broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Thank you for the comments, i have been progressing slowly in the back ground. Some photos appear to have gone missing. But only the infill panel, I used the obligatory cardboard template and a little bit of beating to straighten the rough edges.  Next step was the mount it to the air box and roughly mark out the seal mating face, from there i would be able to work out where i needed to remove metal to fit the deflector plate. Fortunately I had a hole saw just the right diameter, so i removed a coupon from each ends and then used tin snips to join the two.  As you an see the first attempt left a little extra metal to be removed. I used a sanding drum on the die grinder to do this is a fairly gentle and controlled manner. I was then left with the unenviable task for grinding down the bulk of the welds, ready to fit the deflector.  Instead of welding all the way around I have drilled 6 holes and miged through them to hold it in place Rather annoyingly I have clearly moved it during welding which has resulted in it being slightly wonky!  But as its non critical I'm going to leave it as it is.  I now need to run lots of seam sealer around it and then plenty of top quality sealing paint. And my double sided sticky foam seal arrived. Ive yet to work out how I'm going to weld this on with the foam seal in place, but VW managed it!  And just to remind you where we came from, last night I started work on this  I'm going to manufacture a removable panel to allow for cleaning and protecting. And now its july already! Were in for a decent update this time then! For the first time in a long time I cracked on with a part of the fabrication and completely lost track of time, just pottering away and suddenly 3 hours had passed. I was full engrossed and fully enjoyed my Sunday afternoon in the sunshine. Though this is spread out over the course of 3 days. Let me take you back to almost a year ago. Hold this image in your mind as you read on.  I needed to give myself a straight edge to work against in order to form the remainder of the repair. A little more CAD, I use the already straight edge of a cereal box as my datum.  And just remembered to take a photo before I got stuck into the welding!   Now with a decent reference point came the tricky part. From the inside, I forced a piece of card to shape while the missus drew around the outside giving me a rough idea of the shape I was trying to produce.  Before recreating this in metal I needed to hatch my plan. I want access to the inside of the airbox panel to clean and protect, the best way to do this is from above as it will avoid having to seal leaks on the underside. For this a little ergonomics had to be considered, so I cut a 45mm slot in some card.  I couldn’t get my hand through the gap, so I took another 10mm off and I could just get through.  As it mainly a hoover and shutz gun I want to get through it should be ample big enough. Using the windscreen washer jet as the centre, I hope it is!? I mocked up a suitable panel in card.    I was quite happy with how it was progressing, it even looked like a good idea! So happy I took a break for a brew and then translated my bodgery to metal.  This is where I made a mistake! The hole saw bit and jumped out of the wood, as it’s a brand new saw its nice and sharp, it took a bite out of my panel. As I'm short on sheet material I carried on.  Before I went any further I decided I should check if it will actually fit.    With a very crude version of the shape followed nearly an hour of bend me shape me any way you want me. I used an old riveting dolly and a piece of tube to form the curves as best I could.  I ended up using a couple of tiny pie cuts to get the curves, I have returned my friends strinker so that wasn’t an option this time.  Then came the long and steady job of welding it in, this proved very difficult. Not only to avoid the distortion. But also the wind picked up on Sunday afternoon blowing my gas away. I ended up hanging some old sheets from the bonnet to make a make shift enclosure. It worked 90% of the time.  And finally the boring bit, ground down and coated in etch.   |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Its about to get very intense and photo heavy  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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It already is fairly intense Best assume the brace position then! late June last year I suppose I best tell you whats been going on. This update will be a little like star wars, jumping back and forth. But there is method to my madness. I set about the cover panel for the blister under the bonnet. I had a bit of stainless of suitable thickness, a grown ups drawing of the dimensions  I marked out the radii and used tin snips for a rough cut and finished with a belt sander, 3/4 done here.   I plan to fasten it with Dzus fasteners to squash it against the seal  In the mean time the hard working van drivers had been bringing me these front and rear screen seals  So heres the first jump, as I don't want to open a tube of seam sealer and then have it go off, I painted the inside of the blister with etch primer and then two coats of primer. I will return to it when I seam seal it and then top coat it. My attention was drawn to removing the windscreen as I now had the seal. Knowing one corner needed a repair I borrowed my friends strinker again.   As you can see a pretty obvious hole here  Again the folder at work was very helpful to make the basic profile for the screen  I don't need to say a lot here, marked around the rust and pitting.     