Vr6 , tt seats

[aide 0]

great work, glad to see someone else getting to grips with welders and bodywork :)

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

ok so this past week iv been getting stuck in head first into sorting out the body issues, this morning i felt a little over welmed by what i thought was going to

be just surface rust which turned out to be some serious holes due to lack of maintanance of the tailgate gutter and hinge { theres a seal inbetween the hinge and body!!}but after a few hours of cutting,grinding,welding and smoothing im happy as larry! infact iv never felt so good as to whats about to happen in the next few weeks!!! i wasnt looking forward to this part of owning the corrado but after today,BRING IT!!! .along with sorting out the body rust

iv decided im going to smooth out the aerial and debadge the rear, might not be to some peoples likeing but i thought i might aswell put the mig to good use! and add some of my own touchs {even though its already been done hundreds of times}

heres some photos of today and this past week,

 

 

so decided to sort out the tailgate paint as it was split and there was signs of rust, after some poking and scrapeing

it started to revel this! doesnt look good!!

the passenger side seemed the same although once everything was cleared tunred out worse!

those welds you see are factory and was covered by quite alot of primer, i first thought that they wernt factory but the othersides identical,

as you can see theres a few holes and tbh the paint wasnt bad untill i started scrappeing at it

heres the passenger side after i cut majority of the hole pitted holes out,

jigsaws comming together nicely!

still need to weld up the drivers side which i'll do tomo,should be alot easier,

heres my windscreen scabs!! whats the bets these are going to be holes like 50p's??

place your bets now peeps, next week i'll be finding out!

rust scabs/holes welded and smoothed on the arch, need to source a repair section from another corrado for the rear lower corner, i dont

need to as its fine as it is because its hidden by the bumper but would be nice to finish it off

also found slight rust scabbing on the sill beneath the door, had to smooth out the rocker panel as a previous

owner has had metal welded in at some point, think they hit a kerb or something, well they just put filler over it

and sprayed it black! they didnt even bother smoothing it or trying to match the stone chip finish! so iv also

had to smooth that and also going to be sparying u-pol gravitex on the rocker which should match the

factory stonechip finish :) like this one {drivers side }

giveing the old toweing eye a clean up aswell! fed up of seeing that thing looking dull and miserable!

also noticed the underseal splitting on the lower edge and rust forming so i grabed the grinder and removed it!!

its been primed since just cant find the pic,

my plan is to get these area's smoothed of rust welded/filled and primed with 2k primer then go from there, i know what it takes to get a good finish in paint

so i'll be takeing my time with sanding and smoothing then i dont know what im gona do? plan was to get it prepped and let a bodyshop take care of the colour and clear on just the shell so itll cover all the areas in one, but money is an issue! and i think i might be capable of pulling a ok paint job off! this aint no show car! ill get to the stage of the primer on all these areas and get a quote i thinks?,so heres my advice! take care of them roof drains!! and check that hinge seal before water starts leaking, wax the gutter aswell! got a pic somehwere but i had slight surface rust {luckliy} comming through on mine which just sanded out thankgod because that would of been a pig to cut n weld!, stay tuned peeps :)

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

did abit more welding today almost finished it :)

these welds dont have to be smooth as those factory welds wernt, they were coverd by alot of primer and sealer?

but i might aswell grind em down anyway to reduce the amount of filler required to smooth it, the important bit is

makeing sure theres a downslope/gradient through out the whole radius of the area as its a gutter! and you dont want puddles forming!

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

bye bye aerial! probably end up getting an internal one,

hello new windscreen :)

rear valance rust bubble cut out!

badge holes welded!

ready for a skim of filler!

also found a minor dent and slight surface rust comming through on the lower left corner which sanded out a treat! caught it just in time before any realy damage,

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

last few days iv made slow progress,

 

smoothing the rear end has taken me, no word of a lie around 10 hours to smooth out!!! prety much replaced my sanding block with a 30cm skool style

ruler which sticks flat and goes with the contours etc so my sanding is prety damn straight and im happy with it...

 

 

now just uncovered the nasty windscreen bubbles which for once has turned out better then expected!! i realy cant understand how theres no holes!!!! wtf!!

just pitted, not sure how thin the metal is but seems alrite!

just a tiny pin hole on the far right side on the curve

which is alot better then what i was expecting, {one big hole!!}

Happy days eh :)

screens still comming out!! going to try and do most of the sanding and dirty work before that comes out so i can wash the car to some extent to remove the dust!! horrid stuff! going to give the interior a good wash and shampoo aswell at some point, also gona die the headliner black to match the rest of the interior

[fla 9]

impressive skills there, that level of bodywork is something i would never consider attempting. That said, i want to remove my windscreen and assess any rust spots - perhaps you could advise on the best way to do this?

