i'd reccommend heating / blow torching the seamsealany out of the seems before you attempt to weld. as soon as you start welding and putting heat into it, the sealer all comes oozing out and makes welding near impossible.

Yeah I know about getting the seam sealer out as if left in causes contamination of the weld and porosity in the weld making a weak shitty weld

And Dan that's not fibreglass that's expanding foam I used to sound proof the rear quarters I'm ripping it all out now and the rear wings are all fully welded in no fibreglass at all. I did a proper job in the first place although all of that is getting ripped out soon for wider rear arches stupidly wide track on the back now gained at least 4 inches either side and then il be running my 8j et10 rotas lol

i used the wire wheel and stanley blade on mine to scrape it out but it still came out when i started laying the weld down. i didn't want to have to blow torch it but was the only option in the end.

Yeah I had that trouble elsewhere on the car I think I'm going to get it all ready and bare metal first then do the stitch welding in 2 or 3 big goes and do the whole car then as I'm still a way off now just trying to do odd jobs when I have little bits of time spare

Luckily I've blagged the misses into helping me for the whole day tomoz as she owes me from doing loads of work on her car so I'm gunna get her stripping paint and mastic and as much as I can tomorrow :)

Edited 30 December, 201213 yr by StinkyPete

so more work done more pictures taken got quite a bit done over crimbo hols had 5 straight mostly full days working on it which was good means i got some big jobs done that take the time

so for a start stripped all the front suspension off and got the front sitting on some steel box section nearly the correct height for at the minute

then started getting the new passenger outer chassis rail measured up and working out where it would go once this was done i got started with the GRINDINGZZZZ

this took me a whole day or measuring, cutting, drilling, grinding and working out as i had to get the tube through a bit of double wall section under the windscreen which was a pain in the arse but i got there in the end

so the next day i did the other side

while i did the drivers side i got the misses helping me by starting stripping paint off the body she started on the passenger rear quarter

i will be wrestling her back to do the other side when i can also

I then made some diagonal upwards braces for the outer chassis rails on both sides

so the next day i decided to fully weld up all of the front i had done so far

and ended up with this on the front end so far :) its coming along nicely

decided to then start on the new drivers side door bar

i didnt like the bolt in ones as they sat too low for me i wanted better protection for the occucants in the car and also higher bars spread the strength back to front better and would make it a stronger structure / frame

so chopped off the old door bar mounting at the front and left the b pillar mount on for now to show how much I've raised it

thats all so far just measured up for more materials tonight and will hopefully be getting them tomorrow/friday so i can continue and get more of the front end done this weekend and end of january i hope to start getting this on a rotisserie spit so i can get all the underneath sorted

also going to sell my front mk1 golf coilover conversions too as i am going to use a mk1/2 golf steering rack and column and will use a full mk1 golf standard hub/coilover setup except il use the same adjustable tcas and compression strut setup as on the rear meaning if i want i can go lower and also have all standard easy to obtain parts if replacements are needed for anything

Remember you need to fit an engine and turbo in!

I dont need to but it would make it alot easier than pushing it everywhere

and il be getting to engine trial fitting soon enough just need to get it on its side soon and start sorting the underneath fully

Could I ask a favour pete. Could you take a picture of the front end of yours minus the front valance for me please. I need to remove mine, but ideally I want to start thinking about some way I can make it bolt on. Ideally about head light height and full with. Be much obliged.

You can buy that fibreglass seat if you want pete. I don't fit in the thing lol. I gave £90 for it ill send you the ebay link. Ill take £50 for it if you can collect it or send your own courier mate. Cheers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GRP-Black-Bucket...=item43b26aba2a

Edited 4 January, 201313 yr by polovr6man

http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj574/...zps8d2b1db8.jpg

What's going on here dude :/ that vertical brace?

Also will ask about shafts for you.

It's just an extra support and ties it in with the front tunnel and firewall brace

PoloVR6man I will let you know ASAP about that seat mate just gotta sell one or two bits to get funds

And Nick yeah let me know Bout the shafts as soon as you know anything thanks

Edited 4 January, 201313 yr by StinkyPete

Yeah I can see that, just the weld looks like you forgot to cut it to fit around the tube it's welded too that's all.

