VTi BB8

Since I had the car completely stripped out, I intended to fill the hollow parts of the unibody with chassis stiffening foam.
I already bought the stuff, but when I actually stripped the chassis of all of its components, I realized that if I wanted it to actually work that there wouldn't be any space left for the wiring harnesses, hoses and other parts of the interior.



I then decided to TIG weld the chassis instead and so I began to slowly remove the paint and that rubber compound that covers all the joints. 2 angle grinders, 1 drilling machine and 20+ wire brushes later the chassis looked like this... Ready to be welded.











All the welding was done by a friend of mine and he did a hell of a job... Thanks Rok!

On its way to the welder...


10kg of welds later... here she is.









I reinforced the subframe in the most critical spots, since it already started to show signs of fatigue.
The car had about 270hp in its best days and the chassis made 200k+ miles so far.

Here's the subframe after sand blasting...



Reinforcments on the critical spots...


...and 7mm steel plates where the sway bar is attached to the subframe.


Coated with primer...


...and then painted with final layer of 2-component paint.


I also coated the welds with epoxy primer in order to prevent rusting. I'll add the rubber compound on all the joints before the paintjob, to make it as it was from the factory.




Steel tube reinforcment for extra stiffness.







And finally, back on its own feet... ready to head to the shop where it's going to be painted.

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