Turbo Squareback - History & Rebuild Thread

[Andy]

Back from the bodyshop...

This is how the battery tray looks after their 'rectification'. The rusty holes on the left were previously hidden by seam sealer that had to be removed to make sure the battery fitted:


Yuck! Here's another shot without flash and a torch in the footwell. Had asked for it to be checked for leaks, erm okay...


Here's how it looks inside the car now too. The good news is the pedal box now fits and can be removed, but that seems to be it for the good news!


Noticed that there wasn't much paint coverage behind the servo area, and the skim of filler slapped in there over the welding has already started to crack. Had a bit of a pick at it.


I'd really been hoping that things would be properly fixed by now, after all the bodyshop had it back for another 3 weeks... Anyway, the re-painting they've done outside is hopefully going to be good once it's been mopped.

Plan with the battery tray is to do what I should've done in the first place - DIY. Will borrow 1 Yoof and 1 MIG set, clean up the area and re-do the welding. Hopefully we'll be able to tidy it up enough to seal it properly and neaten it up.

At the same time I'll try to smooth the area behind the servo a bit to neaten it up, and re-paint that too. Fortunately they're all bits in areas where the quality of finish I'll get with a rattle can doesn't matter too much.

Lacquered the set of steelies:

[POLOMON]

Hows this doing Andy, any news? :-)

[Yoof]

Battery tray is now welded up, long process of re-sealing and painting everything now, start to look good though.

[Andy]

Yeah, redoing the battery tray has taken ages - bodyshop made a right fucking mess. Anyway, thanks to Yoof it's welded back up - in primer at the moment so will bang some pics up tomorrow.

Got some new calipers for 256mm brakes for my bday from Yoof, and will order some Gaz
coilovers soon when I've finished fannying around with spring rate ideas.

[Andy]

Took the seam sealer off the pikey welds and wire-brushed it clean. The weld sloping from middle right of the pic to bottom left was broken along its entire length - no wonder the bodyshop's seam sealer didn't make it waterproof...


In the middle of welding it back together. The repair panel they used is thinner gauge than I'd have liked, so it took a few passes with the MIG and grinder to rid it of any holes or cracks. Blue paint pen marks some pin holes.


How it looks now, welds ground back, painted with vactan anti-rust paint and covered in primer. My garage is so cold it takes a few days for paint to dry properly, so progress is slow. Will rub it down tonight and get a colour coat on. Going to seam seal the nastier parts once it's all painted and then go over with colour and lacquer again afterwards.


Took the bog-filled area behind the servo back to metal and smoothed the welds back some more. Then threw some bog of my own back on it:


My bog mid-way through sanding back. Most of the yellowy/white patches are primer rather than filler. Much better!


The servo area is now in primer too. In fact, that was sanded back ready for colour coat 'til I spilled some thinners on it and stripped the primer off, lol.

[cheys03]

I can't believe the job the bodyshop did. Actually shocking. Well done both for sorting it properly

[Etches]

Have you not got some sort of refund for the shoddy quality of the work Andy? Really good effort here lads

[Andy]

No refund, but it's lost them a lot of potential business - my neighbour has a couple of vintage cars needing full resprays which if mine had turned out nicely he'd have sent their way, plus a couple of guys at work want odds n sods doing that I could've recommended them for.

Behind servo in primer (bad photo!):


And now with paint - not perfect, but better:


First colour coat on the battery tray. Still needs rubbing down, probably another coat, and then lacquer:

[Alex]

Still shocked by all of this. Don't make recommendations easily, I genuinely can't get over how bad all of this is. Especially given that I'm still delighted with mine. 

[POLOMON]

Oh wow! well at least you know its done properly now rather than leaving it only for rust to come back with the leaky seams!

 Good job lads :-)

[Andy]

Alex - I know you made the recommendation in good faith, and looking at the high standard of your car helped make my decision as the workmanship on that does appear to be top notch. So please don't feel responsible! Sadly it seems that mine wasn't completed with the same levels of love and attention - the photos speak for themselves.

I'm getting more enthusiastic about it again now, about a month ago I was utterly fed up with it and totally disillusioned. Hoping to finish the repairs by the end of this month, and get the full interior properly back in before Christmas.

Yoof probably deserves more credit for his tidying-up welding than the pictures suggest too. The 'before' photo with the seam sealer stripped back is after I'd ground back the bodyshop's welds, so it was even uglier.

[dubstar]

It's looking good pal. You can paint mine in a bit looking at your work - sod the paint shop!!   

[Andy]

Cheers Ross!

I cracked on with things yesterday and rubbed the two areas down before giving them another colour coat and a dose of lacquer. The battery tray looks a lot better now, and the area behind the servo better still - shiny!


There's one bleb in the paint there, but I'll live with it - better than cracked filler any day. Next steps are to remove the masking, clean off any overspray - and then re-treat the underneath of the battery tray. That'll get another coat of vactan for good measure, seam sealer and then paint. Will then also seam seal the top side and whip some paint over that, as well as doing the corner where the strut tower meets the bulkhead.

Don't want to speak too soon, but it seems that getting decent paint makes the job easier. Got some Standox 2-pack stuff from the same supplier the bodyshop used, idea being the colour match should be spot on.

Also spent some time playing with gearboxes. Have an ATV with Quaife LSD rebuilt by JP Race to go in, but something didn't look right. Output flange on the offside looked very different to one from my other 'box...


...JP had stuck the offside on the nearside and vice versa. Maybe an innocent cock-up, but my other JP rebuilt 'box also had the same issue originally. Worth checking if you've had a 'box done by them methinks... Am sure I've got them right now, verified on several other (unrebuilt) 'boxes in my collection.

For reference, the flange on the engine block side of the 'box should be 084 356 D, and the passenger side is 084 355 G.

[djtez]

i will check mine for sure this weekend, my box was also done ... and its out the car so handy!

thank you andy

[Andy]

No probs! The engine block end should have a very protruding output flange on it, and the other should look almost recessed.