My Gti Resto continues (Help! I've got a question to ask...)

The dream's falling apart I'm afraid, What looked to be just a bad hand paint job on the car has hidden a multitude of sins which are crash damage done over by fibreglass and cataloy and a layer of gloss paint. It may be a clue as to why it was put in the barn and forgotten about    

Everything is intact otherwise and I think i'll be selling it off for bits. The bumpers and chrome trim grille and are probably the best bits on the car and still nice and shiny.

I'll be keeping the grille, floorpans, roof and lining and just about every other bit of the car I can cut off, but the interior, dash, engine, carb, bumpers, lights with rear panel and also the running gear will be sold off to fund the gti resto.

All is not bad for now. It's a shame really, cos to look at the car it's really solid looking, but once you get in with the magnets, hammer and screwdriver, it starts to show it's true colours.

GUTTED!!!!! 8O

Thats a shame that mate, why don`t you sell it as a whole see if someone wants it as it is as a project, rather then breaking it all up.

Its just that its such an early one and you don`t see that many of them about, compared to maybe series 2 gti`s.

Be a shame for it to survive all that time left in a barn to be cut up as soon as it comes out.

But its your car all the same, so you can do what you want with it

Cheers Kenno

I'm in two minds right now as it's the whole front of the car that's been bodged. It's had welding underneath the fibreglass and paint, Dunno what to do.
Way I'm thinking is that if I break it, then it's getting someone elses project finished or keeping another old golf on the road.

kami said

Done a bit more today but done the drivers side instead.
I'm still waiting on a panel coming which you'll see that I already have for the drivers side in one of the pics.
I just done the same as yesterday for the drivers side.

Before I started cutting away the rot.


After

 
New panel placed in and tack welded for now.




Offered the wing up to see how it all lined up and guess what…..Perfect! No wide gaps!



Here's the new panel that I also need for the passanger side. I cut the top edge off it as I dont need it and it would make it easier to weld and because i'm welding under the lip it'll be concealed more.


I'm just gonna weld this panel straight onto the inner wing as opposed to cutting up good metal, Sounds and looks like a bodge I hear you saying, But I'm not willing to cut up good metal just to weld in a cheap panel in it's place, Besides it can only do good to strengthen the front end!!!!


And that's today's work, I only got to spend a couple of hours on it but I'll go back to it during the week to finish the welding off outside the house.

Well, the old golf was saved at the last minute from getting the chop by a fellow Vee dubber who begged me not to cut the car up, so it's now in his hands to restore it back to it's former glory!

So…. Carrying on from my last Gti post.

Well peeps, I done more work to this today, I had to fix my sisters exhaust for her, so I thought I'd crack on with this seeing as I had the welder out.
 
As you can see from the above pictures, the last inner wing I done, I offered up the repair panel and all I had to do was seam weld the joins and then weld the plate over the top.
So here is today's work.
 
I'll get the other side next week! I can't wait lol.
I didn't take too many pics as I didn't want to turn the thread into a how to, would just take too much time.
The first pic below is after I seam welded the joins and then put the panel on top and then seam welded that to the inner wing.

And this pic is the after pic when I tidied my welding up and sprayed it with rustproof paint.


Must say I'm quite pleased with the neatness of my welding as I didn't need to tidy it up too much.
Can't wait till next weekend now so I can do the other side.

Will the hole in it be classed as a weak point on the car and make it fail an M.O.T?  Nice work though.

I've got a plate made up waiting to go in there mate, I need to use the saw to get in there and tidy it up a just a bit more, before I let the plate in and then weld the engine scuttle to the sides again.

It's the same on both sides. I just ran out of time today so I sprayed it up so to avoid any rust setting in.

Nice work…

Were the inner wing repair panels cut off other cars? I need a couple of similar patches for mine…

Thanks

Rich

Yeh they were mate, I got them of crazy quiff. I got the front inner wing panels from GSF.
I don't think you can buy those panels anymore!

Thanks - I'll have a word with CQ

Rich

Here's some more work that I've done.
I finished of some more of the drivers inner wing, 2 plates welded in and an inner sill done today.

