Decided the baja needed a custom headliner. The old one was in ok condition so I made a nice template from it in hardboard.
And the new headliner all stitched up in the same fabric as the rest of the interior. Lovely stuff.
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A very wet day yesterday cycling to and from the workshop.
I did manage to pretty much finish up all the last little repairs to the N/S front arch though. The O/S isn’t as bad as this so shouldn’t take quite as long!
The metal behind the washer bottle panel cleaned up quite nicely and only needed a small repair in the end. Rust treated with bilthamber deoxgel and hydrate80.
New washer bottle panel clamped, welded and ground flush just as my grinder died (new brushes I think).
I stupidly drilled holes in the wrong panel so had to weld the fuel filler recess from inside the boot. About as comfy as it looks!
I had to remove the brake fluid reservoir mount to properly repair the arch. While it was off the car I shot blasted and epoxied it.
All welded back in now.
The ends of the front engine bay panel had rusted through so I grafted in two new ends.
All removed from the car for a coat of epoxy.
A lot of fiddly repairs to make for the front arch.
Seal channel all repaired (made up from about 10 small panels).
Style line for the front wing had rusted through along a big section so used a rear arch repair panel to fix it.
I still need to repair the arch where it joins the front scuttle panel.
Lunchtime trip over to see @nosvw_vw_man to strip the IRS components from this knackered chassis. Came complete with vines, ants and woodlice 😎. Should clean up nicely for the baja.
Outstanding customer service from @kartek_off_road. California to Dorset in under 4 days!
I’ve a transaxle adapter for the baja so I can run the stronger bus gearbox, and the big bolts to fit as part of my IRS conversion. Next months job I think.
About half way there with repairing the top lip of the N/S front arch now.
To avoid repairing more than I need to I’ve started trial fitting the baja nose and bonnet. A bit more trimming and fine fitting to get it looking good but it’s nice to see it start looking a bit more “baja-ry”.
