Good morning everyone. Very new to the world of the 126, so let me introduce myself and Pedro (as the wife has named him). Pedro is a 126 bis I impulse bought on eBay this week without even seeing it, I know, terrible idea but I fell in love and he was too far away to go and see. Here he is being loaded up onto the transporter down in Kent:
He currently has no engine but has had the mounts for a West Wales Trike Shack chain driven diff fitted. So my initial thoughts are to continue down the bike engine route. Here he is unloaded and on my drive (his new home for the foreseeable future!!!)
As you can see he's got a shiny set of banded steel wheels that make him look quite aggressive but also rub the arches pretty bad. I need to see how much adjustment is left in the coilovers & rose jointed front suspension he came with but I think I'd prefer something a bit smaller & lighter (weight might become a bit of a theme on this project). So first thing I did when I got home from work was have a look at what I'd actually bought. Went to jack up the front left corner and the jack point moved, the floor stayed where it was. Not a good start! Managed to jack up the rear jack point fine so I could asses the damage!!!
So after a quick once over I came to the following conclusion. Bad news: The places that had started to rot were held together with filler. Good news: he doesn't seem to have been in an accident and there are only really five areas of concern. Big holes on both sides of the floor where the front jacking point is, here's a picture:
Holes on both sides where there is a cross brace towards the rear of the floor but forward of the rear jacking point (barely big enough to get a sharp pokey stick into). And then there is the inner and outer front panel which is looking a little like Swiss cheese. Some interesting repairs here: rust cut out, sheet of aluminium glued to the back face, filler on the outside, coat of paint! Some of the filler doesn't seem to have been mixed correctly and is still soft. Either that or I have bought a car held together by chewing gum! Everywhere else seems totally original and in really good nick.
In conclusion I'm still happy with what I've got for the money, just going to need a little more work than the seller had made obvious (or to give him the benefit of the doubt was aware of)...
I need to spend today doing a few jobs on the vw t4 camper I share with some friends. Getting him (Wally) ready for the summer. Not expecting Pedro to progress much this weekend but I'll see what happens tomorrow...
Obviously the reason I'm here is for advice and to share my journey, any newbie tips, common places to look for rot I might have missed etc. are very welcome!!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
