VW Cabriolet Help (damage repair)

It can be done if the frame rail is okay but you'll need a new fender, inner fender, front panel, headlight, bumper, grill, paint, etc.

Make a list of all the parts you think you'll need and then think will it be worth the effort and money?

SFC

"Spectre90Cabrio" schreef in bericht news:z9mdnaprtMSGXW7YnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

I worked on a Cabriolet that kept popping the outer CV Joint aloose. STRANGE. I found that the sub-frame horn on the Left Side had mostly broken free. This allowed the entire LS Control Arm to be pulled away from the car almost. At rest there seemed to be no damage. This car looked beautiful but it needed to go to the frame shop for welding. The frame shop had to call me to ask "What's wrong?" since they saw no visible damage. The damaged occurred after hitting a very large pot-hole here in Chicago. We usually grow these pot-holes in the wintertime! lol

Have it checked very well BEFORE you spend any $$$$$ on it.

JMHO

A few things, offered without sarcasm, but suggesting some mental images so as to make the point.

A) Do you understand the term "Sashay"?

If your vehicle 'frame' is wracked, that is exactly what you will be doing with this vehicle. And as the line-of-thrust will not be along the center of mass, any hard braking or avoidance maneuvers will put you and your passengers at risk. Not to mention excessive tire wear and the car being a 'wanderer' during even normal driving.

So, the very first thing you should do is make sure that the vehicle geometry is correct such that your contemplated repairs are worthwhile. Even a light, scraping impact may affect geometry, so take this seriously. Add to this a *compete* check of the suspension system and parts, *BOTH SIDES*. A tie-rod or yoke (wishbone) just may be a wee-bit bent. Or not.

B) "... creating a brace.": Yikes... the presumption is that you wish to drive the finished product on public roads. Almost as important as geometry (and part-and-piece of it, actually) are the general 'harmonics' of the vehicle for lack of a better word. This affects vibrations, response to bumps and irregularities in the road, pot- holes and so forth, down to such tiny details as the flow of air across, under and around the vehicle. Adding (or deleting) structural members without some level of expertise is ill-advised at least.

Bottom Line: You have two choices.

1. Bite the bullet and take it to a body shop to get it 'done right' the first time. They will remove the bad, fix with good, verify the geometry, check the suspension, perform a 4-wheel alignment and all will be well. It's only money.

1. Do that part of it that you can yourself. After which, you will then promise yourself and those around you to put it on an alignment rack. If you are unbelievably lucky, all it will need is a 4-wheel alignment and all is well. If not, you will once more have to bite the bullet and get it set properly on a frame-rack.

Good luck with it in any case.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

First off, thank you very much for a very thoughtful post, and a helpful one.

Let me give you the answers as succintly and without any sort of barbs or sarcasm:

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote in news:1173623175.968206.322710 @s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

In its basic form yes. It is one of the reasons when we rebuild that side, we have to make sure it is as exact as possible. When i said support, trust me when i say i dont mean anything light or cosmetic. I mean essentially rebuilding the inner fender on that side.

Actually, as deummb as it sounds, we have taken it aroumd the block with that fender off (not the sub"inner" fender, just the external which was crushed) and it seemed to drive very straight, and brake well, though i admit we didnt do it at any great speed.

And not to sound sarcastic, but a bit glib about it: We all have to learn sometime. BTW, this isnt the first CAR we have rebuilt, just the first Cabriolet. It is the first Unibody i have tried though (older frame on body were so much easier)

Its 4500 by estimate of the shops (and that was the cheapest i found from someone reputable, there seems to be an "import = charge a sh*tload" mentality here in Denver), and if you have 4500 lying about, by all means, i would be happy to do it. But that i do not have.

That is the part we will have to do. As we have looked closer, it seems that we might be able to actually just take an inner fender off another cabrio/Mk1 golf....im fuzzy on the golf type, becuase i don't know if the front section is the Mk1 or Mk2 aspect.

An alignment is an absolute. Even if it takes us a year or more, we will make sure this is done right, without sloppy work. WE are just trying to get insight from people here who may have repaired similar damage before.

Thank you

The frame rail was untouched by the accident, and is still straight. if you look on the pic, you can see that the shock tower has some separation from the inner fender along the weld. That is the point i absolutely want reinforced when we do this. I don't want that shock popping off in the middle of driving (that would be kind of bad mojo, no?)

we actually are going to pick up a comprehensive manual soon, do you know of a good one for repair? Hayes usually isnt very good for body rebuilds in general, i have noticed (or is it just me?)

I am almost thinking an entired reinforced sub member (to stiffen the front) would be prudent, even if we do a complete rebuild. We have a couple auto salvage yards around here that are cheap for getting body parts for cars.

I just have to figure out compatible Golf/rabbit front parts.

"SFC" wrote in news:45f3d445$0$535$ snipped-for-privacy@news.kpnplanet.nl:

Don't look for golf 2 parts. These had subframe's. It's most compatible with the golf 1 '74-'83.

SFC

"Spectre90Cabrio" schreef in bericht news:Xns98F082A31DD6Dspectrewlfcomcastnet@216.196.97.136...