dirty diesel ratter

[lewis1641]

bought this mk3 off ebay for £200, taxed and tested. Body was ropey but (seemed  ) solid enough.

decided to rat it as it was pretty rough already. to smarten it up would cost £200 plus, to rat it I would loose £200 at most.

project has started!

boring stuff. brakes are done so it stops, glow plugs done so it starts.

the door locks were toast (usual vw monkey metal snapping off. my mate is scrapping a 6n polo and i assumed his handles would fit (based on a long shot - seat ibiza handles fit golf 3.5 cabrio and that is basically a mk3. ibiza is a polo. there ends my logic!)

anyway, they slipped striaght in so not only can it now lock but it also has central locking! that works! replaced the rears too. i know its rat but the neatness counts!

next step was to remove, twist and refit the vw badge. i'm rock and roll, me

then i decided to see if i could do something with the rust a la THAT bmw. rubbed the worst of it off and coated it with kurust - turned blue/black straight away.

next the cut and shut front wing. it is a gti wing with the leading edge and side repeater area of a cl welded in. i exposed the welds and applied kurust.

one of the front tyres was well past legal so i put on the vauxhall wheels from her seat. they have winter tyres and give her a bit of confidence.

[lewis1641]

next up was a gentle lowering courtesy of a used mk2 kit off ebay £25

before


after



far from slammed but like i mentioned, it needs to be useable by the wife.  i quite like the stance it has though, also like the tuck achieved by fitting high offset wheels


next came another ebay bargain in the form of a vr6 interior for £25!

the following week i handed lemski a grinder and set him loose on the swage line. plan is to let it rust a bit then when i paint the car it will come through and hopefully look cool. i have mixed some rock salt with water to help speed things up

[lewis1641]

my wife wasn't a fan of the car as it looked so we decided to paint it grey primer. We applied it with rollers and the result is nothing short of stunning.  That's a lie but it is a lot better than you would imagine. I am going to flat it off a little.

It looks a bit too much in the grey so we painted a baby blue racing stripe along the car. this is only temporary.









Next step on the body is to add the rest of a gti kit and paint the top of the bumpers black to try and tie them in a little.

[lewis1641]

When the suspension was being done I noticed a small hole on the sill. I have welded cars before but not for a long time and wanted to refresh my skills. Luckily my mate owns a garage (Broughton Auto Sales if you are local to me - they love their dubs there) and he is happy for me to use his gear after hours.  He also agreed to give me a refresher in welding.  Can you guess where this is going yet?

Hoisted the car in the air and out came the grinders. The front foot of both outer sills were newspaper and filler, both sides of the pan where they meet the sills have numerous holes of varying sizes and the front of the pan where it curves up into the front wheel arch is gone on both sides.   

I am not bothered about the rot - that happens but why would a, somebody bodge sills with filler and b, how did it pass 3 mot's like that (assuming the newspapers went in close to the date on them).

I guess c should be why didnt i spot it when i bought the car but to be fair they'd done a good job!

Anyway that brings us right up to date. I have a weekend of welding burns to look forward to.

[VR6_Wherry]

Where is the like button 

[clipperjay]

You've done well lad!
Taking shape and looking 100 times better than before I'd say bargin now 
I'm glad you thought about it being a smoker & oil burner esp these days 
And everyone knows I'm a Mk3 hater 

[Sam]

Dave put some pics up of her on the 60s 

[Wayne]

Epic project 

You might want to look at sealing the primer in some way as it will soak up mosture

[CCGTI]

nato green paint, i did with my passat, do it

[lewis1641]

thanks for the comments guys. she fancies it nato green so watch this space.

sam - will do shortly boss. looks cool imo

wayne - for better or for worse, that';s the idea. the swage line has been bare metalled (is that a verb?) and allowed to rust in the hope that it'll come through the primer and look cool! maybe