HERMAN THE GERMAN! '91 Scala 20vt

[Tim_R]

I found a set of Eibach antiroll bars transformed how the scirocco handles, the kit has a much thicker rear bar over the factory one, which sharpens up turn in to corners and reduced the understeer. The front is only slightly thicker than standard.

The best way I can describe the difference is that before the swap, the back end of the car was just there to roll along and follow the front, now it feels an active part of going around a corner, backing off the throttle will help tighten up the line around it.

I'd rate these and a lower front brace as the 2 things you can do to make the biggest difference to the handling.

[mark1gls]

Decent tyres can help ALOT with handling as they are the only things incontact with the road.
With those Superflex poly bushes the one for the rear beam can be a pig to fit I had to hold the bracket in a vice and get a long threaded bar with two very big washers on and tighten up the nuts while pushing the brush in until it pop in, it did slip out of line a couple of times but it is possible its just fiddly, just expect it to take longer than you think it will.
Great work with the car so far and I'm enjoying reading/seeing all the hard work you are putting in. Keep it going it will be worth it all in the end.

[treefingers]

@tim_r that's interesting and good to know. the mk3 golf I'm driving at the moment handles so terribly I can't imagine what it feels like to have a responsive car as you say!

@mark1gls yes I've read they're a right pain! actually I cut those clamps off today for the rear arb... they were rotten. I think I'm going to try and make some new clamps that bolt on.

finished welding in the arch today. I had to grind it down at the correct angle for the filler but to do this I kept grinding through to holes between welds and spent some time chasing the holes I kept blowing through on this now thin metal. next time I'd try and fit the arch closer to the original metal. seam sealed all underneath and on the edge lips of the two arches. basic filler in, it's just about ready to get sprayed now. hopefully it'll be going in on Tuesday.. the guy who's spraying it is a friend who's been doing it for years, he works in the workshop behind where I work! I'm going to take a few days off work to give him a hand/learn/get in the way!!

[GTXTRA]

very, very impressed - a lot achieved in a short period of time.

[treefingers]

It was nice to have a week off from the car. I was pushing myself too much that I was doing it out of habit and not enjoyment so a break was good! I need to keep up the pace though to get this finished in the next few months. If I finish it in March I'll be happy! I saw an interview with James Hunt the 70s F1 driver and he said in his race career he was doing an intense amount of work in a short period of time so that he was free to relax over the rest of his life.. that's what I want to do with this. Alright, so he didn't live past 45 but you get the idea.. more done now means more fun later!!

I couldn't get a lot of pictures as my phone kept dying on me while I was at the workshop but I'll try and fill you in on where I am now with my little boyo.


The front bumper sticks out a little too far from stock for my liking. I removed a 10mm section from the brackets on the back of the bumper and re-welded them together. The bumper now sits back nicely and the sides line up with the lines on the wings. This was a long process however, much re-cutting and re-welding was needed the get the bumper sitting flat and centred! I was relieved when I finally got this right.

Glass out ready for respray! This was a lot easier that I thought it would be. The front windscreen was cracked so I laid on the floor inside the car and kicked it out!


Gave him a vacuum out inside


At this point as I thought the car was completely ready for the body shop I just had a quick look under the sills (I'd expected them to be perfect). Alas they were not! All 4 corners were rusty! Two corners weren't too bad, I managed to get away with grinding off the rust and coating some seam sealer (will do underseal later). The other two needed some repair work. This was the worst culprit, by the F/S rear arch. Cut out ze crust yah..


And fab'd up two repair sections from 1.6mm steel. Sprayed them with weld through primer, tacked the front on, then the underside, then slowly spotted a seam along the front. To do this without putting heat into the panel takes forever! Seam sealed all underneath..


Rolled the arches too. I'm not going to run this car stupid low but I thought it couldn't hurt as it is getting sprayed anyway. But a bit of advice to anyone rolling arches.. Take extra special care if the arches have been repaired already! the front and one rear arch rolled OK but the rear P/S arch is f-cked now, it's all kinked and some repair welds have cracked due to the stretching. After spending so long getting the repair right it was a bit frustrating to say the least! I'm going to have to do some beating and rolling work to get this in shape for filler now :( When I get home I sit down and write a list of all the good things I've achieved, helps me through the frustrating stuff! Things I'm really looking forward to are..
- rolling Herman out of the paint shop
- actually putting things back on! lights, handles etc..
- fitting the coil overs and setting ride height
- spraying all the little bits like brake callipers, linkages, braces etc
- dropping the engine in :) :)

I've been so excited to get this thing all nice and painted up.. It's all I've ben thinking about for weeks, it'll definitely mean I'm onto the next phase! body work takes so long and can be really unrewarding until it is all finished! It was booked into the body shop today so I was all excited before I went to sleep last night. Got up nice and early, made a wicked few playlists for the CD player, packed some jammie dodgers and lime pie crunch creams (best biscuits in the world) and got to the shop at 9am to find that we can't start work yet :( The chap who's doing the work has a bad back and hadn't slept all night so it's postponed now.. hopefully if he's feeling better we can start work tomorrow! Fingers crossed. At least I have a day off work today. :)

Finally here's a cool shot my bro got of me with sparks flying and sh-t.

[treefingers]

Just got home from the workshop, here's some more piccies. Threads are all about piccies. In other positive news I have a new favourite biscuit. Rocked my world. Mmm. Me recommends.


Shortening the bumper. It's a bit rusty inside but I'm not bothered about that for the moment.


Here's the arch I wrecked


and rolled, beaten and welded. Hopefully this will be ok when there's filler on it


ready for the paintshop. COME ON!

[treefingers]

This morning I awoke to a nice package.. my front brakes! Some surface rust, they need a refurb but for how cheap they were I'm very happy :)

The car is in the body shop now and I have the rest of the week off work to help with the prep. In-between many cups of tea, rollies and Foxes Lime Pie I spent most of today with the air sander on the red primer. It's really hard paint, I won't be doing that again! The poly discs I used to get the trim adhesive from the body left edges in the paintwork so this was feathered gently with 80 grit discs. Various bits of filler across the whole car were applied today, the biggest job was the rear arches, one was a nightmare as the middle arch line had to built up from scratch where the arch was beaten up :(

I've taken off the b-pillar vinyl. I was debating for ages last night about keeping it on or not. I think it needs it for definition.. without the body kit and body trim it would look far too plain and naked without. Just ordered a new set of decals from VW Heritage :)

Bye bye red oxide, and good riddance!


Hopefully get some primer on tomorrow.

[treefingers]

Well with two of us three days solid and it doesn't look like we've done a lot of work but we must have done because I'm physically pooped. A fair few hours already, a lot more to go before I can roll this thing out.

A lot of time was spent on the rear arches. The centre line had to be rebuilt from scratch in a fair bit of the curves. Some of the filler work..



D/S


P/S



While Matty's been doing the filler I've been sanding. And sanding. And sanding! And scratching off adhesive. Fun. At the minute I find the whole thing pretty daunting to say the least.




This is looking like a 3/4 week job. Hopefully have some more exciting photos for you all soon :( I am shattered already but BRING IT ON

[Mr Funk]

Epic

[treefingers]

Herman is still not in primer :( I'm waiting for the paint guy, as it's mates rates I kind of have to go at his speed which is ok but a little frustrating as I can't do anything at the moment. I've resorted to painting brake parts.



however the good news is I may have found an engine for my baby..

[MikeH]

Nice work! Lots of progress and doing things properly. Mates' rates jobs always take a bit longer, but hopefully you'll get to watch the process and learn a bit along the way. I've been teaching myself to spray paint in the last year or so, and been lucky that there are a couple of proper painters on the farm where I rent a barn.

I'm a bit concerned that 256 brakes might not be up to the job if you're looking at 200+ BHP. You'll definitely want an LSD in it with that sort of power as well.

[treefingers]

I hate to admit it be I think I need an LSD too. more ££ but it'll be worth it. you're probably right on the brakes also, I might try the 256s first as I have them ready and see what it's like.

learning is good, never realized how involved doing a whole respray is! have you done one yourself?

a bit of progress.. finally!

[MikeH]

I've done bits of resprays, but not a whole car, yet…. Biggest job so far was the front end of the black Scirocco ABF I've got, and the whole side of the track car.

[treefingers]

There's not much to report on the car.. awaiting a good rub down at the moment (aren't we all), I've been told we've got a long way to go with the bodywork yet :o but I did go and collect a Heart for Herman today, so I'm feeling good!

Borrowed the work van and drove to Bristol today to pick up an AUQ engine from a W reg Seat Leon, complete with KO3s turbo and pretty much everything I need. Needs a clean and some paint! The gearbox is an 02a from a Corrado, the guy who had the setup was going to run it in a MK2 Golf but never completed the car. I'll need to fab up 3 mounts, as it's £200 for a set from ebay! I guess the easiest solution would have been to use an AEB from a Passat and an 020 box to use all the existing mounts. This is better though, as it is it's 180bhp as it is :) and the power will be going up from there..

Looking at the wiring it's daunting to say the least, and I'm still not 100% sure on what I'll do for management but it's helpful to have the ECU and loom.

Some new goodies are in the post also, substantial goodies!

[Mr Funk]

Rxpensive but Qpeng do a complete plug 'n' play kit that uses the old clocks:

http://www.qpeng.com/component/option,c ... /vmcchk,1/

That's what I was going to do, saves the bother and they have excellent support.

Also, think Craig has a complete Emerald kit for sale for reasonable money.

Looking for to seeing it fella.