Sorry for the crap pics
Triangle shaped panel cut and grafted in place


Next I had to make up a panel that sits at a right angle and makes part of the door post.



And then covered with POR15


Then I started in the inner sill. Firstly I cut out the old inner sill and removed all the rust in that area.
Then I sized it up and cut back the metal so the new panel would fit.


New inner sill welded into place. Although you can't really see it in this pic. I'll take my proper camera down next time and take pics.


The sills are by no means finished, as I now need to do the outer sill and then weld a new floor panel in.
Once that's done everything should be solid and more ridged again.

Does anyone know if you can still buy the rear inner sills? I'd like to get them and the the whole lot, they're ok for now but they've had work done on them previously by the looks of it.

Here are better pictures taken with my camera rather than my phone.






At this rate I should get the car on the road for April which is what I'm aiming for, I'll be working on it over the weekend with any luck!

Just thought I'd post an update. I was doing some work on this today, just finishing some welding on the inner sill that I couldn't get to with the car on all fours.

Just when I thought I couldn't find anymore rust on this car! Feck me man!!!!

After welding up the front inner sill, I decided to tackle the outer sill.
After clearing all the paint up I found what looked to be an over sill that had simply been stuck on. I managed to get it off with little effort.

I'm seriously now not happy with the guy that sold me this car, I was told by him that it would be an easy project with minimal work. Don't get me wrong, I had a good look over the car and was confident I could do what was needed to get it back on the road, but it's just escalated now!

My batteries ran out on the camera so I couldn't get pictures, but the whole rear outer sill is rotten and also part of the rear subframe mountings has corroded too.
Underneath this over sill was the rotten original sill. I'd have thought whoever done this job would have at least cut the rot out of it, but it doesn't look like they did.

Seeing as you can no longer buy those particular panels that I need, I'm going to have to make them from scratch.

Did I say April next year for a finish date????? Make that 2010  

Done more on this today, not much though.

This is what I found the other day, lurking under the oversill.



I had to cut back all the rust and then weld a new plate in that area which proved to be a bitch of a job, thankfully I wont have to do it again!

This is the oversill and whats left of the original sill, it looks like they were stuck on with sikaflex.


Last plate grafted into place on the doorpost


New sill clamped and tack welded into place


And after that….My welder broke!!!!
I'll need to see if I can pick up a new nozzle as the welding tip broke inside mine.

Here's how it looks so far!!!



Long way to go still…..

Sad to hear about your experience with the oversill - it's not uncommon for that to happen unfortunately.

However, good to see it's being repaired properly this time…

Keep up the good work!

Rich

it aint nice finding unwanted surprises on old cars but its part of the resto, hang in there as your doing a great job and you can chuckle about it when your driving the finished article. 8)

Cheers, It'll take a while to get there, the other side is worse, take a look back at my first photos and you'll see what I mean lol! I'll tackle it one bit at a time.
I've got new parts coming for my welder, I hope the come before wednesday! :?
I'll get there though, thanks for the encouragement!

Just noticed you're breaking a mk2, whats the scuttle panel below the window like on it?

Here's the fruits of today's labour.
Not got many pics, my camera's been funny buggers. I'll take down my good one next time I think. This is just a cheapo one.



You prob cant see much as I've coated it with POR15 (Great stuff btw) but I've grafted in a patch right along the inner sill and welded it into place, it fell a bit short near the pedals as that's all I cut out of the other car, but I've got that little patch to do and one other near the rear corner and thats the floor on that side done.

You can also see the plate I had to make up that sits under the seat. I tried to shape it to the floor as much as possible but the most important thing is, that all the rust has been cut out of this area.
This should last a few years, I'll maybe save up for a whole new floor and save it for the next time the car needs any work, although I'm hoping it won't need it for a good few years.

Nice work! I love reading this type of thread  

Are those inner sills new pattern parts? i didnt know those were available, where did they come from?

Greg

I think they were pattern, although the quality of them is great, nice and solid metal. I got them off crazy quiff last year. Are they hard to get?

Keep looking back over the next few weeks, I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. I'm back at work next week so I'll be confined to weekends only on the car which is a pain.