Saulty's 1983 Tintop 1.8GTI

In the last few weeks I have been attempting to repair the passenger door bottom. The inner and outer skins had rusted through but the inner structure was solid.

Once the bad metal had been cut out I made up an inner repair section out of sheet metal by folding it in the vice and then tapping it with a cross pein hammer against an anvil until I had a similar shape to the original. It took some serious time and patience! I then cut this into smaller pieces and folded them to the shape of the door and then measured and cut the angles and then welded them to get the line of the original inner skin. It follows the shape of the inside structure.
 


Once I had got the angles correct and welded I ground down the welds with a dremel and then cut it to shape so that I could but weld it to the existing skin and then zinc primed it


I then welded the new section to the existing skin and ground down the welds with the dremel. That took some time as well. 

I then cut the new section to shape, I made a mistake here by cutting it in a straight line rather than to the line curved line of the doors original shape, this became obvious later when I folded the outer skin around the inner.

I then cut out the outer skin so that I could weld in a reasonable sized repair section that would also be attached to the existing inner skin and also I didn't want to weld my outer repair section to the inner structure in case I ever want to replace the whole skin! I used a repair section from VWH and the fit was very good for a pattern part but did need some fettling around the trim line.

Once I had welded the new section I folded it around the inner skin on the leading edge and put a generous amount of sealer in there and then ground down the welds.

Then I removed the old stripes and paint all along the door bottom and filled ready for paint! I seem to have been slack on the photos when filling as I don't have any. I also hate it and I'm not that confident in doing it.
Then came the rattle can spray job!


All in all I am quite pleased with it. The line of the leading edge is too straight and the rattle can spray job is not the best but hopefully it will hold out and look good once I have the stripes on! I also gave it a very generous amount of cavity wax to help protect it from the inside!

Wow, that repair looks spot on.  

Super clean job!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bloody hell, that's a brilliant repair! How much did you paint with a rattle can cos you can't tell it's been done.
Well impressed!! What filler did you go for in the end and did you get a long sanding block?

Great repair


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the positive comments .

chrisL , Everything below the swage line is rattle canned, on the leading egde I also went above the line by a few inches as that is new metal. It's easy to criticise your own work and I look closely and see little bits that aren't 100% but I intend to restore the car one day anyway so it will be getting a full respray when the time comes. I got theh rattle cans from Halfords, Mars red no2 and, believe it or not, they are reasonably priced!

Onto the drivers door next!

Did you use the dolphin glaze filler?

I meant to say in the last post, I used P38 to built it up and then finished it off with dolphin glaze and rubbed it down with 240 grit. I ordered a set of Velcro sanding blocks but they didn't arrive until this week so I rubbed it down with a hand sander I've used for sanding filler in the house. I then finished it with some wet and dry before priming it and then wet and dry'd between primer and top coat. 

I've been quite busy doing a few jobs on the car since the beginning of January but I've also been a bit slack with updates! I've replaced the shocks all round with Bilstein B4 gas filled shocks with have improved the handling no end. I also stripped the front end to respray the front panel as it was solid but had a fair bit of surface rust, repaired the drivers door bottom and got the stripes on. I also cleaned the spotlights and, as the headlight lenses had virtually separated from the reflectors, washed them and stuck them back together with seam sealer!Here's a few piccies of the front end!

I also picked up a MK3 wiper motor from a scrappy last summer which sat in my garage until a few weeks ago. I read through quite a few different posts detailing the different motors that were fitted to the MK3's and mine was one that wouldn't take the mounting bracket. While quite a few people posted that they had fitted the same motor but not used the bracket and that it was ok, I wasn't convinced. The motor was very stable when the wipers were going but if you wiggled it then the whole assembly moved and the movement was flexing the scuttle so I made a simple bracket and sprayed it with smootherite (or whatever it's called nowadays :dry:) It stiffened it all up so I was happier :)
Here's a pic!

Tidy job. I agree that you want the bracket there. Having the scuttle flexing due to the motor can't be a good thing   

Hairyarse said

Tidy job. I agree that you want the bracket there. Having the scuttle flexing due to the motor can't be a good thing   

Thanks Andy, i know others have left out the bracket but there was quite a bit of movement and I just wouldn't have been happy driving it too far with the motor swinging about on it's mountings.

Going to attempt a few more pics in a minute!

Removed the drivers door to tackle the rusty door bottom!


Cut out the rusty metal…..





…..and cut to shape and welded to get the right angles a repair section for the inner skin I made when I did the passenger door and welded it to the inner skin.




When I did the passenger door I cut out the old metal to a line parallel to the swage line but when I welded in the repair section I had a bit of heat distortion in the swage line which was hard work to get right so this time I cut at an angle to get as far away from the swage line as possible.  I tacked the repair section into place and refitted the door to check the gaps and then removed the door again to weld the section in fully. I then re-hung the door again before the sealer went off between the inner and outer skins to check the gaps.

Once the welding was done it was time for filler, I used P38 to build it up to the right shape and then dolphin glaze to fill any imperfections.




Then it was time for some rattle can paint!

Then it was time for some stripes on the drivers door!




And then the passenger door!

I forgot to mention that a liberal amount of cavity wax was sprayed into each door!

Then came the bit I've been waiting all winter to do, wash it, polish it, photograph it and drive it!I hope to get some better picture in the near future!

Wow great repair on the doors! Good idea taking the second patch at an angle.

Ratlle can paint match looks good too - not easy on red.

Happy days


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk