Right. I is got the batteries Well, last night was v. exciting.... exterior body work is nearly finished I spent another 6 hours on the wheel arches yesterday and they're fiiiinally finished. They're not 100% perfect, but they were SO badly damaged after being roughly pulled out, that they never could be perfect without welding on new ones. I really, really don't want to run arch spats, so they'll hopefully show up smooth enough in colour, but we'll just have to see. I'll post pics of them when they're in primer, as you can't even see what's going on at the moment there's so much f-ing filler on them OK - here's the OS front inner wheel arch pics: After I'd nearly finished cleaning it up - luckily there was hardly any rust, just a tiny bit of surface sh1te on the corner : There was a few slight nicks in the panel from the wire brush, plus quite a few factory ripples etc, but I didn't bother to smooth them out as it'll only get stone chipped anyway, no matter how careful I am [:^(] I laid on 6 coats of primer, 5 of colour and 7 of lacquer for the best stone chip protection The track rod bolt was jammed so i didn't bother to pull it out - I just sprayed some paint on the sod as it'll get cleaned and chromed later anyway. I still have to colour sand, compound rub, wash and polish the paint to get the deep shine out of it (the negative of acrylic lacquer!) and protect it even more, but I'll do that when I fit the new suspension. I've decided there's nothing better than cleaned and painted panels - it's a reminder that in nearly a year, I've made progress!!!! Here is the car resting on my state of the art, autobody hoist for easy front panel work Sod of a front panel is only in need of a P400 sand and it's about ready to go. I could have finished last night but feared angry neighbours with a roaring electric sander at 10pm Next up is keying the door sills, painting them and the back of the doors so they can be bolted back on. I'm shooting colour on the inside, the inner wheel arches, door sills and engine bay. All the exterior panels will get done by a paint shop... if I can find one I trust - most of them are knobs who barely give you any attention if you've done your own prep; even though it's usually far better than their own, usually done by a useless 16 y/o apprentice with no front teeth (after previous customers sorted him out) Cheers!
hey Rite i was just wondering how u pulled the arches as i think i may need to do this (9 inch wide rear wheels on a mk1 polo lol) Cheers
Yep, just a wire brush... it took ages but looks way better!!!! I just bought a higher power drill so hopefully can get through the next three a bit quicker. Goodluck with it! Stu
I'm probably going to run 15x8s on the rear (I'd prefer 14s but my brakes won't fit behind them ) I didn't actually roll the inner lip of the arches myself, my friend who I got the car from did. He didn't bother to do a good job (as much as he has the skills to) as he was going to run arch spats on the car. I'm not, as I want the old skool Euro look From the state the arches were in, I'd say he just clamped the lip up with pliers I flared them further myself with a hammer and dolly (this what the guy at the paint shop said to use) and it worked quite well. I've actually spent a fortune on bodywork/painting equipment, but I don't think it's a waste of money as I'll have the gear for ages now
I'm very tempted to but I've only been teaching myself all this stuff and new NOTHING before I started, so I'm paranoid about fecking it up and spoiling all my hard work [:^(] I'm going to see what sort of finish I can get in the engine bay and interior and then I'll decid. It'd be cool to do the lot myself as I'd love to say I built the car on my own, but I dunno Thanks for all the positive input lads
ahh gotcha well i actually grinded the lip away on my polo so its nice and flush. I have all the dollys and what have you to do it but snds very hard to me? How and where did u hit the arches? Cheers
The guy sold me a dolly kind of shaped like a question mark ? which I sat in the curve of the arch and hit it outwards working gradually around the arch. It worked really well
I've had another productive few days... the wheel arches are finished, the NS is primed, as are the door and tailgate sills and.... the EVIL front panel has been conquered I'm on the home stretch now - woohoo!! Here's more pics Getting there with the final sanding of the NS: Our Frog daily driver is waiting to be eaten by a 'lil Mk1 with an ABF on throttle bodies Whoever the bodyman was that originally repaired the side damage did a crap job. This pic shows how far over-pulled the dent was, making in very close to impossible to repair the panel back to being dead straight Someone would have to pay me a lot of money to repair another r00ted Mk1 front panel. This took the longest of any panel on the car - smoothing the engine bay (said to take ages) doesn't even come close. It would have made things a lot easier if I'd had a hoist to get the car to a more workable height. I f00ked my back many times over, but at least it's done now Here it is in paint with my brother's 2E-powered '76 beside it also awaiting a much needed resto!! Front panel looks perfect but I'll only see the true result with a thick coat of glossy colour... Thankfully, the rear panel was a different story and only had a couple of very minor dings. As the metal here is pretty flimsy, filler is a bad idea - luckily I didn't need much: This looks much better... Some how, the wheelarch is pretty damn straight too. The driveway's starting to look like a car yard and I have another donor car coming soon Next up is some colour on the door and boot sills, and the inside (after I tidy up and prime the dash area. Then I can bolt the doors back on and stop worrying about them getting damaged lying around. I have to finishing smoothing the wheel arches so the wings can be bolted back on out of the way too. Cheers! Edited by: H8SV8S
