1.6 GT - Dent Repair and rebuild

[Slash125]

The minilites weren't exactly legal. ...
And a cheeky one of one of my old mk2s...
If you will be selling early next year you have to give me dibs .....
Seriously

[mark1gls]

Mk2 Golf on a gravel driveway balancing on a widow maker jack without axel stands and a wheel on how did it not all over?

[MikeH]

I like the minilites... they suit the car in white. I wonder what happened to them then :D

Still not touched the car since I posted last.... soon!

[Slash125]

The golf was propped up under rear axel :) just made me laugh as it looked a bit like it was taking a wiz !
I really wanted to keep the miniltes on but the police had a different opinion. . So they were (un)tastefully repainted and put on my friends polo....
Your bodywork guy iis like a wizard btw.... reallly nice work.

[MikeH]

Yeah, they are a bit on the wide side... probably didn't help the handling either... lots of bump steer.

[MikeH]

So the GT is now in the workshop... back arch sanded down and then got the grinder on to remove the rusty bits and the skim of filler that was in there.

the arches aren't bad, but they do want repairing properly rather than chucking a load of filler in there. There's an old dent repair in there too, that wasn't done very well - about 1 o'clock on the arch.





I also need this part of a front X-member, if anyone is breaking a car. Looks like the engine mount has been welded on due to broken captive nuts.

[MikeH]

So I managed to squeeze in an hour on this last night and started cutting out the damaged metal to be replaced with the patch. I got some advice from a panel beater mate on where to make the join. He reckons the middle of the flat panel is the best place to lose the join, as sanding filler to a smooth finish in the corner would be much harder. I've got a joggler to put a step in the repair piece, and help it slide behind the old panel.

Needs a couple of little repairs on the inner arch, and a new inner lip, but not too bad.



Tried to get the old metal off in one piece to provide a rough template for the repair panel. I'm leaving a bit extra to make sure I've got enough, and to provide a lip to tuck under the original arch, with the joggler.



Ground all the rust off where I could, and applied rust beater


... and then some weld through primer



I'm not very experienced at these sort of repairs, so any feedback from those who know would be great.

[MikeH]

I had some good news on this bit too...



Mark Carter at Classic-VW.co.uk tells me he's got a cabby he's breaking, that I can cut the front engine mount out of. I've been using him for quite a few parts lately - both new and 2nd hand. Service is great and the prices are very keen.

[GTXTRA]

Coming along nicely Mike.

[treefingers]

i do enjoy a bit of arch rescue :)

[MikeH]

Well, I had another hour on it this evening... it would have been 2 hours but I distracted myself by helping a rallyist mate fit a fibreglass bonnet on his Hillman Avenger - proper old school!

Anyway... After a bit of trimming and tweaking, and going round the edge with the joggler, I now have the arch repair panel offered up into place. I'm going to weld a new strip of inner lip on the arch first, but it seems to fit reasonably well. It all needs clamping up properly but it's quite close as it is.




While I'm at it, this car had a fair-to-middling quality respray previously. In particular the masking round the window rubbers was poor. I asked my painter neighbour Zilla for a tip on how to handle it, and he gave me a simple but very handy tip.

The solution: Use a plastic filler spreader to lift up the rubber and scrape the edges with a razor blade. It's a quick way of sorting out a bad masking job.

[MikeH]

Rear Arch - Cleco pin fasteners to pull the two panels together. Need a 3/8" hole but easily welded up after.





My joggler tool also has a hole punch to make holes for plug welding panels - much quicker than drilling the holes, and provides a neat finish like spot welding - you can grind them down flush.


Welded up, and ready for red oxide paint, then a thin skim of filler to hide the join, followed by 2k primer and paint.


The dent on the front part of the arch was pulled using a 'poor man's stud welder'. Tack weld nails on, clamp with mole grips and pull using the slide hammer. Worked pretty well, for a first attempt.



Front Mount

I started with this. Welded on mount, presumably due to broken captive nuts. Someone cut it open for a look and gave up, by the look of it. Horrible ... but fixable.


£10 to Mark at Classic-VW.co.uk got me most of the X-member from a Cabby, which is the same up to the seam in the middle of the pic. He even cut it off for me as well!

I cut the old panel out to a convenient point, having first compared the two and made sure I'd get the whole of the reinforcing plate out as well.


I did a bit of measuring up, and cut the piece with the mount out of the repair panel, about an inch bigger each side, with further trimming planned, and then cleaned it up with wire brush on the grinder and a bit of flap disc.

You can see the reinforcing plate and covered captive nuts on the inside. This pic is after a further trim to get the size closer to the old one.


Loosely offered up... lined up on the holes and indents..... more trimming and fettling to do.

[MikeH]

More progress tonight!

Front mount repair welded into place. Not my neatest welding ever - blew a couple of holes and had to fill in.




After a tickle up with the grinder it starts to look a lot better though. Still more to do, but it'll soon be ready for the red oxide and then more tidying.

[MikeH]

Made a lot more progress since the last update...

Finished the welding, add a thin smear of filler on the rear arch, smooth and red oxide paint

And the front mount


Eventually the primer went on, that was sanded back with 120,240, then 400 grit dry paper, and spot primed in the places where I rubbed through it.







Note... make sure your stone chip is the kind you can paint over, or you'll have to wipe it all off with thinners and start again... don't ask me how I know - I just do

With the correct stone chip applied, and de-masked ready for painting. My painter mates advised me to get the paint on fairly quickly after the stone chip is on, as it will stick to it better before it's completely cured.





Painted inside the engine bay first




Then the outside





Flatting and polishing still to do... Mars Red, so hoping for a good match, but I could end up painting the whole car... :o)

[Risocco]

Mike, looks ace. Well done.

Will you be at the nationals this year?