With the welds blended   Its had a couple of coats of primer inside and out, and is now another job waiting for that tube of seam sealer With the light starting to fade I decided that the small amount of rot on the other corner needed sorting. Although its not an issue now, it wont be many years. But I haven't finished it yet so you don't get to see! The corners are now complete. This side wasn't through. But there was some heavy pitting and it was getting a bit crispy so in for a penny......  Gently mocking it all up, this time I skipped the CAD  As you can see, I shouldn't have as its about 5mm too bloody short! So here's Mk2  Nom Nom Nom  After that little bit of massaging it dropped in quite nicely   And with a few steps skipped, you get the idea.  The next little job was my cover panel under the bonnet. I started by fitting my Dzus Springs  and the finished job, I really must do some action shots of these jobs.  Finally for today, I was bloody fed up of the drivers window opening about 3 inches then stopped and the arm would carry on. Then the glass would suddenly drop, I know one day this was going to result in smashed glass.  The reason why is this rotten piece of rubbish  I had a look in one of my spare doors, unfortunately it was a passenger door and the lifter channels are handed. But its better than nothing. One tiny hole  I gave it a trip through the sand blaster then serversl coats of paint. itll do me this year and goes on the job list for the winter  I feel I owe you an update some lovely progress and wallet emptying. This is going to be photo heavy! Sorry if it hurts your bandwidth The next job was to test the quality of my new windscreen seal. I first had to select a screen. I’ve got three and the original one showed laminations in the sunshine which got annoying on sunny evenings.  As it turned out all 3 showed this though one to a lesser extent. So, I used that. The seal its self was a good fit to the glass, and was reasonably tough to get on. So, I took this as a good sign. ![]() o5f99w.ch.files.1drv.com/y4mIxN2ExE3-bAz7Q8A75V_x3FOsYeD--WzUR1fFvBPPQBMqBptQZDawE1eq0Y3npYXZxhsmDy5-O7XKdf7RLdZ_y83KRVZ-_hItbY3giW0VGg3mLRLagxWD_jya174jC8EhsPfxl0Unxsfh9zHi4VaVT2504Ik7bQ-IY-tlNJr7qT0oY3ZYK2Nf5FyJLuGd6rjdC53hCbOhzfnOAS11fERGA?width=1024&height=576&cropmode=none[/img] An action shot installing the screen just before the string snapped! I couldn’t find the proper wax cord I used last time.  So I got my hands on some nylon cord.  I wasn’t very impressed with the fit, I assume this is due to the lack of moulded corners.   After a few days, this has settled and it doesn’t sit quite as proud. But in my haste, I bought the chrome trim as I hope this will open up the rubber and push it into the corners. Never having had the chrome for the windscreen I don’t know how it should look. So time to take the plunge and bond the rain deflector panel in. Ive used a combination of double sided sticky foam tape and tiger seal.  It hasn’t sealed perfectly, I'm not entirely sure why, but in order to get me out for the summer ive gummed it up with more seam sealer and will revisit this in the winter. It was never going to be easy! I carried on the spending spree and bought a pair of sills to go in the pile for winter work.  They certainly look good quality and the right shape. Folds and creases in the right places and a little extra metal for trimming.  Something which has always annoyed me but ive never been prepared to spend the money on the second hand ones ive seen on ebay at over £100 a go. A large lump of my steering wheels missing. I assume someone has tried to pry the horn bar off and broken it.  At £35 this was worth a punt, it has no lumps missing just a couple of small cracks which will easily be filled.    Ive also bought a number of other rubber and fastener odds and sods. I don’t need too many bits to have a complete car now My last major welding job for the next 4 or 5 months now seems to be complete, a fine and sunny weekend I pulled the car on the drive, in front of the garage from under cover feeling confident it wouldn’t rain until I had finished. The rear screen seal was so hard you could only just press a nail into it.  Even with a Stanley knife it was very hard to cut and took about half an hour to remove. I knew on the OS vertical I had some holes to repair, but I was curious to see what else had suffered. The near side bottom corner was more or less fine. I cleaned it up and gave it some rust beater.   The same couldn’t be said for the other side  Wasting no time I got the wire wheel on it to see exactly how shot it was and then started cutting out around the holes. ![]() g7zqka.ch.files.1drv.com/y4m8FOwic4Qbx8CTqDu0WSFa570z0Y28oy4v2d-2QjK2zKnyk0FO4mLiKbw2ZXVkDJuDV0YHD-9lTHzbR2P9EzQK9O0m7frzTEitNyEphHtJQBJ-bZqx8Jrfju-vfvna8BfHnw3H1ioO8Gg4CTmAq8eU37nAGdo9el0Y228VeAEBsXEy6ejwed7XSfA0BO1L_v3mT4Zfr0ZaKAUdNz0X6jEEg?width=576&height=1024&cropmode=none[/img] A nice easy one to make.     Here we go then, a challenging shape to make in a onner. I now realise I don’t have a photo of the hole. But you’ll get the idea of the shape.   I couldn’t get the strinker to chomp this tight enough to get he profile for the corner. So I had to add one pie cut.  And a second cut  I made a rough profile gauge from the corner of the glass and checked it against the undamaged corner and my repair before I welded it in.  Id say they look about the same  I was starting to loose the light as it was about 2130, and I expected the neighbouring wouldn’t appreciate angle grinding at that time so I covered it in primer and left it for the night  Filler and sand time, actually didn’t take much to shape up. I thought it would be much harder.   And here we are back at the start only 24 hours later, it was a complete sod to fit. Which I took as a good sign it must be a nice tight seal. The seal its self-had moulded corners which made it fit the glass perfectly. It’s the ISP seal so if anyone is looking id recommend it  |
