I've been consigned to do some paid work on the restoration of this sweet old notch (for a fellow name Ben [whereisfelicity username on AVD] on the Goldy).
I am going to give up the two days a week work I am doing in brissy and spend it on VW restorations to earn some cashola whilst my own business (Audiology - Pacific Hearing at Helensvale 🙂 picks up on the other three days a week.
This is the first project I've agreed to take on - like any restoration, the work carried out is dependent on the price agreed....in this case it will not be a bare metal restoration or body off. However it will cover rust repair, and a full respray inside and out.
It has had a resto some time in the past in a lovely mint green hue, here it is partially stripped by the owner to save some money. I have already spent about 12 hours this week stripping it further though, so it is easy to see how the dollars add up in a respray before work even begins!
I'm hoping this sort of work will help to subsidise an enclosed garage/carport so I have more space....but for now unfortunatley, yep, it has taken the prime garage position. 🤓
Found some more surprises under the brake fluid reservoir - not really a surprise as the signs were there, but it is a little worse than expected. Both the inside and outside skin will need some patch replacements (to be done soon).
After picking out the seam sealer on the drivers side under fuel tank filler neck, no rust was found - whoo-hoo!
After a bit of poking around, the passenger side A-piller crumbled away a little.
I opened it up enough until I reached solid metal to which a patch could be welded to (after rust converting heater channel and painting wherever I could reach with killrust) - plus patched inner panel as well as I could.
The majority of the metal was quite solid, so I only had to cut out a few patches and butt weld new metal in (no plating over the top for me - the patches are cut to fit the holes).
Likewise for the drivers side front guard to body join - a small rust hole was cut out
New patch welded in
I didn't want to pi$$ off the neighbours with too much grinding on a sunday so I'll knock the tops off the welds later in the week and finish them off (inc the passenger A-pillar)
Ben hasn't decided yet although he has a couple of ideas - I think I will keep it under wraps until the colour goes on. Colour is such a personal choice so as long as the owner is happy with it, that is the main thing! 😉
Big thanks to Ben who spent most of his sunday around scrubbing the inside of the front guards and inner guards on the body to clean them up - as you can see he did a good job. The previous resto has provided a good solid base to which subsequent paint can key/adhere to after adequate sanding.
Spent some time masking up the dash holes today (amazing how much time is taken up on these tasks) - until you do it yourself, it is hard to appreciate why people pay top dollar to have good work done.
very nice notch to start with.
You should see some of the shiters we have done.
time time it's all TIME !
keep it the same colour cob it will look fresh.
Cheers for the comments guys and gals. From memory the rear tyres are 185 and I think 65 profile but will double check and edit if necessary.
Can't find a decent rear window section so bought some steel today so hopefully over the weekend I can get stuck into the rust repair.
Re. Colour.....its such a personal choice - ultimately ben is the one who has to drive it each day and since the green is not the original colour (it was originally white of some hue), he'll have to choose a colour that suits him. Time will tell!
Cut out as much of the rust as possible under the brake fluid reservoir:
View from below:
Although welds don't look like they haven't penetrated enough, from the backside there was more than enough penetration (minds out of the gutter):
Ground smooth - very nice (if I do say so myself). It is amazing how long it takes to do these sorts of jobs 'properly' without just plating over and bogging up.
Still looks ugly from the inside as I ran out of time to grind these welds today, however it is all solid again with killrust painted between the double skin. Once it is cleaned up properly and smoothed out it should look the ducks nuts again.
Ben spent the day around again sanding the inside of the rear guards and removing glue and crud from under the bonnet and decklid - it is good for him to see how long this tedious work takes and why it is priced accordingly. I don't cut corners despite only really knowing of a fraction of the rust when I quoted.....doesn't matter though as I do enjoy this and hope therefore that is reflected in the work I do.
Ben, feel free to add anything you want to this thread - don't be shy! You need to figure out that colour soon though!
Alan
colour wise (only my opinion) i was thinking keeping it stock and resto the car back to original condition - then lower it on a nice set of rims with thin red wall tyres and then lots and lots of bling!
Bloody nice notch IMHO. Scary lookin rust in the window section tho'. I know where there is a farily decent section for a late model notch in a wrecking yard (u2u if intersted) in Melbourne. Great to see rust repairs fixed with steel as opposed to bog. Keep up the pics of progress etc.
Cheers - Adam😁
If you can't fix it with a hammer,
you have an electrical problem....
Cheers guys - I may have a lead on a donor section for the rear window (he's going to check it out today)....but if not, Adam I'll U2U if this donor doesn't work out.
I spent about an hour trying to fab one section yesterday on the bottom corner of the window surround and although it looks close it is not good enough in my books - I want to use as minimal filler as possible therefore I wasn't happy to weld it in.
yes i am very lucky to have alan doing the repairs / respray for me . . .
personally the greens not my favourite colour so it will be seeing a new colour - something a little more modern but that will be unveilled once its painted unless someone can guess . . . * hint its not black .
Whoever did the previous 'repair' cut out the old rust hammered in the surrounding metal, plated over it and bogged the $hit out of the whole panel!
Started with flat sheet and slowly but surely bent it into shape. Didn't originally count on so much rust repair but I cannot sleep at night (seriously) if I cut corners.....its been a learning experience for me quoting on a job when unknowns pop up.
