Shop Life 2.0

[HipMF]

Managed to get the front end back together Saturday. Did work stuff on Sunday (boooo!).

#shoplife

Front coil-over adjusters are as low as they can go and there's a little shy of 2 inches of travel left. Tires hit the front of the wheel opening when turning at ride height. Would probably hit all of the things at full compression. Rear coilover adjuster could go a half inch lower, but the wheel arch is pretty much resting on the tire already. Still has 3 inches of travel left. At this height there's no camber, so it really needs to go 1-1.5 inches lower in the rear just to make it handle right. Sooo..... pretty much what I was going for.

I'll give the fender roller a try, just for novelty's sake, but will probably have to do flares just to make it driveable. Much work left.

[HipMF]

I made this!

10 WIBimmers Prize Points for anyone who can tell me why it will never work for it's intended purpose.

[Jdesign]

HipMF said:

I made this!

10 WIBimmers Prize Points for anyone who can tell me why it will never work for it's intended purpose.

Not NPT threads?

[GunMetalGrey]

Kind of hard to tell but it looks like your threads are left hand.
I'm impressed you made that lol.

[jc43089]

Threads are backwards.  Only for use in the southern hemisphere.

[HipMF]

Yep, they're backwards. *facepalm*

[HipMF]

last test fit. time to weld some shit.

[B C]

That looks real good

[Bassboy3313]

Awesome!!!!!

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[HipMF]

Full compression achieved.

I got about two thirds of the way done welding it before realizing that I was warping the crap out the quarter panel. It's more or less a big flat sheet once you cut the wheel arch off, so it's pretty flimsy and it doesn't take much to mess it up. Cut out half the welding that I did and started again. Ended up with a huge gap to fill between the wheel arch and quarter panel. Realized what I was doing was stupid and cut the whole thing back off. It took a lot checking, wedging, clamping, re-checking, and cooling the panel down after every quarter inch of weld, but I managed to get it on there while keeping everything pretty straight. Turned out pretty well actually.

It needs a little rolling and/or trimming, but it should be a no-rub situation when it's done. Started working on reattaching the inner fenderwell to the outer, but haven't figured out how to stuff myself into the wheelwell so that I can actually see what I'm doing.

Enjoying a well-deserved beer. Almost halfway done!

[Daggerty]

Great job any thoughts on what youre going to paint the inside with?

[HipMF]

Daggerty said:

Great job any thoughts on what youre going to paint the inside with?

Inside the wheelwells? Probably just seam-seal the welds and spray bomb. It's a fair-weather machine, so I'm not too worried about it.

I'll probably get a quart of paint mixed up for the outside once everything is done. Since I've decided to put the turbo off another year, I'll be doing body work stuff this winter. Finishing the flares, deleting the side trim, marker lights, etc.

Need to figure out what to with the ugly rear valence too...

[Daggerty]

My questions have been answered

[Bassboy3313]

Rear Euro Valance FTW

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[YoungCR]

Great work! I really need to learn to weld...

[Jdesign]

That looks amazing. What are those flares from? I bet you were cringing the first few cuts.

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

That looks amazing. What are those flares from? I bet you were cringing the first few cuts.

The flares are patch panels for a mk i golf. I actually cut the depth down about an inch. No clue why a golf has such large wheel arches, but I'm not complaining. Plus you can get them for about $28 each, which is stupid cheap. Quality is about what you'd expect for that price though.

After how discouraged I got dealing with the mess I made by cutting out the subframe, hacking out the wheelwells was definitely a "Why am I doing this to myself again?" moment. It's a fair amount of work, but I think I should be able to handle it this time.

[Earl]

I love how they look on 2002's so this will be just as good, if not better=) You're making one hell of an e21!

[Jdesign]

I agree. It looks amazing and it will all be worth it in the end!

[HipMF]

I left the welding for another day, but the second side is going a lot faster than the first. I even took some pics this time.