OK I managed to get home this weekend and do a bit more pre-test work on the car. Haven't been able to get the car in and tested yet, so I thought I would have a go at beating this horse a bit longer.

Got the wishbone off and here is the damage..

As you can see, the front face of the subframe got bent in (not just that bottom sharp bit), and so creased a bit of the wishbone and the bushing. That must have been what was creaking and clunking everytime the wishbone moved.

Is the general consensus still that this would just be a case of hammering it back into shape? Have not had time to give it a proper bashing and will probs try and get some heat on it first.

Will get a crate of Stella aswell, to get into the swing of things

What do you all think.. ?

Oh plus, I'm pretty sure that bushing is fecked.. but will the whole wishbone need replacing cos of that bent lip?

Hi all, need to bump this again.. I've sawn away all the crumpled bits of the mounting so that it was no longer fouling the wishbone. Didn't have a hope in hell of bashing it out the way with a hammer.

Here is how it looks at the moment. Wishbone moves about fine inside the mounting now but I still need to put it through it's MOT, what are your opinions on it passing in it's current state?

My guess is that it would fail with that material removed, even though there are no cracks in it? Would I need to weld some plate up into the gap for it to pass?

Thanks in advance guys

I bet they don't even notice as long as it's not prrominently shining away.

testers discretion I'd say.

yep, file down the edges so they aren't sharp and square, then stick some salt water on it

and no need to worry about it being written off mate, an old beetle of mine failed it's mot a couple of years ago because the majority of the chassis was made of bean cans riveted togeter and stock over the rust with silicone, i shit you not

spent a few weeks welding, went back to mot station and drove out with a ticket if they didn't write the car off for that i think you'll be fine :p

Cool, nice one lads.. might chuck some black waxoyl on the edges or some underseal.

yep, file down the edges so they aren't sharp and square, then stick some salt water on it

and no need to worry about it being written off mate, an old beetle of mine failed it's mot a couple of years ago because the majority of the chassis was made of bean cans riveted togeter and stock over the rust with silicone, i shit you not

spent a few weeks welding, went back to mot station and drove out with a ticket if they didn't write the car off for that i think you'll be fine :p

Mate that is shocking! Ahaha fair play, that puts my mind at rest when I come to MOTing the bug aswell!

Btw, what's the salt water for.. just getting some rust there quicktime? :S

oh, and do you mean file it so that the gap is square shaped as opposed to rounded?

no mate just file round where you've cut it so the edges aren't square, and stick some salt water on to "age" it :p it'll cause the clean edges where you've got it to form some surface rust over niht so by the time mot comes it wont look too obvious