'76 Golf build thread

[gldgti]

Funny how things go.....

So, now i begin yet another build thread. Sadly, I havnt finished my white LS build..... and that car is soon to be sold i think. However, a new car enters the fold and this one I have decided is a keeper.

Picked up said coppery red coloured 4 door 1976 Golf LS yesterday, 13/2/2010.
Car looks pretty good in the ebay photo's as always, however its pretty obvious that there is some lurking rust problems when i see it in the flesh - i should've known :

we pulled the carpets just in case but its all pretty solid under there - always nice the worst bits:



at some point there has been some serious sill damage above the passenger front door - not sure how it could have occurred, but suffice to say that it resulted in some nastiness...



...and the usual windscreen horrors....



but i though hey, every panel on this car is straght - the doors open and shut nicely and its not a colour you see in a mk1 very often, so i'd better get stuck in.....

first up is to "de-bog-erise" all suspect areas:

[gldgti]

some areas had been "repaired" a bit before. others had just been bogged over...



A pillar repair:

cut out the rustyness....


use some nice rust converter to get into the places you cant get to....I dribbled the rust converter into the damaged sill at the top, and sure enough it ended up coming out down at the bottom of the a pillar - so i reckon it'll be OK in there from now on



when doing major work like this - dont skimp on the steel. take your time in fabbing up a replacement part to weld in, and make it bulky - this helps to give you something to weld onto, and take some of the heat - because the thin sheetmetal doesnt take much heat to blow away.

[gldgti]

The most cruicial part of any repair is the grinding, i find. I spend much of my time grinding very carefully, re-shaping your fresh metal to the original body shape. DONT RUSH. take your time here - it can save a lot of filling later.

[mikinoz]

Get into it. Looks like you may knock this one over faster than the other. Will that paint be hard to match?

[gldgti]

Here we can see exactly why these old golfs rust in the gutters so well - look at all the folds there for the water to get into and sit in, and rust away....although it mgiht not be obvious from my dodgy photo...


cut it ALL out....


and like before, tack in a new piece of steel. Use plently of tacks to keep it from moving around too much when you wled it properly



when welding to the sheetmetal body, you need to use short bursts on the mog to keep the heat out of it and prevent warpage, and stop it blowing away. it will always end up looking messy, even professional panelbeaters will end up with this kind of thing:



once again, grind away carefully. I begin griding off most with either a 6mm disk or 3mm for finer work, then finish with a 120 grit flap disk.

[gldgti]

for the windscreen sill, the same principles apply:




I had to finish up for dinner time etc for today, but I reckon i've done a good day on here. Watch this space

[static1800]

Nice work Ayden, should come together nicely.

As always great to see another one getting saved

[Preen59]

Great work Aydan. Looks like you're doing everything properly.


Is she a Swallowtail?

[Jarred]

woah! get stuck in alright! no other way to do it alright!

Keep the updates coming, I love a good build thread!

[gldgti]

Great work Aydan. Looks like you're doing everything properly.


Is she a Swallowtail?

Not swallowtail - it does have the un-creased bonnet (one without the line along the front) but has normal rear panel.

The shell really is pretty good - not much in the way of dents - only a couple of hail-like dents in the bonnet. And apart from the rust, all the other panels are as near as perfect as makes no difference to me

All the rust is gone with what I've shown here, so it will be time for paint pretty soon