After being long overdue for it, the wife's 2000 VW Passat (217K+ miles) is receiving some much-needed TLC - I'm doing the front brakes (pads, rotors, calipers, and hoses), replacing the two right lower control arms/ball-joints, the driver's side CV axle (torn boot), the secondary air injection pump, and the kombi valve.
The axle bolt takes a 14mm hex, so I picked a 9 piece set of metric hex sockets (3/8" and 1/2" drive) newly available under the "Pittsburgh Pro" label
, on sale for $12.99:
Metric Hex Bits
.... although they are not impact rated, the 14 mm one held up fine when I ran it on my 1/2" impact to get the axle off.
To remove the control arm balljoints I picked up this separator for $19.99:
This vehicle has one of the best factory metal prep and undercoating that I have ever seen ... from the factory it was undercoated with a combination of typical black undercoat and a heavy yellowish waxy substance (you could see it in the door jambs and under the hood when we picked it up from the dealer new)
About 6 or 7 years ago we loaned the vehicle to a friend and when we got it back the passenger side door had been damaged and there was a small dent (2" x 3" x 1/8" deep) where the paint was scraped off, apparently down to grey metal. It has finally, just this year, started to show some evidence of light surface rust on the exposed metal.
One area which was not undercoated was the front lower frame, which is shaped like a "C" and runs from the passenger compartment portion of the body on side up around motor to the front of the vehicle and then back to the passenger compartment on the other side. It was painted (very well) but the paint had started to come off a few years back and now has some fairly heavy rust and scale on it.
So I picked up the compact needle scaler from Harbor Freight:
and went to town knocking off the rust and scale. It has worked very well and at this point I have all the heavy stuff knocked off, and I'll coat the piece with Loctite Extend Spray Rust Neutralizer and then topcoat it with 3M rubberized undercoat .... which will hopefully preserve it for the remaining life of the vehicle.
