Salvaging an engine bay side tray

The time has come for me to start getting serious with the shell. I decided to set to work on the drivers (right) side rear of the car, just because I had the best assess to this section in its current orientation. First job was to get rid of the incorrect bumper hanger that had been welded straight over the original:

Presumably when the original bumper mount had rotted out to the point where it was ineffective this later model repair panel was just slapped over the top. I will never understand why garages never seem to cut out the old rusty area first; patching over the top just becomes a hot spot for further corrosion to form and spread with vigour! I guess it comes down to saving time and doing the minimum possible to keep the car on the road for the short-term. After all, the previous owners were most likely just using the car as a cheap daily driver with no concept that it will one day be regarded as a cherished classic and subsequently undergo a major restoration. I remind myself not to judge them too harshly for not future proofing and opting for low cost repairs. I now regard these typical slap-dash patches as the 'standard practice' which kept the car roadworthy in the past and thus saved it from the scrapyard. To me they are like old scars from a previous hardworking life and their ubiquity doesn't really vex me as much as it used to...

Anyway, I ground off the welds and peeled off the nasty panel:

Next task was to remove the engine side tray located on the inside edge of the above rear quarter:

Removal would obviously enable me to recondition this part easier, but also give me better access to eventually repair the bumper hanger section correctly.

It is worth mentioning that the side tray on the other (L/H) side is not worth saving as it is completely buckled from a rear end shunt (which the original owner explained was caused by a mini sliding on an icy road and crashing into the back of poor Gretch!). As you may have noticed from the previous post, I have got a Hooky replacement tray for that side, which is so accurate that it will be near impossible to know the difference once it is in situ.

I hit the outer area with the drill mounted wire brush to locate the position of the engine bay spot welds and marked them up with a permanent marker (kind of hard to see in the picture below, but they are marked in red):

Having centre punched each of the spots I used my dedicated spot cutting drill bit so that I did not damage the lip of the engine tray behind, which I was trying to keep intact.There were also a few spot welds that I drilled out at the bottom of the firewall from behind:

After switching to the Dremmel tool to cut a few little additional weld blobs that were holding it in place, I managed to remove the side tray without any drama:

Rusty R/H tray compared to the new Hooky L/H tray:

I cleaned off the flaky loose crud and then shot blast the entire thing:

Needs a few repairs and flanges straightening, but it seems solid enough to reuse:

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)...

Welding in the pan sections

I have been looking forward to this job for ages! This is the point where this abstract lump of metal starts to resemble a recognisable chassis again:

First task was to drill a couple of 10mm corresponding pedal bracket holes in the drivers side pan (the original holes appear to be 11mm, but I think the smaller hole looks neater). To get them in the right place I clamped the floor pan half into place and then sprayed a small amount of red primer through the tapped holes of the mount bracket. This gave me the markings I needed for my holes:

Next up I drilled out a series of holes spaced 25mm apart around the edges of the pans in preparation for plug welding. For the narrow areas (where the pan did closely follow the profile of the tunnel) I drilled 6mm holes and elsewhere I went with the standard 8mm:

Also added a few holes for plug welding the pan to the topside of the reinforcement plate, just as the original was attached: 

 
Then I cleaned up around the tunnel lip with the drill mounted wire brush and shot blast the small localised areas the drill could not reach. Once all traces of rust were eliminated I applied a liberal coat of zinc/weld-through primer.

On the passenger side pan I chiseled off the unneeded captive nut (which would have been used to mount the pedal adjuster on a later model LHD car) and then welded up the hole:

With the drivers side pan fitted up the best I could do, I began adding the plug welds. It was pretty slow going as I needed to scratch the primer out of each hole to be plugged with a scribing tool. Obviously the added benefit of taking time also ensures that heat doesn't build up to a point where things start to warp.

To ensure a tight fit I enlisted the help of a couple of friends (thanks Dangerman & Chimps) whenever I could grab either of them for an hour. They had the important task of standing on the inner lip edge of the pan ahead of where I was about to weld and would lean their weight on an inverted broom stick. This proved to be an effective way if getting a flush fit.

Drivers side pan in place:

Fortunately both of the pans pulled in tighter to the tunnel as I progressed, so the gap I was previously concerned about was less of an issue. In fact, it pulled so tight in places that I needed to rely on some hammer persuasion to keep things flat! 

Passenger side pan in:

 

Finally got it all mounted back on the rotisserie ready for clean-up and a few final touches:

New fuel line! ...and other miscellaneous repairs

The internal captive nut holder which the accelerator 'guide-tube-backing-plate-thingy' and outer cover plate attaches to (at the front end of the tunnel) had partially rusted out along its bottom edge. In its corroded state the captive nut was loose and close to being ineffective, so a functional repair was required. I started by straightened up the bottom edge of the affected area using the small grinding stone mounted in a Dremel tool. I then carefully pried up the bracket to release the captive nut:

This gave me the access to clean up the area with the drill mounted wire brush. I cleaned and reinserted the captive nut and tapped the bracket back over with a small hammer, clamping in place so that it was tight up against the wall of the tunnel:

Then it was a simple case of adding a couple of tack welds to fix things permanently in place:

On the outer side of the tunnel I got reassuring signs of good weld penetration:

A quick dressing to smooth the bumps out and a lick of primer:

With the welder set up, I decided to fill a few pinholes on the bottom plate. I shone a small torch from inside the tunnel so that any pinholes were easily identified as pinpricks of light. I then marked them all up with a permanent marker. Turned out that I had 3 to take care of:

I clamped up a clean 2p coin (early minted coins are apparently best as they contain more copper) behind the pinhole to prevent blowing through and contain the amount of excess weld build-up. The thinking here is that because you cannot weld to copper, it is a good way to control welds requiring a delicate touch:

With the power settings turned way down on the welder I added small amounts of weld material to plug up the holes:

With everything ground flush it’s impossible to tell where the pinholes used to be:

With the bottom plate off I had great access to replace the original steel fuel line with a new Cunifer line (an alloy composed of copper, nickel and iron that is very corrosion resistant):

The process I adopted was simple and rather ingenious. Full credit for this procedure goes to Bada Ben over on the Volkszone forum. To start with I found myself a screw that fitted up snuggly inside the internal bore of the fuel pipe:

I screwed it into the end of the old pipe as far as it would go, then cut off the head:

I screwed the new Cunifer pipe onto the exposed end until the two pipes were joined together nice and flush:

The original fuel pipe was fastened inside the tunnel by VW using a series of steel tabs that are spot welded in place. Access inside the tunnel is very limited; however I was able to loosen the grip of the first and last tabs which made it easier to draw the pipe through. With the Cunifer pipe straightened out and propped up on a garden chair, I began to withdraw the old pipe from the rear frame horn:

This method allows the new fuel line to be correctly routed through all of the original brackets for a perfect ‘factory correct’ appearance. After the first few tugs it began moving about 8 inches at a time and in a couple of minutes I had the new line in place:

Then it was just a case of unscrewing the old pipe and admiring my handy work:

All that is left is to bend the front section of the pipe up into place so that it exits the hole on top of the frame head. However, as I am still fiddling with various things in this general area I have decided to leave this final step until everything has been taken care of:

Mirror image of last week's work

This week I focused my efforts on the right side of the car. I stripped the paint and rust off of the drivers side dash area, doorway and around the windscreen:

Then everything was given the standard 'once over' with the now ubiquitous red primer: