86 Jetta build

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Are the carpets new, new or used new? Hard to tell from the pic. Who sells new carpeting?

brand new aftermarket, lots of color options too

-http://www.stockinteriors.com/

Nice! I may go for one if I decide to do some body work and paint mine.

[JBG3]

so ive decided that whatever I was going to spend on paint im going to spend on fixing this driver door.  Its just one of those things, endlessly annoying.  


heres the problem in more detail-

the door as a whole sits this much further out-



This does two things, way more wind noise, and the door hits the front fender all the time, causing rust and noise.

this is why-



good side for comparison-



It was overextended, we are going to try the simplest solution first, which is pull off the door, bash the A pillar with a sledge, remount the door and see if it lines up, rinse and repeat until it looks right, and then reinforce the A pillar to make sure.  
The way to properly repair this says my body guy neighbor is to take the exterior A pillar skin from a donor car for the whole hinge area, and push in the interior skin to match this donor, weld in, and refinish.  Problem is no donors in the yards near us, and i don't want to buy a whole parts car to cut up from somewhere there there are cars in the yards.

[JBG3]

door repair this week.  its amazing how used to driving around an interiorless shell you can get.  Ive put thousands and thousands of miles on this car with it as stripped down as a track car, this week im handing it over to my neighbor to see what kind of magic he can work on realigning the drivers door, and getting my replacement fenders on. 

Also, im going back to the original front clip headlights, after months of using the rounds, the coverage in comparison is just not as good.  I need better night visibility. 

[JBG3]

replacement fenders almost ready.  antenna hole has been patched.  They were a little rough, but now almost in primer




also, I saved the grey hood from my original 85 jetta since it was in good shape, and ill be installing that on the 86 as well.  The 86 hood has a crease about 8 inches back, that in discussion is an extremely hard to repair issue, especially with a good replacement just at hand. 



hopefully by the end of the week, ill have rust free straight fenders, a new hood, and a door that lines up, all finished up and in primer on the car.  Next step will be resolving issues with the windshield, then after that, the car can be painted!  will be some time before I have the cash saved up for that though, but getting there

[JBG3]

well, im pretty pleased with how it turned out, that much closer to painting the whole thing.

New fenders are on and primered-




hood is on off my old car, and cleaned up.  (it turned out to have been repaired, and had a few issues, but now its great)-



A pillar is repaired-



and the door lines up beautifully with the front fender now, this worked out nicely.  It required some trimming and shimming, and a custom fitting of the fender, but all the gaps turned out very nice



And im happy about my antenna delete.  I also got rid of the front spoiler, and since I didn't have any for the driver side, ill be getting rid of the little piece of lower trim for the front fenders.  I don't think its really necessary personally

heres the before and after on the antenna-

[JBG3]

some big repairs taken care of-

New timing belt
new water pump inner and outer
lower rad hoses and all related lower coolant hoses, 4 in total
Refilled with correct G-whatnot coolant

Also had the valves readjusted, had original shims, so all redone.

Thing runs absolutely great now, excited to see what it can do for fuel economy now that a lot of tune up stuff is done

[JBG3]

uh oh, just pulled the windshield, and a plus side is it came out without cracking, despite buying a new one, so now I have a spare, but ive got the typical mk2 rust problems underneath.  Pics a little later, trying to clear out my garage to get it inside.  

EDIT-
some pics- 

The windshield on my work van was also busted, so had a window guy come by and in about 30 seconds, he got this windshield out without damage as a discounted service deal to do both windshields.

after cutting around-



lifted out-



all the rust problems revealed, its pretty nasty all around, but worst right in front of the driver.  few holes through the panel-





next im sending it back next door to the body guy to repair the damage before installing a new windshield and seal. 

[nathantheengineer]

Working your way through the faults. Good to see! 

Be great when finished.

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

The windshield that came off does not look like an OE windshield. If so, maybe the rust underneath is due to a bad windshield job?

[JBG3]

Working your way through the faults. Good to see!  

Be great when finished.

yeah, I can't wait till I have the cash saved up to paint it.   After this windshield job, ill start putting the interior back together and actually do something about the heat.  (which I never fixed)

[JBG3]

The windshield that came off does not look like an OE windshield. If so, maybe the rust underneath is due to a bad windshield job?

its definitely a replacement, no doubt thats exactly what happened.

Im sure they just installed it over existing rust, and things just got worse.  The same situation that could have happened with my van, which was showing initial rust bubbles all along the windshield edge, and I stopped the windshield assembly to have that taken care of first on both vehicles, the jetta is next in line after the van is de rusted, repaired, and painted ready for its replacement glass.  I kind of need that thing yesterday, I inadvertently made my work van useless for half the week. 

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Is the windshield glued in on the 86? How did the glass guy remove it in 30 seconds? What tools did he use? Did you buy an OE replacement windshield or after market and does it make any difference as far as fit? What did the replacement cost?

[JBG3]

Is the windshield glued in on the 86? How did the glass guy remove it in 30 seconds? What tools did he use? Did you buy an OE replacement windshield or after market and does it make any difference as far as fit? What did the replacement cost?

the one that he removed was definitely glued in, not sure what OE was like.  He had a 14 inch tool with a wicked looking curved blade on it, ran it right around the window like cutting through butter, and then pushed it out.  It was amazing. 

I bought an aftermarket, only one I could find locally, cost me 170 bucks, and its a brand XYG.HK, and part number FW 542 GBN.  Seems to fit perfectly, comes with a new already attached seal, though it appears to me like the seal is mostly for looks, and its designed to be glued into place. 

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Did you take a pic of the tool? Seems like it would make an exc. stealth burglery tool. 30 sec to get in w/o shattering glass.

[JBG3]

Did you take a pic of the tool? Seems like it would make an exc. stealth burglery tool. 30 sec to get in w/o shattering glass.

lol, i didnt even have time to finish the cookie I happened to be eating when the guy showed up, let along get a camera going on.  Showed up right at lunch 

So basically, through scientific observation, its possible to remove a mk2 windshield faster than it is possible to completely consume a D'Angelo's oatmeal cookie.  Ill put the info on wikipedia