Hi all,

I intend to do some chopping out rust and welding new panel pieces in to repair some bits of my polo but i have a question.

What steel should i use and what gauge do i need?

cheers in advance

Ollie

oh and i thought I'd show the extend of the rust :( (in the picture)

thats prob 1 -1.2mm mild steel

so if thats 1 - 1.2 mild? what would other panels be? rear valance, door skin?

maybe i was being stupid enough to assume most the panels where same

I would use 1mm for rear valance and 1mm for door skin but could probably use 0.8 for the door

Use "zintec" it has a zinc coating which helps prevent corrosion

outer panels like the bodywork maybe 0.8 mm

doubt theres much thats thicker than 1.2mm on em , if its a structual part best have a good look to be sure , spare wheel isnt structual tho

cheers guys :)

I would try using adamantium, I heard it is pretty rust resistant.

Nothing other than main rails would be over 1mm,

Go to your motor factors and buy some sheet mild .7mm and you will be fine,

Oh and cut that spare well out and blank it out completely.

with cutting the wheel well out, why do you think i should do that? is it likely to cause me more problems in the future?

with cutting the wheel well out, why do you think i should do that? is it likely to cause me more problems in the future?

In my opinion I would leave the spare wheel well there, otherwise you'll have a spare wheel in the boot all the time lol

Its a hell of a lot more work to cut the whole well out, prep all the area, weld all round it, not to mention the extra expense of the gas and steel,

When you could just cut that small bit out and put a small patch in

Edited 22 November, 201312 yr by derskine

i will be keeping the spare wheel, however i will not be able to use the zinc plated because i dont have any extraction in my garage. Is there a zinc spray or coating i can apply myself after welding?

epoxy 121 is your friend ...

no need for the zintec sheet on such a small repair , once youve grinded the welds smooth you would have taken off the protective finish , but yeah its a good thing for larger repairs

any decent primer will be ok over clean fresh metal , etch , zinc 182 or epoxy primer if you can afford it

i will be keeping the spare wheel, however i will not be able to use the zinc plated because i dont have any extraction in my garage. Is there a zinc spray or coating i can apply myself after welding?

Galvanising and the zinc coating they use on zintec is different, I only use zintec as it's quite cheap at my local engineering firm.

It doesn't make toxic fumes like galv steel does, or atleast lets off far less, I weld it all the time and never had zinc fever.

The above is true but I don't usually grind welds down in places like that anyway.

Edited 25 November, 201312 yr by derskine

I managed to pick up a sheet of steel through work being an apprentice machine monkey, it doesn't have a zinc coating but do you think if i used a good epoxy primer i could keep the rust back or does the zinc coated really make that much of a difference?

No, its great for things like sills where you can't paint the rear of it.

Epoxy primer and paint will do the job just fine.

Do you think this will work?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Novol-Spectral-Under-395-Epoxy-Primer-Etch-Primer-Spray-/181261517683?pt=UK_Body_Shop_Supplies_Paint&hash=item2a34074373

I am also trying to find out weather this would fit my mk2 '88 coupe?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REPARATURBLECH-RADLAUF-HINTEN-RECHTS-2-3-TURIG-VW-POLO-86-C-DERBY-BJ-77-81/301032760899?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D3308762555429476553%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D180802804377%26

thats a mk1 so not really ..although it may be better than nothing to adapt /modify etc

do you think a front wing for the mk2 would be better? considering i cannot get hold of a rear wing anyway :'(

yeah maybe take a look at the mk2 /2f should be able to make use of it

Weld mk1 golf arches to both sides, rust problem solved, wheel scraping problem solved

do the arches have the same radius?

Not sure, can be fitted with a bit of fettling though, has been done before