Engine bay, door post and zinc paint

We trimmed off a lot of the engine bay bodywork today, the stuff that a full-bodied Beetle needs but a Baja can do without.....like the metal that goes over the gearbox area and the side trays that form the engine bay.
With a full-bodied car this metalwork is essential to duct cooling air to the engine and keep any hot air produced by the engine away from the cooling air intake - it works very well but it also relies on having a closed engine compartment including an engine lid.......
With a Baja there is no engine lid, or much else for that matter, so there's no point in keeping the metal.

We even removed the louvre panel behind the air intake grille, Matt has always moaned about the nasty state of this area and how it would be impossible to paint.
He's right, it was totally manky and the car looks way better without it.

You couldn't do this on a standard bug
We had lunch, Salmon Goujons and chips this time, before starting on the remaining door post bottom repair.

Here's Matt prepping the area for the new panel
The new panel went into place as easy as the first and looks even better, even if I do say so myself!
More butt-welding....fnarr fnarr!

Matt dressing the welds on the repair - go sparky!

I skanked some zinc-rich cold-galv spray in aerosols from a company that came to my workplace, we sprayed some on the repaired areas.......looks sweet!

A shot showing how much work has been done to the front end

I also skanked some bright finish zinc-rich cold-galv spray which looks the bomb on the area behind the rear grille, it's nigh on a perfect match for the original VW silver....
Next time we'll be fitting the driver's side front inner wing repair and closing the awkward bit over the torsion bar at the back.......

Garage door failure and capping the heater channels

I went out to the garage the other night - as you do, I thought I'd have a tinker around for a while and see what's what.
After a short while I needed a piss so I thought "I'll just nip out the back, it's easier than going back to the house".
I lifted the garage door and one of the lifting cables came off the roller jobby and wrapped itself around the mechanism.....that was it - boned!
There it was, stuck fast, half up half down and no chance of getting it closed.
BASTARD!
It's been acting up for years.
I spent about half an hour wrestling with the thing before shouting Tom for help.
In the end we removed the cables and managed to get it closed.
It weighed a feckin' ton and dropped like a stone I can tell you!
I managed to get some spares off ebay, and thought we could fix the twatting thing Saturday

Man-John, Matt, Tom and me fitted the spares for the door today - I couldn't have done it alone, Bob Hope!
It's way better now, should've done it years ago........

With the time we had left we capped off the heater channels.

Both ends capped and ready for dressing

After Matt had dressed the welds back....Nice.
A bit of seam sealer, a lick of paint and you'd never know it's been repaired.Sweet!

It didn't seem worth starting anything serious so we lifted the bodyshell, carted it outside and turned it round ready for work on the driver's side door post.

Door post and associated front inner wing repair next time.

Door post bottoms

Well we started on the door post bottoms.........

Due to the compex shape of the door bottom repair panel and the difficulty joggling such a shape I decided to try my hand at a butt-weld......hmmm!
Butt-welding sounds so mucky!
We found quite a lot of rot, but that will get cut away when we do the inner wheel-well.

Nice tight fit for the butt-weld!........fzzshst! sqhumph!, fnarr! fnarr!

We did joggle the vertical side though, plenty of metal for a lap joint!

Inner wheel-well repair, a fair-sized bit needed to come out.

Matt cleaning the area for welding - notice the graffiti, don't know who could've done that!

Repair panel in place and sweet
Nice day's work that....

This week we resumed work on the bottom corner.
Even managed to fold the edge of the door post repair panel over to form the raised door seam.
Damn, we're getting good at this shit!
Yet another repair needed up the door seam, well well......

Another butt-weld..........butt-welds are so cool

Off to the chippy as Man-John's guts were rumbling.
Chips, Curry and Cod Goujons apiece all washed down with cloudy lemonade - classy!
After din-dins we started the bulkhead repair.
Bit of a head-scratcher as to the best way to proceed so a few smokes were in order while we discussed the matter.
The main bulkhead was in good fettle except for the very bottom on the outside, the bit over the Napoleon's hat section, so we decided to make a repair panel from sheet and just repair the bottom strip.

