Hey All

[sealslayer]

Hi to all,

I bought this old girl from fleabay just before christmas with 2 months tax and 3 months MOT left with the intent of a quick respray and then to sell it on but after the amount of hours that I will have to put into it I've decided to keep it :P

As you can see its got a few rot spots but nothing too terrible. The worst spot is probably the sunroof and the bootlid, the sunroof has rusted so badly it had pushed the rubber seal out and stopped the sunroof moving and the bootlid is looking really bad on both the corners.

After taking the sideskirts off I found two repairs at rear of the seals, both of which are still perfect and rust free, there is however a nice new hole that's appeared a few inches along towards the front.

It's also rotten behind the rear bumper and on the NS rear arch so there's plenty of metal work ahead. Weldings not my strong point but a quick blast with a angle grinder will soon sort out my ugly welding.

Overall though the cars not that bad, the interior is in perfect condition, two new wings, its got pretty much a full service history with old MOT's back to 98 along with a fistfull of receipts etc. The previous owner had a full stainless steel exhaust fitted with a powerflow back box that sounds great and had new shocks and springs fitted lowering it by a claimed 30mm, but tbh it doesn't look that low and when I drove it back it didn't handle that great either so I'll take a look into that after the bodywork has been finished.

I'll be painting it in its original colour along with the sideskirts and bumpers and I may clean the boot off by removing the lock and wiper but I'm not 100% sure yet.

Also if anyone has any of the following parts for sale in the London/Essex area please let me know.

Battery Bracket

NS sun visor (biege)

OS wing mirror

Sunroof....(not much hope)

OS indicator unit (next to headlight)

Original Gear knob.

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Hi mate, that'll be a sweet car when finished, and the rust looks pretty nasty to me. Sunroof is a common problem and are pretty much gold-dust to find... Check above and around the windscreen and on the rear suspension struts. Check the first page of my progress thread and you'll see the problems I have there....

But good luck with it mate! ;)

[dawesy]

as KP says remove the rear trim from the boot and check around the rear suspension towers, both of ours and a few others have gone there too.

worth noting that you can fit the Corolla GL tailgate and drill out the spoiler holes. these don't seem to rot as much.

might have a sunroof but not for a while yet but check over any you buy as they are often bodged. other than that should be a good project.

BTW you garage looks nice, wish i had one :( lol

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Dawesy is right with the sunroof, I bought one for £50 and it was pretty well just as bad as my current one... not too happy with that but the seller wasn't to know. :)

[AE_92]

Hi mate I have some parts and I only live 5min’s away from Ilford :D

Here is a link to the parts I have let me know if you see anything you like

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=101705

[sealslayer]

Hi mate I have some parts and I only live 5min’s away from Ilford :D

Here is a link to the parts I have let me know if you see anything you like

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=101705

Ah that's awesome !

I'll have the OS indicator unit (next to headlamp ) and OS wing mirror if its electric.

I'll send you a pm.

[sealslayer]

as KP says remove the rear trim from the boot and check around the rear suspension towers, both of ours and a few others have gone there too.

worth noting that you can fit the Corolla GL tailgate and drill out the spoiler holes. these don't seem to rot as much.

might have a sunroof but not for a while yet but check over any you buy as they are often bodged. other than that should be a good project.

BTW you garage looks nice, wish i had one :( lol

Checked both the rear suspension towers out and they are both spotless thankfully, I did come across more rot though under the OS rear arch where the little tool set compartment in the boot sits, just below the bumper.

It's really bad and and a very akward shape to try and recreate with no metal working equipment other than a MIG welder and a sheet of steel thats too thick to cut with snips ,so God knows what I'm going to do about that :o

The garage is really nice, probably too nice to for this sort of work. I make arcade machines in my spare time and rented it with the intention of starting to make it more of a business but then I saw this car for sale and the rest as they say is history.

Can anyone recomend a good sealer / rust killer in spray form? where I've got a hole in one of the seals I want to give a quick blast inside to seal off the small rust patches that I can't get a brush too before I weld it back up.

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Some waxoil will do the trick but I would strongly advise you to go and sort it now, or you will regret it later.

Check behind every panel you can, and take off the roof lining inside the car to check the sunroof tray. Mine has little spots of rust that are just surface clinging, but they could be there and worse on another car. Also check door corners, under the seals and the front panel the radiator bolts onto.

