Yep, well a cheaper version of a Dremel, in fact it was a bit of a bargain from Maplin, it was the only one on the shelf and it was a massive case of loads of attachments and tools with the tool itself, all for about £15 or something. The genuine Dremels (and attachments) are much more...
Time to address a couple of corroded areas lower down on the left inner wing:
This area was easy enough to cut out:
Cutting out the lower area was awkward due to the corner, and wanting to keep areas of good metal on the car:
Delicate going - it took a while and here are a...
I know....just need to find my spot weld driller, I want to make it look pretty much stock. I've seen it done before and the welding looked like a right dog's dinner. Just need to wait for some more sunshine to progress!
Spare wheel well repair? Get some pics up and we can see, but I'd say 90% likely to be above, rather than below. The quality and ease of welding will be 10x better. If its towards the rear of the well and the fuel tank is between the wheels or more forwards, then probably don't need to worry...
The friend's asked me to move the engine mount to allow a big block (1.5 upwards) engine to fit (its currently a 1.3) although I'm not involved in the engine conversion side, apart from moving the engine mount to allow it.
Template for area near the suspension turret is made from cardboard:
Cut out and cleaned up (wire brush) but not bent lip yet:
It needed a lot of fettling to make fit. The dimensions were a little off, because I'd based it on the cardboard template but when made from metal...
I've taken on a little bit of work welding/repairing the front bodywork of a Mk1 Golf, for a friend. The rest of the car is remarkably rot-free, basically what seems to have happened is most of the usual rusty areas have been addressed before, including sill repairs, rear panel, underneath. But...
For me, part of the attraction is that it was never quite part of the "VW Scene". In its own right, its a wonderful little car, the Mk1 Golf had many good qualities. Combine those with undeniably good looks and even better handling and performance (thanks to the lower centre of gravity, and...
If you're tight for money, you don't need 150A to weld 3mm steel, I have a Clarke 151TE (just bought it, as a 2nd welder after an unreliable SIP) and the 150A setting welded 4mm hollow square section nicely, but blew a hole in 3mm plate steel. So if you need to save £20-30 or so then the 130...
Basically, you can never tell the extent of the corrosion with the axle in place. Also, unless you scrape off the paint down to good metal, you don't know how it is underneath the paint/surface rust. I think pretty much all Mk1s are rusty here, or have been attended to in the past - including...
Or at least, scrape back to shiny (uncorroded) metal, in the pics its not yet at that stage and there's still a lot of rust/underseal on the afflicted area and post pics - might not be as bad as it seems....
I'm guessing from the shape of the rear axle, its a Mk1 Golf. These have a box section within the rear sill area, which is used to strengthen the mounting point for the rear axle. Then there's a sill closing section which extends as the inner tub of the wheelarch. I'd be tempted to also scrape...
I've now done all the welding underneath (needed one patch underneath and a small patch to properly close the end of the sill), and its painted in primer, seam sealed and now covered in stonechip underbody paint.
I'm quite looking forwards to tomorrow's task of refitting the fuel tank...
Even hollow bars, once welded together into a grid, would be plenty strong enough. It would be better to have hollow bars which you can be sure are welded together, than solid bars which aren't.
They sell regulators too - don't know how the cost compares, but the guy there (well at my local place) is a friendly, knowledgeable type who will be able to sort you out and make sure you have all the bits and pieces required to start off welding nicely.
As an example (not welding though), I was wearing rigger gloves during grinding some car bodywork. As many will know, you need to get yourself and the grinder in some funny positions, at times, to reach stuff. I inadvertently cut right through the glove and put a slight mark on my finger, I'm...