The repair involved sandblasting, welding and respray or tubing, reclining mechanism was stuck in one seat, rear bench seat top was sun burnt and padding was crumbling like gingerbread. Those new covers are hand made from vinyl similar to the original and they are not the ones that can be bought on e-bay.
I have owned this “red” shell for a couple of years. It was originally bought as a parts donor for my MK1 which I am restoring. There are worse shells out there this one is not perfect either but it is not completely hopeless. Since I have almost all parts that would make up a complete car I decided not to get rid of it. The guy who sold it to me agreed to keep it in his barn on a farm for a fair price but since he now needs more space I was asked to tow it away from his premises. Last November I temporarily placed it under tarpaulin in my brother’s house alleyway while looking for an affordable garage at my modest budget. On January the 1st one had shown up on the Internet and we sealed the deal a couple of days later. It took us about 3o minutes at the land registry. I transferred the funds in exchange for a falling cornice that I hope won’t kill anyone until I’d be able to get it repaired when the temperature is a bit more suitable. I had to wait until this weekend for the roads to be free from sleet and salt as surface rust has already found it’s way through the shell’s undercoat. Loading the shell onto the trailer in minus 10 degrees was not much fun. The shell was blocked by my brother’s two cars which could not initially be started due to his casual approach to maintenance. We got delayed by two hours but we’d still make it to return the trailer in time without having to pay for an additional day. Once the shell was on the trailer it was a piece of cake. Knowing the garage is slightly elevated a couple of meters off the road separated just by a green strip which is covered in snow at this time of year the idea was to get the trailer leveled up so that we wouldn’t have to push it uphill. I brought two jacks with us and some blocks of wood. I should have brought a shovel too but at least we had a broom which proved to be quite helpful. Eventually we managed to rise the front of the trailer up using it’s wheel at the front. We just pushed the car inside on a dolly and off we went.
One day I would like to swap my MK2’s current Laser interior with more period correct black vinyl. It is not easy to get hold of usable panels that wouldn’t have speaker holes in them or that wouldn’t show excessive wear. I came across a pair of rear quarters that were laying in a barn for a couple of decades. They were all covered in dust and the masonite part was all soaked with moisture. I let them dry up in my garage for about a week. Using just brush and soapy water I cleaned up both sides from dust and straw they were covered in. I was expecting them to be much worse and I thought it might be worth saving the masonite boards. I sprayed them with water to make the masonite a bit softer and malleable. Then I wrapped each of them in a plastic bag and placed them on a floor under weights that I could find. I left them just like that for 3 days. When I took them out of the bags there were still wet but this time stiff and straight. To get rid of the remaining moisture and to prevent new warps from happening I put them again on the floor with old cotton rags on the top. I secured everything with a pile of tiles and concrete blocks and let the moisture evaporate. Next I will glue the vinyl back to it’s place and reinstall any missing staples.
It took the bodyshop 375 hours or labour to repair the metalwork on my shell. At this stage one starts balancing what could have been done better. There are a few imperfections I know of but the people in the bodyshop have done extremely well with regards to my budget and the future use of the car. I strongly advise anyone who is doing their first project to begin with something that has never been hacked or otherwise messed with. It can cause a big headache to the restorer and to you as well. Unless you have the same car you can use as a reference it will always be hard to do it “right”. At this stage the project is in terms of financing beyond what you would normally pay for a solid preserved car that could be driven by changing tyres, bleeding it’s break or something of that nature. Nevertheless I now know the MK1 inside out which I otherwise never would and I wouldn’t have a chance to ever meet all those wonderful people that have somehow participated on the restoration. Looking at the loss is like seeing missing finger tips. It is a big difference in developing frostbites by climbing Mt Everest or falling asleep drunk in winter on a way back from the pub. It is still a long way to go and I am sure the road will be bumpy enough but it has given me one thing – confidence. This project has always been intended as a warm up for my next plan – a VW t1 Split window panel van.
In the next step the shell is going to be treated with underseal and a temporary coat preventing surface rust from forming on the sandblasted metal.
Bodywork is nearly done and it’s time to rustproof the shell and paint it. In the meantime I am sorting out various trim pieces, sound deadening and upholstery. It is still a long way to go but the most messy work is over me.
I had the opportunity to call in the restoration shop to check the progress. The most difficult part of the bodywork seems to be done. It was necessary to extract the warped floor by drilling loads of spot welds and cut along the gear box tunnel. We had been aware that the whole sill was misaligned by two centimetres. The donor was treated similarly and after sandblasting was welded in. It was also planned that we’d use radiator supports form the donor. Since the donor bonnet slam panel was in much better shape it was used too.
There has not been much progress on the driver’s side because we first need to repair the accident damage under the driver’s floor. For that purpose we had to find a suitable donor. Initially we were waiting for a different shell to be available but it has never happened. My friend offered to sacrifice his shell to help me out. The shell was already stripped and it was a relatively easy job to cut it in half.
After a couple of hours of cutting I took it directly to the restoration garage where the car is being worked on. With the new floor in place it is going to be possible to align the sill, front wing and door.
ferngreencapri 