Thursday, 14 January 2016

One step forward (or possibly two back!)

Got the first of the rear pan outriggers welded into position recently:




However, not all is well in the garage of Los Rhysos! When I offered up the floor pan it did not fit snugly into the lip as I would have liked:




I used some red primer to mark where the pan sits and removed the pan to assess how much overlap I was getting:




The gap is about 4/5mm in the widest places, which is enough to really bother me! With this narrow overlap it will be difficult (not impossible) to make suitable plug welds. It is far from ideal, but then I have high expectations. At this point I really don't know if the perfectionist in me is clouding my judgement! After all, if I get hung-up about the fit about every little part then the resto could stall and never get done. At the end of the day I would rather have a car that I could drive and enjoy, but that is a little 'off' in discrete places, than a car that remains unfinished because my vision outstrips the reality of an amateur DIY restoration. Food for thought, but I digress....  

Essentially I am not sure whether to leave this outrigger as it is and hope for the best or grind it off and start from scratch. I think I need to take a step back and conduct some research and ask around on vw forums for advice before welding the pans into place.

Cup of tea time!