chassis rather than the other way round

Cheers guys

If it were me, I'd replace the whole scuttle at the bottom but make sure you take measurements. Check Drapoon thread for the reason why.

Is picture 4 the bottom of the 'A' pillar on the N/S? if so, expect more rust inside, it looks just the same as mine was. I ended up replacing 2 layers of the 3. I think I went in to detail about how I did it, check my resto thread out for reference.

http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&type=misc&id=projects%2Fyour-mk1-golfs_2%2F-83-gti-set-to-get-full&start=520

Andy.

Cheers Andy, i do plan to replace the whole scuttle and a pillar just trying to source one in good condition as we speak
I had a scan though Drapoon's posts but couldnt seem to see much about replacing scuttle + measurments, do you know which thread it was on?

Thats the drivers A pillar and yep i have cut a little section out, it has pitted badly on the second layer so will be replacing that too! 😔

My worst concern is picture 2 and 3 which shows the opposite side to the scuttle (inside the car) i guess i should be able to source a panel and cut that section out but its going to be awkward, just hope its not too bad behind it where water may have collected.

Thanks for the link to your thread will definitley come in handy id be well chuffed if mine come out as good as that! Do you have much bodywork/welding experience? I guess its just taking your time to get a good fit.

Thanks again.
Tom

I found Drapoon's scuttle issue, what a nightmare.. The car looks mint though!




I have read to buy genguine panels but now i know to double check with windscreen too before final weld, something i probably wouldnt have done!




Thank you 👍

This is my 1st resto Tom, although I am a steel fabricator by trade. Welding wasn't an issue really for me it was more the lack of knowing the way a car is put together. The best way is to strip the paint and sealer off wherever you are working, so you can see what you're dealing with.

There is a guy on FB who is stripping a few mk1's at the minute, he may be able to help you out. I'll PT you some info.

Thats cool, id love to get into fabrication, im a wood machinist making furniture so im alright with a tape measure and angles just trying to pick up welding as i go. Are you a member on the mig-welding forum?

Not a member on there but sometimes find myself on there when I come across something I haven't done before. It's a great site!

It is a great site really helped me decide which welder to go for and endless info!
Scuttles on its way, bought from crazy quiffs in the end little more expensive but know it will be good and i have next week off so can make a start getting the old panel out.
This weather lately makes me want the mk1 running more than ever 😩

Sounds like I have the same problem  initially looked like only the outer was shot but the whole pillar is shot. The more I probe the worse it gets.

Rust is by far the worst part of owning an old car 😔 im still yet to remove the first skin of the a pillar i have only cut a small section out, i see surface rust but hoping its just down to the second layer!




My replacement panel turned up yesterday, have spent a good couple of hours today going back and forth seeing hows best to tackle the job.









Below is a picture of the amount of panel i have to play with behind the scuttle, i think rather than drill out the replacement panels spot welds along the bottom windscreen seal i may leave them be and run a weld along the inside edge as i need to replace most of it anyway 15mm ish down from the lip as you can see in pictures at the begininng of the thread.





(Bit blurry sorry!)




As for the bonnet hinges i was going to leave those joined to the chassis and cut the new panel to fit around them?




The only other thing im not really sure how to go about is welding the guttering on the a pillar. I need to replace the bottom section of gutter so will obviously need to cut into the top two layers but as it shows in the picture below the gutter is folded back on itself and over the top of the top layer. Its going to make it tough to weld to the rest of the existing a pillar, unless i can weld the gutter once i have the top layer in place?









I hope you can kinda understand what im trying to explain! Any advice much appreshiated




Cheers 

Started pulling the replacement scuttle apart today, took a good few hours to remove the second layer on one side.

 

Made this up to unpick the gutter



Im guessing this will straighten out ok when i fold it back over?



I noticed on your thread Andy that you folded the gutter right up too. Was definitly the most tricky bit but now i know how it all fits i feel a lot more confident to start cutting into the chassis.

How do you measure out the a pillars to get the length right as its awkard to get a proper measurement from anywhere.. Or do you use the old panel as a template?

Cheers