Strengthening the body...or not (quite yet)

Now the body is on the chassis I want to get some strength back in it.

With no front clip or rear cross members the body is free to move around once the bracing I added is removed. Unfortunately I've found I can't fit the new rear cross members due to the repairs that had previously been done to the heater channels. I've also noticed that all the weight of the body is on the outside edge of the pan halves, pulling them downwards slightly.

All of this needs needs sorting out before anything is finally welded into place, and after a lot of thinking if decided that, to move forwards, I needs to go backwards slightly. The only way I can get the new rear cross members in place, and also take the load off the pan edges is to start by replacing the heater channels. I didn't want to take more strength out of the body at this stage but it seems to be the only way forwards. So I will remove and replace each heater channel, tacking them to the body and bolting them to the pan. This will add the strength and allow fitting of the rear cross members before I then tackle the rear quarter repairs...or at least that's the theory.


Door removed so I can see what I'm up against.

Heater channel opened up. Note the rust already taking hold inside the "new" pattern heater channel.

Front end opened up...

...and the centre section removed.

Using an angle grinder with a cutting disc the rest of the heater chanel was removed and wood blocks used to support the body. I'm glad I took this step as it confirms the previous repairs were not to the standard I want.

At last!

After work, the house and a few other things taking priority I finally managed some time on the car today. Out came the and grinder and I finished separating the second inner rear quarter panel.

Still no progress!

I've been in Portugal & Spain all week, which was planned. What wasn't planned was a minor disaster with the hot water boiler in the house!

Woke up to a cold house and a damp ceiling so had to get the leak sorted and the hot water back on. Wouldn't have minded if it was an old boiler but we only had it fitted 6 months ago. We've got a temporary repair done and an engineer coming some time tomorrow to fix it properly.

Sorry, nothing done this week...

...unfortunately work on the house took priority this week so nothing done on the car. Hopefully back at it next week!

Bit more done....

...but no pictures today as drilling more spot welds isn't the most fantastic photo subject!

Today I set to work on the second used rear quarter, that I bought, to separate the inner panel. Lots of scraping of seam sealer followed by drilling of spot welds. Got a couple of hours in but didn't manage to complete it.

Inner rear quarters

With the previous repairs to the inner rear quarters not being to the standard I want, I went on the search for a pair of good panels from a scrapped car. Luckily I turned up a pair not too far away so went and collected them.

Here we have the left side. The outers had been patched in the past but the inners were excellent and unrepaired.

So I cracked out the drill and angle grinder and got on with removing the spot welds. After some considerable time I was left with this which I don't need...

...and this, one of the panels I needed.

Which rear cross members?

 

Not a great deal done this time but I did take some time to decide which replacement rear cross members to use. Since starting the project I'd been looking for a good quality pressing for both sides and in the process had collected three pairs of cross members.

The first set were sold by a well known UK seller as being genuine VW but when received were found to be Klockerholm parts (the sticker on them gave this away!). When queried with the seller they stated that Klockerholm was an OE supplier to VW. The pressings were far from good with heavy rippling on the largest flat face. The holes that the bolts go through into the floorpan were also not punched in.

I then looked for a better pair and, when Heritage linked in to supply VW Classic parts I thought my luck was in. Having ordered both sides again I received one grey and one black cross member (Mexican and Brazilian I guess). The grey part was excellent quality but the black one not. When compared to the Klockerholm parts I already had the black "OE VW" part looked very similar if not identical so I do now believe what I was told by the original supplier of the Klockerholm panels. Unfortunately the area where both cross members join was very different between the genuine black cross member and the grey one so they could not be used as a pair.

My final attempt was a web site purchase from someone who had bought a pair of cross members but not used them. I was informed they were "grey" ones so went ahead and waited for the delivery. On receipt I identified them as the grey, pattern type that Heritage used to sell and that were credited with good reviews by people who had used them when available.

So, given the Klockerholm are not the quality I'm looking for (worst quality in my opinion), and I only have one genuine grey cross member (best quality in my opinion and, if I had a pair these are the ones I'd be using), I've decided to use the two grey pattern parts (they need a bit of work to make them fit together but overall the pressings are quite OK).

Below are the six I had to choose from.

Here is the problem area on the grey pattern parts.

Reworking the problem area.

...and here it is finished.