I love that you are posting pics of each job in it's deconstructed form - how you are fabricating replacement pieces and the reconstruction process in full. Brilliant and a great read.

If possible, please could you list where you buy your materials and perhaps some photos of the tools used. Many thanks indeed!!

Cheers bud, All my materials come from local steel working companies such as fab shops or steel erectors have a look local to you and knock on the door as most of them will happily let you rummage through there waste bins and believe me you can find some right gems

As for tools all the repairs I've made to the floor have been made in the shop with basic hand tools such as a vice and various hammers and dollies I use a lot of air tools for working the metal as there more precise and a lot safer. The rear sill repair around the tank neck was made in proper fab shop with the use of a Brake press and a huge Roller I chose this route because I wanted to keep filler to a minimum so I needed to get the curve perfect, plus the replacement panel was made from 1.5mm steel and not 0.6 as per factory so its a lot tougher to bend lol.

As soon as I've court you guys up with the pics I will try and include more tools as well

As always thanks for all the nice comments.

I will now show the repairs on the opposite side (the passenger side) The process was exactly the same so I will just post the pics in order and try not to bore you to much lol

Starting with what I was left with after I'd cleaned the area and cut out the bad metal, plus on this side I had to straighten the original jacking point as it looked like it had been run along a high curb or something similar.

As you can see not so bad this side.

Welded up.

Jacking point repair.

Next part was the same as the other side but without the return for the sill over lap (the side with holes drilled in it).

In it goes.

Then the primer and sealer.

Finally the stone chip Again I used my home made cavity tube to get right inside the jacking point.

before.

After

Although the jacking point isn't totally dent free It is so much healthier and tbh I don't want to make this car to perfect I like that it's telling me a story as I go.

Its worth mentioning that if your doing the same on your own that when you apply the stone chip you want to do it gradually, in stages. If you put it on to thick to soon you will trap air in it and create pine holes which will trap moisture. To get a nice smooth but thick coat as i did here I applied the stone chip in four coats leaving about 45mins between coats. I will pull all my tools out today and take a pic so that you know what to look for if you wish to but them yourself till then thanks again for you time and i'll be back soon

Edited 20 January, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

It's lucky you show these before and during photos because you can't even see the repair when it's done!

I wouldn't want to drive it when it's finished after all this work.

Edited 20 January, 201511 yr by vdoubleu

It's lucky you show these before and during photos because you can't even see the repair when it's done!

I wouldn't want to drive it when it's finished after all this work.

Hahaha cheers bud, you think its good now? Stay tuned, it gets waaaaay better.

The next couple of updates are about the sill's but as I mentioned earlier in the thread I had my old laptop die on me which lost me a far few pictures so these next updates my look a bit out of sequence ie the jacking points in the background haven't been started yet but you will get the idea lol.

Away, I will start with the drivers side sill as this was by far the worse.

And of course my new rear sill section at the filler neck end.

In short I basically started at the front and worked my way back. The first area was behind the front wing at the lower mounting bolt. I had already had a good look behind the wings and have decided that I'm not going to disturb them........well at this stage at least .

I worked the metal here with the help of a Pencil grinder with ball tipped diamond grinder bit, you can buy these to run off Air or electric I have and use both but I find the air powered ones much smoother (although more expensive).

Once I was happy I primed and sealed it and moved on.

I personally thought these sills had survived well but the main issue was the holes which allowed the sill covers to be fitted via pop rivets one of which had got a bit bigger.

Once cut out.

The waxoil hole next to it didn't look to hot either lol

As you can see it had spread to the inner sill so out came the pencil grinder again.

As always Acid etch then MS.

Now to weld um both.

Then I made a new hole as I need to be able to waxoil the hell out of this old girl when I'm finished

As a final step I wanted to make sure the sills were nice and straight, not to perfect as they are not pin straight out of the factory but having them straight means that the sill covers will fit bang on a bit later.

Now for Acid etch and MS.

Before.

After

Finally just skim over the panel I put in earlier.

I will sand this back later when i'm closer to painting everything.

I'm not spraying on any stone chip at the moment as I will do the hole floor as one this will save me a bit of time later but more importantly it will give a much nicer finish.

The passenger side sill was about half the work but I will leave that for the next update. My updates will start to get a bit more interesting soon I promise

Edited 20 January, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Just a quick update this time. I was asked a couple of days ago to picture some of the tools I use a shed a bit of light on the materials used in my restorations so I popped down the shop this evening and got some snaps of the tools used so far.

These are the air tools used, from left to right : A basic stone chip and waxoil gun, 90deg grinder/cutter, Straight grinder/cutter, 10mm Belt sander and finally my best friend the Pencil grinder/cutter.

AA battery Just to show how small the Pencil grinder is

That with a selection of 6mm grinding stones

Means you can get to most hard to reach spots lol. Finally is the little black disc with a 6mm shaft this is called the 3M nyloc system, this attachment allows you to use 20, 50, or 70mm sanding disc's or red or blue Scotch brite pads. all will be explained later

Next up some basic panel dolly's and 5mm thick panel of steal to tap stuff flat on.

And a steal file for thinning and shaping metal.

Finally my chosen stone chip and the best sealer known to man

Anyway I hope this is some help to people, as always cheers guys.

Right passenger sill time, I will try to get through this one quickly as there really wasn't that much to do here but tidy up the holes for the pop rivets and straighten the sill lines out.

So here goes.

There was even some factory waxoil left hiding in places, love how they built these cars back in the day. I think they used to boast how much waxoil they used in one of there old ad campaigns.

I think this might of been me when I pulled it out of a ditch down the yard I had to jack up one side to get it over a bolder

Anyway, start with the pop rivet holes all the way down the sill.

Some worse than others.

During, notice on the first pic there are some tiny black pinhead marks left by corrosion above the hole, these are what I always aim to polish out with the red and blue Nyloc scotch brite pads.

I try to end up with this.

Getting there.

This just left a small patch down by the front jacking point. At this stage I hadn't started on the jacking point.

Tbh I cheated here, I just cut off the bad bit at the bottom as it wasn't needed and It made sill line look cleaner.

Looking a lot healthier.

Same process as the drivers side, work the metal then prime and seal it ready for stone chip.

Next step was removing the lower swing arms and exhaust and sorting the rest of the floor out so I can hit the hole thing over with fresh stone chip.

Edited 25 January, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Great work!

cheers bud, loving your work by the way you might be able help with something as your a bit of a guru on these derby's.

My question is this : Is this a Derby or a Classic? I assume its not old enough to be a classic or is it the other way?

Depends....

Volkswagen UK... badged the mk2 saloon as 'polo classic' up til about '87, then they dropped the classic. Wasn't officially called a derby over here.

Volkswagen Deutschland... the early mk2s are Derbys up until 84-85 when the derby name was dropped (Along with the square lights)

The way I see it if it left the factory with square lights then it's a Derby :)

Yours being a fairly late mk2 would make it a polo saloon (so no classic)

Its possible I think to distinguish from the chassis numbers too but I'm not 100% on that

Type 86 is the breadvan and coupe

Type 87 is the derby/polo classic.

Type 80 - used on later mk2s (and 2Fs) for all 3 body styles

Could be wrong though. I remember a discussion being had about it a while ago. Seem to recall a few odd ones that didn't fit cropping up... like a type 87 breadvan or something

Edited 26 January, 201511 yr by Gaz

It was at this point in the build I got a bit bored of just cleaning out rust and it was one evening whilst sat on the throne I had an idea.

I know its a step away from my obsession with keeping everything looking original but my idea is to make my life easier in the future and offer some protection to the car over the up and coming years.

So here is my idea in cardboard

Then after a trip down to my local steal fabricators for some 1.5mm galvanized sheet and some time spent measuring stuff I had this.

Then some bending an some rolling.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Strengthening plates for the Jacking Points?

These appeared in a dream I had last night!

Must be jacking point plates.

I assume you've been hoarding these photos for an update? Otherwise you are building the car at a faster pace than any of us could dream of.

Ahhhhhhhhh you guys are way to good you both get a gold star lol.

Yer I've been stashing these pics for a while now but all the work you see here all the way to a finished floor only took three weeks at two hours a night at this point in the build I was still trying to get the car on the road in a fairly timely manner lol.

I would do another update but I can't access my Photobucket account AGAIN!!!!!! god Photobucket is shockingly bad.

Photobucket is a shadow of its former self. Its appalling these days.

I've a couple of quick questions for you; What brand is the MS you're using and when you're applying the stone chip, do you hook it up direct to the shutz (sp?) gun, spray the bit you need doing and take it apart and clean through every time?

Cheers :)

Depends....

Volkswagen UK... badged the mk2 saloon as 'polo classic' up til about '87, then they dropped the classic. Wasn't officially called a derby over here.

Volkswagen Deutschland... the early mk2s are Derbys up until 84-85 when the derby name was dropped (Along with the square lights)

The way I see it if it left the factory with square lights then it's a Derby :)

Yours being a fairly late mk2 would make it a polo saloon (so no classic)

Its possible I think to distinguish from the chassis numbers too but I'm not 100% on that

Type 86 is the breadvan and coupe

Type 87 is the derby/polo classic.

Type 80 - used on later mk2s (and 2Fs) for all 3 body styles

Could be wrong though. I remember a discussion being had about it a while ago. Seem to recall a few odd ones that didn't fit cropping up... like a type 87 breadvan or something

Thanks for that dude that is most helpfull, see I knew you would put me on the straight and narrow lol

Photobucket is a shadow of its former self. Its appalling these days.

I've a couple of quick questions for you; What brand is the MS you're using and when you're applying the stone chip, do you hook it up direct to the shutz (sp?) gun, spray the bit you need doing and take it apart and clean through every time?

Cheers :)

The brand is "T Euro" it's from a company called "The Trade Group" they supply bodyshops and paint suppliers all over the country. this link might help.

http://www.tradegroup.co.uk/data-sheets/

I really cant say enough good things about true MS Poylmer sealers, nothing I've ever used sticks like it. It out performs PU, Silicone, Tiger seal you name it. It lasts so much longer on the shelf because only the tip of the nozzle sets so you just break it off and away you go no need to unscrew the nozzle and dig out the sealer each time.

The stone chip just crews to the shutz gun and off you go, I try to do as much shot chip in one go as possible but sometimes you just have to keep cleaning the gun I buy cheap "dirty industrial" thinners in 5L cans and use this to clean my guns but if your a tight arse like me you can save a few quid by keeping a old shot chip can fill it with thinners then run it through the gun into a old 5L thinner can. This way you can reuse it again and again this really cuts down on the amount you use for just cleaning.

Hope that helps

Anyone know a better site than Photobucket for doing threads like this????

Flickr has overtaken Photobucket for this sort of stuff I reckon.

Cheers bud I'll look into that!

As Photobucket is playing ball (for the mean time) we shale continue .

Well, back to my not so original mod. I'm guessing that due to the fact that the jacking points on a MK2's aren't exactly the best, someone has probably been here and done this before but here goes anyway. As you can see in my previous pictures that I'd knocked some funny shaped cover plates in 1.5mm galvanized steal, now I chose galvanized steal because of its future corrosion resistance and it was also available in the much beefer 1.5mm that I was looking for. This thicker steal would give a much higher level of protection from impact but more importantly and my hole reason for doing this is that I can use my jack on them easier without worry of missing them or damaging the floor, I'm getting old now and it's getting harder to get back up so this way I can kick a jack underneath without getting down on my knees and needing oxygen to get back up .

So after they were trial fitted I gave the undersides a nice coat of primer.

Now to prep the jacking points, this just required some small patches of stone chip to be removed to provide welding points. I didn't want to remove to much shot chip as I wanted to sandwich it between the new plates for extra rust protection also I didn't want to make any changes to the car for these to fit so if I really wanted to I could remove them at a later date and the car would still be original underneath.

Doing it this way also means I can make a replacement if one gets damaged, all I would need to do is carefully grind back the welds and hay presto the damaged jacking plate will fall off.

This is where the curse of the buggered hard drive strikes again so I don't have any during shots but I'm sure you can suss it out lol. Here they are fitted and of course all primed up.

The two holes in each plate are designed to line up with the factory holes in the stock jacking points I have done this for two reasons 1) access point for visual inspection and the application of stone chip and Waxoil. 2) To allow the jacking points to breath, if I just covered the factory jacking points with solid plates then there would be a chance that condensation would build up and the car would start to corrode form the inside out and I wouldn't even know.

Anyway's you get the idea. All in all i'm pretty chuffed with um and once the stone chip was put on they looked spot on, at least I know I can jack the car up and I'm not going to put a jack through the floor .

That's such a neat mod/improvement, awesome work.

My jacking points are pretty smashed, I might have to do something similar!

That's such a neat mod/improvement, awesome work.

My jacking points are pretty smashed, I might have to do something similar!

Cheers bud, mine weren't to bad I found the best way to pull the old jacking points out was to weld a washer to the damaged part then hook a slide hammer to the washer and gently pull the damage out but do steady as the metal might tear.

Yeah I think I'll have to give that a go, mine are completely crumpled up onto the floor!