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

hi bud, thanks for the comment, the seal on the outside of the screen should just pull off with no damage {unless a screen fitters glued it inplace?} as its just a tight press fitting seal so carefuly remove it and it will give you a good idea of whats going on,

i think my rust areas was caused by a previous screen replacement?? a dodgey fitter with no care for paint work, if yours looks good i would put some wax in there as that would keep water off to a degree, also remove the roof trims! and have a good nosey under them, if you see in my pic i grinded out the whole channel {pic of passenger side} as surface rust was forming under the trim, tbh if you have surface rust there aswell theres nothing stopping you from doing the same as however good/bad your paint skills are its hidden by the trim anyway,also follow the channel down to the tailgate hinges and check there aswell also waxing up around it and into the gutter of the tailgate with the tailgate open, just think like water and how it runs off the roof and wax it if all looks ok and if the paints split like mine be prepared for a head ache :( . yea i wouldnt normaly of gone this far with a car {paintwise} but the way i see it , is yea fair enough my car looked ok before but it wouldnt of lasted long before the corrosion realy shows through and i cant make it anyworse, the worse case scenario is filler and a spray can! even that would be an improvment,but im trying my best and takeing my time so it should turn out ok,

[aide 0]

crikey those pictures look familiar, i had rust in similar spots but not round the boot hinges as you had, makes me feel better knowing i'm not the only one dealing with rust! good work.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

cheers, aide how far you got with yours? i realy have another 3-4weeks work i recon , lol at my pace, i have tea breaks everytime im waiting for filler to dry or hit a problem haha,

[aide 0]

well it won't be finished but have booked an MOT in early november anyway, so i'll just get what i can done in time, i want it back on the road!

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

haha yea aide same here, im dying to drive it!! i miss the vr6 purrrr! but it has to be done and the weather aint exactly great so its better to get this out the way now rather then in the summer :)

bit of progress today! got the screen out !, took me an a m8 around 3 hours useing a wire saw, its glued in with some prety thick black adhesive which is hard as fxxx!,

broke the wire several times but got there in the end :) , going to clean up the edges and see what i got!

i know im going to have to get cutting and welding as a few holes are showing! not sure if i should spend some £££ on getting hold of some repair sections cut out of another corrado as its not looking to bad!

atlest iv saved myself some pennys by cutting it out ourselfs, cant imagine they would of done it for under £100, going to get the new screen proffeshionaly put in though as it has to be bang on!! otherwise the trim/seals wont fit and id rather not risk haven to cut it out again!! horrid job!

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

cleaned the edges up with a wire wheel and a dremel { luve that tool!!}

for the finer bits, had to weld up a couple of holes,oh had to change my gas in the welder, i was useing plain c02 then started useing argon co2 and theres a huge difference! not sure if its for the best but i'll let you guys know once iv had some more play time with it :)

 

 

heres one hole,

forgot to take a pic of it welded up,

heres the otherside, has 2 holes, ones on the corner

had to make up a peice with a curve in it to match,

 

heres it done

for the time being i had some kurust lying around so i thought ah!

might aswell use it! , atleast rust aint comming back whilst im doing other things, when im ready for filler {to level with the old paint,}and primer ill sand off the kurust back to bare metal to avoid the chance of it reacting with me primer and for the filler to stick to metal and not some water based paint!!!! aka kurust

next need to prep the roof,need to drop the sunroof, all the headliners been removed {had to for welding} so shouldnt be hard, might aswell service the linkages etc for it at the same time, then need to level off the paint where the scabs were, then primer!!!!

looking forward to it ! :)

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

went abit off course today, instead of doing the roof i started preping the scuttle tray for some fresh paint! it was looking dull and i wanted to do it at some point anyway, so nows the perfect time i recon, going to clean up the wiper motor and the vin plate, which ill re rivet back on,

left some wires in as it would be a pita to put them back, will be easy peasy to spray around,

looking at my blower inlet in the scuttle tray shouldnt there be a filter? {polen filter?} under the mesh cover?

mine doesnt, was leaves and crap everywhere aswell!!

 

hahah looking at my ecu, looks like the C has had a second hand ecu at somepoint , £30 eh! not bad price lol

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

think its about time for some photo's :)

took afew hours to prep it, removed and cleaned up the vin plate aswell so it should look prety sweet once its riveted back down,

checked out the part# for the ecu and its the correct one, so thats good news!!

 

again all primer is 2k high build,

smoothed off the old scabed areas level with the old paint, PITA!!!

finnaly the first bit of Black Magic!!! realy happy to see it! its not the best but its a scuttle tray! and the rest of that is covered by trim peices, almost ready for paint on the rest of the car aswell!

removed the sunroof aswell, next week i should be back on track for getting primer on the rest of the roof and the back end, realy realy realy cannot wait to have it back on the roads!! i miss driveing it!

