The damage done to Shocky was too extensive to repair for any
reasonable price, and come hell or high water, Shocky was not going to
become some parts car at the junkyard. For over a year and a half
I contemplated what would be the best route to take....and initially I
decided to do a body transplant - ie buy a new body for Shocky, shell
it out, and transplant EVERYTHING from Shocky into it. I even
went so far with this plan as to buy a new body for Shocky, which later
got sold.
A local Scirocco owner, Craig Lebakken, got me thinking about repairing
Shocky's damage by welding on a new front end. A mere year or
more later this idea would become reality when Shocky would be driven
onto an enclosed truck and taken to Bug Aid where he would have his new
front end welded on.
But the plan didn't stop there............
Ever since writing a comparative feasibility study for engine upgrades
for a technical writing class (Engine Upgrade Report), I had been wanting to do an AWP engine
swap. Well this too became reality, with the decision to have Bug
Aid do the swap as well after the body work was done, with me
participating as much as my schedule would allow.
So, Shocky arrived at Bug Aid in September 2003:
...and got acquainted with his new front end:
And then the work began.
First Shocky's engine compartment was emptied.....
.....and then they cut the bad parts off:
And then I got a chance to get my hands dirty by removing all the interior stuff which would interfere with the welding:
and then removing all of the undercoating etc. to reveal the spot welds on Shocky and the new front clip:
