Next part was getting the front lower swing arms and anti role bar out.

This might be an issue .

After wire brushing all bare threads and soaking with GT85 for 24 hours everything came undone really easily, which was nice .

Then I needed to got this out the way.

This practically feel off so that was a result.

So far everything has been a dream and I haven't had a single seized nut or snapped bolt which makes me think that this is a very original car that has been left well alone over the years.

Anyway with that out the way I could finish the last part of the floor, the center tunnel.

After a little clean the swing arm mounts revealed a little rust but nothing that worried me to much.

I also had to remove the rear engine mount bracket.

There was definitely 20 years of shite here lol

Time to clean that away and get rid of all that surface rust.

Drivers side (sorry about the poor quality pics at this point I changed my phone to a HTC, never again).

Primer next, acid etch of course .

I also found a nice dent in floor just behind the passenger jacking point.

As the carpet was out this was a easy fix it just involved me using my size 10 with some downward force .

Next bunch of pics will show a massive change in the car but I'm afraid you will have to wait for the next update for those

Till then thanks again for all the nice comments peace out.

I'm quite staggered how much detail you are putting into everything, this is an awesome thread!

Loving the dedication considering you started this in 2011. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

I'm quite staggered how much detail you are putting into everything, this is an awesome thread!

Thank you very much mate, I'm not really sure were I'm heading with the car yet I'm just concentrating on the MOT first lol

Loving the dedication considering you started this in 2011. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Thank you very much bud, Thinking about it I should change the title really as it's eleven years now

I've made a great find today, whilst working on my better half's Polo 6K saloon I stumbled across my old Nokia N95 which had somehow managed to wedge itself down the back of the carpet under the dash. Other than the fact I have found possibly the best phone I've owned and it still works, even better its got loads of pictures of my Polo on it including some of the ones I thought I had lost

So for those that might be interested here are some more detailed pics of the jacking point plates. It might help others doing similar repairs on there own projects. Feeling sooooo chuffed right now

From the start, really sorry about this I'm just a bit proud of these lol. Found some much better pics of inside the jacking points and how determined I was about getting them totally coated internally

Prepping the stock jacking points.

Note the use of zinc Primer on the points I intend to weld the new plates to plus I also had to sand the stone chip down nice and flat so the plates fitted as flush as possible.

These are two great primers if you haven't got access to paint mixing facilities.

Now the welds I went for stitching them on as this would make removal easier if needed at a later date.

I cleaned these back a little but I didn't go to mad as I might need to find these at some point.

If you use Galvanized steal like this, when you key it up ready for primer and stone chip don't go to mad as you will remove the galvanize plating. I would recommend blue scotch brite pads these scuff the surface nicely but are not harsh.

Next up primer.

Finally (at last I hear you grown lol) I gunned in some MS polymer into all the gaps.

Right I will leave it there and get back on track with the next update. Sorry for the repetition.

Edited 31 January, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

absoltely loveing this thread been reading it since u started it in 2011 so glad to see it revived and the work your putting into that polo it makes me wanna strip mine underneathand do the same :) i hope to see this at some shows in the near future

Cheers chap, I'm so glad I found my old phone as it's got so many good pics on it.

If you every take a job on like this on your own don't be tempted to go to mad on the stripping its very easy to get carried away and start grinding back loads of seam sealer but the truth is if you remove stuff that was fine in the first place, you've probably just made it worse for the future always think to yourself as you go that any metal you expose is a possible rust trap for the future.

Keep up the good work on yours oh and I love the stock interior it reminds me of a old mk2 square back I had back in the day loved that car for its interior alone lol

cheers bud but my interior isnt original to the car have replaced every single part in there haha only thing thats original is the buttons on the dash everything else was either broken or damaged managed to source the interior from a local scrapyard stripped it down cleaned it now looks original to the car. and on the strip down underneath i was just gonna do as your doing repareing all rust patches cleaning back and repainting to orignal colour of the car keep these posts comeing though bud seems like it is just starting to get good :)

My basic plan at this stage in the build was to visually inspect the remaining floorpan this was basically the mid floor and exhaust tunnel. To do this I needed to remove the gear selector box and rod, once it was out I was presently surprised by the condition and to be honest quite relieved as I really wanted to get some head way with the car and I was getting pushed for time as summer was coming to an end and I didn't want to be painting in winter.

After the selector box and rod were removed this is what was left behind.

The mid exhaust hanger had taken most of the brunt.

There was also some surface rust around the mounting point for the handbrake.

and small amount above the exhaust downpipe.

Of course there was a fare amount of crud there too.

I also found a couple of small areas of damage either side of the tunnel.

All the usual suspects lol.

Now the plan is to treat every nick or patch of rust no matter how small it has to go, so I started with the tunnel.

Its funny how it always looks so easy when you start poking around and after just a couple of hours you realize you may have made a lot more work for yourself

Starting to look better.

Once I was happy with each repair it was time to seal it with a nice coat of Acid etch.

Next the rest of the floor, first a good clean.

After I removed the fuel lines and front to back brake lines I could give the mounting threads for the fuel and brake line clips a good clean.

At this point I also added some MS to areas in need of that little bit extra protection.

Nearly there, just a couple of scuffs on the main floorpan.

After all this treating, sealing and priming the floor looked like a patch worth quilt .

I gave this lot twelve hours to dry then went over every seam, every weld and every repair with MS Polymer. I also started the long winded process of masking up .

Edited 5 February, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Above the fuel tank.

The rear inner arches.

I gave the MS a night to set then used green (course grade) scotch brite to key the hole floorpan ready for stone chip. Be warned this takes HOURS!!! and you fingers will take a hammering this was the worse stage of the restoration by far and the worse part of it all was I knew I had to do it again after the stone chip had gone on .

