Meet my red-headed stepchild!

[veetarded]

Eric you are a maniac. And this thread is proof that you have "the 'itis'" lol. Good for you getting the kids involved too...I'm calling CPS as I type this.

[Falcor]

For not so sharp dents you can tackweld a threaded nut onto the dent and then pull with a bolt attached to the slide hammer. I did that on mine, not sure if your hammer came with a threaded tool attachment thingie?

[echassin]

Good idea

More cleaning today:

Under the trunk:



Core support. This was all black with undercoating, I'm really proud of how clean I got it:





These rust spots are way up in the core support. You'd never be able to discern them without removing every speck of grime:



Started the bay:



Hopefully finish the bay tomorrow and straighten the floors, then clean the other two wheelwells Thursday or Friday.

[echassin]

More cleaning today and close examination of the shell.

Engine bay done:



Both front wheelwells and 1.5 rear wheelwells done:



I've been looking closely at this shell as I work on it, and mostly it's solid and a great starting point. I did find two stress cracks near the passenger side engine mount which I'll need to MIG shut.

They're at the tips of the blue tape arrows:



Tomorrow I'll finish the last wheelwell and work on the other passenger side pinch welds, and do some general tidying.

Night night

[Falcor]

the Rocc-Doc....he exists!

Beautiful work, I'm awsomely impressed each time I read this thread.

[nickbukowy]

wow

you sure do work fast man, kinda getting me motivated to start working on the body again, but it's to dam cold to do anything, and the weather has been really weird
one day it's some what nice, then the next its raining or snowing

I can't wait till it finally warms up a bit so I can finish the last little bit of body work

[Michael Bee]

Eric, what are you using for cleaner?

[echassin]

Thanks for the compliments

@ Mike: For the thick undercoating, a heat gun on high and some gentle teasing with a spatula had the stuff falling off in sheets. For thin undercoating, heat and wiping did the trick. For grease or grime, I used gasoline and stiff brushes of various shapes and sizes (garage doors open for fresh air). An old tarp protected the floor.

The whole car consumed two gallons of gasoline, three rolls of paper towels and ruined a handful of brushes, so a total of 10 to 20 dollars

[d-bot]

So what's the actual plan here? Spot rust treatment or something else? You are doing a great job but it would seem that the next step would be to get the car to "bare metal" when doing a restoration, though not sure what your final goal is besides "stupid clean!"

[echassin]

First off, let me admit that my plan will not be for everyone .

My goal is to daily a durable car that is as simple as a Mk1. The fact that it is a 16V is of little consequence to me the way I drive, and it's staying because it's what it came with and it runs.

Any areas where the factory finishes have stood the test of time will be preserved. Any surface rust will be blasted and refinished appropriately. Any rot or ruined metal will be cut out and good metal welded in, followed by spot finishing.

The interior has good paint that will not be redone except for touchups.

The bottom of the car will get a mist coat of red, enough to provide color, but not so much that it could peel.

The engine bay will get retouched as needed, but likely not a respray, so I don't have to worry about prepping the hard to reach areas, especially if they're still healthy.

The body will be sanded down to metal only for the left quarter, which has had previous repairs that I don't trust. The rest of the shell will be sanded, sealed, and resprayed original color.

With the car on its side, a good tank, undercar lines, fuel pump, accumulator, bare rear beam and pedals/rack/steering column will be installed, the car flipped flat and the tiptisserie removed. The floor beams (?replaced), bumper mount channels, and rear arch repairs will get a spray of cosmoline.

The HVAC and optimized harnesses will go in, followed by the engine and gearbox, CIS etc... and the car will get a test start. The engine will run without oil cooler and with an early non-overflow radiator. (I drove my Cabby for years like that with a turbo and much more power and it was fine).

Then paint and install fenders, doors, hatch, and hood, and kit, all of which need work. The rear arches of the kit will be glued only, no screws, and hopefully no rust source.

Then suspension, brakes, wheels (15" dished Ronal R8's if possible), headliner, sunroof, glass, interior (reupholstered), a good dash, tie up loose ends, and let 'er rip.

[echassin]

I have to quit early today but was able to finish cleaning the shell and tallying problem areas.

Here's how the shell sits now:



The other front wheelwell:



The passenger rear wheelwell and arch, which need work:







Then I tackled the other pinch rail. Before:





After:





Tomorrow I'll do general cleanup, particularly the interior, which has bit of foam and residual glue everywhere, and I'll check and refurbish the floor and firewall tar paper as needed.

Asta la vista

[Paul@VWvortex]

You sir are a maniac. I mean that in a good way.

[OorsciroccO]

Maniac is about as big an understatement as when Eric says he is just doing "general cleaning".

Eric - when you say "tasty beverages" are you talking Red Bull? Because if someone videoed your work, and then played it, it would probably look like the player was fast forwarding.

I look at my Cirrus Gray beauty in the garage, being restored at a snail's pace, and I am embarassed! Funny - or not - I was going to take tomorrow off specifically to work on my car. Then 15 minutes go, the boss calls a 'group meeting' at 12:00 noon.

Ufck.

Nicely done Eric, I hope to gain some inspiration from this thread.

[petebee]

Maniac is about as big an understatement as when Eric says he is just doing "general cleaning".

Eric - when you say "tasty beverages" are you talking Red Bull? Because if someone videoed your work, and then played it, it would probably look like the player was fast forwarding.

I look at my Cirrus Gray beauty in the garage, being restored at a snail's pace, and I am embarassed! Funny - or not - I was going to take tomorrow off specifically to work on my car. Then 15 minutes go, the boss calls a 'group meeting' at 12:00 noon.

Ufck.

Nicely done Eric, I hope to gain some inspiration from this thread.

Craig call in sick tomorrow and git your hiney into the garage and work. I need to see some better, more pics of your Cirrus for inspiration.

Eric is a maniac for sure but that's why we love him. Which car are you bringing to Cincy?

[echassin]

@Craig: I drink Diet Coke and V8 in equal amounts.

@Pete: I'm driving the GTI to Cincy. All jokes about the fast work aside, this car will take a while because absolutely every part is either spent, broken, crusty, or just plain missing...

...but I wanted a real project with good potential and I'm happy with it.

[DUBSfightinRUST]

[scirocco*joe]

...but I wanted a real project with good potential and I'm happy with it.

And we are happy to keep reading this fine thread.

[echassin]

Aw shucks

We're having company for a BBQ but I was able to get some of the "debridement" done (as we call it in my business). The most concerning area was this little hole at the top of the passenger rear shock tower:



It's there because the bracket that holds the gravity valve and vent tubing to the tank's filler hose is designed in such a way that it gets splashed by road salt, yet the Schutz coating they apply at the factory can't cover the bracket thoroughly:



Once the hole forms, water runs down between the inner body sheetmetal and the shock tower, and causes rust you can't see for years because the area is coated with seam sealer and nice red paint.

But the little hole is a harbinger of much worse, and it all has to go:





The repair shouldn't be too hard, and with all the bad metal gone, it should last. I'll redesign the bracket so it doesn't happen again.

Then I cleaned up the rear of the exhaust tunnel, another easy fix:



I only had time to do one arch, and I think I'll redesign how this is made with hopes of a permanent solution knowing that it's under the body kit and won't show:





I think I'll bend the inner skin outward so it meets the outer skin at a 90 degree angle with no double layer of steel where Cosmoline can't reliably flow. That and I'll glue the kit to the arch rather than penetrate the steel with screws, which would guarantee new rust.

Hopefully I'll get the other arch cut tomorrow and work on the floor beams.

[d-bot]

What are you using to cut? It looks like an angry bear came in and nibbled on your rear inner fender!

[echassin]

Cutting wheels big and small. I'm actually very happy with the exposure and rust removal process. More to go, but at least I've seen enough to have a definite plan and know that it's repairable without resorting to "encapsulating" or "converting" a bunch of inaccessible rust and then living with it in denial.

After some big fat burgers, by brother-in-law and I got to work on the floor beams, and I'm satisfied so far, pending some further tweaking and some welding.

Driver's side:



Passenger side:



And finally, the entire driver side beam, even when straight, was about 1" high in the back. The seat mount/crossmember was even tweaked I'm beginning to think the car went over something at some point that pushed up the floor and cross-member, I don't think jacking could have done this.

My brother-in-law had at it using a massive 6 foot long 4x4 protruding from the sunroof, and this is the result:



You can see the floor beams are perfectly parallel to each other. Admittedly this was not a gentle process and there will be some more work to do to make it right.

But a good foundation to work with

[Fein1]

Holy @#$%#@$ I havent been on here forever and thought I was dreaming when I saw you had not only a MKII but a 16v at that.

Give me a call.

[echassin]

not only a MKII but a 16v at that.

And a basket case, too

[echassin]

We spent most of the day in the city goofing off but I try to do a little something on the project every day, so I cut the bad metal out of the other arch. You can get a better sense when the car is on its side how the inner skin, with some work, will meet the outer skin without any metal overlap that would trap moisture.

Rear corner:



Top of the arch:



Where the arch meets the rocker:



As a finishing touch, I may weld on a piece of 1/4" steel wire to recreate a nice edge.