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Last Edit: Nov 8, 2018 18:21:10 GMT by broady
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Cheers for the tip off, I cant remember if this was something I sorted or not. (that might give you a clue to the current state of the car) Not want to skip ahead and spoil the next 18 months for you I'm going to post smaller chucks simply because that last one is a bit of a monster I don't want to cause anyones computer to over heat Time ive gave you ugly lot another update, With them holes filled up I decided to do something more mechanical. The NSF was more or less on the legal limit so I got out one of the wheels I painted a long time ago and fitted it with one of my spare tyres. I don't really like them as much as I thought I did. It has been about 4 years though. Never mind eh, its road legal so it fits the bit for this summer.  One more welding job was needed. So this week I hit it hard, in from work changed an straight out there till 9 4 nights in a row. My spare bonnet was in good order apart from this   Not sure why it decided to fall apart there and no where else, but it'll do me for a quick repair. I attempted to make this from two pieces, the lower with a little drain channel and the top with its edges folder round to grip it.  As you can see, with the lower skin removed there really wasn't much of a top skin left. Luckily there was enough to use as a pattern.  To get the folds ive got a piece of plate which I clamped it under and bent it round.   Quite a rough shape, but after some thumping I got it roughly right  But not quite, the radii is just a little too tight and it catches on the scuttle. Ive also found this bonnet is about 5mm longer than my old one, the missus had to come and help me free it off as it stuck in the catch, so in order for it to fitch the bonnet catch is so far back it hits the scuttle panel when I open it. Something else on the body work list for winter.  They don't look as terrible as I thought once on the car, but I still don't like them.  Lots of other little jobs have happened, re calibrated my speedo, fitted seats and belt, cleaned up a little bit of wiring. I give the engine a light service, the old oil want pretty. Then I ended up here  And the old girl passed, though it was running a bit rough on the way there, it would cruse ok but if you went passed half throttle it would hesitate, as if the accelerator circuit wasnt operating. So last night, having checked the tappets, points and timing I pulled the carbs to bits. and found old crappy petrol lumps.   With them cleaned out and reinstalled it runs a lot better, but its still a bit iffy, I know ive got leaky carb spindles so that's like the cause.As it was gone 10 last night I thought id leave it for this afternoon to tune it up. SO weve covered just over 8 years which was 13 pages from the other forum. The next 15 months take a good 6 pages. Lots to cover! |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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"Great stuff, must be nice to be back on the road after all that?  " Was a comment sent in my direction at the time you'd have thought so wouldn't you, the engine still ran poorly at best, 50mph was flogging it hard, like it was driving up hill. I took the distributor out and checked it over, it was very rattly so I assumed the mechanical advance had failed. I got a second one out of my stash, the dual vac can had failed. So I made a good one of the two. Having checked the vac worked and the plate moved freely I fitted it and timed it exactly as per the book to 0 degrees, the engine sounded better, but drove even worse. Kangarooing and unable to get past 2nd gear. So I advanced the timing to what I thought was 7.5 degrees, off I went and with in 10 miles it got a bit smokey, fortunately I was nearly home, I parked up and left it too cool. I suspected a thermostat failure, but the flaps were fully open. Once it was cooled I got the strobe out again and it read 12.5 at idle. Woops!!! Anyway, no damage was done but it still didn't run well and I was starting to remember why I lost interest in the car. Still certain the issue was ignition related I had another dig in my distributor box and got an SVDA out. Cleaned, checked, tested and fitted. I blanked the manifold port, timed the dissy to 7.5, checked max advance and road tested. It drove as I remember all those years ago, 60mph was effortless and the engine stayed cool. So questions that remain unanswered, where should the vacuum hoses go? I have one from the vacuum side to the port on the carburetor as you would on an SVDA, the retard side to the port on the manifold. both vac cans work and when I check with a strobe its timed correctly and as I rev the engine the advance is smooth and levels off nicely. Another small job which needed some attention was the fuel sender, after my hard work rebuilding it, it read at half scale. so I checked the internal earth to find it was poor. I cleaned the contact for this and re-soldered the nichrome wire, it now reads about bang on. which is as good as a new one! A decent road test in order and proper tune of the engine. then just a few small jobs to tidy up loose ends and rattles for the summer. Just a small update for you all, something odd going on with the steering, I centred the steering wheel. But after covering a few miles its gone off centre again. That combined with the front end knock suggests I need to get under there and find out whats going on. Weirdly on the road it feels very smooth and under control. But something to do in the coming weeks. With the need for an easy job and having used gaffer tape to blank off the fan housing to get me on the road, I fitted this elbows.   