This page last updated 07 March 2006

This vehicle was originally a project for another garage, which subsequently went into receivership, the owner managed to retrieve most of his parts, and has now passed the task of restoring the car to us.

Some of the work that has been carried out on the body and chassis is of a sub-standard level, and will require removing the panels and new or better quality panels welding in place.

The panels we will be initially replacing are :

Off side heater channel..............wrong type fitted.

Both front quarter panels...........corroded , poorly welded, excessive body filler.

Floor panels ....................................mis-aligned to the heater channels, poor quality, poor welding.

Front and rear aprons..................poor quality panels and ill-fitted.

Inferior panels e.g. front quarters are false economy long term, not only is the metal thinner, in the case of the ones fitted to this car, the shape can also be wrong, this can make all the difference on a show winning car.   

The first task to be carried out was to remove the floor-pans which had been "welded" in place, these more or less fell off as the quality of welding was very poor. All the lumps of weld were then removed in readiness for the new genuine floor halves. Secondly we removed the gear selector rod, handbrake lever and other external parts. Then we sent the bare chassis off for sand-blasting.

Once back from the blasters we sprayed a coat of primer onto the bare metal to prevent any moisture from attacking the clean metal. Then spot welded the genuine floor-halves into place just as the workers at Wolfsburg would have done some 41 years previously.

Spray-filler was then sprayed around the frame head and the rear suspension, as this fills all the pores made by the blasting, once sanded down, this provides an excellent base for the 2k primer.

The first job to be completed on the body was  to straighten the shell as it had twisted out of shape, a jig was fitted to the inside which enabled us to push and pull the body straight.

Next the shell was unbolted from the chassis, and the heater channels removed as they had been poorly welded on and were not a matching pair. New ones were prepared and bolted to the chassis, then the body lowered down over them, all measurements checked again then welded in place.

After we were happy that the shell was straight, and the door gaps were correct, the front quarter panels were spot-welded in place, this stiffens up the door posts and windscreen areas. The doors were then removed to enable access for welding and preperation.

A set of front wings were bolted in place to check alignment of the panels and the front valence spot-welded in place.