Bariman82's 1998 Jetta restoration

[npv]

Hey this build is coming along nice, you are putting in a ton of machine work that many other people would not do. If I could offer some words of advice with the welding, i think you need to turn the wire speed up a litte because you are developing those pin holes on the otherside of your weld because there is not enough metal that is melting.
Also I noticed in some of the welds that there is spatter and some discoloration of the metal. The discoloration is what you want, because that means that the weld is getting hot enough to disrupt the surrounding metal which shows full penetration. I would suggest turning the wire feed up a little to feed in some more metal and slow down with the speed you move.
Try creating a sort of back and forth motion or a very small circular motion while the metal is molten red and you will create a dime stacked look.

If your getting spatter that means the welder is not hot enough, or if you are using gas there is not enough oxygen because the reaction is not causing a hot enough burn.

Keep up the good work! everything looks great.

[PKstrategy]

holy ****
lot's going on now
keep up the good work man

[Bariman82]

Loving the progress man, its great to see there are still people out there who put real effort into their projects. Seems like most no-a-days buy a junker, slam it on coils worth more than the car and think they "got the $hit" Good luck and keep up the great work!

Thanks for the thoughts, everybody. This car will be staying at stock height for sure. I have a lowered and modified car already; I'd like to have a nice, normal, stock one too.

I'll have to really play with the welder when the time comes to put the rear quarter back together. I'm not too worried about the floors and rockers right now. I did have the welder turned up on those early ones and got bad spatter, so I turned it down. Now, I'm not sure anymore. When I was overhead, I turned the speed up to prevent the puddle from falling on my head. Was that right?

I got the head back from the shop the other day. They cleaned it, resurfaced it, put new valve seals on and gave it a valve job. Cam, lifters, valves, seats and guides checked out fine, so they will all be reused. I told them that I was on a budget, but that I would certainly buy new parts if necessary. I suppose I have to trust them at their word. This shop has plenty of high-visibility heavy equipment diesel jobs in the form of dump trucks, backhoes, end loaders and such. They seem to know what they're doing, so I trusted them with my little gasser, and they said they've done some 1.8 and 2.0 VWs in the past.

I broke a 2nd ring when I was compressing the stack. I wasn't paying attention when I was tightening the sleeve and pinched one. A new set was only $40 from Topline and came with overnight shipping. Can't complain there, but lesson learned.

The big news, which I am grateful for, is that I now have my mother's 2002 Passat to drive and she now has Grandma's 2008 LaCrosse. The garage will be tight, but at least I have heat, defrost, and no salt damage to the Beetle.

I hope to have a productive day tomorrow.

[Bariman82]

Lots of stuff done today. I spent the entire day in the garage, but didn't quite get the motor finished. Nonetheless...

This is NOT a 2x4 padded and wrapped in duct tape.


It's VW special tool 45AB.1-99WTF; crankshaft immobilizator.


I had to torque the timing gear bolt. Note to self; still have to give it another quarter-turn.

I got the rings installed. The rings are shipped with some sort of protective oil coating. Clean this off with brake cleaner. You have to always be cleaning the parts that go into your engine.


Each ring got poked down its respective cylinder so the gaps could be checked. Per the Bentley, I am in spec. No smaller than 0.010" on the scraper and 0.009" on the other two.


Here's a little trick for the rods. The bolts only go in this far by hand.


I wasn't too keen on hammering them in, so I chucking them into the vice, set the torque wrench to spec and drew them down just until things start to tighten. This draws the bolts down without bringing it up to spec, and you can verify that the bolt has seated as opposed to installing the caps in the motor and hoping that the bolts drew down.


Finally have the bottom end together.


The head was almost ready to be installed out of the bag. I smeared lube on the journals, lifters and lobes and put in a new oil seal and sealed under the first bearing cap.


This is the stuff.


The shop surfaced the head. Along with the clean chambers and valve job, it looks awesome.


And here's where I stand now; head is on and torqued to 44ftlbs. Note to self; needs the two 90 degree turns before moving on.


More later this weekend.

[Insan3Vr6]

[Lokr_mk3]

looks good!

[Lamy207]

Awesome!

[Bariman82]

I had the day off today, so I spent it almost entirely in the garage enjoying my nice heated space. My dad came over and plumbed a natural gas line out to the garage last week, so now I don't have to keep buying (and smelling) $20 propane cylinders.