Although its the height of the English summer, you never want to be with out heating Another small job for a sunny evening, the horn occasional sounds when turning, I assume the wires bare somewhere and catch so ill pop the wheel off and check. Small jobs make me look forward to the work. Nearly a month since I said anything! Ive been enjoying driving the ole banger, but the front axel rattles like a curse word. I must have a loose bush or something. Ive pumped it full of grease today, so ill have to see how it handles its next drive. The last month has seen a few odds and ends. It was getting embracing beeping at people every time I turned left, so I decided to have a look. I was missing one of these anti vibration washers which sits under the horn push mounting screw. But having recently bought another steering wheel I found it had a spare one  I also sleeved the wire as the insulation had split, removed the steering wheel, made sure the stalks were secure and seated. With it all carefully rebuilt it would seem Ive sorted it! The next issue I was having was clunky steering and a sloppy center. I went to adjust the box, but it was all very stiff and the screw for the idler was a bit chewed up. I dug out my spare and its screw was in a better state of health.   While changing this I noticed that it had quite a lot of play, and after consulting my Bentley book found out it should be all but solid. I had some 0.05mm shim stock, so made a couple, very hard to do with something just thicker than tinfoil. But I clamped it between two blocks of wood and drilled 10mm holes.  I then marked the outside using the original washer and then cut that with tin snips. They weren't pretty, but the took up the slack, this then allowed me to carry out the steering box adjustments properly, after a road test I can confirm it goes where I point it now! I need to set up the rear axel, but it looks quite involved in the book so I might save this until the winter. Experience or advice anyone? Some other advice I wouldn't mind involves the speedo. I took this to pieces. Including twisting the two metal tabs and removing the drive portion from the clocks. I now have it reading the right speed again. But distance wise its only shows 1 mile for about every 4 or 5 covered. I assume that There must be a specified gap between the drive and the clocks. As its like a viscous coupling with the magnet driving the dish. Does anyone know the gap? Although I had promised myself I would stop spending on this until the winter hits (though you wouldn't tell it from winter now) I saw these NOS air intake boots and had to have them from Mr Kelly.  They've gone in the rebuild stash, something which I have worked through this last week, sorting my best parts from what will be come spares and the 3rd pile being for sale. So ill have a small trickle of stuff up for sale soon. And as today was actually like a summers day in the middle of august I wet sanded the whole car to remove the rust, and grinding swarf from it. Who says you can't polish a turd! Ill get a photo next time I'm out in the banger |
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Last Edit: Nov 8, 2018 20:19:46 GMT by broady
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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I spent some time dismantling this during a few evenings last week. Not exactly sure what I did but I cured the spinning issue. The reason for the low mileage count became obvious when i looked at this gear.  Under the mangnifier you can see the small piece it had eaten from the nylon gear. This was just enough to let it jump about 75% of the time.  I had a spare speedo so tried to dismantle it an remove the gear, it was in better condition but not perfect.  Rebuilt with this and I built the gear up with araldite and then filed it to the right shape. it now seems to be reading correctly again. Ive recalibraded the speedo too. It reads 1mph slow. So thats damn good enough for me and the milometer is bang on! After an 80 mile run too and from skegvegas at the weekend it was driving nicely. Just got to get the front axle rattle sorted this week! |
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Last Edit: Nov 8, 2018 20:25:54 GMT by broady
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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September 2017 and were starting to get a bit more technical. Makes for more pleasing reading and you begin to see how my skill set has improved and increased A good few weeks have flown by since I had anything of real note to say on this, but there is a happy ending. Since recommissioning the ole banger it has sounded like a ball joint was loose. Having been over all the joints, arms and beam mounts I found nothing loose. So i decided it was time to take the beam to pieces and build it up from scratch and find out what I missed first time round. Up on stands and wheels off, I proceeded to remove the shock absorber only to find that although the bolt and nut were tight the damper its self was loose and sloppy. Once removed I found out why. As these were nearly new KYB's i was surprised.   You can see what the problem was, the nearly new dampers top bush was far to big for the bolt going through it. Something which should have been noticed at the time of fitment, but being damp dark and cold. I seem to remember rushing to get it together. As baldrick once said, I have a cunning plan. I was gifted this pair of scrap shocks from moler with the idea of taking the bushes out and fitting to my shocks as the inner diameter of these bushes fitted very nicely on my bolts.  The next challenge was to press them into my shocks. The top two pressed in after a little rust clean up, but the bottom two original bushes were a much smaller hole.  