Thankfully, the consequential impact was minimised due to some adept driving whereby Chris' wife guided the car along a kerb and she was able to minimise crash damage. Chris immediately took the car off the road.

Later, Chris decided to have a ground-up restoration performed on the Mk2, and also have the brakes upgraded. Chris took the car to a local crash repairer to do the work. Alas, the car was treated as the "corner project" to fill in the crash repairers' time between accident crash jobs.

Later the repairer went out of business, and Chris was forced to move the car to another local crash repairer. Alas, the project stalled again as the second crash repairer also used the car as the "corner project" to fill in time between accident crash jobs.

After five years of little progress, and the second crash repairer closing down, the project was mothballed. The car's body was stored at or near the crash repairer's shed, while Chris had the components stored at home. 

That is how the car sat for the next twenty-five years. During this time, Chris accumulated many New Old Stock (NOS) replacement parts and upgrade components.

Resolving not to use a crash repairer again, Chris sought out a professional car restoration firm and tracked down Finch Restorations. Chris then arranged for the car to be brought into Finch, and became reaqauinted with the car body that he had not laide his eyes on for 25 years. Over several trips, Chris also brought in to Finch all of the loose parts he had accumulated and stored.

Then the project began ...

Mk2 Restoration - Modification (Resto-Mod) Project

Arrival Stage

The photos in the first gallery show the state of the bodyshell as it arrived.

Stripping Stage

In this gallery, the rusted sills have been opened up, grime and body Schutz removed, and the paint stripped from the body by hand (not shown) and by low pressure blasting. This reveals the extent of rust, and in this case of this car, several existing fatique cracks.

Priming Stage

In as short a time as possible after the bare metal has been exposed through paint, schutz and filler being removed, the bodyshell's bare metal is coated with a two-pack epoxy primer to prevent flash rusting. 

Rust / Crack Repairs and Major Hotwork Stage

After priming, the hotwork stage commence to repair the rust and cracks.

Panel Alignment Stage

During the hotwork stage, it is also important to align panels and set the gaps between panels - an iterative process with other hotwork.

Leadwork Stage

Also occuring during the hotwork stage is the repair and / or replacement of the original leadwork used to fairthe joints between adjacent welded panels.