It's taken me a while to get my act together and load some pics on (takes bloody ages ), but anyway, here's my work in progress on the '77 GLS 1.6 I got the car free and it had been taken back to bare metal some time ago so had surface rust. One side of the car and the roof had been primed, but there was and is still lots to do. It's actually just about ready to paint, I'm just finishing off the wheel arches as I decided to pull them out further. Day 1 - what a heap of pooe and sitting nice and low with it's non-existent engine onboard. Note all the surface rust on the door : And again - front panel is perfect It was driven into something, but my mate who had the car decided not to replace the panel as the stock fit was/is so perfect: My fave day 1 pic - look at all that trash and inner wheelarches had seen better days : Pulled up the carpet and things got even worse : Looking beautiful in it's primer and pink guide coat. Someone shrunk the rear window too : At this stage, I was getting quite concerned about what I'd got myself into...! I started on the inside and removed all the trash and cleaned the whole interior out (huge job - it was filthy!). I then removed every scrap of rust, triple-treated the metal, then lined the floors with liquid sound deadener/sealer. I didn't worry too much about the finish here as it's going to be carpetted. Also started rubbing back the inner arches: Some time later, I'd totally smoothed the inner arches, got rid of the spot weld marks and ridges at the top of the strut towers. A few coats of primer and it looks a million dollars (tailgate welded and smoothed too) : The roof had been painted by my mate, but something was dropped on it during transport. Some filler and a gentle sand and you'd never know: A bit earlier on I pinched one of SEAT's wheels - not phat enough to fill those pulled arches, though. Check out all the filler after some knob pranged into the side of her [:^(] All things you encounter with a car so old : The engine bay had been painted Audi grey, but I had other plans. Here I was setting up to repaint it, which I did, but now that paint is all sanded back as I decided to remove the rain tray and smooth the whole bay: After I'd changed my mind and sanded back all the Nissan Purplish Silver Metallic which looked poo anyway. Check the rust I found hidden under the sound deadening on the scuttle (a good reason to ditch the rain tray on an old car): After a good rust seal, I could begin filling the panel - still got a while to go! This arch/side was all painted, but I decided to pull the arches out another few mm to be extra safe - just finishing them off at the moment: Both doors are now ready to go and glassy smooth (somehow shrunk the pic of the driver's door?!): That was just a select few pictures. The scuttle is totally welded and smoothed aswell. I probably won't even run wipers with the Aussie weather. Engine is either going to be an S3 20vT or the ABF in my sig. I just have to finish sanding the front panel and the wheel arches and then I can finish priming the outside. Then finish the engine bay, which is pretty straightforward as I'm not going to panel it off. I've just deleted all the holes and smoothed the slam panel and removed any factory imperfections. It's been good fun so far - I'll keep the thread updated now I've made the first step... Cheers, Stu Edited by: H8SV8S
WoW mate, a hell of a lot of work lies ahead! Coming along nicely Good to see another Mk1 restoration, good luck with the project
Bloody hell that's a big project! Well done, starting to come along nicely. You noping to get it ready for the show season next year?
Sweet Looks like you've got a lot of work, but it's all in hand Look forward to seeing it progress Should be mint when it's finished
Cheers for comments - it's a bit scary looking at the pics as there's so much work I need to get the NS in paint then it'll look so much more complete. The colour is going to be VW Florida Blue, then VW Bus Cream for the engine bay, underside of bonnet and underbody. I figured the two colours will look pretty good and I though the cream touches looked mint on that Premier/MJ Mk2 More pics very soon as I'm on holiday for a good few weeks
excellent really good to see progress pics like these I'll be using them as inspiration when I start properly on my scirocco
Still on holiday and starting to get some more done - the end of sanding body filler, laying fibreglass, welding etc etc, is near!! I've nearly finished the front panel. I went over it with a 'fine a tooth comb' today and market a few slight dimples which will come out tomorrow: I've nearly finished returning factory shape to the arches after they were accident damaged and also rolled and pulled significantly. I thought about going totally smoothed arches (which was actually easier to achieve given the state they were in) but it doesn't fit with the old-skool theme I'm after: I've also started flatting back the filler after removing the raintray. I'm loving how spacious and smooth the bay looks and it's not near finished yet. : I've also started smoothing the inner wings (what a b1tch of a job!!). It was crazy hard to get the outer wings off. It took me an hour with the blow torch to break the factory panel bond agent free. I'm not even half way on this one and have 3 others to go [:^(] Look at all the utter sh1te they slop on there from the factory - lovin the massive stoppers too (I have some G60 280s to go on when she's painted ) : Getting there with it.... sort of! More updates soon. Thanks for looking, Stu
