RIP "Old Blue"

[Fatmobile]

The tipped Rabbit is getting some looks/comments from my neighbors.
I haven't borrowed the mig yet. I intend to get all the panels ready so I don't need it for long.
The driver's side floor pan from Old Blue is fitting into place. I'll take a couple more progress pics.

[VW cat]

Eager to see a Rabbit coming back from the dead. More pics? Phil

[Fatmobile]

I bought a welder from my friend, leased a tank of CO2/argon and borrowed a regulator/flowmeter and hose from my friends at Despenas Mechanical.
The first day, the welder came with some flux core wire and I didn't have any gas so I used that up with some instruction from my neighbor that has a flux core welder.... the polarity was probably backwards.
The second day, I started practicing on some other pieces of Old Blue,... the guys at DM lent me a tank of straight argon, they work with alot of stainless, and the polarity was reversed so I'm not showing any pictures of that pile of crap.
Day 3, I gave them back the argon and leased some mixed gas.
Polarity set right I practiced some more before I started patching up the floorpan, that I'm using to patch the floor.

TOP:


BOTTOM:


I know, it looks bad, gonna need some grinding... but that didn't stop me from starting on the car body.
There was a hole in the inner kicker on the drivers side so I cut it out:


Put a piece in place, cleaned it up with a grinder and drilled holes so I could buttonhole it to the pinchweld:


Welded it into place:

I'm starting to get the hang of it, know what it is supposed to sound like.

I ground down the high spots:


Some spots got ground down more so this piece could be replaced:

[VW cat]

Re-Rabbit Resurrection. The first time I used a mig was on my Caddy floor. It did not like any contamination including paint or rust or that glue they use for holding the carpet down. I think mig-mix has CO2 in it. I used .035"wire but .023" is much better for the thin stuff. Takes a while to get used to it, but it's fast. Phil

[Fatmobile]

I bought a 12.5 lb roll of .023 yesterday, to replace the 2pounder I bought awhile ago and figured wouldn't last through the weekend,... it didn't. I didn't know if the big roll would fit my machine,... so the guy at Huber supply gave me both rolls, wrote up a ticket and hung it on the wall,... "bring back the one you don't use next week and pay for the other".
What a great bunch of guys... they have kids working behind the counter, answering the phone.. when a 14 year old kid answered the phone I thought I had the wrong number. Same kid that helped me out when I got there. My next door neighbor's kid (not a kid anymore) works there too,.. so it's a nice place to shop, and the way I'm running through wire and gas I'm going to be there often.
Jim stopped by to show me some tips and try out my welder. He's a highschool aged neighbor, spoiled by a really nice welder so I was wondering how he'd do with my little cambel hosfeld with only 4 settings. He did real well and taught me some tricks.
It's hard to get all the rust off and the MIG doesn't like it, grind it too thin and it dissappears when the arc hits it. Lots of grinding after my first real day of welding, burn through and fill it in,... but the floor pan isn't coming back out.
Progress, it's not coming apart any more it's going back together... and I'm learning to weld.
I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

[CoolAirVw]

Keep up the good work!

Save a baby go to jail.

Save a bunny get a thumbs up!

[Fatmobile]

I started welding with the new wire this morning and it was spartering all over, popping and pileing up,... now I know what it's like when the gass isn't turned on .... nice pile to grind down that will remind me.
I turned the gasssss on and started again in another place:

Toward the lower left corner of this picture you can see where it all started to make sense, keep the weld on the edge of the molten stuff or it will pop and build... I barely had to grind it.
I had to put a bolt through the floor to pull the seat brace up close to the floor:



I had problems with metal disappearing near welds, that was my biggest problem:

Then I would pile it up trying to fill it.

I tried some fillerrod but I haven't figured that out yet:



I know there is a big hollow pile sitting in the middle, from my fillerrod experiment, please ignore that and look a little to the left. I finally started getting the hang of filling holes without pileing them up,... then it started popping and spatering,... hey that's what it was doing at the start of the day,... Am I out of gasss? yep.

[Fatmobile]

Time for a bit of an update.
Most every hole is patched up, I'm getting a little better at welding.

There was a dent in the driver's side wheel arch:


So I cut it out:

Using pieces from Old Blue, I cut a piece to almost fit the inner wheel well,... there's one place with quite a gap that will be a challange.

I probably should have rotated that picture

The outer layer was cut a little closer but there are some rust holes in it that made welding it in place another challange.