I tried to go get downpipe studs at Fastenal. They were all set to order them, but then called me back and said there was a minimum order and $5 shipping and stuff, so I went back to just get some normal studs. The guy felt bad that the studs were such a snafu that he grabbed a $22 piece of 4' threaded rod and said "I'll do $8.78 with tax." I figured that was nice of him, and since I have a hacksaw, and I'm handy, I made my own.


You can also see my freshly painted manifold.


The engine has really come together the last few days.




I had time tonight to make some POR15 windchimes! That's the beam brackets, some sort of engine bracket, the upper coolant hose support and the lifting hook ready to be installed tomorrow.


Right now, it's .

[PMLyf]

Wow, cant wait to see this engine when its done! You are very handy

[dumpedmk3]

Should have put an AEG exhaust manifold on there.

Lookin' good.

[Bariman82]

Should have put an AEG exhaust manifold on there.

Lookin' good.

Suppose I could have. Honestly, I didn't even think about it. I'll stick to ABA for now.

I've been still going these past few weeks. The body still sits there, but I've done a lot of blasting and painting.

Gas tank straps and rear beam brackets.


Intake preheat heatshield, the plate between the block and transmission, and the front motor mount parts.


Shift linkage parts and a coolant pipe.


Radiator support, front subframe, calipers, battery tray.


Caliper carriers and backing plates.


This is what the fan shroud started out as.




Here, I've blasted and painted it.


It also got a new fan motor, radiator and lower radiator hose.


I should add that I'm installing the USRT shift linkage.


First, cut off the four ball joints.


Centerpunch and drill to 5/16". I lost interest in taking pictures, but there's USRT install stuff out there.


More shifter parts.


Assembled and ready to go in!


I got to the engine today, and I'm SO close to getting it done. Stock intake preheat thing is going back on. I've got all new copper exhaust hardware.


Alternator, bracket, all new coolant hoses, clutch, flywheel and pressure plate.


I ran into an issue with the POR15. If I lay into it with my pocketknife, it will peel off. I'm not happy about this. They will be getting a phone call tomorrow morning. One more day of class and then off for 11 days. I hope to get back to the body next week.

[.T.o.n.y.]

Great progress man keep it up.

[fcpgroton]

Not too many people giving these old jettas a full restore like this! keep up the good work it looks great!

[Bariman82]

Thanks, folks.

[brettj20]

looking good man keep up the good work.

[Blujett18T]

ill be watching

[Bariman82]

Today was transmission day; throwout bearing, clutch lever shaft seal, green cap, pushrod seal and bushing, and the input shaft seal. I went to bolt the trans to the block and the clutch won't disengage. The lever just flaps up and down and the pushrod doesn't touch the release plate. I'll have to hit it again tomorrow morning.

[PKstrategy]

^doing work up there fo sho

[Bariman82]

^doing work up there fo sho

In which post? Haha.

Thanks for the support. It's slow going at times, but it'll be done soon.

[Bariman82]

A few more pictures from the last few days. This is the pushrod seal. It gets pried out with a screwdriver.


The bushing gets taken out by threading a tap into it and knocking it out with a slide hammer. The green cap comes off with a chisel and hammer.


My pushrod was shot.


After all that, the drivetrain is done. Finally.


Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was covered in grime. Broke does a far better job of documenting this on his website. A lot of thanks goes out to him for his work and help; truly the master of the 020 trans.

http://brokevw.com/

[Bariman82]

When I cut open the rocker, I found this.


Obviously, that's a problem. Here's a better look at the front corner.


First step is to cut off the rip plate and fit the new one. Notice the nice clean bottom edge.


You can see the bottom edge is gone on the original one. This is the middle layer of the pinch weld. More on that in a minute.


This is what you see with the rip plate gone. The pinch weld is made of three layers under the doors, and four layers under the B-pillar. The B-pillar is also sandwiched in there. The edge you see here is the bottom of the car/floorpan bottom. Then, you have the rip plate on top of that. The third layer is the actual rocker panel itself. The only remaining solid pinchweld at all is that little strip under the A-pillar on the left side of the picture. I had to cut the rotten section in the right side of the picture. Take note at where the rubber plug holes used to be.


This is the first patch. What I've done is contour the patch to the body, and then put the bend in to match the location of the pinch weld. Like I said, the only good remaining pinch weld is under the pillars. I'm recreating it the best I can.


Here, I've added two more patches to the rear of the first one. Same principle; recreate the innermost layer of the pinchweld.


Here's what it looks like from underneath. Overhead welding is a challenge. You can also see a patch in the seam at the top of the picture.


