A while ago I mentioned I found some hiddeen rust, well...

[shawn71]

it looks like it is worse than I first thought and being unable to weld have had to entrust it to a garage to do.



I found this bit behind the carpet in the front luggage area on my 412 sometime ago and have finally saved enough to get a guesstimate on a repair for it.

Left the car there and it now sounds like the fresh air box has suffered the same fate as many of the Type 3s on here I have read about lately, and is shot.

I need/want to pop down to the garage in the morning and get a few before and after shots of the work they propose doing. They mended my sons Golf with an invisible repair to the front scuttle so I trust their skill and the owner/head mechanic insist that if a job is worth doing he wants to do it properly the first time, which I agree with, as his reputation on the line if he does shoddy work. By the way they are a VW specialist mainly dealing with the Golf GTi's but look forward every now and again to working on the older classic aircooled Dubs we all love.

Now for the crunch he reckons somewhere near the £600 mark for the work...is this way to high or about right for the work involved? By the way the fuel tank needs to come out which means the front suspension needs removing along with the dash etc.

[cormac]

Im not up on what garages over ther charge, but have you ever taken the front suspension off your 412 its a big job, i had a leak in the fuel tank so i had to do it before. I was lucky that nothing broke etc. Then there is the dash C what some of the other lads think.

[Editor]

I suppose a lot of people might clean the rust off as thoroughly as they could and attempt a reasonable repair job with glassfibre. If it's allowing body movement the repair may break away. If it lasts until it needs more work, you've not really lost a lot - a bigger hole is often not much more trouble to patch.

It's behind carpet, so if it's not too neat a repair it won't show.

Considering the effort to get to the area properly and safely, I guess £600 isn't outrageous for the work to get access and the fairly easy repair when you get there. There's often more to do once you get to see the job properly.

[shawn71]

Forgot to take my camera with me but he has had a poke around and found another rather large rust hole inches from where the centre mount for the suspension so he will repair that as well.

Therefore the price might indeed go up a bit as I have asked him to repair anything he finds in and around these areas properly. The theory being it is already in bits so the job might as well be done once properly than have several bodges that will probably cost just as much in the long run.

This adds more weight to my arguement of needing to learn how to weld, one day when I have a garage to do it in and ...

[shawn71]

Spoke to the garage earlier on today and the rust has spread quite away under the bitumen soundproofing stuff in the front footwells. So far he has cut about a 20" X 4" piece out of the area under the front dash where water has laid for some time in this area extending as far as the accelarater (how do you spell that again?) pedal.

He is going to cut out the fresh air box from the inside under the dash and repair what he finds as he goes, depending how bad it is depends how far he needs to strip as he is concerned about hidden combustable material around the under dash area when he starts to weld in the new panels he has had to fabricate for the area around the fresh air box.

He has been taking pictures for me as the job developes so it will be interesting to see these when I get chance to get down there. I think the saving grace is the work is now being done that the car needed it is just a shame that she wasn't as solid as I first thought

Have just applied for a new credit card to pay for it when the work is finally finished

[Editor]

He sounds to be doing a good job. Never lose sight of the fact that professional restoration will never cost less than the vehicle's finished value! You're doing it for love.

[shawn71]

He sounds to be doing a good job. Never lose sight of the fact that professional restoration will never cost less than the vehicle's finished value! You're doing it for love.

Exactly! There are very few 412s on the road now as it is and I intend to keep this one going for a few more years yet

[shawn71]

Got it back today and it looks like they have done a good job on the welding BUT driving home I noticed the dreaded wheel wobble had returned and a knocking noise from underneath.

Investigated when I parked up at home and the centre link bolt had come loose and won't tighten back up, feels a bit like the captive nut has come adrift...he has just been out and collected it on the back of his truck to take it back and fix it

[shawn71]

It's fixed

Turns out the bolt they put back in was a tad short and not going in far enough into the "sliding" captive nut to do up tight enough to stay in.

[Editor]

Lucky you found it before it came right out then!