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Slight detour the last couple of weekends due mostly to broken off bolts – full discussion here:

http://www.vwsyncro.co.uk/data/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2320

However bolts mostly sorted and I’m nearly back on cleanign up the engine bay.

Stuck subframe bolt photos are now added too – along with captions on all recent pics.

http://www.vwsyncro.co.uk/?arc=KR_Into_syncro&page=19&size=3&tpxbasketid=&search=&sortby=filename&sortbydir=asc&cols=3&cmd=do_search&i=0&big=0&gotourl=&p=9.Photos_LD50%2F_&basket_params=&basket_params_index=&noflash=&video_or_image=

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that’s kinda what I meant danny – it’s self regulating to some degree in that new drivers will pay more – and especially for something with nos on it. When you first started driving you simply wouldn’t have been able to insure a turbo/nos car whereas now where (i presume) you have some NCB and a lot more experience insuring a turbo is no probs…self regulating based on experience.

so basically it is just the AA bleating…

What they don’t mention is that of those 500 young people who die in RTAs – how many of them have drink or other substances in their system or were just driving like twats – perhaps they should ban those things? oh they did – didn’t work…blame it on modded cars instead

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that’s not a bad idea – although isn’t that actually what happens already though already to some extent in that insurers make it expensive for cars with lots of bhp…

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sounds like another wel-thought-out argument lol.

SUVs all round! o/

I realised that at the end it says “there are no plans to change legislation at this time” so basically it’s just the AA having a whynge at having to tow broken cars home from Santa Pod.

Actually considering the RAC…

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that was the info I needed danny – here’s the news bit I think..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7987000/7987689.stm

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hmm ok well that’s not massively unreasonable… is that all?

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umm well it did have quite a long bar on it but there was rust around the subframe mounts and like it or not I have to get to it to treat it so the subframe was going to have to come off…

The bolt which broke was pitted with rust though – it looked more like foam-rubber than steel. I did wonder given that area seems to have jsut rusted into one block of steel – perhaps I can just tap a hole in it and job done

Clearly the early years this car spent trundling round the pennines didn’t do it any favours, although by the end of this I will be able to personally vouch for the integrity of every panel & section on this car, inside and out.

that’s actually only half the fun too – clearly someone else had snapped the other bolt on that side and decided that carving a hole in the floor from the inside “tin-opener” style to access the hole (to add a nut) would be fine and then rather than welding it shut again – they just pushed the flap of metal back flat and covered it with carpet …professionals at work LOL (but at least the bolt isn’t stuck!)

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ok so *more* broken off bolts…(well one).

I thought I’d up the ante a bit, this one’s one of the forward front-subframe bolts which go into a special nut inside the subframe mount so this is going to be quite interesting to say the least.

I’m hoping I can drill and re-tap because if I can’t – how the hell do I get the old nut out and the new one in… could I remove the mount by force and weld on a new one? A plethora of intrigue and drilling with crap falling in my face surely awaits…

A quick “wang some underseal in the engine bay for now” has turned slightly into a “full front-end resto” but I figure I may as well sort it all now and at least I’ll know it’s all bolted together properly.

Pics to follow once I find the usb cable for me phone…

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w00t – 2 for 2 … the drilling was *textbook*. I’ve never really had enormous success with that method but today it worked perfectly. eventaully the force of the drilling got the remaining bits of thread to move and after that I could gradually collapse and remove the remaining bits. The original thread in the aluminium is still though intact – winner!

That means I can get on with rustproofing the engine bay with a view to getting the motor in and only lost a day to the bolts. Cheers all round

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Welding worked perfectly on one – I did like you said with the slow wire feed and it worked perfectly.

The other one the weld didn’t take properly so came off, tried again and it stuck but the bolt broke off again clean at the surface so i guess we’re drilling but also not into weld since it broke off again…. if I can get both sorted today I’m nearly back on schedule cheers!

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ok that’s useful feedback …. I’ll try the weld first. I suppose that’s some pretty convincing heat for a bolt in any case so if anything’s going to break it free that will

cheers guys, I’ll post progress… I’m hoping this will only delay me by a weekend…

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hmm I’m thinking maybe go straight for the drill method. I had thought both the bolts had showed signs of turning but realistically that must have been the heads twisting off.

I don’t think it’s just my imagination – welds are generally harder/brittle than the orginal steel aren’t they? In which case if the weld approach does fail, I’d find myself in a scenario involving a river of excrement, a native indian water vessel and no means of propulsion….

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fair play, impressive stuff

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very slick danny – so you fit the prop afterwards then I guess? does that work with std RHD bulkhead? It looks like it’ll flow beautifully.

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