In comparison with removing the rear bumper, the front came off with a minimum of fuss. Next up was removal of the sill covers. One of the earlier photos showed some bubbling on the near side. When removed, the full extent was revealed.
It was pretty grotty...... Being an optimist, I was very pleased to see the rest of the sill was very good. Over to the offside, on first inspection it all looked fine, but if you look closely to the right of the foam padding, there is a seam of rust.
Again, this wasn't terrible, but to repair it would require removal of the oil pipes. When I looked at the thermostat I realised that might be a good idea, because I had a hunch I might have a minor leak....
By this point I decided had also removed the wheel arch liners, so subjected the car to a massive jet washing session and scrubbing of wheel arches with various cleaning fluids. Gunk was the best for oily bits, Muc-off works brilliantly on the muddy bits.
with the majority of the crud out of the way, strip down continued. You will have seen from earlier photos that I had a rust spot under the rear window rubber. I have seen other photos on here of problems around front windscreen surrounds, so it was time to take the glass out. I have never done this on a car before so roped in a couple of friends who have had experience.
Two grown men in the back of a 964 is not the most comfortable position to be.....!!
My bank balance was thankful the glass staying in one piece. The front screen also came out, and I was careful to make sure the radio aerial connection was correct unplugged rather than cut - it only took me 20 mins to work out that removal of the clock from the dashboard makes disconnection far easier than trying to reach through a small gap from the passenger compartment. But I did find out the hard way.
Glass removal was generally good news. Aside from a little surface corrosion, there were no holes or grot in the windscreen surround.
At the rear screen, a bit more rust was found, but no holes, which was a massive relief
More bodywork updates to follow