No-Measure Front Clip Replacement (One Man's Journey)

[NewTechnicIan]

This is a cross-post from my blog, but I figure it'll be at home here in Body/Paint, too. I'm pretty proud of where I've gotten thus far.

OK, what with that scintillating teaser, I'm betting you are all wondering what I could be doing to my front end. Well, lemme tell ya. I'm about halfway through a front clip replacement that, once complete, will put me so close to finishing up this body that I can almost taste it....

I've not seen a really comprehensive front clip replacement section in most people's blogs so I'll try to be as detailed as possible for anyone who happens to search this in the future.
Most people talk about measuring 1000x and then cutting and hoping for the best. I honestly couldn't think of a way that I wouldn't mess that up so I decided to go with a No-Measure, No-Muss, No-Fuss, No-'Uffin-Around version. We'll see how it goes!

First thing's first, if I'm going to fit this new clip like stock, I need plenty of points to jig off of. I brought both my fenders and my hood out to make sure all the holes and curves on the current front clip, wheel wells and hood section all lined up nicely.
One fender in:

Other fender in:

hood on:

Then I decided to jig up the gas tank hole. Before I finish this up, I'll bring out the gas tank to make sure everything is hunky dory with the final fit, but until then, I made an angle iron jig to hold the dimensions nicely.
Front to Back dimensions were set by putting angle iron against the front edge and welding to the back of the gas tank hole.

From those front edges, I put down some welding rods to mark out where the front beam mounting holes should hit.

Then I welded in some angle iron to hold the dimensions side-to-side

At that point, I decided to cut down my old front clip, way shy of where my new front clip hits, so I had plenty of room for making mistakes (which I did make, you'll see):

Next thing I did, for better or worse, was cut a few inches off the stiffeners on the inside of the body metal.

My reasoning was that I would jig up the new front clip on the inside of the old clip, when due to the way the body expands backwards, it actually needed to be on the outside of the old metal while I fit it up.

Once I realized this, I had to cut out some of the seal channel on the old metal to allow the new clip to slide over the old clip, and I needed to trim the metal on the old clip up past the supporting stiffeners.

In order to make the fit-up a little easier on a one-man job, I cut a couple angle iron pieces to slide into the stiffeners and act as supports as I jigged up the new clip:

Then a LOT of up-and-down, shave a little here, a little there, up-and-down, little more shaving, until I got the new clip to match up with all my jig points, and I bolted up the fenders into place to make really sure that everything I could do was in place. After all, I hadn't yet taken a measurement

The passenger fender looks off here, but it's because I had only bolted it in enough to make sure all my holes lined up and it had slipped down the bolts just a little. The fit is actually perfect.
Looks like a bug!

It sure did take me a while to get to that point, so I put a few sheet metal screws through either side to make sure I could get the two pieces to line back up again.

Showing the alignment with the original jig front piece, and the original hole locations. Word to the wise, use something a little more durable than welding rod, they bent during fit-up but I know if all my other points are there, I should be DANG close.

OK, that's where I ended up the day and I'll post some more in this when I get it all mounted up. Even my new front clip needed some work so I wanted to do that while I could still weld/cut/grind from more angles. I'll update when I make the dreaded Final Cut and we'll see how we do!
Thanks, hope this helps any shade-tree welders out there!
Ian
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My 73 Standard build - It's painted! It drives under its own power! Time to get it wired and upholstered!

My 1679 Engine build.

[NewTechnicIan]

Alright, not too many responses on here, but I wanted to keep this updated as to how it turned out!

I put my clip back on the car after the repairs and hooked up my fenders and checked my fit a bunch more times but I was ready! So I took my air tool and started cutting and putting in buttweld clamps to hold things in place:

And moved on to the other side to do the same thing:

Checked and double checked my fit against my jig for the gas tank gap:

This looked almost perfect. I think I said it before but it would have paid to use something less bendy than welding rod
However the holes were within 1/8" side to side and front to back, and maybe just 1/4" low from where they were originally. I don't see it causing any big problems.

I had the two sides tacked/welded in place already but I got around to checking my gas tank for fit and it confirmed what I thought: that I had a good fit but I had moved it just a little bit in from where my original clip was, so the bolts for holding down the tank may need some finagling up front:

It fit to my standard and I was more concerned about getting the body lines correct so long as I could get the tank to sit nicely.

So I moved on to the body lines! Working carefully and steadily I welded up the seal channel area and I think it came out pretty wizard!

You'll notice in the last couple pictures that I took out the seal channel entirely around the hood area. I decided that it was the way better decision to go with the Mexi Beetle Hood Seal instead of trying to attach new seal channel or put up with rusty current stuff.

Link to the Hood Seals:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=821433

Well, aside from unforeseen issues that I had to take care of on the clip, I'd say my replacement went rather well. Hope this helps any prospective front clip replacers in the future!
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My 73 Standard build - It's painted! It drives under its own power! Time to get it wired and upholstered!

My 1679 Engine build.

[beetlenut]

Nice job Ian. Once I saw how much rust was under that hood seal, I ripped mine off and also decided to go with the Mexi-seal front and rear. I liked the nice clean look of the lip after I cut off the hood seal and cleaned, filled, and painted it. I also know they seal better than the thin stock ones. I did replace the top stock "C" channel since I still need to run the stock top hood seal rubber there.

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scrapyards are for quitters
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[panicman]

Great write up and pictorial. Thank you!
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Plate of shrimp

[eyetzr]

Nice job. Very well done. The only thing I would say is & you did preface it, was heavier line up pins & I have removed the seal strip before cutting the clip off, so it has a smooth line, but you did use the Mexi-seal.
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I think he meant "rare", as in "not well-done"

[Q-Dog]

Nice job. It looks good. I would have used bolts through the jig and into the tank mount holes. As you have discovered, the welding rods are too easy to bend.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[offshores]

Nice job. Hmmm? I may decide to pop off the channel and do the Mexi seal now. The upper channel stays and the sides are removed for the Mexi seal, correct?

[NewTechnicIan]

Offshores, yes, the mexi-beetle seal will work all the way around except at the upper channel, where you have to keep the c-channel. I have pictures of the upper seal channel welded in on my build blog, and I can post them here if that helps people. I didn't know how far to go on the details.
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I'm glad to add my drop to the bucket of learning out there!
_________________
My 73 Standard build - It's painted! It drives under its own power! Time to get it wired and upholstered!

My 1679 Engine build.

[beetlenut]

[offshores]

Thanks guys. That just seems way too easy. I replaced the clip on my ’65 and I’m not happy with how that channel turned out after welding and grinding. Figured I’d be replacing both sides. How labor intensive is it to remove and prep for paint? Any tips since you both have done it already?

[NewTechnicIan]

Offshores, Beetlenut will tell you way more about the painting aspect but you can see the marks in my last couple pictures where I took a air cutoff disc and carefully ground down/cut out the spot weld areas all the way around the c channel on the hood area. Took maybe 1/2 hour of grinding. Then I went over it with a wirebrush to clean it up and put rust converter primer on it to keep it nice until I can get it blasted and painted.
Hope that helps!
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My 73 Standard build - It's painted! It drives under its own power! Time to get it wired and upholstered!

My 1679 Engine build.

[dubjeep]

Nice job! The front clip of my car is smashed in, so I'm not sure how good my measurements would be anyway. This is good inspiration.
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"Harvey"--My 1970--http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=495804

[beetlenut]

[offshores]

Thanks. I appreciate the info.