[CazzaVR 0]

Wow! Impressive stuff- wish I had the skills 8) Windscreen rust is often a Corrado killer, so hats of to you for taking the bull by the horns and getting it sorted :salute:

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

cheers bud, idd say its more time then skills, its the most time consumeing thing iv ever done! think its on par with cutting grass on a football pitch with tweezers!! well for me it is anyway, just follow the steps though and anybody can do bodywork as long as your prepared to give it the time it requires.just realy cant wait to get it done and dusted so i can drive it and play with something else mk2 vr6 conversion ,maybe :)

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

ah shes in primer! :)

in the next day or 2 im going to have the realy fun job of sanding it all back smooth,

seriously i cannot stand sanding!! im sick to death of it! realy cant wait till

i dont have to do it anymore!!! almost there tho :)

after the sanding it'll be time for a big clean up,

and make a diy spray booth out of clear polythene sheets

going to rigg up an extractor fan which will be an old rad fan from a golf rigged up

to a battery, :)

[aide 0]

seriously i cannot stand sanding!! im sick to death of it!

 

right there with you on that statement!

 

good progress, this will look great once its done.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

i hope so aide :)

 

iv decided to skrew metalic black! im going for " more is more! " and with that, its going urban camoflauge!!!

still need to add some shade to it,

looks sick huh?!!!!

finished off the prep on the rocker/sill aswell,

i used u-pols gravitex to get the oem stonechip finish on the rocker, and im very pleased with how it

turned out, once it dried i coated over it with 2k primer ready for colour ;)

also decided that im not going to even try and blend the clearcoat in on this side, instead im gona do the whole

side in one!!! also from the previous paint job you could see a hard paint line from where they masked off the quarter glass seal,

so i thought best remove it!

wasnt actualy hard to remove suprisingly and came out undamged , just took around 2 and a half hours with a stanley knife and crafts knife,

you cut from the inside and the vertical section by the door shut is cut from the outside by lifting up the seal and stabbing the glue

several hundred! times, just aswell as i came across some rust :)

Edited November 23, 2011 by VW_OwneR_85

[Pat_McCrotch 0]

Ref; Window rust. Mine has just had the same fixed.

 

Mine wasn't as bad as yours. But perhaps another Corrado weakspot? :(

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

could be a weak spot, although i was told alwhile ago that its more then likely caused by paint damage from haveing the windscreen replaced at somepoint, and i think there right because my windscreen trims were glued in, also the wiper trim platic clips were broken and the actual trim itself was held down by the same black window adhesive,

so my screen had been replaced, yea man i saw yours,looking good! i also have the same number plate light rust, also a patch beneath it, so iv got that to look forward to once the shells been finished :(

[Stonejag 10]

Wow, lots of good work going in here!

 

Don't forget to check for rust under the spoiler - water sits in there without draining, and once it's visible between the spoiler and tailgate you have a huge bubble to sort out! Mine's too far gone for DIY, going to get it done along with all the other bits before a full respray sometime next year :)

 

Stone

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

Wow, lots of good work going in here!

 

Don't forget to check for rust under the spoiler - water sits in there without draining, and once it's visible between the spoiler and tailgate you have a huge bubble to sort out! Mine's too far gone for DIY, going to get it done along with all the other bits before a full respray sometime next year :)

 

Stone

yea my tailgate has rust but not there, theres a past of rust a few inchs beneath the number plate light,and thestuds which hold the number plate surround has failed aswell so need to sort that out, im basicaly going to be over hauling the tailgate before thats on the car, i might try and smooth out the wiper hole properly but well see,

 

decided to tidey up the inside and use the left over gravitex, seeing as you cant see it, i didnt go mad with the prep,it didnt turn out amazing but its ok for what it is,one of the benefits of gravitex is sound deadening, so its perfect for here,

also removed the drivers rear quarter window as iv now decided to just spray the shell in one without blending the clear coat into the existing clear, i didnt want to find that i cant get the blend to look right and end up doing the lot anyway! so f-it do the lot to start with! supprisingly no rust!!

even small things takes time!, like this door latch! had a hard paint line and had rust comming through!

went abit loopy the other day and ripped the paint off me bonnet! it was my first real spray peice,

and at the time of fixing the ring repair i didnt know about the "guide coat " technique when sanding, so as a result at the right

angle you could see slight waves, it wasnt bad but i knew it was there! and i know i can do better .

 

ran out of of primer :( still needs another 3-4 coats then guidecoat and sanding! then colour and clear!

aww santa came early at this shed :) a little xmas pressy to myself hehe

[GlosterOx 0]

Shame, I've got a brand new DeVilbiss Compact HVLP Gun with spare needles, caps etc collecting dust on top of my wardrobe - Could have done you a very good price for it!!

 

Ian.

[Trickygti 0]

Good to see it coming along well. Should look spot on when its finished.