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Depends if there’s access or not… Generally I strip metal to its bare state using belt sander, die grinders of various, flap discs and that extremely dangerous ‘twisted knot’ wire wheel. If it’s got a few micro black dots of ( by then) polished rust with a Rust converter. They are all about the same although I mainly use Kurust as its a small bottle in case it get contaminated. I give it three coats as one does nothing really to help. Then etch it or epoxy and subject to where it is either cavity wax or a proper paint repair. It’s all about stopping oxygen getting to the metal. Be careful about burning any sealers by bare metal as they form acid and immediately start rust within 12hrs!! Take a few scabs for instance on any upper body panels, if you prep it well and grind out as much as you can, then rust convert, then touch up you can get easily five years before it lightly ‘spiders’!!

M

Here's me thinking I was done. Never had a cedar before, Raven just isn't finding itself.

This is the NSF A post lower with Corsa C sills fitted

I’ve had to hand make all body components. That’s regarding mine (arosa) and also I’m just doing a customers arosa too. The customer (after owning it a decade) is having a 1.9 TDI 150bhp 6speed so the car is very special to him although it’s one of the worst examples of rot I’ve ever seen and I did point it out before the new conversion took place. His car is also modded to fit ‘Corsa C’ side skirts therefore it now has Corsa C sills with matching front wing bottoms which has now a second swage line merged in. It was a real labour of love I can tell you but not all Lupo’s and Arosas are this bad as a base luckily. As for repair panels the common rear wing/surrounding arch panel available isn’t super brilliant and needs bumper tabs making as it’s not included. With that expect to do inner arch fabrication to mate up to the outer arch. The floors tend to be good although there’s a link panel full length that closes the gap between floor and sill which goes very thin and needs to be made from templates. Onto ‘A’ posts, the lower skins (at sill level) need to be checked, that’s behind the wing bottoms as those are a tricky shape to remake. As for sills themselves, I’ve hand rolled short repair sections for my own as I can do it quickly so can’t comment on quality of availability. Same corner, half way through new repair

It got worse - chap I’ve got it in with sent me a 6 min video today. Basically needs everything halfway up the sill onwards rebuilt on the passenger side, battery tray is rotten too and some important bits at the rear end also need sorting. Reckons it’s had a smack at some point and a poor repair has failed, causing all of this, he’s removed loads of filler and on the video there are patches of previous welding work. Long story short is I’m probably in for circa £3k worth of metalwork. Car will then need a full respray (paintwork is shagged all over), rear brakes are seized and brake lines need replacing, probably be some other more minor bits for an MOT too. So maybe £6-7k total if I’m lucky? Makes the total cost around £10k. I know ravens are extremely rare but I’m not convinced this will be a £10k car even with the above work done. Alternative is to break it and hopefully recoup around what I paid for it then buy yet another black one that’s been well looked after and maintained…

IMG_0185.HEICBeam has been sanded & painted, and I have acquired brand new: Wheel Bearings Brake Lines Disc dust shields Brake discs Brake Pads Calipers Along with replacing all the bolts / nuts that I can. Bushes on the rear beam have also been replaced. I spent a lot of time trying to find the rear stub axle bolts as they are no longer available from VW (M8x40 with captive washer - "hexagon head bolt combi" ). FYI anyone up against the same then note that N90886301 is no longer available however WHT003853 is an exact match and can be bought relatively cheaply (£3 each if buying 4 or more). I guess any grade 10.9 M8x40 would work but I like the OEM route. Next job now is I have noticed some surface rust appearing on the dropouts on the body where the beam mounts. I will wire wheel this down and apply a protective coating. I'm going to reassemble the rest of the brakes etc. when the beam is mounted again to ensure I can torque everything up properly. IMG_0185.HEIC.

Resolved (fingers crossed)! Replaced the switch late last year but symptoms only arrived when the car and the air temperature was really hot, so only been able to check to see in the recent spell of hot weather and it's still okay. Original part number was 038 919 081 C, now fitted 038 919 081 K presumably a revision.

Hi guys, sorry for my english jajaja. Arosa 1.4 100cv modded to 122 with some mods.

I am going to be honest. I severely doubt Vw will help with this request unfortunately. But it is a situation i have been keeping a eye on for a while. To my knowledge the only manufacturers that have produced 205/45 are listed below. Dunlop - Not been avalaible since the early 2010s Toyo - (reason for this thread) Starmaxx - (has cropped up on the odd occasion but similar issues to Toyo - https://www.autodoc.co.uk/tyres/starmaxx-8680830010756-56110) So where does this leave us? Very little options. Realistically if you really want 205/45/r15 i think the only option going forward is to speak to a tyre specialist (think Longstone tyres or Blockley tyres). These are people that supply tyres for classic cars. But if a case could be made for them to produce 205/45/r15 then it could be a possiblity. To think about it. Around 6000 lupo gtis where produced. (thats at least 24000 tyres), thats before considdering the same wheels where used on the Citigolf. Plus other cars maybe out there i am not aware of use this size tyre. So a case for supplying this size tyre may be viable for a smaller manufacturer? Otherwise go to 195/45/r15

I can't find a cedar on the marketplace. 6n wheels from the SDI have been moved over, process of removing the bumper corners has started, if you zoom in you can see the Spanish drum brakes that I also swapped over, mmmmm. Done a sneaky sneaky little upgrade, probably the only one I'll ever actually do. Sdi has now moved onto pastures new. I don't do enough miles and windy needs it more. not really gone though, one of those cars. Besides, the wheels are awful now.

Those repairs look spectacular. It looks like we're not a million miles from you so depending on how our consultations go we might be in touch for some advice/estimates.

Our TDi is showing its age with some very bubbly looking front wings, and bodged rear wing/sill repairs. We'd like to show it we still care and get this rectified properly, but what panels and repair parts have people used and were they decent quality. I know we could source some from a breaker but we'd rather use new if possible.

On the top pic, "rear wheel arch front section" that must have been a huge amount of work, as there are, what, 4 or 5 panels coming together there? Very common rust prone area because of the way they designed a mud trap there. I peel off the schutsch layer and soak it in wax. Drying it first with a hair dryer... Every Lupo/Rosa.

@tigcraft... take the podium... 😎👍🏻

This is what I’ve done for the moment, but I haven’t actually mounted the beam on the car yet. Next time I’d just grab some proper self‑tappers, or weld the bracket on and make a better bracket while I’m at it.

Step in @tigcraft... 👍🏻