Work's started Literally started today. I went round to drop the paint codes off and he was doing the passenger side arch. He said the arches weren't actually bad but he's done the full arch like we asked (as in all the way round not the full repair panel). We thought it was best to do this because when we've had just patches in other cars the rust's back within a year.

Now it does look messy but as I say he only started it today.

Passenger side arch

Driver's side welded in with a very rough skim of fibre glass over it

And the bonnet sanded down. The bonnet was really bad, sadly no before photos. But if you've seen it at a show you'll have seen the mass of stone chips and lacquer peal the bonnet had before.

Looking good so far. It was a bit emotional seeing it in bits but it's all for the better

Any way he's said he'll ring us when the sills are on.

Edited 17 June, 201511 yr by vdoubleu

Can't wait to see this finished mate, always wanted one of these too!

I was volunteering at a transport museum down the road from the Harlekin today so I popped in to see how it was getting on. It's pretty much ready for primer now

The whole sills were put in, including inside the door jams.

This is the old sills

New sill in place (couldn't get a photo of the other side or inside the door jams because they were working on it whilst I was there)

Front bumper all repaired and sanded down

One of the arches all sanded down.

Very happy with how it's coming on. He said about a week and it'll be done. The bonnet and rear bumper are all sanded down as well but no photos of them.

They've just rang my dad up and said it's out of paint and will be ready by tomorrow! So hopefully will pick it up tomorrow

Very excited but very nervous at the same time! If it all looks good then we'll be having a quote on the doors being done as well

Awesome! :)

At least you don't need to worry about colour matching! Have fun tomorrow!

Right it's all finished (for now) and back from paint The welding/repair work is spot on! Wouldn't even know it's had all new sills, unless you've seen how rusty it was before at a show

All I need to do now is wet sand + machine polish it. Not going for show like glass finish just to make it more factory looking Then a 30 day wait until I can wax it, going by what the internet says.

Now the part you've all being waiting for... PICTURES!

Not sure when the next lot of body work will be done. We need to source 2 front doors and 1 (possibly 2) front wings first.

Roll on VWNW!!!

Looks neat man! I love it!

looks awesome!! :)

Looks great!

Thank you all Very happy to have all the rust cut out! It's scary how quick it spreads!

Just can't wait to get it to some shows

Wet sanded the bonnet today I went with 2,000 grit followed up with 2,500 grit and the machine polished it back up. Still need to properly machine polish it because it was cloudy today so will probably be covered in buffer trails

Before (this was the worst part so came up best on camera)

After

Before

After

During. The little shiny parts (on the left) are the low points. You want to keep sanding it until it's all 'dull' (ie smooth) like the middle part.

Overall photo (still need to go over the drivers side but ran out of time/weather )

Extremely happy with how it's come out, looks perfect It's going in for its MOT tomorrow, hopefully it'll pass

great to see a harlequin getting restored back to its best and glad to see your doing it properly with no short cuts. should be a right beauty when its finished!

Thank you very much Means a lot. Hopefully not cutting corners should make it last a long time

It passed its MOT yesterday The indicators decided not to work the day it went in but got them fixed.

Edited 16 July, 201511 yr by vdoubleu

mine passed yesterday mot.

hate the arches on the 6n. always start rotting quick. had a guy spray the car and told him 100 times make sure the rear arches are done well. so they look good sprayed but after 12 months you start getting the bubbles.

Hadn't realised how rotten this was before the work when I saw it. Good job saving it and getting proper repairs done. Shows how these 6N's like to rot. Really shouldn't have let the white one I had get away as it was so rust free! Know of any white 5 doors going? I'm after one :)

Thank you

Been cleaning the car today ready for VWNW on Sunday. Mainly cleaning off all the polish splats (which get everywhere :P). Very happy with it now all the wetsanding is done and it's all clean

I also replaced this trim finally, bought it my dad for father's day It was annoying putting the windows up and down because the switches nearly pushed back into the dash!

Before

It was very broken!

