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Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:41 pm

I've been thinking, my pan/heater channels are looking real nasty. The body ain't great either but it's not scrap for sure, but I dunno what I should do with this pan, it's so rusty the only usable thing left seems to be the tunnel, tell me what you guys think...

There's a similar sized hole on the other side and the pan is full of pin holes all the way up to the pan head from there.

Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:17 pm

Looks a little worse than most, but it's definately worth fixing. You might want to investigate the frame head for rust, but even that is fixable.

Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:30 pm

get yourself a sawzall, electric drill and spot weld cutter and chop that stuff out of there before you change your mind. There's no saving the rusted through parts and now is a good time to save the good parts before they get worse and install new metal to replace the bad

Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:30 pm

Fairly bad, but it can be fixed. You're going to need new heater channels and floor pans. The pictures didn't show enough to see if you are going to need full pan halves or just quarter pans but based on how bad the battery tray looks I would be surprised if you didn't need full half pans. How's the floor in the front drivers and passengers area?

If you've never done a heater channel replacement and you can weld (or want to learn to weld) then you really ought to check out the Bug Me Videos on the subject. See http://www.bugmevideo.com/ . You'll want at least volumes 6 and 7. They are definitely worth the money if you are going to fix this yourself.

It also looks like you have some rusted through areas at the bottom of the rear quarter panels above the heater channels (not uncommon to see both places rusted out in an advanced case). You didn't show any pictures of the bottom of the door pillars, but I'd probably be surprised if they weren't rusted through as well.

The replacement parts are not particularly expensive and if you are good with tools and can weld (or learn to weld) all this can be fixed without spending too much money. If you were to have to pay someone to fix this it might get a bit spendy.

Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:50 pm

Put it back together, rivet new panels in, slam it so no one can see whats going on, and drive it. IMHO...

Whatever you do don't ever paint it.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:50 am

Mine was just about that bad.Get the pan halves from wolfsburgwest,and the rear quarter panel piece from Andy Parrott who advertises here on the Samba.Just replace the heater channel parts that are bad,that's what i did.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:08 pm

rockettdoggie wrote: Put it back together, rivet new panels in, slam it so no one can see whats going on, and drive it. IMHO...

Whatever you do don't ever paint it.

Dont use rivets.... that's fully ghetto.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:56 pm

I belive in comming back from the dead and this can be risen from the dead little bit of welding and grinnding it can be done or find you some good pan halves or find a good pan.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:17 pm

rockettdoggie wrote: Put it back together, rivet new panels in, slam it so no one can see whats going on, and drive it. IMHO...

Whatever you do don't ever paint it. Are you fucking kidding? Mariowned

Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:26 pm

rockettdoggie wrote: Put it back together, rivet new panels in, slam it so no one can see whats going on, and drive it. IMHO...

Whatever you do don't ever paint it. I won't be painting it but I'm sure as shit not riveting pans on. I'm taking a welding class in a month or so. My other question is where to get pan halves and heater channels. Woblfsburg West used to have them but they disappeared off the site. What's up with that? :?

Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:12 pm

Be patient,wolfsburgwest is in the works on an exact oval pan halves w/the nipples that hold the rubber mats i hear.Too late for me,i already did mine with Denmark metal. :cry: