Hi, fantastic work, I'm in pretty much the same situation as you, I have a MK2 GTI 16V in Oak Green on a H plate that's on a spit in my garage that requires welding, I've booked the car into a local Bodyshop in 2 weeks time due to the amount of work required, car looked OK until I took all of the plastic trims and bumpers off ???? I'm also think of a 1.9 engine rebuild but just get quotes at the moment for the rebuild required, Looking forward to seeing your latest work, I'll start my own thread soon for my car, good luck and keep up the great work
I feel guilty seeing all the UK golfs with rust... What dedication and awesome metal work, nice neighbours too I assume
I'm in the middle of a similar restoration myself - very interesting to see the bits you are doing as most of them mine is much the same! Years of neglect, lack of repair to underseal, and poor patch welding by previous owners makes for a right old mess
I know this sounds cheesy but thankyou for saving an important car in my opinion. Its looking like it will be amazing when finished.
Hello Can i please ask you how were you able to remove the jacking point plate so elegantly ? This is something i have to do really soon, and i can get my head around on how to do it so nicely... ? Is it cut off, or is it grinded down ? Sorry if this is a silly question. Thank you
As Joe16v said, the panel is held on with a series of spot welds so you need to find them all and carefully cut through each one with a spot weld drill trying not to cut the panel behind. It won't just fall off, you have to be a bit brutal prising all the joints open. Thanks very much. it's still very slow progress but i'm getting there. I haven't updated for a while but i have been making progress. I'll get there in the end.
Amazing work as usual! Love watching the progress on this. Actually this thread is to blame for me being unable to part with my Oak Green shell sat in the garden...
I must admit I am adverse to welding, but you give me hope with your clear pictures, surgical cuts and repairs.
I managed to get some more time on the car this evening...two updates in a week is a new record for me. Same as usual. Still working on the rear arch. Will try and spend another evening this week. I've got some Deox-C gel to put on the surface rust i don't think needs cutting out in preparation for more epoxy paint so should be able to finish the whole rear section. Chris
So today's efforts started with the fuel pump mounting bolts. The top one in the pic was too far gone to be left alone so i cut it out and stuck some fresh metal in there. The bolt that i removed was too rusty to weld back on so i ground it down to a stud. I'm not too bothered about little details like this, it's functional and rust free so i'm happy. I'm pleased to say that a milestone has been reached in that i only have one major repair left to do which is the rust i found first and started this whole process. It's mad to think that all the repairs completed so far are what i have found after digging below the underseal or behind trim. Once this is finished i have a few small bits to tidy up but it'll soon be ready for the rest of the epoxy mastic then underseal over the top. After that i will tidy the bay up (haven't decided how far to go yet) then it can go off to the bodyshop. So the last repair! The rust looked pretty deep but i'm happy that it's only really affected the outer chassis leg and the floorpan. The inner chassis leg is solid which holds the captive nut for the front subframe so i won't have to worry about this affecting geometry at all. I'm trying to carefully peel the outer section off.... I had a chassis leg cut out of a shell that was being scrapped locally a few years ago. It took ages to separate the outer section from inner as there are spot welds everywhere but it is ready to go on the car when needed. So this is where i have left it until i get some more spare time. I came across this pic today...a little motivation. It will be back on the road eventually.
Wow! This has given me bad ideas, reading this on one screen whilst ordering tools on ebay on the other screen! Time i bought a welder and got learning if I intend on keeping my Mk2 forever! Love your work dude!
Few more pictures... This section has slowed me down a bit as there are a few layers to work on at once. When welding, cleanliness is key to getting a nice weld but no matter what i do the factory cavity wax comes out of the seams and causes issues. The floor repair panel was also a poor fit. I'll will try to get this finished over the weekend. Nearly time for underseal.
UPDATE - 30/07/17 Hello all. Just a quick update. I've not given up on the car, but it ended up in storage again so i had no access to work on it. In the meantime, me and my wife have moved into our first home so i recently moved the shell over to its new home! It's just a shame house renovations are getting in the way but i will make some progress soon. It's quite annoying that Photobucket have removed 3rd party sharing....so i just spent the last few hours re-linking all the thread pictures to keep it going. Hopefully others will do the same as it's a real shame so much information on the forum has disappeared overnight. Here's the shell being delivered. I hired the car transporter from a place over in Horsham. It was as ropey to drive as it looked but did the job. I did spend an afternoon on this repair... That's it for now. Hopefully more to follow soon.
Ive been doing some repairs on my MK3 and made alot of my own repair panels for the bottom of A pillar which took alot of extra time but then decided to buy a rear arch to save some time, the fit was awful and was a good quality panel. Since bought a sill and found the same. Your work is very inspirational so keep it up and keep the posts coming!