In detail: DIY 2108 body repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
The first domestic front-wheel drive hatchback, popularly nicknamed the "eight", came off the assembly line in 1984, and therefore the body of the VAZ 2108 requires regular maintenance. This car was produced for 20 years, and in 2004 it was replaced by the thirteenth model.
For a voluminous trunk and reliability, the VAZ 2108 car was very popular with consumers. For its original shape, the car was called a "chisel".
The body of 2108 is a three-door all-metal base made of welded and removable elements. In addition, in the VAZ 2108, the interior heating system was improved and a more modern dashboard was installed at that time.
The new VAZ car became very popular and still travels on the roads. Taking into account the domestic road conditions, body repair of the VAZ 2108 is the lot of every car owner. Experienced specialists are reluctant to undertake body restoration work. This is the most difficult and expensive type of repair.
You can reduce costs and get a new body by making repairs yourself. This type of repair is the best option for the skilled vehicle owner. The first step is to assess the condition of the body, find out which parts need replacement, and, depending on the results, determine the type of repair required. Overhaul consists of the following stages:
parts that have corroded are replaced with new ones;
sagging doors are regulated;
dents are corrected;
general geometry is restored;
painting, polishing is performed.
This type of repair is quite cumbersome. But you can do it partially, replace individual parts, you can paint yourself with your own hands.
Video (click to play).
1 - radiator frame panel; 2 - bracket for fixing the headlight unit; 3 - upper cross member of the radiator frame; 4 - right front spar; 5 - the right mudguard of the front wing; 6 - right front fender; 7 - connector of the frame of the wind window and the sidewall; 8 - the hood; 9 - right outer side panel; 10 - wind window frame; 11 - roof panel; 12 - rear wheel arch; 13 - inner pillar of the wind window frame; 14 - tailgate; 15 - left outer side panel; 16 - groove of the tailgate opening; 17 - rear panel; 18 - front door; 19 - back door; 20 - rear floor spar; 21 - rear floor; 22 - middle floor; 23 - lower side plate; 24 - floor amplifier for jack installation; 25 - front cross member of the floor; 26 - front floor; 27 - left front fender; 28 - left mudguard of the front wing; 29 - bulkhead; 30 - left front spar; 31 - rack of the radiator frame; 32 - the lower cross member of the radiator frame.
Regardless of what type of repair you have to do, it is necessary to carry out dismantling work.
The first step is to disconnect all cables going inside the doors.
Remove the door stop using a socket wrench.
When unscrewing the fastening bolts, it is necessary to keep the doors from tilting.
Before unscrewing the mounting bolts, mark their position. This will facilitate the subsequent installation of the part. Marking is not required if the hood will be replaced with a new one.
Remove the windshield washer and lamp.
We take out the harness with cables from the pocket.
We unscrew the bolts and remove the hood.
If a new hood is mounted on the car, then the dismantling is over. In the case of the subsequent installation of the old part, the wire should be pulled from the inside, tying it to a bundle with cables. This will help route the wiring into place.
Important! The hood is quite heavy, so you should remove and install a new one with an assistant.
To remove the interior trim, you need to snap off the latches or unscrew the screws.
We turn off the power and take out the cables.
Disconnect the stops.
We unscrew the cover fixing bolts and remove it from the car.
Radiator grille. Removing the grille is easy if the hood has already been removed.
Disconnect the mounting bolts.
We squeeze out the plastic latch.
We remove the grill from the car.
To remove the front bumper, you need to unscrew the two nuts that fix it on the brackets, and the mounting bolts.
The rear bumper can be easily removed after the nuts and bolts have been unscrewed.
Car fasteners are usually subject to corrosion, therefore, when dismantling and carrying out repairs, they should be treated with a special solution.
Do-it-yourself partial body repair of a VAZ 2108 can be of two types:
with painting;
restoration work that does not require staining.
Pull-through corrosion can be eliminated by welding. To do this, you need to cut and clean up the rotten area. Using a welding machine, weld a patch of new metal.
If the hole is small, a special type of filler can be used. The area around the hole is cleaned with sandpaper from all kinds of dirt. A patch is cut out of the fiberglass. A temporary backing is applied from the inside and the glass fabric is coated with epoxy. The next step is painting. This operation must be performed as quickly as possible in order to exclude the onset of a corrosive process when the surface interacts with air. Since it is very difficult to choose a suitable paint color on your own, it is better to contact a specialist. Car painting done at the service station will ensure high quality and reliability.
