Stripped and prepped

Spent an eternity stripping the temporary primer and grime off of the chassis in preparation for the top coat of Mastic 121. It is hard to stress in words just how time consuming this was - the big flatter areas obviously get stripped relatively fast, but that can be deceiving as it is all the nooks & crannies that become the vortex of time! Here is a breakdown of my pre-paint bare metal process:

• stripped what I could easily get at with the drill-mounted wire brush and an angle-grinder mounted poly abrasive disc (< this was a true godsend!)
• masked up the all the chassis orifices and shot blast the hard to reach areas 
• keyed everything with 80 grit sandpaper to create a suitable roughened surface for the paint to bond to
• Tack clothed the entire area to remove debris particles
• Thoroughly panel wiped the chassis to clean and degrease
• Applied FE-123 into any pitted areas of steel to neutralise any lurking residual rust
• Once the FE-123 had hardened/blackened I sanded back those localised areas to remove excess
• Blew entire area over with compressed air (including inside the chassis tunnel for good measure)
• Final tack cloth & panel wipe all over until no trace of dirt was detectable on the rag

So here is the naked result of my boundless endeavour (NB: these were taken just before I applied the FE-123 because, despite being necessary, it made the chassis look less shiny and presentable);

The next post is going to be epic. The chassis will finally get a lick of sumptuous semi-gloss black (truth be told, I have already sprayed the first layer and it looks pretty damn sweet - but that is a story for another post)...

Fitting the rear chassis outriggers

To ensure correct alignment of the rear outrigger/pan supports, I needed to drop the shell back on the chassis. This enabled me to match up the bolt holes with the shell and provided me with essential datum points. I enlisted the help of my generous pal 'Chimps' to assist with the heavy lifting. He is no stranger to shifting this lump of rust around and was previously involved with 'Operation: Beetle Relocation'. My thanks goes out to him for devoting most of his evening helping me out on a cold wet December night. We attempted reunite the shell and chassis in several ways, but to cut a long story short, we ended up opting for 'plan B' following strained back muscles and colourful bruising to my forearms (don't ask!). 'Plan B' involved removing the shell from the wooden supports and taking it briefly out of the garage. Then we removed the chassis from the wooden rotisserie and laid it flat on the floor of the garage on top of some wooden beams just so that it was slightly raised. We then brought the shell back in the garage and dropped it over the top. Then bolted on the front beam and loosely bolted the shell and chassis together. I was then able to position the rear outriggers and offer up the new floor pans:

It was obvious that I would need to rework the profile that joins onto spine section to get an optimum fit. The better the outriggers fit, the better the bolt holes under the rear seat would match up and the tighter the pans would fit to the lip.


Out came the outriggers for a bit of prepping. First up was to drill a few holes on the outter edge of the dirvers side ready for plug welding. I then positioned my fabricated support bracket (remember that little beauty from the last post?!) underneath using a couple of small G clamps. Utilising a reference photo on my laptop I was able to visually fine-tune the angle of the bracket to ensure it was in the correct position. VW never put them on totally square it would seem):

I then plug welded the bracket into place from the topside through the holes I had previously drilled:

Good signs of penetration on the bottom is what I like to see:

 Dressed the top edge and gave it a lick of primer:

The outriggers also needed minor adaptions to make them correct for a RHD car. Time for a quick round of 'spot the difference'...

Having manipulated the profiles to roughly match up with the spine of the chassis, I bare metalled all the areas to be welded, offered up the outriggers and added the first initial tack welds with the shell lifted up for better access:

Then dropped the shell back down to check the fit:

There we have. A lot of repeated lifting, but time saved down the road as I know the chassis matches up with the shell like a glove! All thats needed now are the final bead welds to fix these pieces into position ...but that will just have to wait for another time as I have family festive business to attend to!

News from the garage

My apologies for the small break in blog posts lately, I have been doing many little odd jobs in the garage and thought it would be most efficient to deliver a round-up post when I had enough news. So, here is a brief overview of the past month of activity....

My glamorous assistant has been dropping by occasionally to continue stripping the shell. Starting to make some real headway at the front end now:

Meanwhile I set about cutting out chunks of rusty bad metal from old repairs that I could no longer stand the sight of:

However, it has recently come to my attention that the front of the car has had a shunt in the past, as there is some buckling and creases along front quarter panels that were not part of the original factory pressings (hard to see from this photo, but it is quite blatant in real life):

I have a feeling that I will end up replacing the front quarter panels entirely, but as my experience and confidence in making these judgement calls is still lacking I shall make this decision at a later date. Even so, I decided to press on and began stripping the passengers side:

As the eagle-eyed of you may gather from the semi-outdoors shots of the shell above, I finally got the rear of the car up on casters! Again, I significantly shortened the width of it to maximise the overall space in the garage:

This one turned out to be more unstable than the front one with a quite a bit of lateral play, so I added some additional support for peace of mind. The shell can now be maneuvered in the garage by one person, however taking in it onto the often muddy terrain outside still requires the assistance of an extra willing person. I am happy though because, with the summer months approaching, I can simply roll the shell outside whenever I need to liberate a bit of workshop space! 

