Recent content by GSF 109

I stripped down the seat frames and rails to send them for blasting and powder coating and found on of the frames was corroded at the corner and holed. I thought a local repair would be sufficient as the rest was in good condition. In hindsight, a full repair section might have been neater, but...

I have the front panel a good coat of Kurust then where the filler work is needed on the front, I gave it a dusting of primer. Next job is to fill and flat until it’s ready for painting.

Looking for a decent bonnet catch assembly (all parts that bolt to slam panel) for my S3 restoration. Please DM me if you have one. Cheers

Step forward my new solution - get someone else to do it! 😂… Joking aside, this is definitely the best way to go… I took it to a local chap who refurbishes wheels, and he acid dipped and blasted it. There is no way on earth I would get it as clean as that! I’m so impressed I think I will give...

After trying to clean the rust and old paint off the front, I thought another solution was required, as the work to clean it satisfactorily would be really messy and would take forever 😟….

Okay, wee update for today on the front panel. I had a look at the landing angle on the top of the panel, and there appears to be fairly serious rust in that area. It must be where the rain drops track under the front of the bonnet and sits under the bonnet rest strip happily rusting away! 😀...

One disappointing point of the repair panel is that they don’t have return lips on the front faces to replicate the original , and that just annoys me! So, I cut some flat steel plate to size and bent it to shape and after some faffing around welded it. I managed to melt the raw edge into the...

Looks a bit tidier now.

I removed the old hasp that held the bonnet down cleaned up the holes and welded them up. I’m not planning on using it again!

Luckily I had some steel angle leftover from chassis repairs. It was perfect to recreate the original strengthener with some trimming and drilling. Unfortunately the original was too far gone for reuse, otherwise it would have made sense to try and refit it. After drilling plug weld holes on...

I carefully drilled off the old section, then chiselled it off using a slitting chisel. After a tidy up I drilled the new metal ready for plug welds. After a few tweaks, I welded the rear and front. It looks easy, but I can guarantee it was not! It was twisting all over the place 😀

After carefully measuring the new repair panel, I cut the old remnants of the lower panel off. Incidentally, I never realised that there was a reinforcement on the old panel but not on the new one….

Okay, made a start on the front panel today. I had a look at others for sale and mine didn’t seem too bad considering. I also had a repair panel, so it was definitely viable. After drilling the bonnet landing strip rivets and unbolting everything else, I could see the challenge ahead!

Next up, I had a look at the radiator front panel, and it’s a lot more ropey that I remembered. Not sure where I can go with this! I have a repair section for it, so I guess that would be a start!

After walking away from the strip down yesterday, I went back for more today….😀. Next up, I removed all the mounting brackets, then tried the the rear window glazing strips again. The tiny cross head screws were burred over and were impossible to remove, so I had to drill the heads off then...