With the car on its side I got a better look at how we did with the floor pounding procedure. Not bad, but as expected the beams themselves still look awful. There's no rust so I could leave them as is, but I know myself well enough that if I don't redo them, I'll hate seeing them when I get under the car.

I outlined the part I'm gonna cut out and redo:



The crease I mentionned earlier didn't move, and it's under the seat cross member so I can't push on it. It's where the line is, and you can't see that the whole floor is pushed up 1/2" along that line, enough that it pulled the floor away from the beam:



Obviously a stud gun would be best but I don't have one. I like the trick of welding nuts to the bottom and pulling on those, but I got lazy and used my dent puller as is. In order to pull straight, I screwed a piece of "L" to the bottom, and pulled on that:



The result is very satisfactory:



I'll weld the holes shut and touch up the Schutz before painting the bottom of the car.

Now I gotta find some steel

[echassin]

Okey dokey, baby steps, but steps nevertheless. I got this thing for X-mas, time to try it out:



I started by filling the holes in the floor from pulling the crease out:



I ground them before taking a picture to hide my shame . Be gentle

I'm happier with the frame rail stress cracks:







I don't think I'll grind these, considring my inexperience, I'm happy with them the way they are.

BTW, my welding mentor is a certified medical welder, and he will be inspecting my work before I cover it, to be sure it's adequate, and he will help with anything that is inadequate.

[nickbukowy]

man i would die for a mig welder like that, that's one of the few thing i am missing from my garage

[Falcor]

a small tip, remove all paint and other stuff from the area you intend to weld before, will help make cleaner better welds and produce less smoke and potential fires......

[echassin]

Yes. I removed some surrounding finish, but not enough, especially the Schutz, where I did find myself blowing out little flames

I have a sand blaster, but I've been avoiding it because it makes such a mess. I'll have to use the blaster when I prep for the arches and the tower, since the spaces are too confined to reach by other means.

[Falcor]

Angle grinder with a coarse wirebrush works well for the undercoating be gentle and you wont disturb the coat of paint underneath, but wear goggles and something thicker than a T-shirt or you'll end up a metallic porcupine....

[BluDemon]

When you start putting things back together please keep a list (post it up) of hard to find items or even items you had to have made to compete your project.

I'm inspired by you and others who have taken similar projects on and really thinking of tackling something like this myself.

I need to start a car restoration fund so when the time comes I can roll with it.

[nickbukowy]

Angle grinder with a coarse wirebrush works well for the undercoating be gentle and you wont disturb the coat of paint underneath, but wear goggles and something thicker than a T-shirt or you'll end up a metallic porcupine....

Like what he said, they work great, but it sucks when your whole chest and stomache look like a pin cushion, if you have a face shield, I would suggest you wear that to

[Mtl-Marc]

Like what he said, they work great, but it sucks when your whole chest and stomache look like a pin cushion, if you have a face shield, I would suggest you wear that to

+1 on the porcupine comment.

[d-bot]

Looks good. I've always been happy with the rapid strip discs and +1 for the face shield for whatever you are using to grind. I picked up a full face shield from home depot half way through my project and wore it the whole rest of the timetime. For $10 it will save your face and keep you clean(er).

the strip disc for an angle grinder.

[echassin]

I may get one of those discs ^^^ I like the way it looks. I have a wire wheel for my angle grider but it's scary as heck.

Today I didn't have a chance to get some metal, so I cleaned up the engine. I've decided to run it it as is, and when it needs it, it'll get a full formal rebuild. All or none, and since it runs well, has good compression and doesn't leak a drop, I'm not gonna rebuild it yet.

Quicky job, but it turned out nice:





Hopefully I'll get some steel pronto.

[ziggirocco]

Looks good, but I would recommend strongly to at least do the rear main seal, and the trans input shaft seal and clutch rod seal, it would suck for them to leak afterwards......even if the rest holds up, IMO those are the minimum, the rest can all be done in place without separating the trans etc.

[echassin]

Normally I would, but it took me only a few minutes to clean the block of any oily residue, and the timing belt looks new. In this case, I'm gambling the the engine has already been worked on and I'm not touching it. If I'm wrong, it'll come back out and I'll eat humble pie

Today I began work in earnest on the shell, starting with one of the beams:





I'm very happy with the result, but I admit I ain't no expert. I waited until after I ground the welds to take pictures because it was not so much "stack of dimes" as it was "bowl of popcorn . The problem was that I cleaned the edges of all Cosmoline, but as the area heated up, some of the residual dripped down into the seam that's closest to the floor (the car's on its side) . I'll take better care to remove ALL of it when I do the other beam.

The old metal actually was healthy, but pretty mangled:



More as time permits