DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Mini weldathon later:



Apart from a couple of misfires through the plugs that didn’t penetrate it went ok.

New bottle of gas and no time pressures today make all the difference!

Now to grinding...

Nice work Gary.

Do you still have a day job?

Just about

This was supposed to be a two day holiday but that little car project we have to launch got in the way

Spot welding is so good when you can get in with the arms.
Good going as ever Gary.

I had to cut one of the tips down to fit into the inner flange. Even then it was tight.

Don’t tell the hire shop

Tidied up today ready to flip it over and do the floor. Also spotted the 47 yr old vipergrün paint label written on masking tape on the underside of the roof. Stuck on top of green paint just in case you couldn’t tell!

Are you going Beige then?

‘beigefarben’ was on another label but I’m ignoring that one

After hitting my hand with a club hammer last week trying to screwdriver off the front lower ball joint I bought the right tool!

Tip with this is to undo it before removing all the weight from the car as I nearly pulled it off the stands trying to get it off!

Front suspension is now off:

I’ve never stripped it down this far before.

I’m thinking maybe I need to buy some new wishbones...


It’s now ready to flip over, just need to find somewhere in the house to hide all the panels as they are taking up too much space.

That’ll buff out Gary

So many hours with a angle grinder my hands are tingling...

Kidney bowls have seen better days, looks like they have been patched at some point.



Inner wing is pretty good (other than the massive hole at the bottom!) Small repair needed above the filler hole, but nothing as bad as some cars I’ve seen.

The A pillar has a welded in patch that’s under original underseal and green paint. Not sure what’s going on there, maybe a previous dealer rust repair in the days when it was still valuable!

Floors are as bad as expected. All coming out!

No too bad, I expected far worse!

Done a few little jobs over the last couple of days, grabbing time when the Xmas guilt levels are stable!

First job was to repair the inner wing, not exactly invisible mending.



Then I cut the bottom off the wing support panel as I didn’t want to remove the whole thing but need to fix the bottom of the A post. New flanges needed both sides. So this is ready to go back on at some distant point in the future!



I noticed then inner wing around the battery box looked pushed in. I guess it’s had a minor bump that hit the back of the box.

Two taps with my larger persuader and it was straight again.

Last job before Xmas was to replace the other side of the wing support. All looks ok and even fits the new sill.

A surprising amount of this car is galvanised, you can see the patchy finish on the wing support where some of it has gone.

It’s lucky as it’s made from steel no thicker than a biscuit tin!

Nice steady progress Gary, looking very good

It feels slightly strange not to have mine in the garage at the moment, but plenty of chores to do while it's on holiday