Now, we're looking towards the rear of the car. All three layers were rotted back here too. Here's the first piece I had to cut out. You are seeing where the rubber plug in the front of the rear wheel well used to be.


Welded in.


From behind.


Here's the patch on the middle layer.


This is the area under the B-pillar and where I left things tonight. You can see the layers more clearly now; underside of car, brace, B-pillar. I'm very glad that the B-pillar is intact. Otherwise, the car would sag.


I hit up the junkyard again and there was a fresh crop of MK3s. Mine is not that bad, compared to the rot that some of these had. Among them was a black Golf with a bunch of stickers and crap, but it was still someone's project at one point. Shock tower didn't have a chance.


My POR15 is scratching off with a pocketknife and chipping with a hammer. The guy on the phone just INSISTED that there MUST be surface contamination on the metal. Try again, buddy. I blasted, used your degreaser, your etch, and your paint, in a heated garage, following the directions exactly. He came this close to just calling me an idiot, but then sent me a new six-pack of half-pints to try. I will not be using or recommending this product in the future.

I got a job offer today, and I'll be heading back tomorrow to accept it. The project may slow down a little more.

[Aloha-boy]

Amazing work! Wish I had half the drive you have to finish my Golf!

[68redbug2000jetta]

i use this stuff called master series.alot of guys (including) aircooled guys use it.im painting my bugs chassis in it...its a good paint to..i havent heard alot of good things about por-15

[bagged_hag]

Your work and determination still remain awe inspiring to me every time I come into this thread. Also, big congrats goes to you on the new job In this economy any job is a good job!

[Bariman82]

Problem was, I found LOTS of great things about POR15. The guy in the video was cracking the pipe across the bench, and the pipe dented, but the paint was fine. I'll try Eastwood next time. I like that the converter is thicker and doesn't run off and need constant respraying.

I'm going from chemist to machinist. I'm making less than half of what I used to, so that's part of my reason for saving this car. I can't afford a new one, or even a $500 MK3 with all the new problems it will have, so I invested the money back into this one since it's paid for and I know the condition of all the parts that I've replaced.

Thanks, guys. More later.

[Afazz]

Nice work on the rockers!

[evol_mk3]

In regards to POR-15, when I've used it I had better results when I sprayed it compared to when I brushed it on. The areas that I brushed does have some areas where it has scratched off (easily). All my undercarriage, passenger compartment, etc that were sprayed with a paint gun are SOLID and that stuff is tough...

Good luck with the build!

[Bariman82]

In regards to POR-15, when I've used it I had better results when I sprayed it compared to when I brushed it on. The areas that I brushed does have some areas where it has scratched off (easily). All my undercarriage, passenger compartment, etc that were sprayed with a paint gun are SOLID and that stuff is tough...

Good luck with the build!

The undercarriage was where I wanted to use it until this happened. Did you still use Marine Clean and Metal Ready? What solvent/ratio/tip/pressure did you use to spray? I don't have the necessary respirator and stuff to spray this crap either.

Nice work on the rockers!

Thanks, Anthony! You sure have put up with a lot of my questions. To other folks, Afazz knows bodywork, to put it mildly.

[Bariman82]

Slow going over here. Grandma died and my house got robbed, including my laptop. Good thing I had all my pictures on photobucket. I now work 50 hours a week at a machine shop, so work on the car has all but screeched to a halt. Regardless...

Rip plate drilled, primed, and ready to go on.


One last shot of the internals. I drilled a few access holes into this area for soon-to-be yearly oil sprayings.


Here's the completed underside. The bead extends off the picture about another five inches. The welds are ugly, but they penetrated and it was overhead. Gimme a break.


Another.


I hope to get the panel in this weekend.

[derakicksyou]

wow. i just got lost in time reading this entire thread. awesome!
definitely subscribed!

[Bariman82]

Thanks. I appreciate it. This has slowed down a lot due to my job, but I try to make a little progress every day. Today, I finished welding the rip plate. Pictures soon.

[Bariman82]

The completed rip plate. Along the bottom edge, I spotwelded it from the outside and along the top, I went from the inside. The welds are ground down, primed and ready for rocker fitment.

[gnillort]

This is one of the best threads in the MKIII forum in a long time.

Keep up the good work.

Good luck with the job and hope they find the thieves that burgled your home.

[Bariman82]

Thanks.

Is 'burgle' a real word?

[tylerlb]

^^ definetly a real word lol

Well done sir! look forward to updates. My condolences on the g-ma