After (can see why it broke! Bit flimsy )

After a nice clean photo. Got some new tyre black (meguiar's endurance tyre gel) because all the other stuff I was using would last 30 minutes and be back to dull This seems to be getting on nicely so far Also, bought one of those clay mitts. Was very sceptical because I used the normal clay (the chinese '3m' stuff off ebay because its the exact same as all the other stuff) and that works really good and is only like £2 a block so doesn't work out too expensive. But I'd recommend the clay mitt! Sooo much easier and quicker than normal clay and does the same job! Removed some over spray and contaminates.

Any way to the photos! First one with my little helper I say helper he mainly got in the way whilst I cleaned.

Looking good! That's such a good colour combination for the harlequin.

Thank you very much I like this combination a lot. My girlfriend wants a harlekin for her first car and is liking the look of a blue base one. But she'll have to get what's for sale at the time, probably end up being a green base one

Went down to Tatton park and had a great time on the stand! Enjoyed talking to loads of people and thanks for the kind feedback We're looking into selling the Saab 900 T16 we have to get the rest of the work done on this. Will hate to sell the Saab but doesn't make sense having all these cars we hardly use and barely have space for . We can use the money from the sale + money saved from running the Saab and focus on the Harlekin.

Some photos of it at Tatton Park

Got some plans to make it even more standard soon! Don't hear that very often on a VW forum

Also, I've ordered an new genuine 'POLO' badge because mine's looking very worn. Very excited, sad I know

Thank you very much I like this combination a lot. My girlfriend wants a harlekin for her first car and is liking the look of a blue base one. But she'll have to get what's for sale at the time, probably end up being a green base one

Went down to Tatton park and had a great time on the stand! Enjoyed talking to loads of people and thanks for the kind feedback We're looking into selling the Saab 900 T16 we have to get the rest of the work done on this. Will hate to sell the Saab but doesn't make sense having all these cars we hardly use and barely have space for . We can use the money from the sale + money saved from running the Saab and focus on the Harlekin.

Some photos of it at Tatton Park

Got some plans to make it even more standard soon! Don't hear that very often on a VW forum

I love how clean and original this looks buddy! And nice base colour

I'm going to get a set of original valver wheel on my harli for winter wheels, it's a shame they arent wider (and haven't got dish) as they would make an awesome set of show wheels

excellent, you've done a great job with your polo. With its rarity, i'm sure it will give it some value.

this is awesome!, cant wait to get started on my harli!

ordered both my rear arches and sill, but minimum of 3 weeks waiting :(,

hopefully i can get mine looking as clean as yours :)

@travis - Thank you :P Green is the best base colour Going to keep it as original as possible, someone needs to have a standard harlequin

@loverlees74 - Thank you it was nice to remove the rust

@mj619 - You best not modify it like all these other hooligans Only joking love a modified harlequin.

The harlquin isn't doing much at the moment. Going to give it a good clean on Sunday (weather permitting). It's currently waiting for a nice warm garage when we move. So it'll be indoors for the winter.

Just waiting for the student finance to come in then will start doing more things. First on the list is to put a shit load of cavity wax in the sills then clean up the underside.

Edited 25 September, 201510 yr by vdoubleu

An update!

Removed the old badges. They were looking absolutely rubbish.

At this point we were very scared, especially about ruining the new 'Harlekin' badge.

Both badges on

VERY VERY happy! We must have looked at it for about 5-10 minutes Can't believe how much better the whole back end of the car looks now. It looks loved now where as before with the washed out badges it looked unloved. Even more so on this car because people look around the back for a badge because they're thinking 'What the fuck is this?'

Also gave it a good clean. Put 2 layers of autoglym SRP, Waxed and then sealant for the first time since new paint.

We're on the lookout for two rust free chagall blue doors and a good rear passenger side flash red door which is harder than it sounds. Then we're going to get the wings replaced and resprayed (doubt we'll find ginster yellow wings in the UK )

First on the list though is to cavity was the living daylights out of the sills. The OEM underseal looks to be in good condition so don't think there's much need for a full underside treatment.