Ibiza - the pedal box strikes back!

Cupra Kid

Has a TDI!!
Oct 13, 2005
3,380
1
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Right last week whilst having a little play i got carried away and did the un thinkable....... fractured the bloody pedal box!!!!! I did this on the cordoba and straight away thought i'm not paying £300 to have a new one fitted!!!

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As you can see the bar that braces both halves of the box together is severly fractured, not suprised really its about as thin as tin foil! My first idea was welding and got onto my friend, but getting a welder in there would be dangerous and difficult, however he run rally land rovers and told me about a diff that he had put back together using Liquid Metal. Turns out this is a very strong metal bonding glue that is as strong as welding but as it dries slowly allows much more positioning. So i formulated a plan and hit B & Q.

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Cable ties, metal braces 7mm thick and Metal Glue :D

After an hour sanding, degreasing, followed by much glueing and a few cable ties to clamp everything to:

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Looks very messy but looks don't count up the back of the dash, the main problem with these pedal boxes is the bracket that holds the clutch cable flexing and putting strain on the rest of the box until something snaps, so its now well and truly attached to the bulk head. I also braced this bracket to the lower half of the box to add more strength. I then repaired the area that had cracked by filling and then bracing again.

Final look with me going over kill with the glue:

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Cable tied it all together to make it rigid and allow it to set hard for 24 hours, a day later it doesnt move an inch :D i guess only time will tell if the glue really is as good as welding!

:starwars:
 

Greasemonkey

Active Member
Apr 27, 2008
116
0
Hull
Haha bodge and scarper!! i've used chemical metal before and its good stuff but the box does flex quite alot so as you say...time will tell, i doubt their'll be any warning though.

Paul
 

Cupra Kid

Has a TDI!!
Oct 13, 2005
3,380
1
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Haha bodge and scarper!! i've used chemical metal before and its good stuff but the box does flex quite alot so as you say...time will tell, i doubt their'll be any warning though.

Paul

Yeah i think the only way is to truly beef up the box when its out of the car, i'm going to monitor it and swap the whole box out for the new super heavy duty one that i'm going build using even thicker braces and welding if this doesnt work :whistle:
 

Cupra Kid

Has a TDI!!
Oct 13, 2005
3,380
1
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Top job! how much was it for the bits from b & Q?

Not a lot at all which is why i've taken a gamble on it:

250ml liquid metal - £6.99 (only used about 100ml going way over the top)
metal braces 4 pack - £2.49
cable ties 50pk £2.49

Cable ties were expensive and i got a little ripped off, but i needed black ones and couldnt be arsed to change shops so i took them.

The spare ones are going to be used on a little project involving the infamous jacking point covers ;)
 

CraigW

Craig.
Apr 12, 2007
4,607
1
Hawick, Scottish Borders, Scotland

Mine cracked in exactly the same place and I have a small section of the bit shown on the photo missing. But since I had it rewelded and a 12mm high tensile bolt and a brand new clutch cable its fine.

And there isnt any flexing now, even with the small bit missing. But if it does go again I have a new one ready to go in. I dont know if I should change it now. :confused:
 

Mckellar

Guest
do you really think that will hold long though? no doubt that will snap as soon as you get heavy morning traffic and all the strain is in 1st gear constantly moving small amounts of space
 
Dec 17, 2006
1,837
0
Bristol
Good to see people are trying different things with the old pedal box problem.

It'll be interesting to see if that holds. It's the changing load as you push the pedal in/out that would worry me.
 

Cupra Kid

Has a TDI!!
Oct 13, 2005
3,380
1
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
It'll be interesting to see if that holds. It's the changing load as you push the pedal in/out that would worry me.

My concern also, last night i held the pedal to the floor and ragged it every which way with out it moving, done 40 miles with a mixture of driving now and its still rock solid.

New clutch cable going on when i can figure out how and find the time to do it, so that should help it further.

Maybe it really is as strong as welding :headhurt:
 

CraigW

Craig.
Apr 12, 2007
4,607
1
Hawick, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Before you put a new one in I would seriously re-inforce it. The welds are as crap as the design and even brand new ones have been knows to collapse within a couple of months.

I have put a bolt through the new one aswell and I will take it to work weld it abit more.

But the one thats in the car with the bolt through it has held over a year. The pedal box was rewelded, then the bolt put through it then welded again and its still holding strong. Even going through rush hour traffic through Newcastle 2 months after it was done. And that day it was first and second for at least 45minutes.
 

CraigW

Craig.
Apr 12, 2007
4,607
1
Hawick, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Then i think the one you've got in is upto the job, unless your handy at changing them, it daunts me tbh

I hope so because I dont fancy having to change it. If I had to change it then I would. Id just run about in my parents car until I get it changed. Although I reckon there will be alot of 'choice words' used during the change.

Oh and its a high tensile bolt that was put through mine. M12 I think it was.
 

Cupra Kid

Has a TDI!!
Oct 13, 2005
3,380
1
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
I'll give an update, six months later.............. ITS STILL HOLDING!!!!!

I left the cable ties on in the end after it had all set, not to give any strength as i doubt they do, however if the box flexes they should snap off and fall into the footwell giving me some advanced warning if its going to fail. So far thats not happened.

If your going to copy this then make sure you glue bare metal to bare metal as experiments with glueing to painted metal could not take as much weight/pressure.
 

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
fair play if that is still in one piece

used the putty type before at various times but never under any stress applications

how does it dry ? is it say drillable and conductive ?

just trying to note for future possible uses - could ba handy for moulding stuff on the hotrod
 
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