So, not been an update for a while,

Its been a frustrating couple of weeks, been working stupid hours so haven't been able to get much done.

I've been pondering over the replacement panels and have ended up ordering a new drivers side sill, rear wheel arch and rear valance. I collected these yesterday so this week should be pretty productive. I'm hoping to have all the body work done by the end of the month.

mean while the calipers are all assembled

the pad hangers are next for the treatment and have been in the cider vinegar for the last week or so.

Other than that I've welded up and smoothed off the holes around the front wheel arches, here's a shot of them whilst the Por 15 was drying on them.

I've also got a bit further with the front valance, the front cross member needed allot more cleaning up than i expected

But it wasn't too taxing, here it is as it stands just now, I went a bit Por 15 happy! but it should prime up and sand smooth easily enough.

So that's were it stands just now.

lots of cutting and welding in the coming weeks but its ticking along.

I'm currently trying to get my hands on a pair of Jogglers/flanging tool for all the welding,

I'll keep you posted.

Well its been a while since I updated,

Not huge amounts of progress due to work etc, but its ticking along slowly.

I was going through the process of mounting the new front valance, getting all the gaps sorted with the new bonnet

and getting the wings to fit neatly etc

I was making sure it was sitting right by test fitted my grill, when I noticed that the new panel had slightly different sized forms on the outsides of the head lights,.

this left a really big gap between it and the grill on each end.

Not sure how well this shot illustrates it but just compare the gaps either side under the headlight surround

This is the sort of detail that would hurt me every time I looked at the car, so I set about correcting them.

Here's a comparison with the original piece, you can see the original is much taller:

So I set work with pliers and my new Joggler and came up with a pair of these

here's the first one welded on:

I then put in a strip to create the roll over, i cut the whole area out as the form of the curve wasn't right.

and here's what it looked like after a bit of cleaning up,

I got as far as welding the other side on as well today, but its still needs some work.

So hopefully the finished valance will be all welded on by the end of tomorrow, so I can start on the wheel arch and sill.

Love how hard you're working on this, should be perfect when your done!

So, another few hours at the garage today and it came together really nicely in the end,

Its time to tackle that rotten sill and wheel arch now, looking forward to getting stuck into it tomorrow,

lots of cutting and grinding, so fingers crossed for the weather.

Ok, so its about time for an update I would say.

Its been ages since my last, Its been quite eventful.

Since the start of the build I've managed to cut my fingers and hands a few times, but that was to be expected,

however a week or two ago I managed to fire a dot of metal into my eye with a grinder or sander. Not sure how as I always wear science class style eye goggles!

Anyway seeing as the Polo is in bits I've cycling everywhere, I was on the bike headed to the hospital for my eye, when sadly a total bell end decided to turn in front of me.....

Anyway, I was fine, just cuts and bruises, but it ment that getting to the garage has been a total pain until the bike got fixed.

The up side is that the money I got from the dudes insurance people for my injuries will go a long way towards paying for my respray! every cloud etc....

So to the build

I chopped the sill off

then got into that annoying rotten corner and started the patching

there ended up being about three small pieces that I added to build up that area and in the end it looked like this

with that done I mounted a rubber bung it the inner arch lining patch

this will get a hole and a grommet put through it to carry the breather pipe. The patch is all welded in, and I plan to smooth that entire area as well as seal it up, so any moisture drips/falls off rather than collecting in that area again.

Then I started to get the new sill mounted, here its mounted with wee nuts and bolts just prior to welding.

I read about plug welding, and it seemed to be the way to go, so here it is welded along the top, not sure if I went a bit overboard with the number of welds, but its better safe then sorry i would say! I didn't want a bendy car afterwards

with the top welded up it was a bit of a pain getting the lower seam in the right place, but a nothing a few bits of ply and the trusty VW jack couldn't solve

I'm a wee bit further on from that pic, but I ran out of welding gas so had to call it a day there.