Little action shot of me turning down the inserts to press into the bottom two eyes. I turned them down to 14.1mm  Then opened up the bottom eyes to 14mm  With a slight lead on the new insert  And driven home with the vice  I then cut the excess bush off and rand a reamer down the middle to make it concentric again. Once refitted to the car I went for a nice little drive down some bumpy roads the sound of silence was beautiful! A little treat for myself, I took a few bits to the powder coaters so I can now have the correct heating system set up. The rest goes in the loft store.  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Well lots has happened in the last month, but no conclusions to jobs. I don't normally like to post until a job is done. But here goes. Ive covered a fair few miles to get some enjoyment from the old banger. roughly 250 this month. Its now off the road for winter. During the month ive taken advantage of the mild weather weve had and got on with some sand blasting. Having neatly boxed up all the bits I plan to use. I then went in the loft, 1 box at a time and removed any rusty items to suitably improve.  The blasting rig  Dangling away all in etch primer and then one little clip I'm quite pleased with getting.   I had what i thought was a great pair of scuttle corners, after a lot of blasting this is what I had left.   I guess I wont be wasting my time grafting those in. curse word! Anyways I will return to that area come the dark nights. Next I decided to tackle the crash bar as it has been sat down the side of the garage for a number of years.  Spot welds still out.  A rough cut pattern. This took quite abit of a forming for a reasonable simple looking panel. Lots of stretching  The final shape with pressing roughly right.  This wasnt a job I did. But took this out of storage to find out what state it was really in. For the princely sum of £25.    I rushed a fetched it back within a couple of hours to get lots of primer on and stop it browning off. it was a nice dry and mild day, if a little windy.    its a good solid base, and the repairs have been done pretty well. So just a bit of tidying up to do. its lots better than what I currently have fitted. Unfortunately the same cant be said for the cash bar, the found a few little holes. I backed them will ally and welded them full. This will go back to the powder coaters for a reblast and then satin black.   Wanting a little change of scene I tended to the driver side door card which was water damaged.   Hardboard is a sod to drill and get a clean hole. So i trimmed the swraf with a stanley blade and then a pass over with a blow torch  All mounted all, I'm quite happy with it, but not 100% so we shall see if i come back to that.  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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So life got pretty heavy at this point, the end of October 2017. Good bye life for at least 12 months Ive had a short break from this and now gone head on into the winter project factor, the original door was in need of so much repair work that Ive decided to make my spare fit after some repair work. Just to confuse you, the original door isnt the fitted one.  The original having done this.  This was the worst of the replacement, Luckily it hadnt made it on to the skin, just the weather strip mount.   Rather than trying to make a much more complicated shape, this is the second section. Which will but up to the first repair.     I had intended to buy a powerfile to blend the welds in, but moneys gone else where this month and this is very unlikely to ever be seen, with the seal over the top of it. Ive just use a die grinder.  Next step was to weld on the lip for the weather strip, something which i don't seem to have photographed. You can see the two spot weld dimples here which is where the tab for the door handle mounts on the earlier door. Ive drilled the spot welds off the old door and welded it on.   Naturally where ive repaired the bottom of the door the heat has distorted the skin slightly, a few gentle taps took the worst of it out but not being a panel beater I decided it was time I had a go. After some filling and sanding down to 240g  I'm about 75% happy with it after putting some primer on to see what it shows.  As you can see the bottom couple of inches still needs a fair slog of work.  Having had enough for sanding and shaping I took a little break and sorted my 1/4 lights out. This was the best I found.  I sand blasted it and gave it a fair few coats afterwards. its a good solid one so thats an easy job done! I just need a new seal for it now, they seem to be £30 or £130! Are the £30 ones any cop?  |
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Last Edit: Nov 9, 2018 21:20:59 GMT by broady
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 10, 2018 10:27:04 GMT
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A month later and its time for some major surgery! Masks on please. It seems its becoming a regular monthly update for me, I'm quite pleased with how ive got on with this now. The car is now safely in the garage and that means when ive had enough and need to walk away I can down tools, lock the door and focus on something else. Much better than the last resto on the driveway from august to January! Far too cold and miserable, with the fun of getting the tools out and packing away every night.  So ive got some big jobs a head, first thing to do was strip the car down, label and box the bits up. I took the N/S wings off and decided to tackle fitting a sill. I was greeted with this sinking heart. So a new sill became a new heater tube too. No such a simple task.  With the whole tube out, the rest of the section doesn't look too bad fortunately.  Just as a mood lifted I offered the sill up  So I wanted to reinstalled the footwell heater vents, something I didn't do years ago in my parents open garage, time, skill and temperature against me. First task, find out where the hole should be.  I cut the slot and the vent hole.  The flap is slightly inset because of the notch for the wiring loom. So I have to put this closing plate in to give the flap something to seal against.   Before I could go any further I had to replace the choob as it has to seal around the flap and also have a 90 degree elbow to connect up to the heater tube in the A pillar for the winscreen heater.   I bonded some high density foam to the back of the flap to help with the seal.  I had hoped to just remove a small amount of the tube to complete the corner, but it got a bit more involved as I was fighting myself in such a tight space as you can see here.  As I'm going to be re doing the inner arch with one sheet, I hacked a lump out for some extra room, and reluctantly I took the door hinge off too.  Now you can really see what I'm up to, I opened the tube up further.  And starting to create the 90 duct into the screen heater.  Now I had the tube end is cut to the right shape I know what and where. I cut the tail end bend from the original piece, the only bit that was any good and grafted it on to the end of my new tube.  While the tube was removed I opened up some holes on the inner sill. These will be for rust in habiting in the future. They will then have a rubber bungs in and be under the carpet.  With that done the tube went back in and I finished mocking up for the ducking.  I rushed ahead as we suddenly had a cold snap over the weekend and I had free time, I was in there Saturday afternoon and all day sunday. a whole 4 degrees tops, but its stitched together and with a hot air gun blowing down the inlet I get a decent flow out of both outlets depending which is selected. very please.  Found this in my documents folder! Never been used and the valid till date hasn't been filled it. Maybe I need to pop into the local VW dealers I got this with the car nearly 10 years ago but ive only just realised what it is. Ignorance of youth eh  Lets have a fair chunk of an update then, Ive been a little more social than I ought to have this month, along with a lot of study outside of work which has cost a fair bit of garage time. Ive had the past week off and got the Christmas curse word out the way early and that let me focus on the car. I will start by clearing up the loose ends from the last post. I clamped the new sill skin on and offer the front wing up. It look this good in person so, I'm over joyed, its going to take some serious persuasion, but as I am fitting a new front clip to the car I had a ctrl alt del and thought to myself. Lets start at the front of the car and get that square and work back from there.  One quick job which had to be done was to reinstall the lower door hinge. So I got some 1.2mm plate and got it all lined up.  So here it is, a new face. although not perfect it was 90% better than what's installed. This needed on repair of an old repair. Otherwise its straight and strong enough.     It was very time consuming, but some steady going kept the deformation to a minimum.  I then gave myself a pair of straight edges to work to.   With that out the way the serious work began, at the very least I wanted to give myself a rough idea of where to park the new front. This shows the patch work seam sealed mess I and the pervious owners has assembled over the many years.    I conservatively cut a big lump off.   This is the first offering of the new face, I used a few points of reference, the two mounting bolts through the front beam clamps, the dimensions of the fuel tank rails and spacing between wing mounting fasteners.  At this it is about 20mm too far forward, but its much easier to cut it off than it is to glue it back on. All the while I was checking the bonnet shut. Which was pretty close to spot on here, the NS was a couple of mmm too far forwards but, small fry compared to the wings.   After 6 hours of removing,  filing, refitting and realigning we got to this.  I think I could have only made it worse from there! And not only had I got the front 4 panels to align, id got the door fairly close too.  So before I had any chance to spoil it I welded up the tank supports.  Due to the tolerance on parts, the new front end was about 2mm wider than my car, so I had to use a little hydraulic assistant to align the vertical faces.  And the tank still sits nicely in there!  Ive done much more this week, but that's all you get for now resto fans This cross section shows the profile of the sill. I refer to a poster from another forum. Is that essential? I only saw it as something else to rot away and leave lots of rust hanging around inside my sill. No forgiveness needed as the outer skin isn't on yet so it can easily be added. (assume you are referring to this)  The next update will be from 2018! That's this very year. |
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Last Edit: Nov 10, 2018 21:03:48 GMT by broady
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 10, 2018 21:11:38 GMT
