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.

...and the other side

Much the same this side although it does look like there has been no repair patch made this time.
On the negative side it appears the inner panel has been cut accidentally at the B pillar side when cutting the old outer rear quarter out during a previous repair. An attempt has been made to weld the damage.

Now I know what I have on both sides I'm deciding how to tackle the repairs and how much metal to replace.

What lies beneath?

There is a lot of filler in the body and, given the quality of welding I can see, I want to know what is underneath it all, so this is the start of removing it, assessing what repairs have been done before and completing repairs to the standard I want. I also want to put some strength back in the body as soon as possible. With both these thoughts in mind I'm starting at the rear. I'll put in some rear cross members (currently missing) but before doing this I need to look at what is underneath the filler and seam sealer shown below.

 

Most of what is covering the repair here is seam sealer so its a bit tricky to remove. I resorted to using an old wood chisel to "cut" it off and then removed the remainder with a wire brush on the angle grinder (this tended to melt the remnants rather than actually brush it away).

First bit of poor repair found.

The rest of the repair doesn't look too bad but does look like a home made repair panel on this side so I'll replace this with OE metal.



 

Aligning the body

As mentioned last time the body would not sit correctly on the 'pan. This was because the pattern heater channels were fouling the seat runners as can be seen in the next two pictures.

Here you can see the extent of the problem this was causing. The body need to sit flush with the rear edge of the 'pan so that the mounting bolts can be fitted.

As I will not be using these heater channels the simplest solution was to trim the offending material away.

Final position of the body is shown below and enabled all the mounting bolts to be fitted and tightened.

Shot showing the body bolted in position and also some of the bracing I used before removing the body from the original 'pan. It's just some steel tube I had lying around welded in diagonally and triangulated to put some strength back. I'd also left it in place during transportation to the new house and whilst lifting the body onto the new 'pan, as the body has so much material removed it had become extremely flexible.

Body on 'pan

I've been out and about collecting parts so not so much time in the garage. That said, again with the help of my poor wife, we managed to get the body onto the 'pan.

It wasn't quite positioned correctly (a bit too far forwards) and was being prevented from going into the right place by the pattern heater channels hitting the seat runners. This would need sorting out first and before the body could be bolted down and work started.

Tidy up time

With the floorpan ready it was time for a bit of a tidy up in the garage. For the first time since we moved into the house and put the chassis spine in the garage, the garage door was opened. With the help of my wife the 'pan was moved out, the floor tidied up, the 'pan flipped right way up and then put back in but this time with the front end facing to the door. I also took the opportunity to move my trailer over a bit to give me slightly more space to work on the car which will only get wider as time progresses.

Here is what will be going on the 'pan. It looks quite good from the picture but needs a lot of work and I'll also be putting back a lot of the steel that was removed when it was cut to lighten it for racing. As I bought it like this (minus these doors which I bought new and cut the window frames myself) I want to see exactly what I've got before starting, so I'll be removing all the filler to check the welding quality and previous repairs. The welding I can see is not to the standard I want so I expect to be doing quite a bit of work here.

Finishing up the floorpan

This week I'm finally finishing up the structural floorpan work.

First thing to do was to weld up the holes used for the Cleco pins. As these holes were also to be used as plug welds to hold the pan halves in place they were first drilled out to increase their diameter.

This handy tool is a copper sheet with magnets in each corner. It's used to place behind open holes when welding. The idea is that the sheet gives the molten welding material something to lay against and, being copper, the weld does not stick to it.

With the pan the right way up and the mig out I took the opportunity to weld up the holes in the framehorns, left when I removed the heater control conduits.

Plug welding the holes using the copper sheet in place underneath.

The pan was then flipped over to finish the welds on the underside nicely.

Here you can see a hole in the chassis spine that I'd not  yetwelded up. Visible through the hole is the copper sheet prior to welding.

Welds underneath completed.

Last bit of welding was the rear of the pan halves to the torsion tube housing.

All welding completed, welds cleaned up and primed.