So that's you all up to speed.

I have it booked into the spray man on the 10th of October, so its all hands to the pumps till then.

I wrote a list of things to do by then, its rather long.......

Awesome work man. Are you going for a full outside same colour respray or are you going for an all out colour change?

Hi Matt,

I'm still swithering about the colour, I'm 99% sure I'll go for the same colour again, or at least something very close to it, possibly a wee bit darker/richer.

But then the 1% says do something totally different!

what that would be, I haven't a clue, but there isn't going to be a opportunity than this!

I'm open to suggestions...............

I would get it painted in it's original colour as it's a fairly rare colour, I have only seen three in this colour anyway.

Ye, Maroon is the way forward I recon.

Its funny, of the four Mk2 breadvans I've seen around Edinburgh, two are maroon!

There's a proper update incoming tomorrow or Monday.

Have good weekends all!

Ye, Maroon is the way forward I recon.

Its funny, of the four Mk2 breadvans I've seen around Edinburgh, two are maroon!

There's a proper update incoming tomorrow or Monday.

Have good weekends all!

I've only ever seen one that's not here on CP. I drove past it while it was parked on the high street of my town wile the driver had a surprised look on his face.

Edited 17 September, 201114 yr by MattLoaf

i used to have this colour, gambia red iirc.

until i resprayed it anyway.

paint code lba3

Edited 17 September, 201114 yr by TomMK2

Ok, so only a week late, but here's some progress,

The sill is now on, it needs some filler here and there, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with the result.

the line isn't quite right at the bottom of the door pillar but seeing as you cant see them both at once, I think I'll live with it!

I then started on replacing the triangular area behind the rear wheel arch, there was some rot showing through and the attachment point for the bumper was pretty bent from a bump t some stage.

So I opened the area to look around and chop out any rust

that led to it looking like this................. sigh

its not a huge job or anything, just a couple of patches, but its more work that i wasn't expecting. The re spray deadline is looming and i'm starting to get stressed about getting it all done.

Anyway I cut up the replacement panel for the outer patch and here it is test fitted

Lots to do still, but I'm getting there slowly, can't wait for this stage to be done as its hopefully all down hill from there......

Nice! Love the cider vinegar trick might have to try that one lol

Love the little touches, (the gap with the lights)

Will be watching/learning from this one :)

Mines Maroon :) http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h469/j...w910i/polo1.jpg

Right, time for an update,

Working away over the last few days and have got a fair bit of stuff done,

I was originally aiming to have it into the spray shop this week but the dude unfortunately cant fit me in for another few weeks

this is due to his work load and his lady expecting a baby in the next ten days!

So after a mad panic i've chilled the pace a little.

The rotten rear corner has been dealt with:

I made a couple of small patches to keep it all in place and repair the horizontal plains,

then made a larger more structural patch,

and welded that in,

its now looking like this from the inner arch,

.

with that done, I used a section of the replacement panel to tidy up a bad dent in the arch itself,

cleaned it up a bit,

and now it looks more like this,

on the inside of the same arch, remember the horrible rust patch?

well here's its progression,

Cleaned up

cut out and patched from the outside

then double skinned a patch on the inside

then cleaned that up,

Its now got a skim of filler and will look factory by the time I'm done hopefully.

Also I've been busy pulling the last of the engine bay out, the braking system has finally gone,

I had left it in to aid getting the drive shafts off. But with them away there was no reason to keep the brakes,

I also pulled the steering rack out and the last couple of cables, so now it looks like this,

I've started to get filler down on the dents that I cant tap out, and the search for stone chips and pin prick holes is under way,

there's a wee bit more welding to do, mainly to fit the new rear valance on

there's also a couple of small holes I've come across since the old one has been cut off.

I've got round to mending and patching one of the holes under the front jacking point

The other side is still to do, as well and a small one in the battery tray (MOT failure apparently)

I'll keep you posted.