It has loads of problem spots, so keep an eye out! ;)

When I first got her, I stripped out, carpets, back seats front seats and lower dash. Everything came out to see what was what. It will be worth the trouble so it doesnt sneak up on you later. Trust me.

[dawesy]

IIRC there is a repair panel availiable for that area (if its where i think it is.)

try these.

[sealslayer]

IIRC there is a repair panel availiable for that area (if its where i think it is.)

try these.

Welding a hole new panel section in place scares me, If my skill was much higher then I would give that a go

I've cleaned the rust off now and cut it all ready for welding, tbh it wouldn't be that hard a job if I could get my hands on some sheet metal that would be easy to work with.

Any idea what guage metal the bodypanels are made from? because they seem so much more flexable than the sheet metal I'm trying to work with.

EDIT: Actually I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to see if they have that panel, I can see from the list the rear corner along with the rear arch but I can't see that little cubby hole section.

[KPARRIS-JONES]

IIRC there is a repair panel availiable for that area (if its where i think it is.)

try these.

Welding a hole new panel section in place scares me, If my skill was much higher then I would give that a go

I've cleaned the rust off now and cut it all ready for welding, tbh it wouldn't be that hard a job if I could get my hands on some sheet metal that would be easy to work with.

Any idea what guage metal the bodypanels are made from? because they seem so much more flexable than the sheet metal I'm trying to work with.

EDIT: Actually I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to see if they have that panel, I can see from the list the rear corner along with the rear arch but I can't see that little cubby hole section.

Do you mean the spare wheel well?

[sealslayer]

IIRC there is a repair panel availiable for that area (if its where i think it is.)

try these.

Welding a hole new panel section in place scares me, If my skill was much higher then I would give that a go

I've cleaned the rust off now and cut it all ready for welding, tbh it wouldn't be that hard a job if I could get my hands on some sheet metal that would be easy to work with.

Any idea what guage metal the bodypanels are made from? because they seem so much more flexable than the sheet metal I'm trying to work with.

EDIT: Actually I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to see if they have that panel, I can see from the list the rear corner along with the rear arch but I can't see that little cubby hole section.

Do you mean the spare wheel well?

If you look to the right of the boot (OS) there is a little compartment that sits just behind the rear arch, if you put your hand inside it goes down to below the bootline, I think this is where the original tool kit may have been kept.

As you can see from the photo it's rotten, though I finannly manage to get hold of some correct thickness sheet metal today so its not going to be that hard of a problem to sort now I can bed the metal easily.

[KPARRIS-JONES]

oh thats a nasty spot to get rust!

Good luck with getting it sorted mate, it'll be a good feeling when you see the rust gone, it always is for me!

I had it on the front suspension struts;

Rear struts;

Front Radiator brace and Battery holder;

I also have a trashed sunroof and lining above the windscreen...:( But every bit gone is another step towards bodywork perfection!

[4AGTE]

Hi there,unfortunately,these cars rust like hell. I have a Gti as well and in same bad shape as yours. I live in the ilford area matey. I think we should catch up sometime, if i do get it back on the road that is. Crankshaft pulley broke,wiper mechanism broke and rust eating all the bodyshell. Got a years MOT still running on it and about 3 months tax.

I might need some hints on repairs and i have a haynes manual by the way.Reading it everyday

Best of luck matey and hope to catch up soon.

[sealslayer]

Hi there,unfortunately,these cars rust like hell. I have a Gti as well and in same bad shape as yours. I live in the ilford area matey. I think we should catch up sometime, if i do get it back on the road that is. Crankshaft pulley broke,wiper mechanism broke and rust eating all the bodyshell. Got a years MOT still running on it and about 3 months tax.

I might need some hints on repairs and i have a haynes manual by the way.Reading it everyday

Best of luck matey and hope to catch up soon.

Yeah they are a real pig when it comes to rust, this is my second GTI and this is far worse than my last one. TBH when I first started I thought I'd bitten of more than I could chew but its coming along ok now and I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

What part of Ilford are you from? I'm over in Newbury park not far from B&Q's

I'm starting to make some progress at last, 99% of the metalwork is now done....phew...!