If a small area of the body is corroded, then you can use special compounds. Rust can also be removed with kerosene, lactic acid, zinc chloride or vinegar.
To correct small-area deformations with your own hands, there are modern technologies, the use of which does not require subsequent painting. One such innovation is that a special suction cup is installed in place of the deformation using a special glue, and the dent is pulled outward. Such repairs do not require professional training and special skills.
Despite the fact that the body of the figure eight is quite strong, but you cannot ride it like a racing car, and I decided to cook a frame (note - a four-wheel drive, a frame and two axles are assumed under a conventional car).
One of the drawbacks of the 2108 body is its weakness in relation to the front wheels hitting a bulge such as a curb or a large stone. This usually breaks the crab.
If you install a good crab, it pulls out its attachments. If you cook nuts by 12 for the place of nuts by 10, then the strength of the side members is no longer enough.
We lifted our VAZ 2108 on a lift and looked at the spars and levers for a long time, wondering how / what / where to hook. The main thing that interested us was what materials would be required and how much.
We counted and bought 18 meters of rectangular iron pipes with a wall width of 3 mm 80 × 40, 50 × 50 and 60 × 30, 6 meters each.
Looking ahead, I will say that it turned out to be 80 × 40 pipes, it does not fit a lot. It was necessary to take 70 × 40 mm. In other words, 80 mm will fit into the remnants of the old side members, but with difficulty, more work on bending them. And in the end it turns out that if you make pipes from 70 mm, then the rigidity would be higher than so. But it's too late to change. The pipes have already been purchased and delivered.
We started with the wheel arches, the spars were cut almost completely. Left only the inner parts (right-left) of the main spars and part of the mudguard cans. In fact, the remaining parts of the side members will serve as mud flaps. Later, everything was measured and a layout was made of cardboard, then adjusted on the spot.
Later, a piece of pipe (80x40x3mm) was bent along this model. Applied to the old box and refined.
Then these two pieces were welded into one and fitted together.Then it was boiled clean and the seams were cleaned. Two curved pipes came out.
In the area of the driver's and passenger's legs, where the outer part of the old spar had already been cut off, the inner part was cut along the upper corner and the vertical part of the box was bent into the body with a sledgehammer. Up to the tin of the floor and a little further, crushing the iron a little.
Further, pieces of 60 × 30 pipes were hammered into the rapids. Short - somewhere up to half a meter. These pipes will attach to those 80x40 curved spars.
And from below (although they are driven inward into the threshold, but the lower side of the thresholds is cut to their length), pipes will be welded to them with an overlap, which will go back until the rear suspension beam is attached.
Further, to those curved 80 × 40 spars, they welded jibs from a 60 × 30 pipe to crabs, as you can see in the photo. More precisely, up to a corner of 5 mm thick, on which the crab is screwed. And this was all tied to the front ends of the curved pipes by small vertical pieces of 80 × 40 pipes.
After that, these elements were completely welded. At the same time, the seams on the wishbone mountings were slightly reinforced. When all this was boiled, it was necessary to constantly watch so that nothing in the cabin and under the hood would puff from contact with the heated iron. I also had to tinker with the wiring so as not to burn. The engine was not pulled out. Just all sorts of little things, such as a battery and tanks.
The rear parts are well tied to those pipes that are hammered into the sills. Before that, they were slightly corrected horizontally.
Later, pipes 60 × 30 were welded from the bottom and tied to pipes that were hammered into the thresholds. In other words, long longitudinal tubes from approximately the rear arches to the front platforms for the jack.
They decided not to touch the rear platforms for the jack. They simply cut holes in the pipes for them, all the same, the strength of these pipes with a margin.
The leading edges of these long pipes were made inclined (so as not to stick them into the hemp) and welded, cut off at the back.
They temporarily refused to tie the glasses of the front suspensions to this frame. They thought to run a 60 × 30 pipe up next (very tightly) to the front pillar of the body. A channel was launched along the outer side of the mudguard forward to the front edge of the glass. After that, I went obliquely forward - downward, bypassing the platform, which is on the left under the battery, and on the right under the washer barrels.
