the forgotten project

Been a barren year for the Austin, not one drive out this year at all. Never got round to getting its MOT renewed summer one year ago when i had other things to be worrying about, this year was full of many false starts and i eventually decided in August that i just wasn't going to get it back on the road this year. So out came the axle stands and angle grinder so i could finally get to grips with what little rust there is. I took a welding course earlier this year but could do with getting myself an actual welder so i can get started properly.

Still as you all know already, preparation is almost important as the actual fix, right?

Many hours spent scraping off the old underseal, which has done a wonderful job it has to be said, revealed the lots of nice shiny metal and a few bits of grot, and once you start there is no turning back, keep cutting until all the rust is gone, it's the only way.

Don't build them like they used to thats for sure, lots of lovely mud traps in old cars like this. But they did actually have some idea. Here is what may be described as the forerunner to a plastic wheel arch liner. A steel plate tack welded over the end of the sill stopping the worst of 45 years worth or road muck getting where it shouldn't be....anyway, it needed to come off so i could reach the real rust.

voila!

revealing the end of the sill and what needed to be cut out.

and this is what i'm left with.
I have made cardboard templates to fill the gaps and have cut out the patterns from sheet steel and started forming the bits i need, pics to follow, just got to remember to charge the camera up, doh.

Go faster stripes II

As you would expect and as i'd hoped there hasn't been much to report in the world of The Pasta Wagon, until i put some go faster strips down the side. Doh!
As you probably remember i did this before with TFW, the difference this time, i did it going backwards. The concrete pillar just crept up and jumped out behind me. Luckily not as bad as first appearances and it all polished out without too much drama. No after photo you'll just have to take my word for it.

A couple of things that have been bothering me since i bought the car, firstly is the rear number plate, it was hanging on with one bolt something which i temporarily remedied with good old stickybacked velcro for the summer. Somebody had previously bodged the fixings and indeed attempted to drill one of them out so the mounting points were mangled, useless and more annoyingly rusty. Something had to be done. I'd been putting it off a bit as i knew it would be time consuming as the tailgate trim needed to come off first. I removed the remains of the the previous fixings and sanded down around the mounting hole, rummaged through my box of nuts, bolts and washers and came up with something better and more permanent than velcro.
I'll have to give it a top coat in a few days as the rust killer had to dry for 6 hours or so. So it's all still in pieces for now.

The second thing that has been bugging me is a bit of plastic trim by the wheel arch not quite sitting right and removal did indeed reveal a broken clip, an email to the local VW dealer and two are on order for next week.

Re-badged

The Pasta wagon finally got it's re-bagding (you didn't think i'd do it did you?) If i'm going to drive a bland Eurobox i've got to have some fun.

Rattle can

It was only a matter of time before i heard a strange noise from the pasta wagon, just that i wasn't expecting it to be this soon. The noise has probably been there all the time just that i hadn't noticed it until now for the simple reason that i haven't driven with the windows down until this week. A rattling noise from the right front (passenger side for me) when going over bumpy surface (common for the ice and salt attacked road surfaces here). A bit of haphazzard testing showed that it disappeared if i put the brakes on. So once home a quick inspection of the front brake caliper showed the problem. (no need to remove the wheel either as the caplipers are easy to see since i have the summer alloy wheels on now).

spot the difference...

somewhere along the line the capliper and brake pads have lost their retaining spring, not really a big deal but the pads rattle in the caliper without it.
The solution is a new one of course and now that i live in the part of town known as bilbyen (the car city) i have a VW dealer just 10 mins walk up the road. NOK 60 seems a bit steep for a bent bit of wire though.

Not had chance to fit it but yet hopefully i wont find more problems when i come to put it on.

The end

TFW has now moved on to pastures new and and the blog will from now on become known as The Pasta Wagon.

So much for TFW being an old mans car it was bought by a young whippersnapper of just 20. Yet again i managed to get more when selling a used car than when i bought it, maybe i'm in the wrong business.
It was bought in october 2007 for kr 8500 and i managed to get rid now for kr 11 000 Admittedly i've used a bit of cash on it just keeping it going but it needed to go now as the tax is due for 2009 which costs kr 3 127 so all in all i'm content.
We'll be very sorry to see it go, it's done us proud during the time we've owned it but it was time to move on up, or down depending on your point of view. A merc to a VW i'm worried i'm getting a thing for German cars.

I converted this.......

to this....

and since my car is now really just a rolling computer i'm going to spend some of it getting one of these just so i can feel that i'm still in control of fixing my own transport and not totally at the mercy of the VW stealership.

Pushing buttons on a computer can't possibly be as much fun as wielding the spanners but got to give it a go eh?

Made the Pasta Wagon a bit more acceptable to me by ditching the plastic wheel trims. It'll soon be time to put the summer wheels on anyway but they just had to go.

Bye bye character filled easy to fix Fat Wagon; hello bland Euro Box aka The Pasta Wagon.

The end

TFW has now moved on to pastures new and and the blog will from now on become known as The Pasta Wagon.

So much for TFW being an old mans car it was bought by a young whippersnapper of just 20. Yet again i managed to get more when selling a used car than when i bought it, maybe i'm in the wrong business.
It was bought in october 2007 for kr 8500 and i managed to get rid now for kr 11 000 Admittedly i've used a bit of cash on it just keeping it going but it needed to go now as the tax is due for 2009 which costs kr 3 127 so all in all i'm content.
We'll be very sorry to see it go, it's done us proud during the time we've owned it but it was time to move on up, or down depending on your point of view. A merc to a VW i'm worried i'm getting a thing for German cars.

I converted this.......

to this....

and since my car is now really just a rolling computer i'm going to spend some of it getting one of these just so i can feel that i'm still in control of fixing my own transport and not totally at the mercy of the VW stealership.

Pushing buttons on a computer can't possibly be as much fun as wielding the spanners but got to give it a go eh?

Made the Pasta Wagon a bit more acceptable to me by ditching the plastic wheel trims. It'll soon be time to put the summer wheels on anyway but they just had to go.

Bye bye character filled easy to fix Fat Wagon; hello bland Euro Box aka The Pasta Wagon.

New car ???

So me being me i had to start taking the new car apart, just to see how it fits together and to fix the things that other people hadn't. A quick 30 minute job was to hoik the battery and the battery tray out and scoop up all the decaying matter hidden underneath, the bunged up drain holes cause wet footwells in the front a common problem on this model of Passat according to the good old t'internet. (no pics as i forgot my camera but there was a good compost pit going on as the drain holes were well and truly bunged up)

The next task was the pollen filter, now this car has supposedly been serviced relatively recently, spot the old and the new....

does this look like and newish filter to you??

Still have to say that i'm pretty chuffed with it so far, quite a quantum leap forward for me so the following things that most other car owners take for granted are real luxuries: a CD player with four speakers! windows that go up and down ....electrically too. Getting used to a manual gearbox again is the thing but a few forgotten clutch dips soon gets you focused again.
and the name the i finally came up with a name,... how's Pasta Wagon.... purely because i can drop an 's' rearrange the letters of Passat and make a real word. the rear hatch will soon to be showing this title, and don't think that i wont do it, cos i will. Watch out for the official naming ceremony soon.