My current project. VW Golf 1
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Hi guys,
I’m gonna be giving you some information on my latest restore project, now please remember I’m pretty much a newbie (as explained in the introductions section) to everything with no official panel beating or painting experience, so without too much critizising i’d appreciate any or all the advise you guys are willing to give. Forgive any spelling mistakes as english is my second language, with my native language being afrikaans, sounds similar to deutch.
Ok, if there are any other South Africans on this forum reading this they would know that the VW Citi Golf aka Mk1, aka rabbit in some countries, is a very popular car over here and up untill a year ago it was still being manufactured in some factories with a lot of them still being sold as new by some dealers over here.
I happen to be the owner of just such a vehicle, a ’96 model unfortunately, lol, and has had the unfortunate experience of being involved in an light accident. To make a long story short I was standing still waiting at a stop, when some guy who was turning into my lane from the left, cut his corner and clipped my front right corner. Insurance reckoned that it was too expensive to fix and I decided to do it myself. Oh boy was I in for a surprise… I’ve attached a photo in this first post so you all could see what I was faced with.
My next post will include the start of the work.
Tried moving the topic for ya. kinda made a mess out of it :blush:
Where ever you post it it’ll be ok.Looks like that thing needs a good amount of time on the frame rack. You jumped right into the fire on that one
Thanks for moving the thread to the right place… :blush: Apreciate it.
So, to continue. There had been signs of previous damage to the front of the vehicle which was visible and exposed after this accident. Idecided that I needed to replace the entire cradle. So with a hacksaw, grinder and cutting torch i got to work removing the old front end. See pics.
the car really needs to go up on the frame machine. little late, but its usually best not to cut every thing off until the structural pulls are done
Looks like the left hand leg is down a tad.
Good luck looks like quite a clean car, that is quite an old model in the uk, think that is a facelift mk1 they ran here between 83-87
been a long time since a saw one, good cars
Yeah, initially I thought that it would need to get onto a frame machine as well, but after speaking to a couple of body shops and making a couple of measurements I realised that the chassis had not twisted and the damage waslocalized ont he cradle itself. I decided to leave the engine installed to kinda hold the body together for taking the smashed up cradle off. Yes, you are correct, the left on the photo chassis beam was infact a bit low. I mock fitted the new cradle and fastened them with a couple of self tapping fasteners. From there I continued to measre up all the important spots, making little adjustments to the beams and cradle. When everything was within spec, on came the brazing with a porter pack I had borrowed from a friend. After all that was done I was able to mock fit the rest of the components.
So okay, after everything was mock fitted and all the necessary adjustments had been made to the rest of the components they were all taken off. I had been thinking of the idea to respray the entire car fixing all the small little dents and imperfections and finally decided that this was what I wanted to do. I sprayed Some MS Primer on the front end to get all the repair work covered as to not give them anytime to rust. Then started the intensely labouring job of sanding down the clear coat on the rest of the car. Took me 3 days with my long block and some P60 paper to get all the clear off by hand. Once all the clear was gone the car was masked and the rest of the body was sprayed with MS primer. I did this spraying outside as I wasn’t to concerned about dust due to the fact that everything would need to be sanded again in any case. In the meantime I had fixed all the dents on the car as well.
Right, next thing was to get the car block sanded. I used a long block and did the first sanding with P80 and the second time with P120. After the whole vehicle was block sanded and all the panels were as straight and flat as possible I did the unthinkable…. I sprayed the entire car with NC Primer. I dont know if this was required but it’s some of the advice I got from a body shop.
Anyhoe…. From there came 4 months of sanding. Long tiring sanding. First with P220, then P320 then P400 then P600 and lastly P800.
The car was ready for painting… so after the paint was bought and the car masked I attempted two panels… This was the result…
Not too good I realize now, but at that stage I thought cool, I can do this…. So from there I carried on….
That’s it for now, Next post will include the dreaded obstacles I came accross and what I did to try and resolve them…
Chat to ya guys soon…
Had somebody else finish the spraywork. This ia what it looks like now.
Looks good. Is this the first time around for you doing auto body or do you have experience?
This was actually my first attempt at auto body, was able to do everything except finish the painting. Kept getting an uneven finish when spraying the basecoat. Only after it was finished by the professional painter did I realize where I made my mistake. According to him it was the thinners I was using for my basecoat. His words were, when you buy Salcomix paint, you buy the salcomix basecoat thinners, when you buy glasurit paint, you buy the glasurit basecoat thinners. Funny how the sales people at BASF kept selling me normal Lacquer thinners after I explained to them what I wanted to do and what I was experiencing after my first attempt. I guess that’s how you learn… Also didn’t have a professional spray booth to get the work done in. Anyway, just glad its done now. Now its basicly just the clear coat that needs to be buffed, polished to get it even, smooth and shiney, any advise will definitely be appreciated.
IMO dont cut with anything more agressive than 1500 grit (unless its a big piece of trash, cut that with 1200) cut till flat.
Tape of your edges and creases so you will not burn through your clear when sanding and polishing.
after 1500 grit move up to 2000 grit to remove all the 1500 grit scratches.
Move on to 3000 grit to remove the 2000 grit scratches, by this time it should almost be shiney.
Start with a medium cut compound on a rotary buffer until all the scratches are gone.
finish off with a finishing glaze to remove the swirles from the compound. Than i personally use a detailer spray to clean up the compound residue.
I dont know how much clear coat was used but three coats is recommeded for cutting and buffing but it can be done with 2 coats when you use caution.
This is a very time comsuming and tedious process if done right. Good luck
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