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:

Napoleon fix-up (part 1)

A turning point has been reached as things are now very slowing starting to go back together! Because this blog post documents the first significant metalwork repair on the car, I have opted to covered it in step-by-step detail (don't worry, im not going to be as obsessive about describing every single minor repair in the future!). I shall publish this task in several parts as I progress, just to make it more digestible. 

Enough of the intro, lets jump into the action.... 

Repairing the Naps hat from the previous 'balls-up' has been weighing on my mind ever since the incident. You may recall from this previous post that I had ended up with a rather large gap between the old metalwork and the repair section due to poor judgment on my part. Since that time I have attempted to make various repair sections, but the arbitrary angles have caused nothing but frustration and poor alignment. I needed to simply things and approach this from a different angle (pun not intended). So, I decided to recut the remaining naps hat at a 90 degree angle to the diagonally sloping top edge. Here is the proposed angle marked with gaffer tape:

Checking for accuracy using a set square;

Once cut and neatened up I was confident that I had an angle that I could trust. It was a known quantity:

The main reason that I failed initially was that I had not focused on keeping the bottom edge of the repair straight and true. So, I figured that making a jig was the way to go this time. Essentially, I joined 2 pieces of scrap box section together using spot welds on one side and beads on the other. With the beads ground down and a lick of primer added I had a nice flat area:

I then made a paper template stencil with the bolt holes carefully mapped out to match the factory dimensions (with additional cross-hairs to visually assist with alignment). Also marked out some guides for aligning the jig with the chassis tunnel:

A quick spray of red primer to contrast against the grey:

....and the jig was good to go:

With the jig clamped into place on the chassis, I was provided with a solid foundation to work from. I trimmed up the end of the repro panel (again at 90 degrees to the sloping diagonal) and positioned it on the jig, clamping it into place. This allowed me to accurately assess the missing gap that I needed to fabricate:

Once measured up I cut out the repair section from fresh 2mm thick steel. Before bending the patch into shape, I knocked up a diy former to ensure that the outer profile of the piece would accurately match the original. I then put the whole lot into a vice and when I was sure everything was lined up correctly I proceeded to progressively tap the piece over with a rubber mallet:

 This created a good 90 degree bend with a suitable bend radius:

The fabricated piece all clamped up, aligned and ready for the welding to commence:

After countless hours playing with the settings on my new welder to ensure adequate penetration, I was finally confident to make the first tack weld of this resto - a significant milestone:

All of the tacks in place just prior to filling in the spaces in-between with a series of stich welds. To mitigate any heat warping, I filled up my compressors and used the air gun to blast a jet of cool air onto the hot welds:

Once it was all fully welded up I carefully ground the welds down dressed the area to make the new section blend seamlessly. Also rough cut the excess away from the bottom edge of the new piece:

Lining up the end section cut from the repro panel:

and here it is all welded in:

....and ground down nice & flush:

Seeing this section coming together has been really motivating and has boosted my confidence no end. You know, I reckon I can do this! 

Coming up in Part 2: I shall be cutting the bottom sections flush with the jig ready to accept newly fabricated flanges, drilling a few holes and more... Oooooh, the suspense!

New welder

Exciting times! Got myself a brand spanking new welder! After a lot of research and agonising I finally opted for a Clarke 151te:

Just need to get a few bits to adapt the welder to accept the big bottles of Argon/Co2 I will be using. All being well, I should be up and running next week. Now the real fun can begin!

Shot blasting the frame head

Ordered myself some affordable fine abrasive called ‘J Blast’ from Frosts to use on areas of this restoration where a wire wheel is ineffective. It was quite amusing when I answered the door to a flustered postman who had just lugged the thing from his van. He asked something like “what on earth is in this package, sand?” to which I replied “errm... actually yes!”. 

In typical unorganised fashion, I am switching my attention back to the chassis. I am sure you are all getting used to my unconventional approach by now! Anyway, I hope to get the entire floorpan in paint by the end of the summer. First up is to properly clean up inside the frame head area. Introducing my siphon fed blast gun that came with my compressor; 

The grit is disposable and only really intended for one time use, but with creative use of a decorators dust sheet I was able to capture and reuse the stuff a few times; 

Getting inside the end of the tunnel was difficult with the shot blast gun because of the limited angles at which I could blast. I was keen to clean up the first section of the base plate as that seemed to be where rust had set in the most. Fortunately the tunnel was in remarkably good health further back and did not require any stripping. I also switched to a drill mounted wire brush to get in where I could. Having really assessed the condition of the front of the spine base I was not happy to leave such heavy pitting in place and the years of corrosion had really thinned the metal work down. So out came the spot weld cutter and angle grinder;

With the small section removed it is clear to see the extent of the corrosion;

I will make a repair patch for this section soon, but for now I was grateful to have improved access, so I sandblasted what I could inside;  

That strange pink stripy thing in the upper left of the tunnel is actually an old pair of boxer shorts. I basically stuffed a load of old fabric back there to prevent all of the grit being lost down the back of the tunnel - it stopped most of it, but there was still a lot that made it passed the formidable underwear barrier;

Once I had blasted to the best of my ability (trust me, DIY blasting takes a long time!), I used FE-123 rust convertor to ensure that any hidden or small pitted areas of rust were eradicated;

Just applied neat with an old brush over the whole area;

Should soon dry into a hard black permanent barrier. I'll let you all know next week how it turns out....

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: