Its been a while...

[boondougal]

Evening all, well its probably been about 3 years since i was last frequenting the two brutal and my how things have changed...mk1.6 - 1.8 that's the sign of progress i guess!

Well my lady has been in the garage for the last couple of years while i have been working out in siberia and the ukraine, well i'm at home at the moment and despite just getting engaged, probably selling the house and looking for work i have decided now is the time to commence work!:careful:

well after a garage rearrange and a game of jenga in the shed fitting in all the crap that i own just to make space the real work has begun, most of the stripping back was done 18 months ago so tonight was the start of the rust bust!

I appreciate its not a brutal swap and that restorations are nothing new but as someone who has virtually never done this type of thing before i really want to keep a record and hope for the support and pointing in the right direction that i know you guys can offer!

well after a couple of hours with the grinder this is what i was left with tonight!






I have a air cutting tool coming soon so i will wait to tidy it up with that, want to make sure i can see what i am dealing with though before i start to repair anything

Here is the A post, looks a lot worse in the picture than in real life but i'll but grinding back to see what i find tomorrow




then on to the other side to see what delights i have there!

One question...what about the sills? i have given them a tap all the way along and the sound solid but does anyone have any recomendations to verify this?

[GregHoon]

Welcome back to TB :thumbsup:

Looks like this will be an interesting thread. As a fellow mk1 owner (as well as other mk1 owners i'm sure) i think any insight into the restoration process is welcome.

Hope you have lots of luck and find lots of help on here!

Greg

[boondougal]

Well only had 30 mins to work on her tonight but here is my progress



all in all i was pleased, everything does feel solid but i wanted to have a closer inspection inside the cavity....




Hmmm i thought. :help::help::help:So what do people think? truly there is no external sign of rot and i have been up and down them with a a hammer and they sound solid...the question is what do other people think??:idea::idea::idea:

[cmuxx]

If it's solid I would squirt a heap of waxoyl down there and leave it.

I cut the nozzel off a garden sprayer and put a long tube on it to get the chssis rails on my Land Rover and it is still fine, that was more than twenty years ago and once it went into the sea up to the roof.
Good stuff that waxoyl.

[snowtigger]

Or spray some rust converter in first in both sills then spray waxoil in both sills as the other one is probably as bad.

[boondougal]

only had few mins so decided to investigate one of those common areas!


before attacking it with the knotted brush it looked ok but as you can see one more thing that needs patching!

Also took the sway bar off....3 out of 4 bolts still half in the chassis...damn rust bolt!

Well i spent the rest of the night travelling round to my mates getting all my air tools back and charging the battery... i am happy that this side is solid enough an even i should be able to repair it. tomorrow i will make a start on the other side, i think it will the worse though!!!!

[GregHoon]

Progress is coming along nicely. Me and snow are experts at rust bolts lol. I snap them and he drills them lol.

Keep the pics coming :)

[OlberJ]

That's the killer bit mate, this side looks in pretty good nick considering.

Saying that it's normally fine one side and fucked the other. Best of luck though!

[Jim-SR]

inside cavities where you cant easily get access, either make room, or if youre confident its still solid get some Fertan sprayed in there, then waxoyl it to buggery.

on the sills, if the inner sill seems dodgy just cut the outer away. its a pretty easy area to weld back up again later and you dont want to go to all the effort of repairing the rusty areas only for new holes to appear a year or 2 down the road. the hardest areas are the front chassis rails, they commonly rot out from the inside and there is no access at all apart from in through the front with a spray product. you cant easily cut them away anywhere and still retain strength.

[boondougal]

cheers for the comments guys, supposed to be working from home but as expected i spent most of the morning trying to get my air compressor to switch in and out at the right PSI, think it had just been stood too long, anyway working now so a few hours hitting the keyboard then a few hours hitting the rust!

Going to fertan and wax oil the sill most probably although my mate who owns a body shop is coming over tonight so i'll get him to cast his expert eye.