Right it was finally time to seal this old girl up, at this point I'll just let the pics do the talking.

Floor at the front.

Lower swing arm mounts.

Handbrake mount and gear selector mounting point.

View from the rear.

Edited 5 February, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

And of course my jacking point plates looking bloody sexy even if I do say so myself lol.

Sill's looked nice and straight.

Rear mounting points for rear flexi brake hoses.

Above the fuel tank.

Then the rest of the rear including the rear axle stand points, spare wheel well and boot floor.

And finally where it all started, the rear arches.

Finally a shot from the rear .

I have sprayed a total of 12 LITERS!! yes 12 Liters of stone chip on this old girl so I allowed the stone chip about four days to go off before I came back to key it up again ready for the final stage. Time to make my hands bleed with the scotch brite again.

And that's how I left her till the next update and trust me its a goodun . Till then cheers everyone.

Superb. I find the application of stone chip quite satisfying and it looks great.

So is this car finished and you're drip feeding us updates?

Looking awesome as ever!

The floor is the last bit i have to do on mine, I've already done the inner arches and boot floor in red. Thinking of going black for the floor.

How did it flat with Green scotch? A bit 'chewy'?

Superb. I find the application of stone chip quite satisfying and it looks great.

So is this car finished and you're drip feeding us updates?

Yer its quite therapeutic isn't it, bloody stinks though even with charcoal filters fitted to my breather. It does give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing its all sealed up and protected.

Looking awesome as ever!

The floor is the last bit i have to do on mine, I've already done the inner arches and boot floor in red. Thinking of going black for the floor.

How did it flat with Green scotch? A bit 'chewy'?

Cheers mate, The stone chip goes off pretty quick so a thin coat can be worked in just a few hours but I took four days because I laid this on thick up to 20mm in places. Once its gone then its easy to work with but scotch is your only choice really as it gets in to all the low spots of an uneven surface like this. If you use something like sandpaper it will only get the high spots.

Are they what I think they are?

whats that mate????

Wasn't there a picture of some lights?

Haha yer I was mucking about with my new account on flikr. Go on then what do you think they were for?

Well i thought they might be those hella (?) lights that go right across the boot of the saloon. But now i'mmnot so sure

That was a good guess to be fare but alas they were not, they were in fact a very rare set of Treser rear lights for my Passat B3 wagon. I've been part hording for that car for a some time now lol. I'm will be doing a resto on that a soon as I finish the saloon.

Hi guys, After spending what seemed like forever keying up the hole underside of the car again and trust me on this it really makes the difference to the quality of the final finish, I was ready for the next stage in the build. I needed help with this bit, I know enough about painting but not alot about mixing paints for special areas like floorpans so its at this point I enlisted the help of one of the best painters I have ever met. Russel from http://www.dukes-motors.co.uk/ ,

I've dealt with Russel for many years on all sorts of projects and as well as being a good friend he has always been my "go to" guy if its beyond my expertise or quality level. Russel knows paint and knows how to mix it properly for different circumstances so he popped down the shop one Saturday to enlighten me.

Due to the fact that the vehicle was stuck at my shop and it would be to much hassle to get it to Dukes paint shop Russel suggested that he would bring all that was needed and paint it where it was all I had to do was supply the air and tea.

I wanted to paint at least some of the car so Russel would apply the first coats then I would finish off. The first layer was a Acid etch primer that was specially mixed to bold very well and remain super flexible but to better suit the colour of the car Russel added a pigment to "pink it up a bit" this would help blend the top coats a bit better.

Right, first coat and apologise in advance this is going to get picture heavy.

Russel hard at work. Tbf it's never the easiest thing in the world painting on your back but the carpet kept him cozy lol.

We left this for 15 minuets then shot over it with another few coat to get to this.

The idea was to paint "wet on wet" so we left the primer for about 30-40 minuets, then hit it with some colour its at this point I lost the plot with excitement

We had no color code for the car as I have no history and the sticker is missing from the boot so Russel had taken the petrol flap and matched the backside of it to a colour called Paprika Red this seem to match visually and by year also so we went with it.

But i'm going to post the finished colour in the next update coz I'm going to step over the upload limit lol

Edited 7 February, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

I'm going to apologize again for the amount and the quality of the pics it turns out that digital cameras don't like the colour red lol

It's at this point I gave up and headed home for a couple of days to let the dust settle and the paint to harden, on my return I could unmask to car and use my Fuji pix camera to get some better pictures.

I'll just shut up now

Love the exhaust tunnel.

Above the tank, Shame they didn't come out the factory like this.

Remember that knackered rear jacking point.

Now.

The mounting points for the rear flexi hoses.

That tatty old rear exhaust hanger.

After.

That bloody annoying crap catcher that sits in front of the spare wheel well. It was proper tricky getting paint in there but we manage it after about five coats and fine tuning the spray pattern down to almost the size of a 10p.

Edited 7 February, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Now for the rest of the rear overhang and the rear jacking points.

Check these out for some fresh new inner arches

And finally (HOORAY!!) The sill's.

Well that's it, it just leaves me to give you a final before and after.

Before.

And now.

To say I'm chuffed with this is an understatement I really cant thank Russel enough the paint has dried to a lovely shine and has got a sort of rubbery feel to it. Russel mixed the paint with stone chips in mind so hopefully it will help this car last the next twenty six years. It was at this point in the build I realized that this might just be a hell of a daily

Well the next step is putting it all back together again and that's going to be a bit of a mission now that Russel has raised the bar somewhat . Till the next time, cheers guys and as always thanks for your patience .