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Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:51 pm

I decided not to make a topic for this until I got the body off the chassis, as for me, that was the point where I had no choice but to move forward with the project. So here it is :) :) :) :)
-START WHINING-
And it's finally off! AND NOTHING WENT RIGHT IN THE PROCESS!! I decided to lift it today by chance. A few friends showed up, so they got sort of suckered into doing this. I told them I had everything unbolted and that the body was 500 pounds max, and would be a cinch. I was wrong. Four of us couldn't lift it. Then, a fifth couldn't lift it. Here's how things got stupid.
First off, somehow, I missed a bolt. It was on the passenger side, and was one of those 7 or so holding it. Don't know how I missed it. Got it out, then we tried again.
Still didn't want to come off. Now, I was confused. I followed every step in the Bug Me video. I must've watched it four or five times to make sure everything was unbolted and unhooked and whatever. But it was the steering that was still connected to the body. I swear, I must've undone every freaking bolt in the steering, on the wheels, and it still wouldn't come off. I don't want to even talk about what we had to do. Look sharp at the front end and you might catch it. It's silly, but whatever, it came off.
-END WHINING-
So come spring break, me and my angle grinder plus wire wheel are going to be busy. Hopefully this weekend I can take the chassis to metal and see if I need more than just a quarter floor board. It's got a big hole where the battery acid ate through, but other than that, feels and looks pretty solid. Do you guys recommend just going with complete new floor panels anyways? I've read you guys say the Wolfburg West ones are stronger than what VW originally used.

Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:10 am

I'd leave as much OG metal as I reasonably could, just for the sake of originality. IE, if just the battery area is rusted out no I would not replace the ENTIRE floorpan.

Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:30 am

My battery area was rusted out too. Along with the rear cross brace, rear cross member, rear heater channel, and front of the rear wheel well. I used a rear quarter floor pan replacement to deal with the battery area. If the front floor pan is solid, why add extra work?

Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:19 pm

Yeah, the floor pans are in such good shape I'll just leave them.
Rolled the chassis out to work on it in the drive way. Great day here to work on the car. Spring has definitely arrived. I was thinking of buying a dolly for the front since the front wheels are off, but I just used an old skateboard my brother had instead. Worked just as good!

Got a tar board off. Very, very little of the brown you see is rust. It's actually 36 years worth of dirt. I'll get the other three out tomorrow. I bought an angle grinder with a wire wheel and wanted to test it out, so I took in to the tar board and it started snowing! I figured the neighbors wouldn't dig that so I just went at it with a screwdriver.
Questions!

What's up with the metal on the transmission right here? It looks like a layer peeled off or something.
Also, what's the easiest way to drop the transmission? Do I need to take the axles off?

Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:25 pm

Vinnems wrote:
Got a tar board off. Very, very little of the brown you see is rust. It's actually 36 years worth of dirt.
Is that carpeting/felt covering both the seat pedestals? Never saw one of those on an aircooled before!

The transmission metal looks to be like it's a lot of casting-flash, maybe a defect from the factory. Have you poked it with a screw driver to see if any more material fell off?

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:25 am

a.wilson wrote: Vinnems wrote:
Got a tar board off. Very, very little of the brown you see is rust. It's actually 36 years worth of dirt.
Is that carpeting/felt covering both the seat pedestals? Never saw one of those on an aircooled before!

yeah that's what that is...mine has it too. You can just see it here:

Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:37 am

letthemusicflow wrote: a.wilson wrote: Vinnems wrote:
Got a tar board off. Very, very little of the brown you see is rust. It's actually 36 years worth of dirt.
Is that carpeting/felt covering both the seat pedestals? Never saw one of those on an aircooled before!

yeah that's what that is...mine has it too. You can just see it here:

Ah, those are long gone out of mine. Guess will have to scout around in some junkyards for some.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:56 pm

Got the tar boards off today. it was really hot out this afternoon, so I think that's the reason they came out as one piece! Seriously, they came out so smooth I think I could reuse them. But I'd rather have something cleaner for sound deadening.
The rust turns out to be worse than I thought! As a wire wheeling it off, I'm noticing some pitting. Nothing too deep, but it's still there. I'll see what it looks like when I get it all off. May have to buy new pans after all :(
Edit: Man, really need to check out CIP1 whenever I'm wondering where I can buy a tool to work on this thing :)

Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:41 pm

This really russles my jimmies. Had an hour free today so I took the angle grinder to the pans only to find them pitting like crazy. Couple of holes started forming, too. And to think they looked so nice under all that tar :) I guess I was hoping for too much with this car. I know it's been a California car its whole life, but I think it lived on the beach for a while.
Oh well. Time to put an order in for new pans.