I'll take pictures of the weld tomorrow.
I decided the actual lip around the edge of the wheel well shouldn't be spot welded because rust will grow between the 2 layers. So I got panel bond adhesive. Many of the body shops are glueing cars together with the stuff instead of welding. It's 2 part epoxy that comes in fairly large twin tubes and requires a double plunger caulking gun. The auto store was clearancing out some $80 guns for $20 but I had to grind one of the plungers down to get it to work with the epoxy tubes inner diameter. Then I went to Huber supply for more welding gas and they had a Hilti gun on their table, probably a $200 gun. They asked me what I'd pay for it and I told them I just got one that should work for $20 so I'd give them $20. He said get it out of here. I ground down one of the plungers and it works great.
I pried the lips aparts, sandblasted them, filled them with adhesive and pinched them back together... I'll take a picture.

Here's a picture of a hole through the body and into the wheel well:

I stuck a knife through it so you could see it.
I thought I had more pictures cropped and saved but they must still be in the camera.
Oh here's another one. The passenger side wheel arch, toward the rear of the car needed to be reconstructed. I welded the pieces on
:

and eventually used adhesive instead of spot welds for this arch too.

[libbybapa]

I had problems with metal disappearing near welds, that was my biggest problem:

I'm certainly no expert, but I've found that using the smallest gauge wire I can find, turning the heat all the way to the lowest setting and turning the feed rate up is the combo that will result in the fewest holes being burned. You need to then go slow and the welds are lumpy, but it doesn't burn holes.

Great work, BTW. Keep the updates coming.

Andrew

[A1-2-A3]

When things get so thin its best to put metal behind if you can to help with burn through. The problem when you bubble gum with the wire speed to high is that there is no penetration into the metal and the weld is very weak. I would say you are completely out of your mind for welding up a rabbit that was that far gone. My old mustang is that bad, welding up a new floor/frame is a crazy amount of work for me and has spanned the project of 12 years to date. Maybe thats why I got into VW's to keep me away from the old ford. With the Canadain dollar going to par, I might go down and buy a new Passat TDI in the States they almost give them away down there.

[Fatmobile]

Yeah, it's a crazy project,.. and if when I'm done I only have a solid Rabbit body I wouldn't concider all the work worth it... but when I'm done I'll know how to weld, snadblast and paint. A couple goals I set for this year.
When it comes to welding on thin metal I have found a few techniques that work and keep the pile low and reduce grinding.
I've been basically lining up spot welds and if it disappears I build up a little material around the edge, with short bursts, and work toward the center of the hole. If I can get it to turn very liquid just before the hole closes it will lay down flat(er).
OK it's raining this morning so I went out and got the camera. Prepare to be amused
Here's the inner layer welded onto that drivers side wheel arch:
Here's the outer layer welded on, before grinding:

I needed some sandblasting done to the floorpan and wasn't looking forward to doing it all with a little spot blaster,... when across the tracks they started sandblasting the paint off the grain elevator with this large sandblasting truck. So I loaded up the tiltisserie onto my wimpy trailor and hooked it up to the Rabbit:


Here's how I got it on and off the trailor:


Never thought I'd need 2 engine hoists good thing I have 2.
Notice I already coated it with epoxy, as soon as I got it home, so this is a picture of it being unloaded.

and here is the guy sandblasting it for me, with the monster sandblaster:


Here is a small rusted out section on the drivers side wheel well arch, with the outer layer cut off:


..and here is is with the inner layer removed and replaced with good metal:


I didn't get a picture with the inner layer welded on and the outer layer was glued in place after spot blasting.
...and a little audience participation:
What's wrong with this picture?

I'm not talking about how bad it looks.

[82vdub]

Even though when you first learn to weld your welds look terrible and are probably structurally deficient, learning to weld on things like fenders, quarter panels etc isn't something that requires a structurally sound weld. It's a great place to learn to weld thin metal, but sure is a lot of work to get it finished right before paint. Keep up the good work.

[Fatmobile]

Here's a good picture of the bottom of the car as it sits now.



I'm about ready to clean the fuel tank and install it along with it's vent and fill tubes/hoses, then the brake and fuel lines.

[82vdub]

Dang - that looks about as good as the top side to my cars. Keep up the good work.

[surfcam]

I was wondering what caused the axle to let go on Blue. Did the brackets break , bolt loosen or bolts shear. If the bolts sheared off maybe an up grade from 8.8 to a 10.9 may help. Ever since you posted the picture of blue with her broken back I've slowed down going over railway crossings.