Matt dressing the repair area - likes the grinder that lad!

Another nice repair, we'll cap the front of the heater channels next time and maybe even get the other door post bottom repaired.......
Won't be long now Matty!

Closing up

Matt and me closed off the rear of the heater channel today.
It was easier than the other side as it was way more solid - which was a good thing.
We removed the old closing plate, it was in good order except for one corner.
We changed the whole thing anyway.....easier than patching due to it's complex shape.


After we attached the closing panel Matt set about dressing the welds.
You can see the good penetration of the welds on the inside where the heater channel is joined to the closing plate.
(the burnt paint in an arc on the right hand side of the repair panel).
Good penetration....he he he!

I think we made a nice looking job - just the penetration marks to clean, a bit more dressing and the job's a fish!
Penetration marks.....fnarr! fnarr!


Might well get the door-posts in next week.
It's coming together now.......

Even more heater channel goings on

Well it's been a good while since we last touched Matt's Baja, what with mucking out the garage etc.
These things always take much longer than you might think, especially when you've collected as much shite as I have.
It's been nice to get back into it even though it's bastard cold out there.
Last week Matt and me shifted the shell into the garage so we'd have shelter while we work....
We removed the nearside heater channel as before
Matt cleaning the inner wing/bulkhead area
This side of the car is a lot less rotten than the other, you often find that.
Trial fitting the new channelFits like a tight thing
That was it for the day - it's cold and I'm old!

This week we set about welding in the channel, it didn't take much welding into place due to the excellent preparation work we put in last week.
So, as we had plenty of time left we fitted a new quarter panel repair
We didn't use the whole panel as the quarter was only shot at the bottom
Just a small repair to do at the back to close the channel and it's done.
We need to do the door-post bottoms next, oh joy!

Chips and fries - technically, not the same.

Man-John, Matt & Discount Dave spent the day helping me sort my collection of garage rammel today.
I got rid of the red Semi bodyshell; I've kept the floorpan, all the running gear and the many boxes of "treasure" that came with it.........even got most of the money back from selling just the shell. Result.

We made the usual mid-day visit to the chippy, ate our fill and did a lot of talking and smoking...........which was nice.
Manly bloke-time rules, so does cake - we had some of that as well.

Sometime later Sarah was feeling hungry and she fancied some chips, I wasn't keen though.

There's the dilemma of it - chips twice in one day, that can't be good for you now can it?
Not only that but the folks in the chippy would probably pass comment too.......hmmm - what to do, what to do?

Putting this conundrum aside for a while we went into town to drop Rachel off at a party.
That's when we saw it, like a beacon in the night, Maccy D's.
Haven't had one in ages.

Dilemma no more!
You see it really is OK to go to Maccy D's and the chippy in the same day because chips and fries are two different things.Obvious really.
Sorted!

Even better when Rachel and all her mates showed up, sat nearby and didn't even notice us.
Until it was too late.
There's nothing quite like the pleasure of embarassing your offspring in a public place, take it from me.

The French

Everybody hates the bastards.
Say what you like about them but you've got to admire them.
Here's for why:

They have one of the shortest working weeks in Europe.
They eat rich food, drink strong wine and have a kip in the middle of the day to sleep it all off.
They smoke with reckless abandon and live to a ripe old age.
They pay less for food, fuel, drink & fags than we do and still kick off at every opportunity.
They strike at the drop of a hat to get better pay and conditions, usually successfully.
They send all their unwanted "visitors" across the channel to soft-touch-central.
Their president is cool and is boning that supermodel bint.

Who's the mugs?
Not the froggies that's for sure.
Vive La France!

It's the Canadians I feel sorry for though - Living between Americans and French...in the snow.