75 marinogelb swallowtail

So….. it's been a good 7 months now since the last update, and pretty much all of the action has taken place in the last month or so.
  I got the car back down from the garage as it was going in to be dipped on the 3rd of October, so I needed to fully strip the car before it went.  I had pretty much stripped the interior previously and only really had the dash, roof lining, looms, glass and locks to strip out. It took a bit longer than expected though as I was making countless little videos on the phone and taking a fair few photos to remind me of what goes where and what hole that bolt goes into   I got all of that done pretty fast a started about the engine bay, which seemed to take forever with the amount of seized bolts and awkward bolts to try and get to. I think all in all it took me about 10 hours to get the bay stripped and everything documented. I finally got it sorted though and found that with the help of the engine hoist and a ratchet strap around the two legs the engine came out a lot easier by lifting the body up from then engine.
  Once i'd sorted the bay out i moved onto the underneath and was pleasantly surprised when the rear beam bolts didn't shear and it dropped down nice and easily  This was the part that i thought i was going to spit my dummy out and that i was going to struggle with, but it seems like the dniytrol that they caked everything in did the trick and it looks as though the beam mounts have stood the test of time and swedish winters ( we'll find out once the dipping is completed).  If only they could have caked the A pillars in the stuff !! it'd would of saved a lot of work that needs to be sorted  I only had one issue with the strip down of the car, and that was me trying to undo the brake hose from the calliper. I thought it was seized and was trying to undo it and managed to snap the calliper , I then realised that i'd been tightening instead of loosening  so the hunt is on for another calliper.
  So at that the car was as good as stripped and didn't find anymore unexpected surprises ( bar the fuel tank full of rust) so now was the time to weld in a few braces just to try and keep some sort of structure  with the state of the A pillar and front panel i'm not holding my breath !  Then again the guy who is doing the rest has seen and worked on a lot worse he says   So with that all complete the car was collected nice and early on the 3rd and I await the progress updates ( if you can call them that !) But in the meantime i'll let the pictures do the talking.
 I also made a start on the engine and managed to get it all stripped, so hopefully in the next week or so it'll go up to get checked over and anything that needs sorting will be done before the rebuild. I also managed to find a decent set of doorcards that i'd been looking for, for the past year and i also managed to get hold of another NOS parcel shelf carpet   A little bit that I thought was quite cool about the car was the Bil & Buss sticker on the lower B pillar. It gives the name of the first owner of the car and the town that they lived in, in Sweden.











 

Superb update, thanks because I really enjoyed reading this! ☺️

Best of luck and please do keep us updated, especially with more pictures as you know we can't get enough photos of projects like these! 😉 👍🏼

Sent from my Smartphone 📱

Excellent pictures!

Looking forward to the results of the dipping  

That's how to do a restoration, let's hope the front of the car is still attached when the car comes back from dipping as that's some bad rust on the A pillar.
Hope you don't discover to many more holes?

Keep the updates coming.  

Thanks guys !! Like I said, i'm not holding my breath on the front end  

Definitely following this build!
Great work so far!

D_Martijn said

Definitely following this build!
Great work so far!

Thanks Martijn    If i can get mine anywhere near as nice as your's then I will be happy !!

nice job! keep at it, it's a marathon for sure! 

So I spoke to Envirostrip on wednesday and have been told that the car will be ready for delivery on the 7th of December  So in the meantime i decided to get the engine rebuilt and cleaned up.
 The engine has had new pistons, the head fully reworked, crank ground and balanced, honed and bored and a few other new parts added to it. The next step will be to get all of the bolts and fittings re-zinced and to tidy up the things like the alternator and starter and so on…..  I'm really happy with the turnout of the engine and hopefully it'll do another 170,000 km 

The car has finally been dipped and was delivered up to Irvs restos on Thursday.  I'm happy with how the  car came out of the dip as i didn't think that there'd be a front end attached !!
  As you can see, the car needs a fair few panels (which I have) and if anyone knows somebody with a swallowtail front cross member (the part the rad sits on) that they are willing to part with i'd be grateful if you could give me a shout !! The top part of mine is good, it's just the lower section that the mount attaches to that has vanished  i'm popping up to Irvs mid January so should have a few more photos.

Baggie82 said

Wow, that's one very light-weight looking front end.

How much fabrication do you think you will need to do?

Lhasa2008 said

Baggie82 said

Wow, that's one very light-weight looking front end.

How much fabrication do you think you will need to do?

I’ve got the full A pillar and inner wing from Vw classic parts to replace it. May also have the other inner wing replaced as well depending on how the quality of the one from heritage is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow, that crazy! Can't wait to see some fresh metal going into this car.

May I ask why you dipped it instead of blasting?
I've heard quite a few horror stories of dipping a car..

D_Martijn said

Wow, that crazy! Can't wait to see some fresh metal going into this car.

May I ask why you dipped it instead of blasting?
I've heard quite a few horror stories of dipping a car..

Hey Martijn !

 I wanted it dipping so I know that everything is fixed and nothing hidden.
 Envirostrip are supposed to use less harsh chemicals than an acid dipping company and Paul who is doing the restoration said he’s never had any issues in all the years he’s been using them.
 I’ve heard the horror stories of the chemicals coming out of the seams in the future of cars people have had dipped, but Paul says that he’s never had an issue with envirostrip.  Hopefully there’s no issues with mine In the future

I don't think you will have any problems with chemicals coming out of the seams as there is enough holes in the metal for everything to drain out!  


Good start to a project… Hope you have deep pockets, I think alot of us would of just scrapped it, but I do think it's worth saving.  

Wow.

Good luck.

Ian

Any updates on this, Baggie82 ?

D_Martijn said

Any updates on this, Baggie82 ?

Hi Martijn !

 No major updates yet as I am going to pay a good chunk of money in June/July time so that the metal work can begin. Hopefully then there will be some better updates !
I am still searching for some repair panels and material for the seats, but at the moment i'm not having any luck  I did find a door repair panel, but the company in Germany only had the one side and not the other  I contacted the manufacturer of the part but they said that they had stopped producing the repair panel as it was an old item.
 I also had some parts re-chromed as well, but other than that I haven't done anything else 

So… we need some updates edit: going through ebay I found this.
Not sure if you already found one or need one..
https://www.ebay.de/itm/VW-Golf-MK1-Schwalbenschwanz-Heckblech/352509652008?hash=item5213366c28:g:zRsAAOSwkHFb4yTn:rk:10:pf:0