Sort of a circle around the front suspension strut. But they did not figure out how to cling the wings after that. They are bolted from the rear to the body pillar. This place needs to be completely redone. In general, we decided not to touch it yet.
All cooked was covered with anticorrosive. The floor in the cabin was cleaned, if possible, and practically two cans of aerosol bitumen mastic were poured onto it. I wanted to put insulation there, but somehow I did not find it in stores. I left it like that. How to buy insulation I will pour another can on the floor and put insulation on bitumen.
Then, for half a day, I assembled the salon and fastened the wings. It turned out that one person is quite capable of hanging a bumper. Even without a lift.
In general, the process is completed or suspended on what has been achieved.
As a result of the installation of the frame, the car became heavier by about 50..60 kilograms. It didn't seem to have much effect on the dynamics, it didn't accelerate more slowly.
The center of gravity has slightly dropped - the frame is all at the bottom. Also, the center of gravity moved slightly forward. But I didn't feel it.
The torsional rigidity of the body has slightly increased. Now the tailgate does not warp so much when parking with one wheel on the curb. But all the same, the desire for greater rigidity. I will weld a cross from the pipes behind the back of the rear seat.
In general, the main thing for which it was conceived is not rigidity but strength. That is, so that when you hit an obstacle with the body, nothing happens. Otherwise, you can't see it. Since the installation of the frame, I have not seriously meddled anywhere else.
I put the car on a level on four stumps and removed the wheels. Once again I looked at all this disgrace. "Well, with God!" The swing of the grinder and the first pieces of dismembered metal had already crashed onto the floor.
In order not to take the body away during dismemberment, he tied the ass to the muzzle in the door openings with the help of corners, having welded them to the struts. First I cut the floor in the middle. The edges of the floor where it connects to adjacent body parts had to be drilled out at the welding points and riveted off. The thresholds, or rather what was left of them, decided not to touch them yet. Two hours later, the bottom was completely removed ...
Here I was in for another disappointment. The front spars, the part that goes into the salon, were also completely rotten.
I also had to buy them. I took the factory assembled. They are directly with front jacks. I tried it on, figured it out, marked it out. I cut off the rotten part. From the new ones, respectively, I cut out new remv-inserts, carefully riveting the parts apart from each other.
I put a new spar in place in the joint. Beauty!
Now you need to weld it all well. The spar is the backbone of the basics. Cooked in a joint, tacked the edges to the neighboring metal (where he was alive). The lower parts of the arches were also cut off.
This is where the Toyota hood came in handy. I took off the dimensions, cut out the patch. I bent it in the shape of the spar from the outside. I tried it on. I had to try it on often, because in such a case it is better not to rush. The edges of the patch have been brushed to metal. Where I did not plan to cook, I did not clean anything. All the same, Japanese metal is well processed (therefore, left the factory paint). It turned out something like this.
He drilled holes every 1.5-2 cm. The interval for factory welding is somewhere around 7-8 cm. The difference is palpable. I will say right in advance: the more often the welded points, the higher the body rigidity. I felt it on my own example. He pressed the prepared metal with clamps to the spar and, for fidelity, with a couple of self-tapping screws.
From the second side, I did everything in the same way. Next, I welded the right and left side member extensions. It is very important here that they are in the same plane relative to the floor, otherwise there will be problems with installing the floor in place. When the epic with the spars was over, he began to try on the trough. Oh, these parts. All curves are oblique. I measured the diagonals - they weren’t even. Well, we will customize it in place. I had to carry the bottom through the trunk. There is no other way. And you definitely need a sober assistant. Oh, how uncomfortable for one.
I put the bottom close to one threshold. On the other hand, there was a gap of about a centimeter. Here it is where the curvature climbs. I centered the trough - it turned out to be half a centim on each side. Taking the thresholds inside is not a variegation! Therefore, we take a hammer and begin to straighten the bathtub in order to press its edges with the edges of the thresholds. I would like to point out that this procedure can be avoided. Therefore, measure the parts immediately upon purchase. Well, all the bath is in place.
We clean the shipping soil from it with coarse sandpaper and make drills. At the rear, along the rear spars at the seat belt attachment points, at the front and along the spar extensions.
Then we boil the whole thing.
To be continued… We press a finger ... Comment.
