HERMAN THE GERMAN! '91 Scala 20vt

[dozzum]

The early mk2s didnt have bodykits and it is a look I prefer.

http://website.lineone.net/~dr.dub/gti.htm

[treefingers]

started some bodywork today..



bay and car need a steam clean but i ran over the steam cleaner in a lorry, gotta wait 2 weeks for the part :(

I'm ok grinding off rust from flat parts but I need a method of attacking the nooks and crannies, especially around the engine bay. don't really want to sit there for hours with a bit of sandpaper! are there any attachments I can use that anyone can recommend?

[dozzum]

Sandblaster?

[treefingers]

I've heard sandblasting can be damaging to panels.. anyway ordered some wire wheel drill attachments, some poly discs and some wire wool to attack the rust in awkward places. The car is definitely getting a full respray, I want this to be an amazing car. I was so tempted to do it myself and was researching the steps for ages last night but today I spoke someone who is going to do it for cheap, both the outside and the engine bay as everything will be stripped from the car. Going to stay brilliant black :) All I have to do is fix the rust, need some arches and Windstorm on here is very kindly giving me a couple of wings I can chop up and weld in :) I'm just waiting on bits at the moment which is a bit frustrating as all I want to do is crack on! Waiting on a pressure washer that works for a start.. I've noticed the sills are a bit crushed where someone's jacked on them, but they're not corroded. Trying to work out whether to rebuild them as I won't be running the bodykit and it could be quite noticeable.. Seems a bit of a shame to shell out on a respray and not get the bodywork up to 100%. Anyway couldn't really get much done today but I did weld up the holes in the boot where the badges went.



next plans are:
steam clean!
rebuild arches
repair rust patches
weld up screw holes where the old bodykit went in
look at rebuilding sills?
sodablast engine parts
paint subframe, wishbones and arbs and fit polybushes
full respray next month

[dozzum]

Your best bet to speak to about this kind of stuff would be Ant aka Autoad.
Check out his build thread I think its called rocco grotto.
Hes the resident restoration expert.

[dozzum]

Also your making me very jealous as this is exactly what I want to do to mine when I finally sort out a workshop space.

[treefingers]

Also your making me very jealous as this is exactly what I want to do to mine when I finally sort out a workshop space.

hopefully you'll find one soon! I have to wheel it outside during the day and back in when I am doing work so I do need to get as much done while we still have dry weather!!

a bit annoyed today as I have received abrasives in the post and also a couple of wings to fix my arches but I can't work on it cos I'm ill! :( dammit

[treefingers]

Started grinding back rust on the O/S rear arch that ended up with me doing some welding on the inner arch! Cut some pieces of 1mm scrap and welded them in.



Found out that you can only use front arches to repair rears if you're not using a body kit as the fronts have a groove on the curve.. going to need some repair panels I think.

[treefingers]

Wings for roccos seem to be hard to find.. vw heritage want £340 for one! Absolutely ridiculous, I had to double take to check they hadn't made a mistake in their pricing!

Really need to sort all bodywork ASAP ready for spraying.. then I'm going to paint the wishbones and polybush everything. Did some repairs today on the rusty wing. I've never done this before so I was quite happy with the result. It feels quite good doing repairs like this, like I'm bringing the car back from the depths!

Identified the decayed areas..


Managed to salvage some bits from a really rusty wing to weld in


Tack tack tacky tack..


Weldy weldy weld


Brushed some temporary primer on, jobs a goodun. Needs filler. Both front arches ok now, just need to do the back two now.


Work is mental busy at the moment so I don't get much free time but the good thing is I'm earning good money that I'm going to pour straight into a mk2 sized hole! :)

[treefingers]

Engine for sale if anyone's interested..

[treefingers]

Sold the engine for £51, couldn't believe that! Someone got a bargain.. ah well I've got enough bargains from ebay, may as well give someone else one! Anyway the sale of the engine paid for..


This! MK2 Golf servo and master cylinder. Also won some Astra GTE 256 calipers, carriers and vented discs for £8.50. I love ebay.

Got some good stuff done today. I've realised it's a lot more productive to sit at home and write a list of jobs to do rather than pulling the car out and staring at it for 10 minutes thinking 'where the f-k do I start!'

Started by attacking the rear bumper poke. I've read a few FAQs where people have shortened the bumper by drilling new holes in the bumper brackets. I've gone the other way however, I (not very neatly) plasma cut the slots in the chassis to allow the bumper to push back neatening up that awful stock gap. Some penny washers on these bolts and they'll be fine. Only took 10 minutes to do, nice easy job. Had to cut off the tow hook. I'm not planning on towing anybody in this badboy anyway.



gap before

after



I'll attack the front bumper next. Ground off the rest of the body kit glue with some poly discs to reveal loads of filler in the D/S rear arch, must have had an accident at some point! Finally managed to get hold of a pair of rear arch repair panels anyway, in the post :)

The holes in the bulkhead for the clutch cable etc had been repaired before but were rotten around the edges.

Cut out the crusty bits

Fab'd up a new plate from 2mm

So awkward to weld in. If I can work out how to get that cross bar out I'll be able to properly seal it.


Finally I got bored and mocked up what the car would look like lowered on snowflakes. I like snowflakes and I haven't seen any unbodykitted lowered roccos running them so I'm considering it.. Would need to space them a lot though. Only problem is they don't put a lot of surface area on the road...


And on the new engine front I'm currently torn between an ABF on throttle bodies and megasquirt or a 1.8T....

[Mr Funk]

Man up and go 1.8t. Light engine, excellent support and blistering performance.

Gap wise, weren't they there as a bit of a buffer? Looks good but as soon as you tap something the smack is transferred straight through the body.

[GTXTRA]

If you like Snowflakes you need to look at the RML updates -







Perfection.

[treefingers]

liking those wheels.. :)


Another welding repair today. There was a rusty hole under the wiper motor so I shaped and welded a plate on top

fillered and primered


managed to get the pedal box out to remove the brake linkage. my first experience with shear bolts, what a pain they are! finished the bulkhead repair



there's so much red oxide primer in this car now. maybe i won't respray, i'll just brush the whole thing in red oxide...

[treefingers]

soo more repairs... enjoying it at the moment! been reading through 20vt engine codes. can't believe there are so many different versions, a lot to get your head around! there's a 180hp version which looks perfect for the car. read yesterday that apparently the originals were 300hp when vw made them.. in a rocco? let me relieve myself

the top lip was rusted away in about 5 different places so i welded some 1mm in


started making a front crossmember brace


tacked


welded


started smoothing the kinks in the engine bay for some symmetry between the turrets. cut out the battery tray as the battery is going in the boot to make space. ground off most of the seam sealer and did some seam welding. learnt that you can't weld through seam sealer..




here's the bay at the end of tonight! was getting tired of bitty stuff. a lot of fun making the brace, i've still gotta make it look prettier but it reminded me that i'm doing this for enjoyment! a previous owner messaged me earlier on here too :)