Today I continued with the door, window glass, runners and frame alignment. No mean feat chasing your self in circles but I got there in the end.
Starting with holding a plastic 12” rule down the front edge of the door to front wing I adjusted the hinges and lock striker plates to get the fit right. Next the front ali window posts and quarterlights were pulled in at the top using the adjuster at their base so that the quarterlight glass met the up and over windscreen pillar seal evenly.
Next with soapy water on the glass to lubricate the scraper seal I wound the window up and down to get the best position for the M8 bolt in the nylon block on the bottom of the glass that holds it into the winder arm.
Then I adjusted the rear vertical channels again to get the glass (when wound up) to close evenly against the rear roll bar seal. I then looked at the glass side on where it meets the roll bar seal and noticed it was a tiny bit out of parallel, so undid the M6 bolt on the top of the front ali window post and gave it a tiny nudge rearwards before nipping up. After which I went back around all pivot points to double check everything. Last of all I then adjusted the travel stops on the winder mechanism to set the maximum glass height without over shooting the ali post rubber tops, then completed by tapping over the ali channels to clamp the up & over and roll bar window seals in place.
A few hours went by but the jobs done now.
After a cuppa I fitted the recently painted sill covers using all new plastic rivets, stainless bolts and Acme screws. They took a little adjusting and persuasion but went on well and look lovely!
The little VW plastic rivets were a bit of a pain to knock the pins down, but after working out that if you pull the pin from the rivet and put the tiniest bit of oil on the pin; they knock in far easier.
I then fitted the two polished up threshold plates but found that although the rivets fit through the plastic plate the holes in the car are ever so slightly (by about 0.3mm too small) I’d not had the problem on the sill covers as presumably the PO had drilled them out when the fitted metal pop rivets in the past. After running a 3.4mm drill down all the holes, followed by paint on a modellers brush I had a quick cuppa while it dried. Just in case any rust was going to get in there I waxoiled all the holes for good measure and fitted the threshold plates and remaining plastic rivets.
Next to go on was a new stainless steel radio aerial. A new grommet was fitted under the wheel arch and the cable fed along its original route before plugging into the back of the radio.
With the car pushed out of the garage for most of today it was the first time I had been able to stand back and view it. I’d noticed the front valance where it met the bottom of the bumper was a little out of alignment. One side I could see ¼” blue through the gap, the other virtually none. As that wouldn’t do… I set about un-screwing and manipulating to a perfect fit. Not bad really considering the mess it was in when I bought the car. After an hour it was all back on and perfectly aligned.
Last of all this evening I fitted the rear tow eye plug in the bumper to complete the lower section of the car.
With lawns to mow and a need for food I called it a day.
