WITW - Barn-find Final Edition

[Ronin]

What about the underbody sealer in 9th pic, is this fresh paint or just super cleaned?

[MikkiJayne]

Just cleaned

[MikkiJayne]

Rivnut time. Two studs on the heat shields are missing - one corroded away, and one broken off when the gearbox was refurbished, as they always seem to be.



Grind a divot in the stump



Pilot drill then drill to size for an M6 rivnut





Rivnuts inserted





Temporarily bolted in place while I wait for the new fasteners to arrive



Another one above the steering rack. This is normally a stud, but with the tie rods attached it is impossible to remove the rack with it in place so I convert it to a rivnut



and another one in the usual spot to hold the starter cables



This disgraceful mess was also done when the gearbox was removed



it should look like this



better



cleaned up





The brake pipes on the left are quite crusty. This looks bad, but its just salt from the galvansing underneath the plastic. The steel pipes are still perfectly sound



Scrape off all the salt and loose plastic coating



the clean up with scotchbrite on the rotary tool



and paint with rustoleum using a cotton bud as a tiny paint roller



Good as new



The fuel pipe clips will sit overnight in Evaporust

Originally Posted by strummagnet

Will there be a sticker on the dash warning the car must be driven in dry weather only?

There is now You had to poke the OCD tiger



Yeah, I cleaned the floorpan



Engine bay all done and treated with sealant

[Ronin]

Excellent work!

If you were to use rivnuts on the rear heatshield, would you have to remove the carpet to drill through just the floor and not damage the carpet?

[MikkiJayne]

I will be using rivnuts on those yes, but I won't be taking the carpet out. I'll just use a stop on the drill bit.

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

There is now You had to poke the OCD tiger



Yeah, I cleaned the floorpan

Does this mean that from now on any visit to the D2 doctor you have to make sure your bottom is cleaned?

Any specific cleaning guide to pass on to the detailer?

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by strummagnet

Does this mean that from now on any visit to the D2 doctor you have to make sure your bottom is cleaned?

Sparkling

I'll be coating the floor with the same sealant I use in the engine bay, so in theory it should remain relatively hydrophobic for a while and be easy to wash off any muck. That certainly worked on my Mum's Beetle cabrio which I did back in 2019, although that doesn't do many miles.

It certainly makes it a nicer place to work when its nice and clean underneath

[homer simpson]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

That certainly worked on my Mum's Beetle cabrio which I did back in 2019, although that doesn't do many miles.

It certainly makes it a nicer place to work when its nice and clean underneath

That's it, if you can work on Beetles you can work on D3's

Queue is behind me lads

[MikkiJayne]

I think you might have missed the most important part of that sentence

The fuel line rubbers cleaned up nicely in Evaporust, so then I soaked them in Autoglym rubber conditioner for a while and then put them back on the car with new clips and hardware





The paint is finally dry on the subframe so I put the engine and gearbox on it, ready to go back in the car