TheSamba.com :: View topic - How can you make two sides of a panel nice?

Thu Feb 26, 2015 8:49 am

Hey all. On my beetle, there is evidence of an old repair in the trunk. Apparently, at one time, the area above my front fender was damaged in an accident. Then, the previous owner did a decent job of hammering out the dent so that you can't tell the car was hit when you look at the area above the fender from the outside of the car. The problem is that when you open the trunk lid, you can tell that area was hit...it's not a smooth flat panel.

Short of cutting out the entire panel and replacing it with something that is smooth on both sides, is it possible to fix it to where it looks smooth on the inside and the outside??? How...a hammer and dolly wizard?

You can (kind of) see it on the far side of the trunklid in this picture:

Steve

Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:35 am

You could just use some filler and paint to smooth out that area no one really sees. Honestly, I'd be more concerned with the copious amounts of rust under your hood channel seal. That's not going away anytime soon!

Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:55 am

from your gallery, it looks like you are trying to keep everything original on the beetle. You will be hard pressed to do anything to improve the interior side of the damaged panel that wouldn't require touch up paint on the exterior (or possibly filler work and complete panel repaint). I would just get a carpet kit and leave it alone until you decide to repair/restore the exterior.

Thu Feb 26, 2015 2:03 pm

Hey, the carpet idea is a good one! I think I remember that there were cardboard pieces in there too on the early beetles...but I'm not sure.

I do know they apparently resprayed that area, so I'm not too concerned about spraying it one more time...I could only improve it.

Yes...I'll be addressing the rust first (LOL). Trying to visualize all the things I need to do, so I don't fix something, and then end up having to re-do it because I went out of sequence.

So from what I'm hearing, it is possible to fix both sides of the panel with careful hammering and bondo?

EDIT: Cool...I did some searching and found pix of the correct cardboard. Might cover my problem up. I'll still have a go at fixing it, but it will cover up my shoddy workmanship. Here's the link: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=390106&highlight=cardboard

Steve