A quick question:

Can anyone confirm that this polo is Gambia Red? (LA3B)

I've never found the paint code in the car and I've lost the Halfords rattle can I've used in the past for touch ups.

Are there any other VW colours it could be?

Any help would be most appreciated

Cheers for now,

Si

Edited 11 October, 201114 yr by Hammerheed

This car is going to look amazeballs when it's done. Get someone from a paint shop to take a look at it, they might be able to tell you just by looking - That's what I did, the guy just walked up to car, said "Tornado Red" and he walked inside to write down the paint code for me.

Edited 11 October, 201114 yr by MattLoaf

This car is going to look amazeballs when it's done. Get someone from a paint shop to take a look at it, they might be able to tell you just by looking - That's what I did, the guy just walked up to car, said "Tornado Red" and he walked inside to write down the paint code for me.

Cheers for that Matt,

I'm hoping that's gona be the case, I mentioned that it was maroon over the phone to the spray dude, and he was like "ye I know the colour" but I was just wondering if there could be a couple of similar shades?

Oh well, we will see.

Edited 11 October, 201114 yr by Hammerheed

Apparently LA3B doesn't exist according to this list of paint codes.

Ye, I was just there as well,

Googling it does come up with the code thou LA3B, H2 for Gambia Red.

However folk on other sights are suggesting a similar is Cherry red, LA3E which on my screen looks pretty much right as well!

Oh well, its too late to be thinking about this now, the spray dude will know...................

Edited 11 October, 201114 yr by Hammerheed

Oh well, its too late to be thinking about this now, the spray dude will know...................

It won't matter much if it's not exactly the same colour, the new paint will look so much better than the old paint it will be hard to tell the difference.

Edited 11 October, 201114 yr by MattLoaf

Looking good.. Its interesting that you have the same areas of rust that my mk2 does. The scary one was the rear seat belt mount point was rather hidden in mine until you started scraping back the paint and sealer.

when i had paint mixed for mine there was a few different shades that were very similar

Edited 29 October, 201114 yr by TomMK2

So long time no update,

And if all was going to plan I would be getting the old girl back from the spray man about now, looking resplendent in Gambia red, all shinny and new.

However.........

So where did we get to last time, well I rebuilt the rear offside corner

The panel went on and cleaned up pretty well,

I was getting ready to put the new rear valance, when i spotted rust in the nearside corner so set about sorting that.

The nearside rear wheel arch was supposed to be the "good" one, which wasn't going to be much work to sort out.

However its turned out to be a total nightmare.

with a bit of cleaning the corner looked like this

then like this after i had cut out the rust:

then I turned my attention to the front of the arch and with a small bit of investigation it turned up this mess

and eventually this horrific wound!

the two heavy gauge pieces that the rear beam bracket bolts to, were simply sandwiched around a plate of rust!

with that removed they arn't attached to the side of the body.........................

So at that point I had a little cry to myself.

I decided that the best course of action was to take a step back. I decided to bugger off on holiday!

A week in Lanzagrote did wonders for my enthusiasm and I came back with a new sense of purpose.

I started off by avoiding looking at the area at all, doing a bit some fun work smoothing my tail gate,

Then jacked her up on specially extended stands that i made up, whipped the rear beam off and the brackets etc. Then started at the rusty areas around the fuel tank cavity:

I borrowed a compressor from a pal and have been doing a bit of DIY sand blasting, its working pretty well but isn't very fun to do under the car!

I finally plucked up the courage to look at that arch again, so set about cleaning up the whole area ready for welding and found some work a previous owners "handy work" up inside the inner arch

Sigh................

I woke up in the foetal position under the car in a tear stained mess covered in sand......................

And went home.

But i feel more positive today and will beat the crap out of it this weekend!

Good work as always

I woke up in the foetal position under the car in a tear stained mess covered in sand.....................

really good work mate :)

Edited 25 November, 201114 yr by Gamu