93 cabrio repairs...

**roccodingo** · 28-09-2008, 03:58 AM

Bout this little gem about 18 months back, was too good to scrap having only just rolled over to 100K, best thing was I had previously scrapped another grey cabrio that had a shunt up the rear only a year before...so all the front pieces were available..

As it had come to me..

the hood and remenants of the grille etc had already been removed..

Replaced the radiator, and checked a few things over so it was once again driveable, still had rego so my son had been using it to practice for his driving test...

**roccodingo** · 28-09-2008, 04:05 AM

Fast forward to Friday night...

The work truck is away for 3 weeks, so i had some room to get it in and get the repairs started..

Started hauling all the under hood stuff out..

love using the reciprocating saw, makes easy work to get the engine / trans out...

Gave it all a good degrease and wiped a ton of gunk of cables & Harness'

took a bit of heat gun application to get the guards to come away, but persistance paid off and they came away intact..

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**roccodingo** · 28-09-2008, 04:14 AM

Have already stripped the donor car ages ago...

cleaned up the guard mounting points, that damned stuff VW uses to seal the guards is a right Ba***rd to get off..managed to get it done tho..

the plan tomorrow is to remove the last vestiges of the original front panel, then tidy up this corner...

Once done i will start to fit the replacement front panel from the donor car...

Measured up the front end before cutting the panels off, right side was pulled to the left about 15 mm, cutting the front member has relieved some of the tension created by the bent section of panel, so after cutting its only needing around 8 - 10 mm to be pulled over.. more tomorrow..

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**Water Boy** · 28-09-2008, 07:37 PM

Yeah good work...

**roccodingo** · 29-09-2008, 12:21 AM

got of to a bit of a late start..

started by cleaning all the bits of old front panel off the inner guards...

then into hammering back into position the damaged right corner...

Had to bring the bumper mount up about 5 mm, used the jack, my body weight on the vehicle aided by a soft hammer and jumped up n down a few times...

Had all the measurements in the good book let me know when i was done...

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**roccodingo** · 29-09-2008, 12:26 AM

Did a trial fit of the front panel...one of many....

left side was a sinch, right side was close but more grafting required to get a satisfactory result, book tells me + or - 2 mm on the listed dimensions is good enough...

all measured up pretty well within spec, except for this bit...

left a gap of about 3 mm, puts it a mil over the top size... a little more banging and it was good enough..

Run a few tacks on the front tomorrow, then test fit the guards and hood to ensure it all comes back looking ok...

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**Typ53** · 29-09-2008, 09:12 PM

Wow, great work Grant

In my opinion the mk1 cab looks at best of all types and it's the original and not a copy

Wish you good luck during the repair and don't ignore the roccos

Cheers
Mario

**Jarred** · 29-09-2008, 09:35 PM

wow, you're really getting on with this one arn't ya!

Nice to see some panel beating on here once in a while

**roccodingo** · 29-09-2008, 11:57 PM

Public holiday today ...

got a few more things done to the front end... test fitted the guards to check gaps and alignment...

started welding the front panel in place, ran out of time so more later in the week...

**roccodingo** · 30-09-2008, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Typ53

Wow, great work Grant

In my opinion the mk1 cab looks at best of all types and it's the original and not a copy

Wish you good luck during the repair and don't ignore the roccos

Cheers
Mario

Thanks Mario, yeah, it was a bargain for such a neat car, glad to be bringing it back to life.
It will be used by my girlfriend when she comes out from Scotland to live..

Once this is done, and My son's Mk 1 GTI is out the door then back into doing the Scirocco list...