The eventual Front shock tower repair......

[srgtlord]

So eventually the front shock towers of any car will rust out. I know eventually I will need to take on this task considering my 1987 golf has 325000 miles on it . Any pics of a repaired shock tower or advice on taking on this in depth task is greatly appreciated.

[R.O.R-2.0]

So eventually the front shock towers of any car will rust out. I know eventually I will need to take on this task considering my 1987 golf has 325000 miles on it . Any pics of a repaired shock tower or advice on taking on this in depth task is greatly appreciated.

i just recently realised that the mk2 strut towers rust out.. im going to be cutting the strut/shock towers out of all the mk2s i scrap from here on out..

my 85 GTI had 375k miles on it, and the strut towers are PERFECT. its an oregon car tho. no salt here. ive been really lucky with my last 3 vehicles, all original oregon cars..

84 rabbit was bought brand new in hillsboro oregon.
85 GTI was bought brand new in southern/central oregon..
86 was bought brand new in portland.

all 3 cars have lived their lives in oregon.. and never had salt. my 84 never even hardly saw rain till i got it.. it was garage kept most of its life..

anyways, i would be inclined to drill out the spot welds if the body metal is still in good enough shape to weld to..

if that dont work, i would repair more of the area, cut out a bigger piece from the donor car..

[ToddA1]

I've never had any issues with VW strut tower rust (in around 20 years) until I bought a truck, 2 Summers ago.

Drilling out the spot welds is a long and arduous task.  In those areas, the spot welds are large.... maybe 3/8" large. Getting everything apart cleanly is difficult; hammering and chiseling will be involved.  I did the patch method on my truck, but I had a scrap car to cut from.  Structural areas were plug and butt welded.  I'm not sure how bad your rust is, so it's hard to determine the approach I'd take. 

Invest in a few angle grinders, knotted and stringer wire wheels and a lot of 4.5" cut off wheels. 

-Todd

[CRSMP5]

IMO a 87 golf has a little "shelf life of retainment" as they made them from 85-92... the ability to pick up a clean but abused one should be simple..

now a caddy, jetta coupe, mk1 rocco, mk2 syncro.. stuff like that thats kinda odd/rair.. they have a little ok.. i need to save it type of thing... now dont get me wrong.. i can see 10 years from now some mk2 madness.. but currently.. nope.. so id check into a clean western/southern shell needing everything but body and its price vs fixing rot..

[theman53]

Big x2 on that. It was retarded what I did with my Jetta. I didn't want to spend the money on a rust free shell, but learing body work and all the time I had into it was WAY more money. Probably double or triple if I figured my time even at minimum wage. BUT I was determined to get my car on the road as the PO that sold it to me said I couldn't keep it on the road for more than a year and the wife said it looks hideous and it would never be a "nice" car...so the challenge was on.

So if your car is in great shape but those areas and you are attached to it, then you maybe justified to repair. I will not do it again if I could buy one cheaper.

[srgtlord]

I live in northern massachusetts, there are very few of these cars left in the area/ surrounding states. When they do appear people are selling them with about 200,000 miles.....

[theman53]

Same here, that is why I fixed mine last time. Now a drive to California doesn't seem so bad. I know I could find one closer but even if I couldn't I need a vacation.

[BigVWman]

We did a mk1 truck a many years back and again other side few years later. Usually the metal on those at the welds was too bad to save and i suspect most mk1 and mk2 would be very similar. It wasn't bad a sawzall some careful aligning of pieces, a weekend and a welder- good as new until a few more salty winters get at it! Now though after seeing how the rest of the world lives out of the salt belt i would go find one in another state, probably almost as easy as finding a good repair tower!

[bajacalal]

So eventually the front shock towers of any car will rust out.

What is this "rust" you speak of? I have never heard of such a thing.

[bajacalal]

IMO a 87 golf has a little "shelf life of retainment" as they made them from 85-92... the ability to pick up a clean but abused one should be simple..

now a caddy, jetta coupe, mk1 rocco, mk2 syncro.. stuff like that thats kinda odd/rair.. they have a little ok.. i need to save it type of thing... now dont get me wrong.. i can see 10 years from now some mk2 madness.. but currently.. nope.. so id check into a clean western/southern shell needing everything but body and its price vs fixing rot..

I think this is subject to some local variation. Mk2s are getting pretty thin around here, particularly the ones that weren't GTIs, people kept those because they are more desirable. Rust isn't the problem but the digifant injection system is prone to electrical troubles that are beyond most do-it-yourselfers who buy old cars (although really not that difficult, electrical is my favorite thing to do) and it's hard to get them to pass smog tests when they're not running right. Plus, you can pick up older Mercedes and BMWs around here for pretty cheap because they're common. Unfortunately, a 30 year old Benz is still a lot more comfortable than a 20 year old VW. I see A LOT of Cabriolets around here (this being California) and still a fair number of diesel Rabbits and good Caddys even turn up in the junkyards from time to time.