My "new" Gti body

[Fatmobile]

OK, I got the driver's side done.
The passenger side has that bad pinch weld and since the driver's side showed nothing and turned out rusty,... I had to take a wire wheel to the passenger side and see just how bad it is.
It'll need some welding too.
I don't have the carpet pulled up yet but looking behind it,... it doesn't look too bad inside.

Only other things left on the list are:
Fresh antifreeze, I have some summer blend in that won't make it through a real cold spell.
Find any surface rust under the car, remove seam sealer back to good metal and seal with SP-400,... I get the feeling this car will be driven in the winter and I want to coat any places that rust has a slight hold.
Aim the headlights
Figure out why the glow plug relay buzzes sometimes.
Put a good passenger side vent lever on.

[libbybapa]

Great job.

If you bubblewrap your whole house, post a pic.

Andrew

[Fatmobile]

OK, passenger side pinchweld complete.
Here's what it looked like from the inside:


It looks alot worse than what I thought it would. Good thing I took a closer look before I sold it,... here's the underside:


Here's what ended up getting cut out:


I bent 2 pieces of stainless,...
one runs along the seat rail and makes the inner, lower pinchweld,...
one gets welded to the rocker panel from the inside (much easier to weld from above) and forms the outer pinch weld:



I had to weld a spot here then a spot there, giving it time to cool,... so it doesn't look pretty but the more weld you remove the weaker you make it so I left the weld inside the rocker remain and removed the high spots on the inner piece.

The metal that gets welded to the verticle inner rocker was in place when the piece along the seat rail was welded in.
Both of the above pieces were drilled so I could buttonweld them along the bottom, once the center piece was in place.
You can sort of see the button welds holding the pinch weld together in the final pic from below:


...and a look from the inside; of it finished:

I know because of the zinc; these last 2 pics are too bright but I don't have the software to change brightness.
I sprayed cold galvanize zinc on it and then hit the repair and spots of surface rust under the car with SP-400,.. easy to remove if they decide to paint it this winter,... and should protect it if they wait until spring.

[Fatmobile]

Tired of me picking at her,... shes showing her fangs.

[Fatmobile]

I took her for a test drive and the brakes felt funny, I had to push them harder than usual. Before; they were just great, barely had to push the peddle at all and had great control of how hard they grabbed.
The heater controls don't operate well at idle.
Sure enough it's the vacuum pump diaphram.

Swapped the new one in and noticed a hissing from the coolant resevoir.
There was a pin hole on it near the top.
Swapped in another one.
Sooo the cooling system was filled with filtered water, run and drained twice.
The lower radiator hose clamp was loosened and a screwdriver was slid between the hose and thermostat cover so coolant could flow from it,... so the rad got flushed too.
I put orange dex-cool in it.

and the last thing on the list was to put the RR wheel arch trim and mudflap back on.

I need to write up a short operator's manual for the new owner's.
It should be out of the yard soon.

[Josh]

How easily would SP-400/cosmoline come off?

I'm soliciting ideas for undercoating material to be removed after winter, so that the rustless old paint can be replaced with POR-15 or the like.

[Fatmobile]

I spray the stuff on engine blocks/parts that are stored.
I came off easily with some brake cleaner,.. kind of balled up, took a little scrubbing.
Carb cleaner would probably work faster.

Car is sold,... one less Rabbit in the yard,.. and some project money in my pocket.
Actually this was my dental plan.
Most of the money will go toward dental work.
I broke a front tooth when I was a kid. The cap is off now and the tooth needs replaced. I'm going the implant route $$$.