1987 Volkswagen Polo Breadvan

That's good to know, I'll certainly look into that option. Thanks

Interesting, I thought greenstuff were meant to be curse word unless you got your brakes very hot. I'll try them. I've tried blackstuff which were meant to be the regular road pads, wasn't overly impressed.

Thanks jmotor.

Good to get another positive review on the greenstuff pads.

Right, well I got a bit done yesterday afternoon when the kids were out on a jolly.

Got the hole for the fuel neck cut out, using the template I took from the old one.




I offered up the rear quarter and marked off the rusty area to be cut out at the bottom of the window aperture. I needed to fix the inner skin before welding the quarter back on.



Then repaired the inner skin. Repair plate is oversize, to be trimmed back later.





Then I sorted out a few bits of surface rust on the back of the rear quarter, removed as much as practical and brushed on some Vactan rust converter to deal with the rest.



Then I refitted the quarter, and started the long process of slowly welding around the edges of the panel.





In between welds I cut out the section I wanted from the new arch panel. Bad quality panel but easier than making my own, and it can be fettled to fit just fine.



Offered up the arch panel, it was a bit too long so a cut near the back to shorten it by 5mm and it sits nicely.



Original rusted arch section removed and the new arch tacked into place



Fuel neck hole fully cut out and the flange welded, welds complete around the quarter and arch repair. It was getting late by the time I finished this so I decided to dress the welds another day, my neighbours probably prefer not to be serenaded by an angle grinder on a Sunday night.





Ignore the pile of filler on the bottom of the quarter, the new sill comes quite far up the quarter so I'll be cutting that out, soon.

I also have this hole to sort, need to pop out the window on the other side to make a template.



More next weekend. Probably.

Thanks for reading!

Pete

Spare time is really hard to come by when you've got little kids and run a business, got to make the most of it. I'd rather do it at a more leisurely pace but also I want to get to drive it this century!

Sup bro! Happy to be a bad influence

Hi Peter, what a great little project you've got going on here! 'Little' as in the size of the car....not the scale of work it requires 😁.
I've used an array of different rust treatment products over the last few years. Hydrate 80 is definitely my favourite. Don't get me wrong, only time will tell if it actually does what is says on the tin, but out of the products I've used so far, it looks to be the most promising. The product I will never ever use again is POR 15. I blasted my front hubs, light bowls and a few other bits nearly 3 years ago. Once there was no visible rust on them, I de-greased everything and painted on the POR 15. I then popped it all on a shelf, and thats where it all stayed until a few weeks ago. Everything that was painted with POR 15 had rust coming through. Not just a little bit either, but loads peppered all over. You can even see the rust tracking under the paint. I started to pick at the rust on the light bowl and the POR 15 literally came off in strips.
I did exactly the same process on some other cast and steel components about 2 years ago using Hydrate 80 and there's not a spec of rust on them. Plus, have you tried to remove Hydrate 80 once it's dried....it's not easy....which surely has to be a good thing!
Anyway, that's some excellent fabrication work going on there. Looks like you're making good progress too.

Dan.