Oh, something I forgot to mention in my previous post; when I was inspecting the state of spare wheel well area I found evidence of an improvised repair using fibre-glass that I was able to pick off in small pieces using my fingers! I am now starting to desensitise to the all the lurking horrors and have accepted that it is all part of the fun of restoring an old car:

Introducing...

My glamorous garage assistant:

So, I was delighted to got some much needed assistance last weekend in the form of my girlfriend, who turned out to be an absolute demon with the angle grinder and drill-mounted wire brush. Whoooop! Plus, she later confessed that she enjoyed working on the car – so I have a feeling that she is likely to become a regular fixture in this ongoing resto story...

Started with the inside of the rear quarter panels and got them primed up:

Then we began stripping the driver’s side front quarter:

A close-up of a couple of really crusty areas that made me shiver:

As usual there was a lot of filler slapped all over the place and a lot of tatty old repair patches slowly emerged from beneath the underseal:

Whilst my girlfriend battled on with the dirty work I decided to upgrade my front saw horse. Basically narrowed it to about a third of the original width and added some heavy duty braked casters to the bottom:

I actually ended up removing the top angled cross-brace sections as it was preventing the car from sitting back down on it correctly (forgot to factor-in the obvious!). Even without these sections it felt suitably sturdy and as the shell is now almost completely stripped of components I was not too concerned about the weight issue compromising the integrity of the structure.

It feels great to have a bit more working space around the front of the car now. I will get the rear saw horse sorted out next and then the shell should be fully maneuverable at last!

The Reddening!

Pushed on with cleaning the inside of the shell this week. Finished stripping the crud off of all the fiddly areas in and around the boot section and gave it all the usual lick of primer:

Then moved onto the rear quarters. Made quite a mess when the grinder/wirebrush combo came into contact with the insulation material that was attached to the inner side of the outer skin:

The mashed-up residue got everywhere and because it is sticky by its own nature it had a habit of bonding itself to everything it landed on - including my head! Was quite a satisfying task though in a strange way. Once again, all the bare-metaled areas received a liberal coat of primer: 

Having grown sick of the sight of the awful patched-up area on the drivers side rear crossmember, I decided to action.... of the angle grinder kind:

I know it doesn't look like much of an improvement, but at least I have revealed what is left of the original metal and most significantly I have some good reference points to work off when I come to fabricating new patches. So, here's how things are currently looking in the back:

Still procrastinating on the shell

Finished cleaning up the rear valance and removed the remains of the tatty old seal lip: 

As always I gave the area a lick of primer:

Then I turned my attention and arsenal of wire brushes to the rear interior area. I did not know what I was going to find under all the rust, horsehair, glue residue and seal sealer:

There are the typical areas that will need patching such as the outer corners that curve around the wheel arches: 

And just below the rear window the was some corrosion that will need rectifying - I always remember the window seal being cracked, brittle and generally past its prime. I just wish that I would have had the sense to replace it before the bloody spongy moss started growing on top of it!

...but in all I was relatively relieved to discover that the whole boot section was in a fairly good state:

So, lots of fiddly sanding (which is still ongoing), but I am enjoying myself just plodding along on the shell. It is just a task that seems to fit my mood lately. Away from the garage I am on the lookout for a shot-blast cabinet so that I can strip some of the trickier parts (and there is far more of them than I first imagined!) - but to find anything that can contain parts of substantial bulk within the rather meager budget I have allocated is proving tough. So, I am weighing up my options and considering building one from scratch out of reclaimed wood. So, watch this space for a possible project tangent in the near future!

Cracking on with the shell

I have been hard at work over the past month stripping old paint and rust of the shell.

I started out (...and not yet finished) with the engine bay which has a lot of fiddly hard to access areas. I stripped what I could using an angle grinder mounted wire brush, then worked the tighter areas with a drill mounted wire brush then got right into the hardest of places using a rotary tool (I use a Draper one now as the Dremmel turned out to be as crap as their subsequent customer service!). 

Whilst working on the rear valance I uncovered an alarming amount of filler running down the left hand side. When I had taken everything back I could see that the area had buckled inwards, which in turn had caused some damage and creasing to some of the inner plates:

 
Based on the accounts of the original owners this would be consistent with a minor accident back in the 80's when a Mini slid into the back of the car due to icy road conditions. It is bizarre, but knowing the history of these damaged areas stops me from feel frustrated about the state of them!   

Anyway, following my valiant attempt of the engine bay (still in progress!) I moved onto drivers side rear window and again the little rotary tool wire brush was perfect for getting into those tight corners and underneath the drip rail:

And with a fresh coat of primer added: 

As I was on a roll I then bare metaled and primed a chunk of roof section: 

Not sure how to tackle the rear vent area yet, hence why I masked the area off and sprayed around it. 

More progress updates real soon...