Major surgery

[Chrispb]

Well after a lot of shall we spend some money on the old galaxy or just scrap it was time to make a decision, although it does have MOT till next January wanted to get it sorted before the winter comes.

The bits that needed attention.

Lower front wings, rear wheel arches, scabby outer sills.

Had a couple of estimates ranging from a couple of hundred to a thousand pound.

Opted for Ã,£550 including materials underseal and spraying and was local and would be done in a few days (a lot quicker than if I attempted it)

also had recently had some gearbox solenoids changed after a few days of rough gear changes and another change of turbo so mechanically wise was back to it's old self and running really well.

Anyway back to the bodywork the guy doing the job agreed with me that cutting of the lower part of the front wings and fabricating a new piece would be cheaper and avoid having to remove the small window glass and keep the cost of the paint down.

I had initially asked the garage where the MOT was done for an estimate but was told it only needed a rub down and underseal (I don't think they wanted the job) but in my own mind I new it needed more invasive surgery if we had any intention of keeping her.

So after four days we have the car back, well pleased he did say it was worse than he thought as parts of the outriggers fell to pieces while grinding back to good metal, kept us up to date with loads of photo's of the progress.
Below is a few photo's of before and after.
   

[Tezerez]

They've done a nice job. Was thinking might have to do mine last autumn,  but then, even though running perfectly and still doing 50mpg on holiday, my old faithful 130 TDI failed  mot spectacularly with chassis rot plus major leak on high pressure injector pump.
It was a real shame, but work on pump would have been more than value of car. Mot failure was a "dangerous do not drive" case. Had to scrap it and find a replacement over a weekend.
Ended up with a Kuga AWD 2.0 163. Drives nice, but miss the VW lump.

[insanitybeard]

What sort of mileage has that Gal covered Chris? Mine is up to 150k and I'm hoping to get a couple more years of service out of her, I had some work done on the sills and rear arches winter before last which cost me Ã,£700, it wasn't in as bad a state as yours though. She's served me well and I'll try to keep her for as long as I can, this year's work has seen the front struts out, the front calipers rebuilt and hopefully soon (when I finally receive an undamaged replacement) the intermediate driveshaft replaced. Plus another rear silencer. The motorcraft one I previously fitted hasn't even managed 5 years 

[Chrispb]

Hi Paul
The mileage is up 172 thousand mls now, my Daughter took over the car from me a few years back she can't really afford to spend out megger bucks on something newer but can manage to keep this going long as it's not silly money plus it's a bit of sentimental as we got it when it was less than two years old and also the number plate we bought when we got the car which is mine and the wife's initials.
Everything else working OK electrics, aircon even the booster/independent heater, and the DVD screens not that I have ever really seen them for more than a few minutes
Even though the rot was quite bad I still think it has a few years left in it. Here's hoping anyway.

Chris.

[Mirez]

Looks a good job for Ã,£550, I'd be happy with that.
Probably would have replaced the front wing rather then repaired it as that seems quite far gone though, wonder if the mudflap was vibrating? Should see her last a few more years

[SirDavidAlhambra]

So impressive... looks as good as new again!