Meet my red-headed stepchild!

[petebee]

Nice repair there sir. Have you tried stitching your welds vs. trying to "stack coins"? Might be easier until you get more practice.

[echassin]

I ended up stitching the first beam because I could only blow a small part of the seam clean, weld a bit before the Cosmoline ran out again.

I just finished the second beam and I used a heat gun ahead of time to melt the Cosmoline and make it all run out:



The steel is a bit thicker than stock, and it's carved from a square tube so it has rounded edges, I tacked and welded the ends first:



Then I tacked the edges and ran welds in between the tacks, this time with a more satisfactory appearance before grinding:



Finished top weld before grinding:



Top weld groud and finished bottom weld:



(You can see the rear weld didn't penetrate well, it broke, and i had to redo it)

Finished beam with hole completed:





I also threw another coat of black on the engine block, it was too thin in some places. I like it thin so it doesn't tend to peel, but I could see some of the primer tint:

Now:





Tomorrow I'll fix the rear of the exhaust tunnel and maybe start on that rear shock tower.

Bye bye!

[veedubtek]

not to try and take anything from anyone, but I've never seen a rear main problem until someone screws with it because they have that old GM mentality...vw has never had a problem with rear mains...

...until someone screws with it. I won't touch one unless it's absolutely leaking...and that usually means someone has been there before. keep it up sir, looking fantabulous

[echassin]

Well at least someone agrees with me, and not just anyone!

I got a lot of the welding done today, here's the bottom now:



The rear of the exhaust tunnel:



The hole in the trunk floor:



Some holes in the firewall:



Various brackets and the sheetmetal behind them:







I also got one rear arch done, the picture doesn't show up well, but there's a piece of welding rod along the cut edge of the arch, so it's strong and will look normal, or like a rolled fender. It'll all be under the kit anyways:



Most important, there are no overlapping sheets of metal to trap moisture

I have to work tomorrow, but more progress ASAP

[fredybender]

Eric:
I don't post all that much in your thread, but always looking in here...A big cheers, on the way you are going with this!
major respect points!
Fred

[echassin]

High praise coming from you, thank you sir!

I still have to do the other arch, the one rear tower, and the one cowl corner.

The plan then is to get the shell outside and sandblast any surface rust that remains. Then I can slather on seam sealer to hide the popcorn, er, WELDS

After that I'll paint the bottom, touch up the trunk, interior firewall, and the engine bay, and tape off all those areas to keep them nice as work continues.

Only then will the aesthetic part of the bodywork begin.

And since it's gonna come up soon enough: where do I get a new tank at good price?

[TheTimob]

And since it's gonna come up soon enough: where do I get a new tank at good price?

SPECTRA PREMIUM Part # VW5A

RockAuto has it for $149 (shipped)

Amazon.com has it for $164.99 (shipped)

Advance Auto Parts is $225

AutoZone is $225

O'Reilly Auto is $232

[Scirocco16]

And since it's gonna come up soon enough: where do I get a new tank at good price?

Here's what I got. http://www.amazon.com/Spectra-Premiu...3631849&sr=8-1

[echassin]

Wow. That sure beats doing research

As they say, "it's not what you know, it's who you know"

I worked late today, so no real work, I just cleaned up one of the brake lines.

*Cue "BOOOOOOOOOHHH!"*

[TheTimob]

As they say, "it's not what you know, it's who you know"

I sell auto parts. It's what I do.

k, now replace my knee, okay?

[Michael Bee]

Don't you have two knees Tim?

Nice work Eric! Cool to see a Scirocco's skeleton....perhaps?

[echassin]

Thank you sir.

Today I did the other arch. It took a little longer due to rust and accident damage.

What was left after I cut out the worst of it:



After building up the outer skin:





After repairing the inner skin and welding it to the outer panel:





You can see how thick the edge is after adding the welding rod as a lip. It's super stiff this way, and there are no overlapping metal layers to trap moisture

Here's where the shell is at now, the bottom is ready for touchup sandblasting and refinishing:



You can see that the rear jack points have never been used. Someone used the rear valence to jack the car and caved it in. I did my best to straighten it, but it's gonna need some filler when I do the aesthetic bodywork.

Tomorrow I'll lay the car flat and try to fix the cowl, and after that the rear tower.

Happy Easter

[echassin]

I ordered a new gas tank from Rockauto and it arrived within 48 hours :



My GTI's isn't painted and is still shiny after 25+ years , but unless somebody knows for sure this tank is made of the same alloy, I think I'll put seam sealer along the pinch weld, and prime/paint it.

I fixed the cowl today, this is how it started, apparently a hood latch failure in the past:



I made five steel bits using paper templates from the other side:





I first tacked and then stitch welded it all together:



Welds ground down and primed:





This is the panel gap without any filler, I'll clean it up as needed:



I have to go to work and tomorrow we're away, so hopefully more work next week.

[MrPill]

......


.......

I have to go to work and tomorrow we're away, so hopefully more work next week.

Eric,

What are you using to cut these out from the sheet of steel?

Mighty fine job you are doing sir! Hope you had a great day away with the family.
-Dan

[sciroccojim]

Use this on the bare metal:

[Lord_Verminaard]

Loving this thread. Great work!!!

Brendan

[echassin]

@Dan: I used tin snips for the cowl parts, but usually I use an angle grinder with a cuttoff wheel, which explains why the car looks like it was chewed up by a shark

@ Jim, good to know. I'll soon be blasting everything to get rid of any last areas of brown, so I need to start gathering refinishing supplies. Is it available locally or is it an Internet specialty thing?

@ Brendan: Thank you sir

After work today I'm hoping to get the rear shock tower buttoned up, so I'll see y'all later

[Mtl-Marc]

@ Jim, good to know. I'll soon be blasting everything to get rid of any last areas of brown, so I need to start gathering refinishing supplies. Is it available locally or is it an Internet specialty thing?

Most hardware store have that. I have a gallon of something similar made by CIL.

It's phosphoric acid, and it will etch bare steel, turn rust into an inert residue.

Then you can paint the whole car with your favorite brand of epoxy primer / hardener to seal everything from your next top coat.

[echassin]

Thanks, I didn't realize that's what that was. I already have some, then.

As of today I've had the car a month, and today I declare the shell structurally sound. *Waves hand in official fashion*

The shock tower is done and way stronger than stock, since to debride it I only had to remove 7 spot welds. I once again fixed it so there's no overlapping metal to trap moisture.

The initial repair; you can see the hole up top that started it all, where the gravity valve bracket was:



The completed repair:



At the base of the tower you can see where I "biopsied" the joints between the floor, the rear frame rail and the tower, to check how far the rust went. The are numerous stitch welds piled on top of each other because there are three layers of steel that meet there. These welds will be "dressed" all right. With abundant seam sealer, that is

I left gaps to stuff primer and paint in the joints, and primed the rest also:



The repair as seen from within the wheel well:



You can see more of the "biopsy" scars at the level of the frame rail. "This won't hurt a bit, just some pressure" (another one of those little lies we say in this dirty business of ours )

Tomorrow I hope to get the shell outside and sandblast any remaining surface rust before applying any seam sealer.

Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

[scirocco*joe]

What a fun thread to read. If not for HIPAA, I would ask you to document some of your procedures. I can only imagine that they would be as detailed and interesting. Better to leave the photography to one of your assistants, though. Wouldn't want the patient to bleed out while you got a macro shot of the titanium joints!

[echassin]

YouTube has lots of videos of total hip and total knee replacements, if you want to look. It's not bloody like people think, so even if you're a bit squeamish, it does make for interesting viewing.

[Lord_Verminaard]

I was fixing a PC in one of the OR's at our Bone and Joint center during a procedure. Not sure what was going on but it involved a long bar and a big hammer. My co-worker had to step out, he was about to loose his cookies!

Brendan

[echassin]

I did some shopping today for various things I'll need for the project, but I was able to get the shell outside to sandblast any remaining surface rust. It's such filthy and miserable work that I didn't take a lot of pictures, but it amounts to finding and blasting all the myriad hard-to-get areas that would be difficult by other means.

The junction of the rear wheel well with the floor and the rear beam:



The pinch welds:



I should have taken a picture of the outer surface of the pinch rail, where the layers of sheetmetal overlap, but it's already in primer, so I blew that one. It looked really nice.

There was one spot of "surface rust" in the gas tank recess that blew through, so I had to weld it shut:



I was pleased to note that by sweeping the driveway and screening the pile of debris, the bucket of abrasive was nearly full again, thereby saving a few bucks ............

..........which I now have to spend on a new garage door spring

Actually, I was glad it was a broken spring because when I first pushed the garage door opener and nothing happened, I feared that Petra (my wife) had finally had enough and changed the door code and the front door lock, and was on eHarmony looking for a more suitable spouse

[OorsciroccO]

..........which I now have to spend on a new garage door spring

Actually, I was glad it was a broken spring because when I first pushed the garage door opener and nothing happened, I feared that Petra (my wife) had finally had enough and changed the door code and the front door lock, and was on eHarmony looking for a more suitable spouse

Just got done replacing two of those, had someone come in and replace two of the three doors with torsion springs and got rid of the cheapo extension springs. There are holes in the walls above my doors, and also bent bracketry from the explosion that occurs when one of those extension springs goes.

Keep up the good work Eric. I might actually have some time this weekend to work on mine - some of which time will be spent going through boxes of parts to refesh my memory of what I have!

[echassin]

Craig, I think you just like your car in its naked state

I got a lot done today, starting with shopping:



I got all the other stuff I'll need too, total $750

Then I spent a few hours applying seam sealer everywhere.

No. Really: I mean EVERYWHERE! This stuff is as close as you can get to working with "cartoon glue"!

Here's the underside ready for finishing:



I'm really happy with the way the beams look:



The tower:





When you weld like I do, you apply seam sealer like cake frosting

The brackets took a lot of time, but hopefully they'll last:



The rear of the exhaust tunnel:



The lip at the rear of the floor where a blasted through yesterday:



I patched the hole by feeding MIG wire into it with a piece of thick aluminum as a backing. Worked great, not much grinding to get it to look good.

The rear arches:



The firewall and associated brackets:



And finally the cowl repair:



I also sealed the pinch weld on the new gas tank. I noticed the tank is covered with Cosmoline, so I figure that means it's the rusting kind of steel. I'll clean it thoroughly, and prime/paint it:



Then FedEx arrived with the new garage door spring, so that's that: now I have to go do something useful



Adios.

[sciroccojim]

Nice work.

Which paint did you end up buying?

[Chris Barnes]

Very nice work echassin!!

The paint looks like PPG shopline to me- a very good paint for the money..

Chris

[echassin]

That's what it is, it was $110 a gallon.

I bought two gallons that I'll intermix so that I can paint pieces as I go and avoid running out of it midway and risking a remix that doesn't quite match.

Tomorrow I'll paint the bottom, the wheel wells, and the bottom half of the engine bay and rad support.

After that I'll install the hard lines, cover the newly painted areas, and put the car flat on jack stands sans tiptissery to do the rest of the body work.

BTW, I found the correct Cosmoline in aerosol form, to protect the inside of the beams and the inner surfaces of the rear arches

[scirocco*joe]

That's what it is, it was $110 a gallon.

I bought two gallons that I'll intermix so that I can paint pieces as I go and avoid running out of it midway and risking a remix that doesn't quite match.

Sheer brilliance. Great idea. Someday I will steal that idea.

[veetarded]

Just to put it out there, red is the most expensive color to produce (paint-wise), and you get what you pay for (quality-wise) so that number doesn't surprise me at all. I painted an ex's car 20 years ago and spent about that on material, so you got away cheap!

[veedubtek]

1 gallon of viper green = $800 just for the paint alone. Color me jealous.

At this rate, you'll be driving her to Cincy this year?

[Mtl-Marc]

Including taxes, I paid 170$ for a gallon of Dupont 2k primer this month.

[echassin]

You guys are making me feel cheap

I got the bottom of the car, the wheel wells, and the lower half of the engine bay painted today. the spraying took about an hour, the scuffing took about 6 hours :



The reconstructed tower:



I didn't take a zillion close-ups, but just to illustrate, the job isn't show-worthy, but it's a heck of a lot better than what VW did:



Tomorrow I plan to scuff and spray the upper half of the engine bay (I debated touching it up but it wouldn't be good enough).

Happy TGIF

[ziggirocco]

Looks great to me! Anymore and you may be afraid to actually drive the car once you finish it! Save the details for the upside!

[nickbukowy]

looking real good man