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I hadn't thought in terms on structural. My thoughts were along the line of a heat deflector to stop the sill skin from getting too hot and damaging the paint on the outside, or inducing lots of lovely damp and rotting it through quicker. Its something I will have to ponder over the next couple of days while I'm drunk on the sofa! Cheers for starting the cogs turning though sir, Ive learnt much about welding and metallurgy in my years so I'm hacking out all the bad or off repairs of the past and trying to improve upon the VW design at the same time. Removing as may areas of multiple layers as I can. If anyone else has comments please weigh in as i like data gathering. On the topic of advice, I'm restructuring the inner wing and looking and other cars photos for reference and notice this panel mounted on the inner wing. What does/did it do? Whys it there? ect ect will i die with out one?   Both of you and a friend of mine all make the same argument so I will be fabing up a coupe of these panels in the coming weeks! Progress marches on. Ive removed the inner wing as it was made from a number of smaller bits during my poor student days.  This was sad face  Not my greatest work but I tried to repair this channel section.     With this joined up it should give it, its strength back. I Could see my old shoddy repair to the bulk head though. The outer was good but the inner was poor. So out it all had to come.    Some of the photos seem to have gone missing. So theres a few steps skipped here.  And this is a terrible photo because of the light.  But thats all stitched back together, it will need cleaning up and prepping but for now I'm just focusing on getting the repairs done. Then ill get on with a good grinding down session and paint it all up. I'm glad its out of the way, it was an unplanned job and a curse word to do. I then got back on with the planned job, the inner wing skin. Before I could start i needed to get the sill to wing fit sorted. So i made a few cuts in the sill and was left with this.  I'm much happier to use this as a starting point for adjustment  More to come! |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 10, 2018 21:16:25 GMT
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Right trying to catch up with the posts vs reality! I began fabbing up the new panel. CAD was a major player in this, as i started I notice this bow in the seal channel.  This would need correcting. Having looked at various cars online most of them seem to have the pressings roughly up to the scuttle panel. So I had to cut one section out of the old front end.   With that section tacked in, I began the card board shaping. A number of hours passed.  My target was to produce this skin panel in one piece, fewer welded seams, less opportunity for it to corrode! But this became very challenging to make out of card so I had sinking doubts about making this from 1 sheet of steel with only a few hitting sticks and dollys.   Lets have at it then, steel time. first a rough cut and I gave myself a way to securing it to the car for shaping. And sent it through the strinker to put a slight arc in to try and match the contour of the wing.   A couple of rough folds gave me that start  It wasnt too much further down the road that I started to get very difficult as the panel started to fight its self so I had to apply some heat, this helped to relax some areas allowing others to stretch  It was still getting very close to the contour of the structural member on the inside  Ive then tried to match it up to all the other panels involced in the area.  And the check the wing curve was a good match, I also trial fitted the wing with the sill and everything is lining up nicely.  The final test was wheel clearance. I know the suspension is at ride height rather than full compression but it has adequate clearance  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 11, 2018 11:00:09 GMT
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]Very kind of you! Lets try and bring this nonsense up to date then. I started welding the panel in and trimming sections as I went.  Before i went 110% and fixed it in I did a couple more wing alignment checks. Its a job to see here but the wing is a bit proud towards the rear.  With some more heat and thumping I got it all a little closer. Once joined to the top section this will line up nicely.  here we go then, welded all the way around!     Time to start filling in the bulk head gaps.  I decided to remove the worst of the pitted section, it was spot welded to the box underneath. So a bit trickery to get out but i drilled them out then used a sharp chisel to break it off.    With that all taken care of I felt I was getting somewhere and returned to the sill. After a little discussion it was advisable that the strengthening web we fitted. So I had to manufacture something. I needed a pattern before I committed to a full meter length.   Looking for a diameter of about 80mm  These rollers arent able to roll a tight enough radii so I ended up at this.   Into the folder to put a couple of flanges on it.  Clearly this was too wide. It was touching the inside of the sill, a great moisture trap.  I crudely gave it a squash in the vice, it became bang on and this was used as my pattern.   As weve seen the rollers werent going to give me an 80mm diameter so some lateral thinking was needed. I ordered up a sheet of 1mm and sliced a section off.  The engineer suggested putting many small bends in with the folder to get it as tight as i needed. You can faintly see the reference lines here.  And also that I was a bit crease happy and over bent the flanges.  I clamped it on to the bench and just about pulled it back. Though ive yet to offer it up and prove the final fit. Thats tomorrow job. forecast of 0 degrees. And peeing down all day, so ill look forward to a runny nose in the garage!  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 11, 2018 11:05:07 GMT
