Meet Ziggy - '79 GLD MK1

[Peter Jones]

Had to move a few cars around the other day.

The trailer was pretty grubby as we'd been sanding the passat up on it. Ziggy needed a wash too so we loaded up Ziggy and presure washed car and trailer together.



Pete

[Peter Jones]

Got stuck in to the front suspension today.

Work completed.

• Replace both front wheel bearings
• Replace both front struts
• Swap GLD springs for GLS springs
• Replace bump stops and boots
• Replace 1 outer CV boot
• Replace 1 tie rod.

It's going to need a set of pads too, I just found some cheap on e-bay





Hubs and struts out.




New bearings in



This was caused by a loose axle nut! Now it's junk, luckily I had a spare.



New bearing.

[Peter Jones]

Torn outer boot.




New boot!



I used a couple of shocks recovered from a wreck, these were only a year old and still working fine.



All back together again.

[Oneofthegreats]

Always tinkering around Pete.

It never seems to stop.


Do you put alittle bit of tranny/atf fluid eg. 50mm - 100mm in the shocker tubes at all?


This helps keep the shocker cool & also helps with transferring shocker heat through the oil & onto the outer tubes & can also prevent shocker seizure in extreme conditions.

[Peter Jones]

Do you put alittle bit of tranny/atf fluid eg. 50mm - 100mm in the shocker tubes at all?


This helps keep the shocker cool & also helps with transferring shocker heat through the oil & onto the outer tubes & can also prevent shocker seizure in extreme conditions.

Yep, although I just use engine oil. I just pour a bit in and dip the shock into it to see how far up the shock it comes. I keep adding oil untilit's about an inch from the top.

I had one once which had been assembled dry what a PITA to extract that!. The rust grabbed it big time!

Even 2 tonne wouldn't shift it!



Pete

[Jarred]

Good work Pete. good to see you're at it like usual.

No red painted parts for ziggy though?

[Peter Jones]

Just replaced the front brake pads. DB399, they're GTI discs and calipers.

I found a couple of assebly mistakes in previous workmanship.

The two outer pads were fitted to the left hand side and the two inner pads were fitted to the right hand side.

I'm also repainting the wheels and found one of the valve stems hadn't been pulled through the rim properly.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Got the rear brake shoes done today and started on the rust in the A pillar.

Looks pretty bad.



and then I chased the bog out!

Started cutting off the outer skin.



Donor repair section next to the rusty piece I removed.



The inner had rusted through too and needed repair.



Here's a trial fit of the repair section.



Cut out the rusted inner section.

It's hard to see but the inside of the pillar is cracked too. I've caught this just in time. Much more and the pillar would have torn right through.



Here's the repair to the inside of the pillar.



Welding in the inner section.



Outer skin going on. There was one little pin hole I welded up in the centre of the new section.



This is about as far as I got tonight. Needs a little more work yet, but should be good for another 30 years.

[roccodingo]

Hope your phosphating these parts as your putting them in Pete ?? definately be worth doing if your not

Looks good btw bud

[Peter Jones]

Hope your phosphating these parts as your putting them in Pete ?? definately be worth doing if your not

Looks good btw bud

Yep, I left out a few steps 'cos I couldn't be bothered with all the typing.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

More rust, this time in the bottom of the door.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

[Preen59]

Great work as always, Pete.

Given that i know SFA about panel beating and repair, i'm learning a bit here too.

By the way, what is "Phosphating"? I take it that it's a kind of rust proofing?

[GeorgeMK1]

Wow pete, im truelly loving what you are doing, and the passion you have for it too! also your skills to repair things like that is great.

I found the extra mods the car had very interesting and exciting as well. Although im pretty sure my brothers old mk1 in S.A had the rear wiper and the boot light and a few others that are not in mind at the moment. I think some of the mods the golfs there had were factory but then repaired or 'upgraded' alot. my brothers one had so many wires running though it, that it was unbeleivable. And yes alot of the golfs were stolen, i have experienced this personally LOL!

great work mate, i love it.

[Peter Jones]

By the way, what is "Phosphating"? I take it that it's a kind of rust proofing?

There's a couple of approaches.

Once the panel is exposed I use a wire brush to chase out what crap I can.

The surface rust is then cleaned up with Deoxidine and steel wool. You can get Deoxidene at panel shop suppliers, it's nasty stuff, mostly phosphoric acid. (I don't like to play with my camera around it, it etches glass!)

I then etch prime the interior.

Etch primer isn't water proof so that gets covered up with any old rattle can gloss enamel I have lying about.

Obviously some of this will be burnt away by the welding so if you can access the back of the repair you paint it or fish oil it when you're done.

I'm going to pull the trims off the door above and repaint it from inside the door.

For the pillar I can get into there with aerosol fish oil and a bit of hose to extend the nozzle. You can get into the outer skin from under the rain tray and into the inner skin from a factory hole on the inside of the A pillar.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Biggest trick with replacing metal pieces like that is that

YOU MUST MAKE THE REPAIR PIECE BEFORE YOU CUT OUT THE RUST.

Make the repair piece a bit bigger than the rusty area and shape it to the same shape as the panel.

Trace around it and cut the car to match the new section.

If you cut the car first you'll never be able to shape and size the new piece.

You can see some of my markings in the above.

The other thing to point out which isn't obvious is that that welding is done a few mm at a time. You can't just lay down a bead. I probably pulled the trigger a hundred times on the above. You lay down one spot at a time , waiting for the spot you just welded to stop glowing red. It only takes about 1/2 a second for the weld to cool.

You also need to watch the heat generally and not do too much at once or you'll distort the panel. A good panel beater will tap out the weld as they're going, using the residual heat to help with the shaping.

I'm no expert by a long shot, there's still a skim of filler over my repairs, my friend Dennis who's slowly teaching me this stuff would have done all of this in metal only and have kept the shape and thickness of the metal perfectly.

Pete