Author Topic: PROJECT CAR: Vento Coupe (Read 373544 times)

Filx · « **Reply #20 on:** July 20, 2008, 06:42:16 pm »

Arriving at the workshop yesterday morning I was greeted by various sections of Mk3 Golf. John had gone crazy with the cutters on Friday and dismembered the donor Golf

This is why you have to love Mk3s - you wouldn't really cut up a Mk1 or even a Mk2 possibly as they're getting a bit rare while Mk4s onwards are probably a bit valuable still.

Here's one of the sides at the start of the morning.

After some planning, discussing, measuring it was in to the arduous task of drilling out spot welds. Essentially we wanted to pick the outer skin off so when we do the same to Vento we can graft the Golf side on in as factory a manner as possible.

This is not fun work but a few hours later we got left with 2 outer skins as per the below

And the inner bits left over that are now in the bin looked a bit like this

80 Vert · « **Reply #21 on:** July 20, 2008, 06:47:41 pm »

And for the record Phil, yes I would cut up a MK1 or MK2 in the same way!

NasTnaS · « **Reply #22 on:** July 20, 2008, 07:30:09 pm »

good stuff guys, Big ups to the team, for taking on a project of this size!

Filx · « **Reply #23 on:** July 20, 2008, 08:15:09 pm »

Thanks Nasty!

Edited my post now also re cutting a Mk1 or Mk2

We also drilled and split a donor roof skin off the side rails as it has an OEM tilt slide sunroof in it that will be fitted to the project. Pictures of that next week as I forgot to take any pics.

80 Vert · « **Reply #24 on:** July 24, 2008, 05:13:07 pm »

Had a spare couple of hours today to start picking the side off the Vento, It will never be the same again!

The C pillar area is going to be a bit tricky to get right first time, some carefull measuring will be needed here to make sure it comes out right. I may just decide on the rear window shape before the qtr panel gets welded on.
I decided to leave the roof on for now to stop the whole thing caving in, the roof is supported from the tunnel to the rain gutter area. I also added a brace from left to right and these will be cut out again later.
The air saw makes light work of it, the bulk gets cut away and then the spotwelds ground through leaving a nice panel to weld to.

RS ZWEI · « **Reply #25 on:** July 25, 2008, 07:21:28 am »

Quote from: vert1 on July 24, 2008, 05:13:07 pm

Had a spare couple of hours today to start picking the side off the Vento, It will never be the same again!
The C pillar area is going to be a bit tricky to get right first time, some carefull measuring will be needed here to make sure it comes out right. I may just decide on the rear window shape before the qtr panel gets welded on.
I decided to leave the roof on for now to stop the whole thing caving in, the roof is supported from the tunnel to the rain gutter area. I also added a brace from left to right and these will be cut out again later.
The air saw makes light work of it, the bulk gets cut away and then the spotwelds ground through leaving a nice panel to weld to.

I love your madness John

80 Vert · « **Reply #26 on:** July 26, 2008, 07:31:01 pm »

ONE SIDE IS DONE! watch this space!

gti vr6 · « **Reply #27 on:** July 27, 2008, 07:31:50 am »

I'm watching it ... watching watching.... $:-\$

PICS!! ?

80 Vert · « **Reply #28 on:** July 27, 2008, 03:16:21 pm »

Patience Grasshoppa!

Filx · « **Reply #29 on:** July 27, 2008, 05:36:52 pm »

John had done a bit of work on the car during the week and here is where we started on Sat morning. This is the Golf side clamped in place to test fit after a lot more measuring and cutting. At this stage the rear of the golf body side is overlapping the Ventos.

A quick shot from the inside of the C pillar area cut away. Most of the inner C pillar will need to be fabricated as the Golf and Vento is very different. And as discussed we want to go with a reshaped window so all of this area will be all custom anyway.

It was then a matter of cutting the rear part of the shells and preparing them for mating together. Ooooooh yeah, it's business time

Here is a shot of the join tacked together in preparation for the slow process of welding them up. I learned with welding panels introducing as little heat as possible is the way to go so they don't buckle. That means welding a bit, leaving it to cool down, come back and do a bit more. Not that I'm doing the welding as my main role during this process is to hold the light - something I'm pretty pleased about as it's tricky work requiring a lot of skill and tonnes of patience!

The the join at the top of the door and the sill also needed welding - here's John hard at work. And yep, that floor is just as uncomfortable as it looks.

More grinding! Good fun!

At the same time as this John was also re spot welding all the body seams along the sills and wheel arch, as well as the inner seams. In several places we seam welded the seam as well as spot welding it to add as much strength as possible.