Fair play though, you are in deeeeeep man! Haha.

How many shafts did you want?

He maybe moving house and I think his synchro project Is on hold anyway, but he'll be running stronger shafts anyway

Both front shafts ideally already got the rears in and sorted just have no fronts

And all tubes are notched to fit to the tubes they are being welded to its probably just the camera angle as it looks alright in the car

They are only extra braces anyways I would just rather have extra as its better safe than sorry as everyone knows

And il be making lots of gussets this weekend to weld in a lot of the main weight bearing corners where two tubes join at 90 degree angles

Okay mate no problem. Its not going any where for a while anyway until it gets in my way lol

Sweet, triangles for the win.

You're progressing fast, I don't think people realise how time consuming stuff is.

Iv spent a few hours today machining one thing and making a bracket, just to mount a trigger wheel and crank sensor. Yet in a weekend you get shite loads done

I just crack on mate I know what I'm aiming for and I know what I need to do

It would progress faster but I can do much after work during the week nothing noisy anyways

So I spend the weeknight measuring and prepping everything I need for the next weekend

And yeah it feels like its coming along fast now but I've still got a lot more left to do

Will be finishing most of the main big bits soon then it will be tidying up and sorting all the small jobs that add up and take time

not much dont this weekend in some ways as I'm waiting for Cutting discs for my grinder that are some where in the post but did a few things

made an extra brace for the front just needs welding in but il wait til i have more to weld

Now a quick little maths and money saving lesson

for £3 delivered off ebay you can buy 1 plain roll cage corner gusset 3mm thick plate 50mmx50mm triangle

whereas for £3 worth of 3mm plate and half an hour of my effort i have just made 26 drilled roll cage corner gussets

saving me £75 and also these ones I've made are lighter due to me drilling them

Just need to cut them out now to seperate them but waiting on the cutting discs

also started getting the rear passenger quarter down to bare metal

Thought i would crack open my new set of Silverline BiMetal Holesaws i bought these after my normal ones i got cheap started burning themselves out on anything steel. they were perfect for wood and some ally but wouldnt touch metal

I was going to buy just one holesaw but i needed a decent arbor for the decent holesaws too and one holesaw and arbor came to about a tenner

but i picked up this silverline set for £17 posted with the two types of decent arbor and 6 different sized Bimetal holesaws

anyways i cracked them out finally and started drilling where i had marked out i could save weight without compromising strength

started marking out places where i can remove excess bits of the inner skin where its no longer needed too

waiting on getting more metal this week too so i can get more of the front end done

love it pete.

are you going to be taking a dimple die to the edges of the holesaws holes to add some strength and awesome looks back in?

Edited 6 January, 201313 yr by mini_mayhem

i will be flaring the holes for extra strength and hopefully they will look good too

going to be making a few hole flaring tools of varying sizes in the next month

so i can do it in as many places as possible to save as much weight as possible

Copy with the holes! -__-

Edited 8 January, 201313 yr by v dub polo shaun

so a little bit of progress during the week ready to get some more bits done this weekend :)

propshaft stripped and chopped in half ready for shortening

all my bits have turned up to make the rear adjustable tracking tie arms

just need welding together

also started work on my new adjustable suspension turret tops now finished ready for welding into place this weekend hopefully

20mm of adjustability for camber setting

Transfer box all rebuilt and ready for when i finished rebuilding the gearbox

installing the drive flanges

so much easier when you have the right equipment or can make it

more progress the end of this weekend hopefully

20mm should give you loadssssss of adjustment mate how you going to adjust caster? Guessing with the lower arms? :)

yeah il have the same setup on the front at the bottom as the rear so full adjustability

todays work

well i made some new front suspension turrets and heres the pictures to explain :)

turrets so far

now i will be putting sides on them for extra strength but il be using 3mm plate for abit of weight saving yet keeping some strength

il also have another tube in front of the turrets going from inner to outer chassis rails like there is behind