Few pics of the filler work, yes, beer and fillering your engine bay do not go well.

We added far too much ,meaning we've got a lot to sand back off, we also thought it would be funny to make it look like a christmas cake icing, all wispy!

Not funny when your sanding it back off!

Track car with a smoothed bay and lots of filler?

Filler is for after the crash (I should know!)

As it's for track why not put camber adjustable top mounts in?

let me k ow where you get the dampers from when you do your coilovers mate, struggling to find an aftermarket supplier for shortened dampers.

oh and hahahaha I've finished my sanding:-P enjoy hours of finger blistering fun!

Decent DA will be worth it mate, honestly Major differance with a good sander B+D Mouse for tight bits though....

You got one to lend me? :-D

Track car with a smoothed bay and lots of filler?

Filler is for after the crash (I should know!)

As it's for track why not put camber adjustable top mounts in?

Yours is going to be having more than this! Nothing wrong with a smoothed bay, don't worry i'll make sure i'll counter act the 300g it adds

let me k ow where you get the dampers from when you do your coilovers mate, struggling to find an aftermarket supplier for shortened dampers.

oh and hahahaha I've finished my sanding:-P enjoy hours of finger blistering fun!

I will do mate, what's wrong with your set-up?

And the sanding, i cant wait

Shortened dampers for a mk3 hub??

yer if you make coilovers on the standard mk3 hub assembly the shock is to tall still - will ride the bump stops - Gaz shorten there struts on there coilovers, between a mk1 golf coilover and a std mk1-3 strut there is 40mm diference in length of damper. people running -80 kits ride the bumpstops iirc, so its something to look out for harris!

nowt wrong with mine- id just like to find suppliers to make my life easier for people wanting custom dampers and springs to go on my converted struts.

Philj sells shortened dampers for them?

My gaz coilovers are being made shorter anyway to make them more usable in the range I'll be running :)

Will check bump clearances at ride height too

i dont mean the damper stroke thats shorter- the actual damper body itself

I was thinking more of it cracking if you're running hard suspension...

i second what yoof is on about- you really have to put the hours in with the welder and grinder so that all the radius' in the corners have very little filler in and its as much metal as it can be as it will crack. i found this out to my own peril on my last smooth bay. I've since deleted the edges it went on- but my biggest fear is that the first hard corner its going to go tits up.

I was thinking more of it cracking if you're running hard suspension...

Aye, i thought about that. But, even though the pictures show a lot of filler application primarily, 95% has come back off. Time will tell really, it may see the same fate as "KiZ" says below, if it does, i'll beat the shit out of it.

Most of the filler thats staying is on the fire-wall, which is quite a flimsy piece of metal at the end of the day, so in a way might absorb the vibrations better than say the turrets, which have only received moderate filler at the bottom radii, over the seam welding.

Like i say, time will tell, you might say "told you so" at the polo-show

i second what yoof is on about- you really have to put the hours in with the welder and grinder so that all the radius' in the corners have very little filler in and its as much metal as it can be as it will crack. i found this out to my own peril on my last smooth bay. I've since deleted the edges it went on- but my biggest fear is that the first hard corner its going to go tits up.

Really? Did it just split/crack around the sharp edges then? Any pictures? Surely there's as much chance of filler cracking thats on other panels such as wings and rear quarters etc, just a risk that comes with harsh suspension and extensive bodywork detailing.

yer it did - behind the turrets in the grooves. the movement of the turrets under cornering was enough to break the bond and it split. i did a couple of repairs so no 1 really saw it - but before it came off the road i did a dust wash and then brushed off the remainder to high the cracks. its one of the main reasons i re did my engine bay! it wasnt just for shits n giggles lol - it was to remove this weak point. no doubt I've moved it somewhere else but time will tell!

oh and these wernt on sharp edges! if you remember my car- there wasnt any i used custom made sanding blocks with big rads in to avoid any cracks - its not where they split. I've used 3 grades of filler on my latest bay - some really flexible stuff in the corners with the stiffer stuff on all the flats, should hopefully help me out- but I've hand sanded and ground down the welds into rads so barely any filler was used in areas liekly to crack

yer it did - behind the turrets in the grooves. the movement of the turrets under cornering was enough to break the bond and it split. i did a couple of repairs so no 1 really saw it - but before it came off the road i did a dust wash and then brushed off the remainder to high the cracks. its one of the main reasons i re did my engine bay! it wasnt just for shits n giggles lol - it was to remove this weak point. no doubt I've moved it somewhere else but time will tell!

oh and these wernt on sharp edges! if you remember my car- there wasnt any i used custom made sanding blocks with big rads in to avoid any cracks - its not where they split. I've used 3 grades of filler on my latest bay - some really flexible stuff in the corners with the stiffer stuff on all the flats, should hopefully help me out- but I've hand sanded and ground down the welds into rads so barely any filler was used in areas liekly to crack

Cheers for the pic mate. This may take the same fate as yours then, i did think about this topic, (after id done it) but i'm just gonna have to take the chance, as you did. Its gonna be braced quite well, so "flexing" isn't my main concern, but the vibrations etc.

Can't really remember what yours used to look like, but the filler doesn't go over any stiff corners on this, it all very thinly spread over the turrets etc.

Ahhh fail Naa I'm using mine this weekend Maxwell, back arches hopefully. Cars gna look ROUGHHHH for Poloshow but i dont care

Tut, letting me down n that! , no worries dude, may have sorted one out else where, just bought some 40grit pads for the B&D, that should help, i'll just keep at it :-D

What reason dude? Theres so much writing in that quote lol

Ah right, like i said, time will tell if its cracks.

If it does, then, i dunno , it will just have to be re-painted?

Mate, you have posted 60 times today WTF! lol , your trying to get your post count to 1st arent you

If its cracks it will be a piss take for sure! Time will tell though.

if it cracks your fooked! as soon as the water gets in, its a matter of time before the filler will lift off the panel.

oh and as much as this may sink your heart like an anvil- before you applied the filler- did you prepare the surface with a rust treatment? one of the big things i learnt from this escapade of mine is that even in areas not under any stress- the metal was starting to sweat and detach from the filler in places where id welded (tig and mig)

oh and all my rads and areas of tricky stuff are seam sealered. REMEMBER POLOMON- you can wet flat seam sealer!!! so it can be smooth and stay smooth

It had a light coating of etch primer before the filler kiz, don't know if it will be enough though. You did well to hide all these filler woes on your last engine bay lol.

Think what i'll do is make sure there's as little filler as possible in there, paint it up and see how it goes after a year. Then if indeed it cracks, then i'll re-do the bay. Shouldn't take more than a few weeks to strip it again and leave out the filler!

Coming along nicely dude. That filler looks like a chore tbh. Think i'll leave alison scarred with bare welds!

let me k ow where you get the dampers from when you do your coilovers mate, struggling to find an aftermarket supplier for shortened dampers.

oh and hahahaha I've finished my sanding:-P enjoy hours of finger blistering fun!

The KW dampers are shortened. Andy said he had part numbers for these. Failing that apparantly Koni make dampers to fit. I saw a pair of kw V1's for sale on ebay.de with Koni adjustable damping inserts.

If you have any joy before me let us know as i need a full set for the KW's i bought off Andy.

Cheers man, getting there!

Having second thought about the filler though

Me too

tbh, i see no point in a smoothed bay on a car you just want to use?

Show car, yeah.. daily track slag.. pointless!

tbh, i see no point in a smoothed bay on a car you just want to use?

Show car, yeah.. daily track slag.. pointless!

Ever heard of it looking good?