Here's a shot of the join in the sill 90% finished

Here's the top of the C pillar coming together

And another. Note the masking tape on the cardboard gives an indication of how we want to the C pillar design to go (the cardboard is there to protect the windows from grinding sparks, etc)

We will be doing some subtle smoothing where we can. So we dug out the filler from that ugly join under the tail lights

And welded it up on each side! Smooth

And here is where we finished up for the day. There's still a lot of work to be done bit it's on and in place. The door fits nice and the gaps are nice. We put a bit more masking tape on to play around with window ideas. Not exactly super clear but below is a few shots for comparison between stock and a slightly fatter pillar.

SteveC · « **Reply #30 on:** July 27, 2008, 06:33:56 pm »

congratulations gentlemen, it's coming together well,

going to look quite long & sleek

AngleBox · « **Reply #31 on:** July 27, 2008, 06:44:34 pm »

Getting that C pillar sorted is going to be a mission. There's a few elements that need to come together in order for the rear window to improve the vehicles profile and make it look integrated and 'factory correct'.

DubMan · « **Reply #32 on:** July 27, 2008, 10:23:05 pm »

looking real goooooooood guys! somebody create an award for these guys in what they do cuase they bloody well deserve it! well done

dubstar · « **Reply #33 on:** July 28, 2008, 07:38:22 am »

Could you not just 'cut' the factory glass to the shape/size you want?

gti vr6 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 28, 2008, 07:39:17 am »

Quote from: dubstar on July 28, 2008, 07:38:22 am

Could you not just 'cut' the factory glass to the shape/size you want?

Once its made safety glass cannot be cut....

Filx · « **Reply #35 on:** August 04, 2008, 09:16:33 pm »

A short update from last Saturday. We had a great day on the car - John had done some work on Friday arvo to remove the B pillar here was what greeted us on Sat morning.

The fuel filler neck and door on the drivers side add a bit of a challenge. As this adds a lot of complexity we decided to leave the Vento one in place and cut around it. here's a couple of shots pre the final trim.

We then hung the door to check measurements before proceeding with mocking up the Golf sides. Note in this pic the guard is only resting in place and is not lined up.

We then lined up the side of the Golf on the body and scribed out the cut lines. Then it was a matter of removing the side again and cutting out the correct shape, flanging the panels and refitting. Sounds easy in practice but there's a good chunk of work in getting it right. The key is loads of measurements and aside from a small 3mm trim on the bottom sill it all dropped into place beautifully.

The on to the welding, welding, and more welding - but after pushing hard to get as much of it done as possible we ended the day with 90% of the welding done and the drivers side essentially on as per below.

Getting this far has really been an awesome feeling. Sure there is loads of hard stuff to come, most notably recreating the C pillar area, but are going better than we thought we would and from my perspective it's been fantastic fun to be involved with the build. I've learned an absolute sh/tload of new stuff already.

Rear window glass though is looking like it'll be nearly impossible to get made in NZ. We are investigating the lexan options. Not ideal but kind of goes with the street racer theme. Plus gives us loads of scope for spare "glass" and coming up with whatever shape works best. So we'll see how we go.

Next steps after that are investigate the roll cage options, work on getting the roof done, start fitting the dash, finish the body work (and the endless list of other little things to do

Woooohooooooooo - bring it on!)

80 Vert · « **Reply #36 on:** August 05, 2008, 04:45:51 pm »

A few hours of playtime today resulted in:
Look Ma, no roof!!

This enabled me to finish welding the inner structure on the roofline where the sides were joined and also fill all the holes left from drilling the old roof off. One of the support braces for the roofpanel was glued onto the sunroof skin so I removed this and welded it back onto the car in the correct spot as it will be near impossible to weld it correctly otherwise.
A quick trial fit of the Golf roof confirmed that everything is going to fit as predicted and although way too long it will fit nice once trimmed.

Should be able to do a bit more tomorow hopefully and see the roof welded back in place with abit of luck.

gti vr6 · « **Reply #37 on:** August 05, 2008, 05:19:47 pm »

Looks good, didn't think the golf roof would be so much longer... Plenty to play with.

rambo_005 · « **Reply #38 on:** August 05, 2008, 05:23:01 pm »

Is that the roof off the VR6?

SteveC · « **Reply #39 on:** August 05, 2008, 06:37:07 pm »

a thought on the side windows, why not leave them uncut and sandwich them either side with the extended C pillar inside & out, filling the gap to the glass with a rubber sealing strip?

I hope this pragmatic suggestion doesn't offend your artistic sensibilities

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Author Topic: PROJECT CAR: Vento Coupe (Read 373544 times)

SteveC

SteveC