The first domestic "hatchback" with front-wheel drive, Vaz 2108, was produced for 20 years, from 1994 to 2004. In its lineup, this car became the progenitor for subsequent models of the "eighth" and "ninth" families. Initially, the power plant was a 1.3-liter engine with a capacity of 65 liters. with., which was completed with a 4-speed gearbox. Although the price of the car was quite high, the people of the eight were popular for their large trunk volume and reliability, it should be noted that these parameters were very significant in those days.
The people called the eight "chisel" for its original angular shape. The body, in turn, is an all-metal frame made of several elements (both spot-welded together and removable - front fenders, doors and rear cover).
Removing doors.
Removing the trunk lid.
Removing the hood.
Removing the radiator grille and bumpers.
Next, your attention is invited to a brief photo instruction "Body repair VAZ 2108".
First, you need to disconnect all the wires going inside the door (power to the speakers, electric windows, alarm);
Dismantling doors begins with removing the door opening limiter, for which purpose, with the help of a socket wrench on "10", two bolts are unscrewed that fasten it to the rack;
Then we unscrew the bolts securing the door hinges to the car pillar, at the same time we hold the door from skewing.
Advice! Since the doors are very massive, it is best to dismantle with an assistant.
The inner decorative lining is attached to the body with self-tapping screws or latches. To remove it, you need to unscrew the screws or snap off the latches, respectively;
Turn off the power supply of the license plate lighting and remove the wiring harness from the inner cavity;
Holding the lid, unscrew and disconnect the stops;
We unscrew the bolts securing the cover to the hinges and remove it.
Advice! The hood is quite heavy, so it is recommended to remove it with an assistant.
Before unscrewing the mounting bolts, mark their position in order to facilitate the subsequent installation of the hood... Accordingly, if the hood is changed to a new one, there is no need to mark the bolts;
Disconnect the windshield washer tube;
We disconnect the lantern of illumination of the engine compartment, the lantern itself can also be dismantled so as not to damage it during the installation of the bonnet;
We take out the wiring harness from the inner pocket;
We unscrew the mounting bolts and remove the hood from the brackets.
Advice! If the old hood will be mounted, a wire should be pulled along the inner channel, having previously tied it to a harness with wires. This will make it easier to later pull the wiring harness into place in the inner hood pocket.
Disconnect the washer and lighting lamp
Since the hood has already been removed, uninstalling the grille is not difficult:
We unscrew the two bolts securing it to the body;
The plastic latch is squeezed out;
With a little effort, we remove from the car.
Dismantle the radiator grill
The bumpers are made of a plastic alloy with high elastic properties, which allow the bumper not to burst due to strong deformations and impacts. We begin to remove the front bumper by unscrewing the two nuts securing it to the body brackets on both sides.
We finish by unscrewing two bolts also on both sides of the body.
To remove the rear bumper, it is necessary to unscrew on each side two nuts and a bolt securing the bumper to the base of the car body
Advice! Nuts are most likely highly susceptible to corrosion, therefore it is recommended to pre-treat them with special agents.
Let me remind you that this preparation was made for the overhaul of the body of the VAZ 2108, which includes the subsequent painting of the entire car. Next, try to enter the query into a search engine: "body repair of a VAZ 2108 video, photo", and you yourself will see how laborious and costly this process is. What are the stages of this most "confused" part of the resurrection of the car? So:
Replacement of rusted elements and their parts;
Sagging door adjustment;
Correction of dents and "benches";
Restoration of the general geometry of the body;
Painting, polishing.
If we have more or less figured out the overhaul of the body, then it is worth getting to know a little closer with the partial repair of the body or the repair of its individual parts. Although, what prevents us from making a partial overhaul, isn't it?
In this case, with the help of a welding machine, having previously cut out and cleaned out the rotten places, we weld in patches from the "fresh" metal.
The same effect is achieved without welding using compounds based on epoxy resins and fiberglass. These methods are used on small foci of corrosion.
Here also glass cloth and epoxy are useful with the help of which cracks are glued on the inside and the chipped parts of the cladding are restored. Also, for reliability, cracks are additionally soldered with a soldering iron.
In this case, argon welding is indispensable.
Although the skill and imagination of domestic craftsmen did not show such tricks.
With the help of modern technology, there are a great many options for restoring paintwork.
Serious damage to the paintwork will have to be repaired with a primer, putty and spray can.
