96 vr6 1st ever project build thread,

[michael5556 247]

Good work dude! Why have your pictures come out all funny?

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Good work dude! Why have your pictures come out all funny?

I think its a tapatalk bug - currently looking into it

[bennyk 1,238]

They look ok to me me but I'm looking at it on tapatalk,this is why I prefer to work on cars not computers lol!

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[Lukey. 381]

Having done this myself I do always like to see others delving into full sill, floor and arch butchery

[bennyk 1,238]

Having done this myself I do always like to see others delving into full sill, floor and arch butchery

Didn't think it'd be this bad! I thought, bit of surface rust,clean it up treat it underseal it or whatever.........wrong!! But I suppose if you're going to do something you got to do it properly! Nearly there with the rust now so I can start on the rest of the bodywork, which is good because I hate doing rust!

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[bennyk 1,238]

A couple of pics of one of the wheels bolted on,got a pair of 35mm spacers to try them out,deciding on and finding tyres that fit is proving a pain in the arse, as the 2 sizes I want don't seem to be made but the same company and I don't really want odd makes front to back!

Edited December 20, 2013 by bennyk

[bennyk 1,238]

Oh and these came up on the bay so I snapped em up!

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[Big J 283]

Hope you don't mind me asking, but how much did you have to shell out for those tail lights? I've been after a set for a long time, and the last pair I saw on the bay were £330!!! I do love em but not that much lol

[bennyk 1,238]

Paid £140 for them,only seen one other set for sale recently and they were £250! They popped up on eBay as a buy it now,think they were only on there half an hour or so. I've polished them up with some plastic polish and they look like new now.

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[bennyk 1,238]

Made some progress over Christmas which started with sorting some tyres, decided to go for some continental 195/40r16's and got a pair of 35mm fk wheel adaptor/spacers. Wasn't sure if they would be a bit to big,but they seem to make the wintercults sit perfectly,so I'll get another pair, here's how they look;

Also got some repairs done on the rear, though I kept forgetting to take photos! Hopefully it'll all make sense, when I bought the car it had a bit of damage on the near side rear quarter below the light,probably had been reversed into a post or something,you might be able to see some of the damage above, I managed to get it straightened with a bit of wood and a big hammer! Then cleaned up any signs of rust and put a few extra tacks down the joint between the panel as it had been opened up by the knock.

Also did the bit of damage on the arch whilst I was here.

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Edited January 3, 2014 by bennyk

[bennyk 1,238]

Whilst repairing the quarter I rolled the rear arches,not sure if I needed to with the 195 tyres but thought it best as it's all getting painted and it should allow me to go lower;) started by cleaning back all of the thick factory sealer, zinc primed it and left it overnight, then put a smear of terason 6 in 1 body sealer around the inside.

Then I used a hammer and dolly and got it as flat as it'll go, so it looked a bit like a mk4 golf rear arch, then I 2k primered it along with the damage on the quarter and smeared some more of the sealer around it to seal it and hopefully hold any rust back for a good few years! By the way I did have the lights and bumper off but I always constantly try stuff on to check gaps etc!

Got this bit of rust sorted too,the car at some stage in its life has had an offside rear quarter and I don't think it'd been done very well to say the least! So I cleaned out all of the sealer which had been put straight onto the metal without any primer causing it to rust,though it was just a bit of surface rust so I cleaned it up and treated it with jenolite then put a nice thick coat of 2k primer on it. So it looked like this in the end;

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[bennyk 1,238]

Got a couple more bits done at the weekend including getting the paint stripped off of the bonnet, as it had been painted before and for some reason started to blister all over like this;

There were loads of bonnets in red on eBay for £15, that could've had a quick rub down and paint but they were all at the top of Scotland or down in Cornwall!! So the old one was original and looked like it'd only been painted for stone chips so I stuck with it. Started by slopping on some paint stripper and covering it for a couple of hours;

It did most of the work and the bonnet turned out to be very straight with 2 tiny little dinks on the front edge, so I finished it off with a D.A with some 120 grit then 240 and put a coat of primer on it along with the U.S spec bumper which was stone chipped to f#%k! And happened to be red under the terrible coat of blue that had been put on it, next up is to shorten the rear number plate recess.

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Edited January 8, 2014 by bennyk

[bennyk 1,238]

Started my number plate recess shortening mission this week by starting with the grab handle;

Took an air hacksaw to it;

Glued and plastic welded bits back together and ended up with this;

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Edited January 11, 2014 by bennyk

[Nazza27 35]

Well played on the welding mate! Guess it should be good as it is your trade mind  

Really is coming along. 

If i can ask though, what wheels are these? As they look really good and suit the car well. 

 

Looking forward to this progressing, especially the recces shorting. 

[bennyk 1,238]

Hello mate,thanks for the compliments! The wheels are porsche wintercults apparently there was an option to have these as a set of winter wheels for your porsche 928... I think, if anyone knows better I'd love to know more! Didn't realise quite how rare they were until I got these.

I've spent the last weeks worth of tea breaks and lunch breaks doing the number plate recess so here goes;

I wanted this to have a real factory look,so it will probably only be us geeks and anoraks that'll ever notice it! And just to see if it was possible, I have still got the old tailgate if it all went tits up anyway!

Started by measuring up and cutting some big holes;

Then I measured up with grab handle and trimmed a section out whilst constantly checking, measuring and trimming;

[bennyk 1,238]

Once I was happy with the fit I got it cleaned up and tacked in place;

Then got some sections trimmed up to fit the holes and got them tacked in then got the whole lot welded trying my best not to put to much heat through the panel;

Got the welds ground down in case you hadn't noticed I've also got rid of the wiper but wanted to keep the badge;

Had to a bit of heat shrinking as there were a couple of wobbles here and there,then feathered out all the rough edges and gave it a skim of finishing glaze;

Then was priming something else so got it masked up and got some primer on it;

Here's a couple of when I got it on all 4 wheels for the first time in a while this week;

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[Nazza27 35]

recces has coming along nicely there man! Looks good on those wheels as well (Y) 

Cant say i have ever heard of them or even seen a set like them! Uber rare wheels really  

[bennyk 1,238]

Yeah, came across them by chance on a wheel trader group on Facebook! My target for this week is to get them refurbed, though they're not bad for a set of I think 20 something year old wheels!

[Surreyvr6 199]

Love the recess, great touch and different to the us spec which everyone seems to want at the minute, I would have kept the vw badge too, i think cars can be over smoothed IMO

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[bennyk 1,238]

Yeah agree with that,all of the badges will be going back on,got no problem with people knowing what it is! Keep forgetting to get a couple of pics of the finished recess with the handle on.

Got quite a bit done in the last few days, the rest of the car is now in primer as I used a day of holiday to try and push it along and took a couple of wheels home at the weekend and got most of the prep done on them,so managed to get 2 painted as the other 2 were still on the car. But at least I could get a before and after;

I also rubbed down prepped primed and painted the inside of the wheels as the were a bit scabby not at all bad for twenty something year old wheels though, didn't think they bad enough to warrant acid dipping or shot blasting plus that would cost and I'm to tight! So first I used a nylon strip and clean wheel and got rid of most of the corrosion;

[bennyk 1,238]

Sorry had to switch to my phone because the iPad hadn't picked all of the photos up,I hate technology and computers! Did the repairs on the face just a couple of bits of corrosion and curbing then red scotched the whole thing in with a bit of wheel cleaner added;

Then once all prepped up get them in the oven and 2k primer them in and out;

Then as I'm using solvent base coat (we usually use water based) I could cheat a bit and go straight on top of the primer with the colour only on the inside though;

This makes it easier to make a nicer job of the face when it comes to painting them.

I'd got rid of most of the little car park dings and one or two rust scabs on the doors and quarters over the last couple of weeks so it was a quick d.a down with some 240 grit and red scotch brite;

A quick couple of the difference of wheels from behind as I'm still waiting for another pair of adaptors!

Then into the oven and masked up;

Ready for action!

Then primer, one coat on the bits of damage then another two on the rest of it and a coat on the new wings more so it's all of the same colour so I don't get any nasty surprises with colour when I paint it!

Also got some colour on the wing shuts so I can sealer the wings on as per factory and had a spare half hour left on my 'day off' lol so made the most of it and prepped and painted the grill/ headlamp panel to keep the motivation going!

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Edited January 22, 2014 by bennyk

[Nazza27 35]

Bloody hell man. One mad busy "day off" 

got a lot done and is looking real smart so far. Those wheels look so much better already. You keeping them silver? 

[bennyk 1,238]

Yeah the hardest days work I've done for a long time! Don't tell my boss that though lol! Yeah wheels are staying silver,ford moondust to be exact as it's a nice fine bright silver, I've pretty much done black and gunmetal wheels and all the boys with there corsas and lupos have done all the other colours! They look like this now;

The centre caps were a bit of a state when I got the wheels and I was going to buy a new set,but at over £150 for a set of metal ones with emblems I thought I'd have a go at restoring them, they looked like this when I got them;

So I got my dremel out with tiny wire wheel to get rid of the corrosion and flakey paint( my girlfriend loved me doing this in the living room whilst she was watching something on the tv;)!) here's a before and after;

Then primered them a couple of times because they were a bit pitted, then put a coat of silver base on them;

Visited hobbycraft for some model paint and fine brushes! This must be the slowest drying paint in the f-ing world! I forgot to take photos at this point, I painted the whole emblem gold the did the red and black details after,left them on top of the radiator for a day then put 2 coats of clear coat on them at work; here they are in the wheels,I'll get a close up tomorrow,they're not perfect but I don't think many people will notice;

Also got the wings bolted on and the engine sitting on the hockey pucks,just having trouble finding a longer bolt for the front mount though.

Next stage is windows out and start prepping for paint!

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[Marneus 78]

Looking awesome mate!

[bennyk 1,238]

Thanks mate looking forward to getting the paint on it now!

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