What began a little distraction...

In between my welding practice I have been tending to a few rusty areas on the shell that have been distracting me from out of the corner of my eye. However, what began as a few minor areas has sort of snowballed (excuse the festive pun). Here is a quick run-down of the past couple of weeks of activity...

Crusty deck lid area:

The lip that holds the rubber seal was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to remove it and grind the area flat. I will most likely use the later type of engine seal - the one that fits directly onto the deck lid.

Drivers side rear quarter:

This was an area that had become really bad soon after I bought the car and I remember it failing its MOT one year because of the state of it. I had no choice but to take it to my local garage who advertised themselves as being specialist in vw restorations. Well, it turns out that what for years I assumed was just a 'skim' of filler to smooth out any imperfections turned out to be a dense layer that was hiding lazy repair work:

Once I had removed all the filler and turned my garage into a winter wonderland (the dust got everywhere despite using an extraction system) I could assess what had be done. Basically they had taken a flat section of sheet steel and made no effort to shape it to the contour of the car. They have then appear to have tack welded it into position and hastily ground the welds flat(ish) leaving unsightly abrasions all over the place. This was finished up by slapping copious amounts of filler (3-4mm thick in some places) over the top and sanding a fake profile. What a lazy bunch of cowboys!

I marked up the panel and cut out the abomination without delay. I found that the 'pros' hadn't even made an effort to treat the back of the repair patch and had just left it as bare metal, which had obviously rusted up nicely over the years. Oh well, the offending section is out now:

I then moved on to the inner arch area and figured I would strip it so that I could see what was going on beneath the underseal.

As expected there was quite a few old repairs and other repairs over the top (like patchwork in some places!) but there were vast areas of good condition original steel which was a welcome sight. I treated the whole area with a rust inhibitor before keying it up with the electric sander:

Then added a liberal coat of primer to keep the panel fresh until I get around to making the repairs. It funny - I hadn't intended to touch touch the shell until I had finished and rebuilt the chassis, but I must admit that it feels like a good to see some advancement whilst i'm mastering my welding technique! 

Deck lid clean-up

This past week I have been stripping the deck lid amongst other odd jobs; such as improving the lighting situation in the garage because the days are getting increasingly shorter! As with the front wing the deck lid had been taken back to bare metal previously and left without any protection (I still don’t know what possessed me to do that!). Surface rust:

Freshly stripped:

....and primed:

As previously noted, it is all in good shape apart from one small area that will require a repair patch. I also want to weld up the three badge holes as I know that these are not original. 

I will also be switching the number plate light from the early ‘popes nose’ type back to one that is correct for the year.

The back of the panel took quite a while to sort out because of all the hard to reach areas:

The 1st milestone of a 10,000 mile journey

As I hoped, the weather stayed dry long enough for me to get out of the house and finish sanding the deck lid. It is a long process to sand these panels back to bare metal. I reckon I spent at least 10 hours on this one alone and this is one of the smaller panels of the car! Right, I think I have earned a beer.

Until next time :)

Stripping back the deck lid

I woke up yesterday to the greatest news - I couldn't go to work because the office had flooded due to a burst pipe or something. Sweet! Determined not to waste the glorious day I had been granted, I headed down to my local DIY shop and purchased a new bundle of sanding discs for my orbital sander and set to work stripping off forty year old paint from the deck lid. 

Here is a nasty little blemish that was lurking beneath my number plate. I shall probably have to cut this section out and weld in a small repair patch (once I learn how to weld, gulp!)

The orbital sander did a good job taking off the paint and accumulated grime, but obviously was not great at getting into tricky places. If the weather improves today I shall get out with my nimble 'detail' sander and finish the lid. (Oh yes, I have another day off work!)