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Cheers gents! I always helps to know folks are still reading it. After a little bending action in the previous post i got this fit.  I think did a mock up with all the panels at once. It was all fairly close but the bottom of the front wing wasnt tucking in all the way.   The new panel wasnt a perfect fit, it was probably a combination of aftermarket panel and fiberglass wing. So ive had to cut the bottom out for some rejiggering.  I then committed and welded in the strengthening web.  Ive also been struggling with "feel" while fitting fiddly panels so I decided id treat myself to some thinner gloves. Then the brave moment, this took med about 2 hours of trimming and finessing. I started to tack it on here and there and then bend and beat.  The closer I got the more weld I was brave enough to add until I reached the big moment of stitched on at each end!  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 12, 2018 21:52:23 GMT
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Enough I hear you cry, please stop posting endless photos of this rusty nail! Like it not I'm going to carry on A brief update but it keeps it current, I had a few more items into the powder coaters before Christmas, My rear valance is completely shot. There are fewer holes in a cheese greater. But many years ago I managed to get my hands on what looked to be a solid one, it was grotty and covered in waxoyl so blastward it went. I got them to put a light primer on once it was bare just to prevent further deterioration. Anyway I was a little upset when I got this back.   Leaving me in a spot of bother as I will need to find a solution to the pin holes. Still its better than the original panel. With experience in hand I decided to make headway on the other side sill and heater.  It doesn't look as bad as the other side. Clear evidence of the existence of a tube there. With the worst of the rot cut out.  But the A pillar really didnt look that great, yet again I had to cut the bottom hinge mount off.  The same idea here reuse the elbow but sacked the rest of it off and put in a nice new tube.  I then knocked up a closing panel for the flap. Ill be some what glossing over this as you saw how it was done on the otherside.  I haven't fastened it in yet but Ive welded the sections on to the tube and mocked it all up.   Final job of the weekend was to drill some holes for cavity protection in the future. Time I gave you a little more gen! Ive got a bit done but ive let myself be distracted by other interests and the fact its been cold I wasnt that excited about the garage! None the less I have finished the heater tube. I mocked it all up to make the closing plate.  And then seam sealed up all I could get too.  And instilated.  Far fewer photos this time, you know what I did last time on the otherside! I then made the strengthening web one the folder again. I had a small off cut from the other side to use as a pattern so I could get it much closer first time out.   Thats as far as I'm taking that for now. I will replace the arch before I return to the sill. The main issue with this arch is that the wheel will rub on it at full lock.  Some angle grinding later  I rescued another sliver from the old front end, I gave it a good showing of the strip disc and the metal underneath was in good order.  I then tried to use my wing as a line to work on so I could refabricate the bonnet seal channel. At this point I realised I needed to do some fiber glassing to repair a couple of the mounting holes.  As illustrated here  This is something I never really had the need to do before, so time to have ago at learning an new skill. Bit of an awkward shape to try and get the thing to form round. I used my power file to remove a lot of old material so that the sheet that I applied wouldn't build up too thick. I then through a decent covering on and to give me a basic shape.  Once I had trimmed it with a hacksaw. I had this rough shape.  More sanding and a hole drilled. I have since slotted this slighty to match the adjustment on the other mounting holes.  I have also carried out a couple of small crack repairs. But the other major repair was the captive nut on the head lamp bowl.  My first thought was to fill it all in and start from scratch.  Once it had cured, I drilled a pilot hole in the back and I dropped a nut in and put a little resin around it.  And then glassed over it, and theres where I left it. But the next step will be to drill through and check the nut is still secure.  |
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 408
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Nov 12, 2018 21:55:26 GMT
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On with the resto, only a small update for you. The plan, I forget what letter were on now, for this side was the use the original filler neck hole and fit that into the newly formed panel.  Once cut out you can see it wasnt in a well way.  I grafted this in with a few temporary welds once positioned with the full filler neck assembled. Just to give me a point of reference when making the new panel.    Ill breeze through this bit, you saw how i did it!   Let the bashing commence.  You'll note that I have had to cut out the pressed panel I had tacked in, it wasnt giving me enough room to work the metal.  A good 3 hours work got me to here.  Its very nearly fitted, Ive started trimming the excess off, once tacked in I will be able to cut out the filler neck hole. |
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gess
Part of things
Posts: 220 
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I am really enjoying reading your thread. My parents had the estate version of these cars when I was a kid so I have fond memories of these VW cars. My first car was also a 71 VW Variant, but it burned up, the motor caught fire and as they are a magnesium alloy, the don't put out easily!
I am amazed of the amount of rust you have tackeld. I think I would have found a better example to begin with, but the thread wouldn't have been as interesting if you did :-)
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But as its non critical I'm going to leave it as it is. 
" Was a comment sent in my direction at the time
