Yeah that's right guys, the last post was in January. Dang. The good news is, i've sorted the bathroom since then and done a whole lot of other work which keeps our Lass happy too, so I can now update you with the Polo and what's been going down.
So I turned it round. Now it's easy street - lets tart up the 'good side' then throw the engine at it for a dry build! This should be easy, this side is much better; besides, i've been using this drivers side as a datum for the passenger side.
It didnt take long to be thrown back into the depths of despair (and blaming my brother for gifting me a sh1tter.) In fairness, Jess sat me down and told me i'd done too much to scrap it (although I felt like it) so the build continues in the same way - cutting it all out, doing it right.
Picture time. So upon tackling the 'good side' I brushed a grinder across the panels to find out how much bog was kicking about...
Turns out a lot more than I thought and suddenly my 'datum' was looking a bit shakey. Anyway, the inner sill was fine on this side but the front of the outer was a bit gnarley. The whole lots didnt need replacing, so I just shut the front portion in instead.
A tiny section of floor needed patching - no great shakes.
Hey - there's nothing new here, I did the other side too - BOOM! (and the rust was gone.)
Anyway, that was a bit of fun compared to the next bit. Without going into war & peace (which I'm sure a lot of you think this is anyway!!) where it's fair to say I didnt need to replace the inner sill on this side, it still had it's own set of nightmares which involved cutting good metal away to get to the bad stuff behind. Here we go again.
So basically I wound up cutting a whole corner off again after finding such delights as these on closer inspection....
and wound up with this. Yeah - only cut this much away when you know where your datums are. Mine is the new inner sill flange you see. It all starts & ends there. New chassis legs goes to it on the inside, inner & outer sill go to it on the outside.
Thought it was best to support the floor at this point!
I cut this rascal out first (good metal to get to bad behind it) knowing she'd go back in easy enough.
Then I caught a cheeky glimpse of the other chassis leg I'd made for the first side and it spurred me on boys, it spurred me on.
So I knocked out this
BEAUT.But as when looking at the axle mounting plate it was blistering with rust a bit, I had to cut some of that away too! And more importantly, put something proper solid back in and make sure it all ties together. One of those plates in there is high-tensile. I know this because it turns out you can't weld to it! Lukily I didnt need to it was ok, but I slammed it a 3mm brace piece to make sure shiz was tied up nice & tight before capping it off with the leg. You can see what I cut out of the mount plate in this picture, and the 3 mil badboy. I dont f*ck about.
Yeah, so things were coming on and slowly sh-aye's coming solid again after years of neglect. Well, maybe not neglect. When these repairs were done it wasn't a classic so no-one really cared if there were a couple of cheap year's motoring in the bargin! You see, the problem is that as it's been patched - twice on this side too, my repair panel wasn't big enough as they'd obviously used the same one in the past!! So I cut it out, and extended my new repair panel upwards...
And with the inside sorted, it was time to crack on with the outside starting with the patchwork quit which is the inner rear-quarter panel. Once that was made good, then I could weld the good metal I cut out, back in!
YEAHMAN - now we're getting somewhere. Could probably ditch the floor-supporting jack but nuts to that - it's doing no harm and i've got other stuff to do!
In order to make the inner wing/arch, I need to have the outer on so I can pattern up for it or i'd wind up in all sorts of strife. So first port of call is getting down & dirty with the section of sill which needs to go on, which also forms the bottom of the rear arch. So this need to be spot bollock or the pattern I made won't fit and it'll look shite and need loads of bog to sort it out.
So I lengthened the top of it so it gets passed the old repair panel which you already know. As this repair panel has obviously been pressed more times than 'The Sun' the tooling is worn and although the panel fits, the style line doesnt match. It's about 5mm out. So I shut the panel 5mm below the style line to bring it down so it matches up. Usually, this would be a bit dodge as the panel would bow when you weld it up but as the cut is so close to the pressed line, the altering coutours of the panel give it strength. So that, + some sequence welding interspersed with a coffee break so it cooled between bursts resulted in a good job. You can see the sliver I cut out which I'm holding in my hand...
So in order to pattern up for the shut panel in the inner wing, I tacked the outer in place - she's looking good. A straight edge reveals all is well and the sill is in the right position.
you can see the reminiscence of patter fodder on the floor too - here's the shut panel. Tomorrow, that ripper'll become steel (as if by magic) and then I can put the outer sill on for real!
Here's the pattern in place. Pizza boxes make
THE BEST pattern material! (Yeah I know, I still need to patch above it for the 'tank breather - but that's easy!)
You know what? Soon, this thing'll be ready for paint :-)