And because I was standing there with the grinder, I decided to take a peak at the C pillar rust, which is showing it's ugly face. I also noticed that under my Beetle's crappy yellow paint job is nice yellow paint job. The insides of the door still show this bright yellow.
Can't wait for spring break to hit. Going to spend the whole week taking the car to metal and searching for replacement metal. Should be fun, as long as I don't have to search for too much!
By the way, since the body is mostly large flat pieces of metal, I figured getting some sand paper for my grinder would expedite the stripping process. Recommended grit for taking it to bear metal? I also heard velcro discs work good for this. Can anyone confirm that?
Thanks guys. Things are coming along nicely and I'm having a great time in the process. Can't wait to see it running again!
EDIT: Wolfburg West seems to be out of 74 floor pans. Anyone know where else I can get high quality floor pans for this model?
Or, would floor pans from another year work? I think I can salvage the seat rails and the mount if they'll work on another year's floor pans.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 8:42 pm

Those holes look tiny! I'd just goop a little seam sealer on 'em and don't tell anyone :lol: In the floor at least, weld up them pillars though.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:57 pm

Hey Levi. I might just have to do that, because Wolfburg West says those pans are produced by one company in Brazil twice a year, and next time they are expected to have them in is May. Was hoping to get pans in sooner and have the chassis done before May. Oh well :)
The problem with covering up the holes is that there are ALOT of them. That's just ones I could get at easily with a screw driver. The thing is pitted heavily, not to mention the pan is pretty much nonexistent where the battery goes. Might as well go all the way, as I want this to be my car until the day I die.
What's the deal with using a different years pans? I see they look different and lack the seat hump, but what else is different? I think I can salvage the hump, and maybe the rails. Is it a different shape, perhaps? I have two front seats from my 74 in pristine condition, and want to reuse them. If I can do that with a different years pan and railing maybe, let me know!
And if anyone has late model pans in good condition, let me know!!

Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:03 am

a.wilson wrote: Vinnems wrote:
Got a tar board off. Very, very little of the brown you see is rust. It's actually 36 years worth of dirt.
Is that carpeting/felt covering both the seat pedestals? Never saw one of those on an aircooled before!

The transmission metal looks to be like it's a lot of casting-flash, maybe a defect from the factory. Have you poked it with a screw driver to see if any more material fell off?

Yes, this is correct. Mines the same way.

Fri Mar 26, 2010 4:36 pm

Update, and it's not a pretty site.
First, the driver side C Pillar. Wasn't so bad from the outside. Couple of holes.

Inside, a pretty large hole was forming, and I could see that the whole inside was rusted, as expected. That foam stuff really helps mother nature out.

Now, get ready for my freaking nightmare. I moved over to the passenger side pillar. Looked pretty smooth, so I started grinding and found out why.

My hell hath a name: bondo. It was bondo city. So I kept grinding.

And it got worse! This four or five inch hole was just pure bondo! Here's a pic of it when I stopped:

I was a afraid to take the wire wheel do the really deep rust because sparks were flying like crazy and I was scared the foam would catch fire.
I'm going to make a post on the body forum about how I should proceed with this. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to chime in. This is kind of discouraging...

Fri Mar 26, 2010 5:18 pm

Disheartening..yes, but nothing a welder couldn't handle. Hang in there and don't throw in the towel yet!

Fri Mar 26, 2010 5:56 pm

I haven't even started the real grinding yet! I'm sure I will have a sizable hole when I'm done. Better to get the foam out! Don't worry about the size of the hole. Just make sure you have enough 18 gage sheet metal! By the time I'm done with this resto, I'll have used enough sheet metal and MIG wire to have built a car from scratch!

Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:14 pm

Thanks for the support, guys! My plan tonight is to hit up Lowes/Home Depot and get myself a cutting wheel for my grinder. I figure instead of digging around little holes with a screw driver, I might as well cut the panels off, because lets face it, they're going to have to come off anyways. Tomorrow I'll cut and finish getting the foam out and doing rust removal back there.

Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:29 pm

Vinnems wrote: Update, and it's not a pretty site.
First, the driver side C Pillar. Wasn't so bad from the outside. Couple of holes.

Inside, a pretty large hole was forming, and I could see that the whole inside was rusted, as expected. That foam stuff really helps mother nature out.

Now, get ready for my freaking nightmare. I moved over to the passenger side pillar. Looked pretty smooth, so I started grinding and found out why.

My hell hath a name: bondo. It was bondo city. So I kept grinding.

And it got worse! This four or five inch hole was just pure bondo! Here's a pic of it when I stopped:

I was a afraid to take the wire wheel do the really deep rust because sparks were flying like crazy and I was scared the foam would catch fire.
I'm going to make a post on the body forum about how I should proceed with this. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to chime in. This is kind of discouraging...

Why the F would someone cover that up with bondo?? :roll:

Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:58 pm

Hey just wondering, Vinnems, did you have any problem getting your steering box out? I am doing a body-off on my 74 right now but I can't get the steering box out...been working on it for weeks.

Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:28 pm

I never got mine out, either. I still need to disassemble everything under the body that's still connected to steering. I just left it because it was held in by some incredibly tight bolts that had aln heads and I didn't have any allen wrenches around.

Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:48 pm

my 74 has rust in those exact same spots, i haven't grinded it tough so who knows what surprises will be uncovered