In total I've had to cut out and reshape 15 pieces of nasty car cancer, the hardest of which was the the NS corner of the boot because it was so far gone. It had to have 7 seperate pieces made up to get the shape back, luckily the OS corner wasn't as bad so I could get a rough idea what the inner shape should look like.

Another nasty bit was the rear bottom corner, the little inner arch that holds the bumper brace on was completley rotten but I'm pretty impressed with my little replacemant part that I made up. :D

As you can see my welding skill still needs quite a lot of work but after realising I had the wire speed set too fast it eventually improved, Shame I've got nothing else to weld now. Thankfully though my filling and painting skills far out weigh my metalwork so eventually it will all look great

The Camera angle here makes the corner look like its out of shape where it runs above the rear light but it is straight. The hardest part of the two boot corners is going to be creating the line that flows all around the car, that I am not looking forward to :(

I had a little problem with this section of the roof, I welded it too fast and the panel slightly warped with the build up of heat but after a little hammering and with a skim of finishing filler over the top it should all end up ok.

Next on the agenda is to clean the car before I start with bodywork prep. The whole car has a nice rusty brown dust covering on it :)

[dawesy]

looking good

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Great work mate, I hope the sunroof goes ok. :)

[sealslayer]

Quite a bit of progress now with lots of headaches along the way....

Prepping this old dog has been a real ball ache, I've worn away my fingerprints on my right hand and the tips are constantly bleeding from 2 weeks of sanding, sanding and more sanding....

I had pretty much the whole car in primer and it looked really good until I decided to buy a small halogen spotlight to work in the darker spots of the garage and then it showed up all the imperfections that couldn't previously be seen.

So I've had to go round the whole friggin car again sanding it all back down and giving it a good coating of filler primer.

All the filler has now been sanded in to shape and I'm really chuffed with the outcome, I did have to cheat a bit with the boot lid though. Where I've created the two new corners the small groove that runs round the entire car was lost. I could have attempted to try and recreate it in the filled and welded spots but tbh I don't think it would ever come out perfect so I've decided to fill the entire groove in the bootlid.

Now its all in primer it looks really good and I was tempted to do the whole car the same but I doubt my fingers could take anymore sanding

Another big decision has been to change the colour, Part of this was out of cowardice and the other part was the fact that I prefer the gti in white as with one of my old Ae82's. As I'm sure you all know black is the most unforgiving of colours to paint, every little error no matter how small will show so up, so white its going to be.

This now entails more work...wings, doors, bonnet and bootlid now have to come off so I can paint all the door shuts and the underneath of the bonnet. I won't be painting the engine bay as that's just a bridge too far and I'd like to get to drive the damn thing this side of xmas :)

I'll be painting all the panels I've taken off in my shed at the back of the garden and the the main part of the car will have to be painted in the garage. My only concern is the fact that the garage is on a public road and I'll be painting it in 2k.

I'll paint the panels one at a time first to see how bad the fumes are from the shed and if they aren't too terrible then I'll go ahead and paint the main part. If the worst comes to the worst I'll have to get the car taken away and painted professionally.

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Brilliant work mate, awesome! ;)

Another doing theirs in white! I'm going to have to crack out a bottle of the Lexus Cherry Red me thinks.... B)

:P

Then again, white does look the best on these....hhhhmmm

[DomoGTI]

Nice

Cant wait to see the results !

[AE_92]

Looking good mate

[Gordy75]

Just what I was thinking! everyone one is going white and I could be wrong but that will be number 4 on the forum!

white does really suit the car I will admit and the lexus red would be a great choice!

Guess Im the only one thats gonna stick with black!

[Gordy75]

Just what I was thinking! everyone one is going white and I could be wrong but that will be number 4 on the forum!

white does really suit the car I will admit and the lexus red would be a great choice!

Guess Im the only one thats gonna stick with black!

Oh and by the way the cars looking great and I hope the rest of it goes well!

[KPARRIS-JONES]

I could go with an Aston Martin frost white.... argh so many choices! :D

[sealslayer]

I could go with an Aston Martin frost white.... argh so many choices! :D

yeah I'm not sure what white to choose yet, I've seen a really nice shade of white on a AMG merc and also a very nice satin, almost matt white on a Audi. I'll take a trip to the paint people next week to see what the have on offer :D

I've been looking at a few different photos of GTI's and can see they have rear mudflaps, did these come as standard on all GTI's? as Mine doesn't have any :(