MK2 VR6 OPEN AIR, (major updates picture heavy Pg.10)

It's not that rusty you cheeky git!

Just 2 bits of bubbling to sort now from stone chips

 

Jesus can't believe I last updated this over 2 years ago,
man alot has happened since my last post, I now have a 19 month old son for a start......

back to the car, I still have it and it's due to break cover again next show season if all goes well,
I have over a 100 pictures of the work that has been undertaken and will update this thread soon
with them all but for now, just to show how much work has been done here is a quick picture......

 

Sweet!! Looking forward to the rest of the pics!!

 

shinney

 

Glass is going in

 

Well, as the car is out to be checked over mechanically and MOT'd, it's time I updated this thread, i have to say it's taken way to long to get to this point, and at times I wanted to throw the towel in, but a few good mates stepped in at these times to help and slapped me, thanks!

So a quick update:
It was taken off the road in September 2010, when I spotted a small amount of rust around the fuel cap, but when the rubber was pulled back it became a nightmare. See post #215, so after this repair and the update to a Bora fuel cap, next came the next big item. As this needed to be painted, it made sense to painted the whole car, and i had wanted to do something to it for me.

Now some people will hate this, as it's a Marmite mod, but it's something I wanted to do and I had this sitting around for 2 years, oh and it came in the post as well!!!!





Now after some careful measurements it was clear this wasn't going to be as easy as what I had read it would be, the main issue was mine was a sunroof car, and all the posts I'd seen on other forums, had done this to a non sunroof cars, and for good reason. The Mk2 sunroof is wider than the polo roof..... so to try and get round this the first job was to drill all the spot welds on the polo roof where the skin was joined to the channels, there was 32 on one side and 38 on the other for some reason. After this was done, my mate the showed me how to use a hammer and dolly to flatten the channel metal out properly, so it didn't stretch and bend the metal to much, even with this extra metal it was still to short and would have ment being butt seem welded in, so we unfolded the metal that is rolled around the sunroof opening in the Mk2, this gave us just enough to help.

Next job was to mark the mk2 roof and cut, we taped up the area, and laid the polo roof over the top





Once this was done, we the marked a second line inside the outline one, approx 5mm in, to give us an overlap, and then out came the fun tools and time to grow some balls!!!





No going back now



You can see the double markings on this image.



After I had made the final cut, my mate (who has OCD) decided to tidy it up!



After this the cut was made it was time to make a lip for the welding





Test fit them together

 

It was time for the welder to come out now, we had to take it easy to insure we didn't warp the roof skin that was left.



now I've never welded before so it was a huge learning curve for me



This is my mate with his OCD again going over my welding



Once we had welded the whole roof in, my mate with his OCD got me to tape the garage window up and turn out the light, then got me to go round with a torch under the roof and watched for any light coming through, even the smallest pin hole was marked and welded up. After this came the filler, then spray filler and the primer. The filler looks thick on the first image, and i was a bit concerned about this but by the time we had rubbed it back there was very little left.











After this had sat for a good couple of months to make sure there was no movement in the roof the rest of the car was prepped for the full respray. I had a nightmare with the passenger door, mine was full of filler, which covered up a rusty seam, so I had to find a new door, in the end I went through another two door before finding one that wasn't twisted or full of filler etc



and while all this was going on, I'd left my OZ wheels on the car





undercoat time



It was then taken to my mates bodyshop for a fresh coat of paint, again it had sat for some time to ensure all repairs had settled etc.



I have to say the next step took a lot longer than I expected, this was the sanding and buffing, I never realised how much time and effort goes into this stage.

buffed/sanded





After this stage we took another time out from the car as both my mate and myself had family events happening.

Will update further when I have sorted the next set of images.

 

After a good break I started to put the car back together and sort a few small bits out, one of the jobs was the arches, they had been rolled and the to stop the water resting there, the pervious owner had sealed over them with bond. It wasn't the neatest job so I took about pulling it out to reseal, this was when I found rust on the inside of the pass rear arch, it was in such a place that it wasn't seen on the main body. This was the low point I think when I had had enough as I would have to get it welded and with the paint all done it was a nightmare, in the end the arch had to be repainted, as it had effected the channel inside, I guess it was lucky catching now rather than later.

 

I had seen a number of mk2 open airs at shows and found the head liners in them not quite up to how I wanted them. The most common way of doing them was to just stretch cloth from the roof edge to outer edge of the roof. I wanted to keep as much of the original shape of the Mk2 headliner as possible, so i had to track a 3dr non-sunroof headliner down, this wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, and what didn't help was the fact that I cut the first one wrong . The polo open air roof has two edges to it, one is on the silver trim and the other on the black trim, looking for a second healiner added a fair amount of time to the build D'oh!



almost done

 

The cig lighter was replace with the Bora fuel cap switch



and because the cig lighter was removed, the Mk2 go an update to include some usb ports



while sorting the wiring for the roof and bora cap, this is what we had to deal with, it's a complete rats nest behind the dash



with stuff of nightmares like this



at some point in the future the dash will have to come out and have all the wiring sort, new looms made etc for it.

 

Wow. Just wow.
Where'd you get the nice USB port?

 

Thanks

it came from ebay, it was pulled apart as it didn't fit and was to shiny, then one the blanks was cut to match the fixings and mounted to the back of it

 

Looks oem.

 

Amazing build and that open roof looks like its factory!

 

Cheers fella, that was the idea, I've seen so many where they just cut a whole and put the roof in, but I wanted to keep the lip and everything,
I know a lot of the detail wont be seen at all, but I'll know it's there lol

 

My comment there was for the roof, not just the USB slot lol!

 

love it - especially on the OZ's

 

Cheers.

Well it's booked in for VWNW show and I'm running round to try and get all the last bits done.

When the roof was being done the seat belts where left in the car, what a mistake that was, the mechs just go full of filler dust etc and never worked right after this. So I had to get to get them refurbed, so at the same time I had the webbing updated. Have to say the firm who did them where top notch, posted my belts on the Monday to them and they where back with me on the Thursday.

this who did them for anyone interested http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/



they sent a small sample of colours out to me and one of the colours was a great match.



Another finishing touch I've sorted are original dealer sticker and matching number plates, finding who sold the car was easy as I have the bill of sale, but finding what the sticker and plate should look like was a little harder and only a stroke of luck helped me. I found a Mk2 for sale on pistonheads which had the sticker in the window and plates still on the car with all the paper work and books from the dealer. So from this find I recreated these...



It's getting there now at long last!!!!

 

Nice work!

Taking the roof off is never a nice feeling, took me a while to muster up the minerals The roof will really suit the car, I love a sunroof.

USB ports in a Mk2 - now that is a clash of worlds.