S2 Restoration Options.

[TimE-J]

Nice project!

I like the rotisserie, I've got a mk2 golf up on one!

[Twenny Benson]

Cheers dude, I was a bit skepitcal about the rotesserie at first as it didn't look beefy enough but I'm sure it'll be fine as I can lift the front or rear off the axle stands myself so it can't be that heavy. Should have it spinning soon hopefully.

[Error404]

**** me never seen so much filler on one of these before, that car has seens its fair share of shocking repairs over the years!
Glad its getting the treatment it deserves

[Twenny Benson]

**** me never seen so much filler on one of these before, that car has seens its fair share of shocking repairs over the years!
Glad its getting the treatment it deserves

I have to admit I was a bit shocked myself, its is pretty bad, when I took the wire wheel to it it just turned to dust. If I had been rear-ended while driving this thing, the back half would have just disintegrated! Scary. It shouldn't matter now though as I have pieces for all those nasty bits and it all seems quite straight forward. Its floorpan in the boot area that I'm now going to struggle with since the pikey robbed one half of it. I might just recreate an entirely new piece, hmmmm. There is alot to do, more than I anticipated and I'm sure I will find alot more yet. Slowly slowly is the key, I think I should be ordering up some box section to brace the shell before I cut too much out of it me thinks

[Error404]

have you though about biting the bullet and getting it dipped?

[Twenny Benson]

Well, there is a place locally that I take engines, heads too etc, there baths are mahoosive. I asked about dropping a car in and they said it would be fine. They have a multi stage process, the main one being the acid dip, then through multiple rinses and finally a phosphate dip, there is a place across the road where they can epoxy prime it as well, I think its expensive for dipping a large piece of metal in a bath though so I'm still thinking about that one. All the components I've removed will getting dipped and painted, this for some odd reason is a fraction of the price of dipping a chassis, doesn't make any sense as the million & one components has to be more of a ball ache than one chassis but the price is almost 10 times more

[Error404]

I guess the gear for handling a complete chassis plus the cost of filling a bath big enough to take one must be pretty expensive etc

[Twenny Benson]

Quick brew time update, more like a photo dump.

Rear quarter is off to reveal more rust and more differences, there are two in the first picture, the obvious one and a not so obvious one!











That would not polish out

I'm not to bothered that the sill & outer arch is completely knackered as I planned to change them anyway, but here are the pics anyway





And thats the other difference I've found between the ABY & CQ, there is an extra bridge piece there on the ABY.

The CQ for comparison



Now the toe piece on the B pillar needs sorting out as will those bridge pieces and possibly the metalwork behind it. The cowboys that fitted this rear quarter didn't even seal it to the outer arch piece! No wonder its all rotten



This picture is looking down the B pillar on the inside, look how the sheet metal work that joins up there is all bent! Starting to wonder how straight this shell is



Luckily thanks to DJH I have all of these sections on standby ready to weld in and I'm quite confident I can pull this off to a much higher standard than the previous attempt.

So I cracked on and cleaned up the flange faces that will be needed, primed them with weld thru zinc primer. I finally fired up my new portamig and had play with the voltage settings & wirespeed on a scrap piece, welds nice & smoothly. Think I need a bit more practice before welding on the car, I need to tighten my spacing a little.









I then welded in a bent weight lifting bar across the A & B pillars in readiness of removing the sill and pieces of floor pan, I will brace the A & B pillar again on the outside once the sills removed just while I replace the pieces of floor pan.



I'm hoping my pack of new spot weld drill bits & hammer & dolly set arrive tomorrow then I can crack on. I'm hoping by the end of the week to have the replacement sill & floor pan pieces in place and possibly the rear quarter! Come on courier man bring my ****.

Brew finished, back to it.

[Error404]

Well done mate, you're certainly making good progress

you're really making me wanna go buy a new sill and cut my dented one out!

[Twenny Benson]

Seems to be quicker to get apart when you don't care about the panel your removing lol.

Changing just a sill would be fairly straight forward I reckon, I called my parts man at Audi about a sill and there expensive and not many left! The replacement sill I have needs a few dents sorting out but nothing major just going to dolly them up and be happy is not rusty. You could remove your sill & dolly it into shape and refit it depending how bad it is, Or cut a section from a scrapper and weld that in? Doubt it would be that difficult to line it all up again

[Twenny Benson]

Update.

Finally the spot weld drill's arrived this morning so I jump right in and made a start. I've decided to leave the sill attached for now so I have a reference while fitting on the floor pan pieces. I removed the rear bench front lip piece and the front seat support thingy







Now I only need to replace the sill side of the floor pan as everything else seems alright.



So I marked up an area to remove on both panels and cut the piece from the donor





^ You can see the floor pan stiffening rib on the CQ this doesn't extend as far on the ABY so I drilled the rib off from underneath so I don't have holes in my floorpan, well not as many!

I still need to triple check the markings on the S2 floor against the cut section and cut it out, then drill off the million spot welds holding it in. This is job No.1 for tomorrow followed by tacking in the floor piece.

I've also made a start at repairing the few small rusty bits on the CQ rear quarter, there are a few crusty bits where the glass seal sits, like this.



Luckily the S2 rear quarter wasn't rusty here so I cut it off



Cut the rusty bits out, I cut them so they will be hidden under the window seal, you can see the dirty line where the seal starts.



Fit in the appropriate piece



Weld it in, dress it back and prime with zinc primer, it will get a lick of filler when its in place on the car and you'll never know.



I thought this was a good first repair since you'll never see it, wasn't too bad but could have been better.

So thats were I'm up to, prepping everything is taking forever and the thought of cutting the floor up makes my **** twitch! Oh well it is only metal!

[Error404]

good work mate, was the floor pan rotten where the sill has been replaced before?

[Twenny Benson]

I think so mate, pretty much anything the sill or quarter touched is rusty, the entire driver side of the car is corroding because of the previous dodgy repairs.

[Twenny Benson]

Update

I jumped to it this morning and thought it a better idea to trim the floor out in pieces rather than trying to cut it right first time as I was thinking yesterday



Shat myself at the sight of the inside of this box section, then shat myself again when I realised the B pillar is floating the bottom flange that sits between the box section bit & the sill has completely rotten away! Luckily I have the donor one to graft in, starting to wonder how badly this car is going to crab when its done





Bit of a scratch at the filth and luckily there is alot of cavity wax in there but it don't look great and I anticipate more rust in there.



I will come back to this once the floor is done and the sill & outer arch are off.

So I continued to trim away and check, trim, check etc



Once I was happy with the fit I cleaned up the floorpan & primed it, repaired the flanges where I had drilled through them by accident and primed them.



Fitted it up and tacked it in



Bear in mind I don't plan to use the stock seat rails so didn't pay any special attention in getting them parallel, just best fit the section and happy days, out of interest I will check to see how square they are tomorrow

I think its safe to say this is the turning point, the stripping down has turned into rebuilding feels good to see one nasty bit sorted, now to finish up the welding and move onto the other floor section.

[Error404]

cracking work mate, you're making a real nice job of that