Intro

 

Hi, I brought this project a few years ago from a friend of mine but never really got going on it until very recently. An owner previous to my friend has cut all the rot out and done 99.5% of all the welding to a fair standard. There a few areas that need revisiting or finishing but nothing too major. It has been stashed in a corner of the workshop under a dust sheet for longer than I can remember. Wifey then visited said workshop and was left unattended for a while then returned and asked "what's the little grey car?". TLDR now Wifey's car.

Although it's a '76 it's had a new front panel so doesn't have the correct cut out's and has had the scuttle removed/heater hole welded up. 

 

Dizzying heights part 1

 

First job was to make a roll over jig. I went a little over the top on this.....

£29 each off fleabay

 

 

Dizzying Heights Part 2 

After a total lack of time for several months I got going again and started making the bits to attach it to the car. One look at the bumper mounts and it was clear they wouldn't be up to it so I made a frame to mount off the roll bar pick ups.

The rear one should go a bit easier as I will go off the bumper mounts but will brace it from the inside and prob tie into the turret tops

Fun with water and electricity

 

While I was messing about with the roll over set up I decided to experiment with some rust removal by electrolysis to see if would shift the rust between the door seams and inside the bracing of the bonnet etc. As was just a test I didn't mechanically remove the scabbing (other than the outer skin which I was part way through when the idea wobbled into by head) to see how well it worked and just used a flower planter trough which was a little short. Power supply is a cheap ebay job I got for electroplating and the electrolyte is warm water with soda crystals bought from Morrison's

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately this is not hot chocolate

 

 

 

 

Took a few hours but the results were promising and did not need much tending other than cleaning the crud off the sacrificial steel every now and then. If I had attacked the rust I could get to with a wire wheel so on has the crusted in and unreachable places will go a lot quicker. I will definitely have another go with it after stripping the paint and loose rust off. I have also brought some bush applied zinc plating electrolyte  (you wire the brush up the the neg and the panel to the positive and in theory can brush electroplate) which I intend to have a play with eventually

Excellent work so far, looking forward to seeing what you do with it 😎

@setch Yes! you're getting started. Looks like this is my new favourite thread! Keep the updates coming, cheers.

Managed to get the roll over jig mostly finished off. Underestimated how low the CoG of the car was though so had to make some drop links for the front. I could turn it but was difficult and it bent the locking pin.

Rear mounted up a lot easier than the front. There was no real flex in the rear bumper mounts so I didn't bother bracing it from the inside. 

 

 

 

The cheapo eBay rams did not come with any spec such as max safe travel. When measuring up for the build I pumped them out to full extension and thought no more of it. Obviously once the car was mounted the first thing to do is see how high it goes! Once it got to the full extension the ram suddenly cocked over and I had a bit of a panic moment but as the load is pretty much in the vertical plane it was easy to pull it straight again and let it down to a safe extension. I then marked this height out and drilled the safety pin hole through the vertical post. I then dropped it down to the minimum roll over height and drilled another hole so the pressure is can be taken off the rams. I was also very pleased with the screw roll centre adjustment. Can easily wind them up and down with the weight of the car on them. There are a couple to little bits to finish off but next visit to the workshop I should be able to do some work on the actual car!

 

One big plus was I found the wiring harness in a bag under the seats which were loosely thrown in the car. I thought it was missing  so was a very happy moment especially seeing it was very neatly labelled up too!

 

I am missing the front window guides and regulators which is something I will need to find. I believe whoever did the work originally may have been going down the plexiglass route. I did buy a set but now it's wifey's car it will be going back a bit more original so proper glass is required.

 

Before I get too far towards paint I also need to decide what to do about the cabin heater. The filling in of the oem heater box hole has been done very neatly and returning to standard and replacing the scuttle is going to be a bit of an arse so I am toying with the idea of using a hacked up smart car heater box and drawing air through the wheel arch. I have some MK2f arch liners I am going to see if will fit.

 

I have a week off coming up so hope to get a big burst of progress made!

Unfinished f$%kups

 

Finished off the last bits on the roll over setup up and got the car fully on its side for inspection. All the time I have owned it has been sat on the panic made dolly it got plonked on when it was dropped off. All of the rust and rot has been removed and welded up. As the visible stuff on the front panel rear panel and windscreen area all looked respectable I assumed the underside was the same. I was sadly mistaken.....

 

 

This is the back of the passenger sill....

 

 

 

and this is the front.

 

 

Some shapes were made with some offcuts of wood with an angry flap disc and a sheet off steel hammered around it.

 

 

 

Not quite as neat as I had intended. I don't have much practice welding thin stuff and don't really enjoy doing it. However it's a hundred times better than it was.

 

I ended cutting and big strip out of the edge of the floor at the front because it turned out the inner sill was completely rotted away and not repaired when the out sill was "fitted". Work still in progress here.

 

 

I decided to leave it for another day as I was a bit tired and grumpy by this time and did an easy bit to make myself feel better

 

I ran out of welding gas so went over to GTair in Milton Keynes to swap out the bottle and bought some painting supplies while I was there. I found them very helpful to deal with and prices were as good. I have zero painting experience outside of rattle cans but my uncle is going to help me get started as he has been painting for years. I was going to get him to do it for me at first but his eyesight is shot and I will have the other golf to do as well at some point.

 

GT AIR: Buy Air Compressors, Tools, Accessories and Spares

 

 

@setch I normally travel to Bedford for any paint supplies from these guys https://nuagane.co.uk/ always had fantastic service from them, when I had my Chagral blue 6N1 I got a rattle can made up to the paint code but it wasn't a 100% match so took the car over to show them and he took one look at the difference and reconned it need a touch more green to perfectly match, so he went out the back 10 mins later with a new can and masked up the fuel flap gave it a couple of light coats 100% match, then went back and 10 mins later gave me 2 extra cans free 

Hi Nige, Yeah I’ve used them a few times before for matched rattle cans. Will be going there for the paint. I got the bits from gtair as I was there getting the welding gas.

Great progress, sill looks good 👍

@setch Happy New Year, any progress on this one? We are trying to get as many Mk1 Polo's as possible up to Stanford Hall VW Show on 30th April if you work better with a deadline! 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnuWPJxoAT7/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Happy new year Stu, slow progress I'm afraid. Trying to juggle too many things at once but hope to get back on it soon. I will most likely be at Stamford but not in a classic so will try and meet up. When I got into it I thought the underside was pretty much ready for paint so my window of time closed up rapidly when I found out how much needed to be redone!