1988 vw golf gti -1.8t

I knew deep down i was polishing a turd so i started collecting a few panels, front panels mainly, i got hold of a 2nd hand wing and front panel genuine vw ones but both in need of some love. Anyway without boring you all too much, did a bit of welding, filling and priming and heres what i have now....

before...




little patch cut out...



and finished...



And primed wing... (didnt take picture of whats underneath but its plates and filler!!!!)



I also sourced another wing howver its not done yet so we may see this getting done down the line!

Ok so we are nearly up to date, the golf was due for its latest mot and lets just say it failed miserably, it was mechanically sound bar an exhaust leak, but the body was shot, (mainly floorpan) and this is where we are today...
My list of jobs for mot consist of:-
left rear inner arch (done)
weld up o/s and n/s front jacking points, (done)
replace battery tray, (done)
replace panel below airbox (same as battery tray but other side (done)
replace axle mount panel,
plate rear chassis leg,
plate bulkhead (done),
plate bootfloor (done), and it goes on.... and on....

Anyhow I have done a few of these already, so here are a few pics of what I have done...

rear inner wheelarch....

Next thing i did was was replaced the battery tray, as mine was pretty badly battered and bruised:



I got attacking it with the drill and belt sander, and fortunately managed to spot weld nearly all of the replacement panel in, with a few mig plugs on the back edge, making for a relatively neat job:-



A bit of primer and tidying up and nearly ready for some paint



The rest of flitch is now prepped properly and a small plate behind battery tray done but no picture so you'll have to take my word for it, will get a picture when in paint! Anyway i'm finally up to date now this is as far as i have got!!! Hopefully should be a better read from here on as i raced through what i have done so far, hence mostly in list form!Should be an update on the weekend i hope cheers all for reading.

looking good, you work in a bodyshop? always makes it easier,.

Ok another update of today's work, didn't get as much done as i'd like to due to broken spot welder i thought i'd wait for it's repair! Anyhow before i started the panel work on the drivers side, i decided i was going to put the passenger side back together, but before i put anything back in i wanted to clean it. I gave the wiring and battery a bit of a wipe with some spirit wipe which got most of the gunk off them, next was the washer bottle and header tank, which look like this....



and this....



I managed to clean the washer bottle but i think i might be replacing the header tank as they are cheap, unless any of you guys have any good ideas on how to get rusty water out of the inside of the tank?!

After reassembly it all looked like this (minus the header)...



With this done for now, I moved onto the other side where i needed to change the other panel as shown below (excuse the photo quality!)...



After about an hour of cutting, drilling, belt sanding and more i finally got the old panel out and prepped the new one for fitting, these little panels take a while to get out! But once that part is done they go back in easy...



I haven't got any further than this today due to spot welder out of action, which is annoying because i wanted it in and done today!

With this job ready to go, i decided to have a look at the front panel i bought off ebay this week, it had been powdercoated and wasnt an original finish, though i thought it would be a good buy as it would have been blasted first...



Had a bit of a dent in it so thought id sort that...



bit of primer...

Very Nice Keep up the hard work

One light fully assembled, lense cleaned and re bonded to back of lamp, assembled to cleaned and painted lamp panel. I'm pretty happy with that, just one more to go.

No they are not new. If you cut the panel out that the jacking point is welded to, drill off the spot welds to separate the jacking point from the panel you just removed, you will probably find the jacking points will clean up nice with a belt sander or wire wheel. mine were bad both sides but jacking points themselves were solid. a tip would be to cut your new plate to size, work out where your jacking point would go on it and weld that on first before you weld your plate in as it is much easier to do.

Ok all a few bits i've been doing today, the mig welder has finally been repaired so after a week of plodding on doing bits and bobs i've finally got the inner wing ready for paint.



Also I finished refurbishing my 2nd headlight, today and got the lens bonded in, which was the last item I had to do to have a totally refurbished front panel! Here's how it looks...



I couldnt resist trying it on the car either lol



As you can see I have ditched the crosshairs I bought in the first place as ive had a change of heart, if anyone wants a set of crosshairs ill do them for 20 quid plus postage!!!



the car needs a new rad, and seeing as I am smartening things up as i'm going I bought a nice new fan on the bay. I thought about cleaning up the original fan shroud and fan but as the shrouds are so prone to rust I thought this would be better, as it is plastic, and alot slimmer! for 20 quid delivered I couldnt say no!



thats it for today, hopefully i should be painting the chassis leg and flitch monday though!