Looking forward to following the rest of your refurb - the stuff you have completed so far has been really interesting. Similar to what i have been doing on my 8v over the last few years (although my shell isn't as tidy). Your car will be great when done!
I used electrolysis loads a few years back and for the price of a bag of soda crystals and some scrap metal it is brilliant. Works better than any solution I have tried. Used the same solution loads aswell.
Managed to get a bit more done today. Pulled the stub axles out the solution for the last time, wire wheeled the last of the crud off, and then gave them a quick coat of gun blu to stop any flash rust. Will probably give the exposed areas a blast of black paint before they go back on, but this should keep them tidy until I get to that. Stub axle on the left is after the OA bath but before the wire wheel. One on the right is wire wheeled and a coat of gun blu. Also managed (after loads of heaving and breaker barring) to finally get the rear beam dropped out the car. I had to butcher the brake lines so am not looking forward to trying to fix all of that when it’s time to go back together…. Felt good to finally have it free from the car though. Few more bits to pull off and then it’s all off to the blasters.
A bit more progress this afternoon. I had read all the threads about removing the rear beam bushings and wasn’t looking forward to it as it sounded like a rear bastard of a job. Especially considering mine were properly rusted into the beam! A lot of people suggested burning them out but as I was working in a closed garage I didn’t have that option. I decided to start by chasing around the edges of each bushing so that it broke away from the edges where it had rusted to the beam. I used a big punch and a hammer and it worked really well. I then took a drill and blasted through the rubber bush all the way around. And after a few whacks with a hammer the inner bush pushed out. I then too a hacksaw and carefully cut a slit down the length of the outer sleeve. Once through the sleeve I took a small chisel and hammered along the cut line between the beam and the housing causing it to bend inwards. After that it took a few taps with the hammer and the job was done. All together a lot easier than I anticipated, and only took about 15 minutes each side. Tomorrow I need to remover the beam brackets from the car, as well as the fuel tank straps and then it can all go off to get blasted and painted next week.
That's how I always do them too. I've never burnt a rubber bushing out, in 25 years as a full time spannermonkey.
Yes the burning method didn’t make sense to me. This worked so easily I’m not sure why anyone would resort to trying to set them on fire.
A few updates on the golf however progress is slow as work has been relentless. stripped everything off then back of the car and have dropped it off to be blasted and painted factory satin black. Loads of bits have also arrived for when all of that arrives back from paint. New Brembo disks all round, new wheel bearings, stub axle spacers, and some fresh tank straps. The old straps were beyond refurbishment and had started to crack in places. Many of the aftermarket ones were just flat sheets of steel but I was quite pleased to find some for a great price that had the OEM profile to them on EBay. Quite pleased with the fit and finish of them. Next up is refurbishing all of the callipers, and running some new brake lines. Bought a line flaring tool and have been practicing on some of the old chopped lines. Surprisingly nice bit of kit given how cheap it was. more updates to follow.
Great thread and lots of work done. My rear beam looks like yours Pleased your bushes came out with relative ease. I struggled with the rear caliper carrier bolts on a car - took ages. They had been off in the past but whoever did the work put the bolts back in with their heads chipped off. Looking forward to a continued winter of updates.
A bit more progress over the weekend. Collected the goods from Powdercoating and they look brand new. The guys did an awesome job matching the OE satin black finish on the parts. I started reassembling the rear beam. New Powerflex Heritage bushings as well as new Brembo brake compensator to go on. Annoyingly I am still missing the plastic clips to hold the brake lines on. I ordered them some time ago, but didn’t realise the seller was in Eastern Europe. As such they are still a few weeks away. None the less I got as much done as I could. With as far as I could go on the beam I also made a start on refurbishing the brake callipers. Managed to get the rears fully stripped but couldn’t get the pistons out of the fronts. Will have another go at attacking those later in the week. feels good to be putting it back together again instead of pulling it apart.
One of my rear carrier bolts was also rounded out and rusted in. Got it red hot with a heat gun and hammered a slightly larger Allen into it and finally broke free. It’s never simple is it!
Nice work All very timely as we are doing exactly the same at the moment. Out of interest how much did the blasters charge? I enquired about getting our rear beam blasted but one company quoted £125 which I felt was ludicrous and another I’ve used before I couldn’t get hold of.
It wasn’t cheap but was way significantly better than buying reproduction parts. Rear beam, both front cross members, beam brackets, compensator arm, splash guards, brake hose “arms”, and 4 calliper carriers were £180. Turns out the staff at the place I used are all into VW’s as well, so knew exactly why they were blasting / painting and did a excellent job. It always helps when the people doing the work appreciate the project as much as you do.
So after why felt like months of waiting my V888 application finally came back. Disappointingly the thing I really wanted to know (original dealership that sold it) is no longer on record. The info they had only started from the 3rd keeper. That said there was still some Interesting info. For those wondering what you receive in the new world of GDPR, they send you a cover letter with the dates of sale and location of new owner. And then they also send you redacted V5’s for each of those owners. Sadly I’m still guessing what dealership it came from, but it’s clear the car spent most of its life in the general area around Huddersfield where the JX on the plate suggests it was registered.
Think the vw dealer went bust in Huddersfield a couple of years back, and with companies like virtue taking over struggling dealerships it's difficult to trace, I've only been up here 5 years, but will try and see if anyone around can remember, guy at local garage is a vw nut. Where I'm from originally in Somerset has had the vw dealer for quite a while, about 1997 i think, it used to be a rover dealer previously and was on first name terms with most of them there. But I had completely forgotten about the previous dealer, and by chance in August I bought a grille off ebay and picked it up when I was in Somerset, turned out the guy I got it off was the parts manager at the original vw dealer, sparked my memory and stories.
If you could find anything out that would be amazing. Would love to get an original dealer sticker and plates but can’t seem to make any headway on where it was purchased.
I had a quick scan on Google, not quite what you were after. Looks like Richard Alexander was a dealer in Huddersfield from 1996. Here's an article which highlights they had a few showrooms in Yorkshire before Sytner took them over. https://www.am-online.com/news/2008...ased-after-a-second-vw-group-collapses/19188/
Might take a while, I'm off to Somerset this weekend, but I'll try send see Sam on Friday, I'll let you know pal, if you don't hear anything give me a nudge, shedload of stuff going on, so apologies in advance, things are cropping up every couple of days it seems .
Thanks for the link! Interesting reading, it seems many of the long standing independent dealers of the 80’s and 90’s are now long gone.
