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Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:30 pm

This is my first time posting, I am 36 years old and have wanted a beetle ever since I can remember> I finally bought one about two months ago. I have been reading as much as I can & I have taken my beetle apart. She looked great when I bought her, but as i dug deeper, I found more & more rot. Anyone but a true beetle lover would have sent her to the junkyard. But I am determined to save her. The entire lower 10" or so of her body must be replaced. The chassis frame head is so rotted I must replace it. Having never done anything like this before, I am wondering if perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew! Having said that, the fact that I built a nice garage a couple of years ago and the fact I bought a welder last year & taught myself to weld makes me feel like saving this bug is my destiny. I even found the original owner! She was 23 when she bought it new, she's 60 now! Anyway, check out my pics, I can certainly post more. I need encouragement! I have a blog here: http://74beetle.blogspot.com/

Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:54 pm

I can't see your photos but checked your blog. Looks like a good project. I wish I had a nice garage like that :)
Stick with it.

Sun Mar 07, 2010 6:11 pm

I'm not sure why my photos don't show up. When I click on the text they open though. This is my first time ever posting to any forum! what did I do wrong??

Sun Mar 07, 2010 6:13 pm

Put them in the Samba gallery.

Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:15 pm

another person from the Burgh!!!!! :D and with a 74 Sweet.

Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:05 pm

So today I found out my wife's uncle had a beetle chassis sitting in his woods under a tarp. He said it had disc brakes, so that alone made it worth it to me to buy it for the $100 he wanted. Come to find out, it's cherry! the worst thing about the whole chassis are the 5 or 6 coats of paint on it! So now, as I just finish welding on a new frame head & napoleon's hat on my chassis, I have a like new one with disc brakes! Anybody want to buy my old chassis...

Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:40 pm

MrVWGuy wrote: So today I found out my wife's uncle had a beetle chassis sitting in his woods under a tarp. He said it had disc brakes, so that alone made it worth it to me to buy it for the $100 he wanted. Come to find out, it's cherry! the worst thing about the whole chassis are the 5 or 6 coats of paint on it! So now, as I just finish welding on a new frame head & napoleon's hat on my chassis, I have a like new one with disc brakes! Anybody want to buy my old chassis...
Sweet! Got pics of both the new chasis or of the repaired one?
Keep and store the original chassis if you have the space.. as it will have the original VIN.

Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:52 am

here are a few shots of the disc brake new to me chassis I just picked up.

Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:32 pm

well I finally welded the new frame head & napoleon's hat on! :D

Now I can hang this chassis on the wall of my garage & save it for some future project...

Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:29 pm

I put everything back together on my old chassis and swapped it out for the new chassis I got last weekend. I cleaned out the gunk and walnuts that were in the tunnel. Got about 1/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of walnuts out. Flushed it all out with water by standing the frame head portion of it up on the deck! Got some weird looks from the neighbor, but it worked. Today I got the broken 12mm bolt out of the frame head too, along with stripping off the front and rear suspension. Now to strip the paint and re-paint it with por15 chassis black...
:P

Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:40 pm

I have welded the new frame head on, and the new napoleon's hat. Both turned out very well. The measurements I took of the original frame head all fell within 1/16" of how it ended up, which aint bad. However, at Easter, I was visiting with my in-laws when a conversation with my wife's uncle led me to find out he had a chassis that someone had given him as payment for work he did on their beetle last year. The chassis had disc brakes he said. How much I asked... $100 he said. I said I'll take it, sight unseen. The disc brakes were worth it to me alone. And I could always use an extra chassis, I doubt this will be my only beetle project ever! When I went to pick up the chassis that same day I was amazed at what I saw- the chassis was in great shape! Come to find out it was from a '73 beetle and the disc brakes were from a '67-'72 Ghia. So, I decided since my chassis is so rusted, pitted, awful... that I'm going to use the beautiful chassis I picked up instead. I'll use my original chassis to build a street legal buggy someday I think. I replaced all of the suspension on the old chassis so I could roll it around, and I put the body back on it so I can roll it around too! And what do you know- when I put the body back on, everything lined up perfectly with what I had welded on!!!

I started to strip the 5 layers of paint off the new chassis today. Three hours to do 1/4 of the chassis. Sigh...

Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:46 pm

lookin good! never heard the bulkhead section be called a napoleans hat before! what are the other cars taking up space?

Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:45 am

oh, those two cars to the left & right of the chassis are my hot-rodded '86 Cutlass (originally my grandmother's) and my '71 Cadillac sedan deville (originally my step dad's). But I'm not allowing myself to uncover or otherwise touch them untill the bug's done!

Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:04 am

good to know youve got your priorities straight!

Sun May 02, 2010 6:16 am

After weeks of work and nearly a gallon of aircraft paint stripper, my chassis is finally down to bare metal. There are a few issues that need to be addressed, but all things considered I think it's in great shape for being 37 years old.

Sun May 02, 2010 7:23 am

MrVWGuy wrote:

:P
Are you going to do anything with your tunnel? I basically did the same thing but took it a few steps further...after cleaning I sprayed phosporic acid in the tunnel with a pump up sprayer, killing the rust......rinsing....dried with my electric leaf blower and poured masterseries inside my tunnel using a sponge on a coat hanger and gravity to spread it around. Got the bottom completely covered, not so good on the walls.

Before

After

If I where to do it again I would thin the ms down about 15-20%(use a whole quart)
Seal all the holes up(also the open tubes inside the tunnel), dump it inside, seal the hole up you dumped the paint in than rotate end to end and side to side.

Sun May 02, 2010 7:46 am

I certainly need to do something inside the tunnel, I'd like to basically do the same thing only use POR15's "metal ready" for the rust neutralizing, then coat the inside with POR15 itself.

Sun May 02, 2010 7:49 am

MrVWGuy wrote: I certainly need to do something inside the tunnel, I'd like to basically do the same thing only use POR15's "metal ready" for the rust neutralizing, then coat the inside with POR15 itself.

I would definitely thin the por-15 with their recommended thinner.

Mon May 31, 2010 1:44 pm

I finally made some progress on my beetle's chassis. Bought some jack points off a fellow samba member & welded up the holes created by the PO when he/she took the original jack points off. I assume it was for a convertible. The holes were covered in duck tape, and then filled with bondo!!! Anyway, I welded in metal to fill the holes then welded on the jack points.

Before:

After:

Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:02 am

Coated the inside of the tunnel:

POR-15 on the chassis!

Sure does come out shiny when you spray it on!
Next- seal all of the seams then two coats of chassis coat black!