Feeling very poor having just spent a fortune with VW/TPS and VW Heritage. Still waiting for the bits to arrive, and even then I've not been able to get everything I wanted!
New tailgate seal came from eBay:
Was supposed to be genuine VW, but it's about as genuine as the stuff you get from GSF these days... Anyway, the seal is the right profile and length, so it'll do!
Odds n sodsTime for another lambda boss in the downpipe. Unfortunately it's warped during welding, so waiting for an M18x1.5 tap and 16.5mm drill bit to arrive to sort it. Can't complain, a mate welded it for nowt.
Have never been happy with the old probe location as a probe there always seemed to read 0.5-1.0 AFR richer than at tailpipe. Meant for trouble come MOT time, so will see if this sorts it or whether it's a leak in the ancient Tube Torque pikey exhaust. Ultimately not too arsed as I'll be getting a custom downpipe made once it's back on the road to mate up to a shiny new PPP system I've got.
Cleaned the gearbox up with alloy wheel cleaner - before and after:
Cleaned up the water pipe from the back of the block and painted it in stove enamel (I knew there was a reason we paid a fortune to have a fancy wood burner fitted - free paint!):
Decided to get a load of bits powder-coated though, and threw this in with them. Should've been ready today, but have to wait to the end of the week.
Electrolysis for de-rustingPromised to post some info on the electrolysis process to de-rust stuff. This is my setup:
Basically a big bucket filled with water and soda crystals. Then a sacrificial anode is added and connected to the positive of a power supply. I used an old steel baking tray for the anode which needs regular cleaning off with a grinder, but stainless steel works even better - though I think it makes the water a bit more toxic at the end.
You then insert the item to be derusted as the cathode and connect it to the negative supply. In my case I wired the rusty items up, wrapped the wire around the block of wood, and clipped on my negative supply lead.
I measured the current from the power supply, and found moving the parts closer together to get a current of approx 1.5A @ 14V worked well - otherwise you're waiting for hours and hours. Makes lots of pretty coloured scummy bubbles, but gets the rust off.
If you've got utterly fucked parts, this won't save them as it can't magic metal back that's no longer there! But it will save hours with files/wet n dry etc. trying to clean mildly manky stuff up. Might need to repeat it a few times with scraping down inbetween to remove the scabby bits, but worked well. Sadly no pics, as I forgot before dropping things off for powder coating!
Bodyshop updateAnd finally some more progress from the bodyshop. Was hoping to have it back this weekend, but I think that's unlikely now - should hopefully be in a final coat of primer when I see it on Friday again though!
First up, the 'Yoof' chassis leg re-inforcement:
Secondly, the VW repair manual re-inforcement plates on the inner wings - can't hurt, and made sense while it was in bits:
And finally, some stitch welding: