My 63 Ragtop

[63Ragtop NZ]

update time.
Had to fix a heap of small problem with the doner panel just small fiddly stuff like this.

where the ends were spot welded down.

a tiny bit of rust and a bit of damage from taking it off the old car.

did as much as I could before getting the inner and out vent panels sandblasted.

I damaged three of these, wasn't as bad as I thought to fix.

I also welded up all the drill hole in the window frame, as I still have the spot welder i thought it will make a nicer job than big old plug welds, i was right.

got everything in place an cut the panel it fit.

bit of a close up, only just see one spot weld on the side there.

and everything does seems to line up!

So I started welding it all in place, scary!
not finished yet, should be done this week.

getting there! that's the last of the rust in the shell done!

whoo who!!!!
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[wcfvw69]

Wow... that's a TON of metal work you've accomplished there. Nice job staying with it and pushing thru to see it to completion.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

cheers mate, this rear window fix was the best way to get rid of all the rust using the least amount of welding, which means less grinding and less chances to fuck it up!

finishing up the rear window.

half way done.

happy with the body lines all lining up.

so many spot welds, so fast, so clean!

and primed, still need to hammer the folds down.

blind man would be happy to see it.

still need to grind the welds under the vents, inside the engine bay, where the inner vent panel is welded to the firewall, ran out of time on the weekend.

merry christmas everyone! hope you all have a good rest and don't drink to much!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Hi everyone, managed to get a few things done in the madness between christmas and new years.
I folded the gutter seams back over the new metal, tidied up alot of small details like s few of the spot welds had burned right thought both layers of metal so I had to plug them up, tidied up the inside of the window, pretty happy.

Stripped the bog off the weld to the rear of the sunroof, shit was over a cm deep in places.

it's a bit of a mess, heaps of warpage, dents surface rust and even a nice rust hole to fix.

Then the other day I finally bit the bullet and fixed my cockup were I had tried to weld up a 1 inch hole in the firewall, I think I had the welder on the wrong setting and just kept trying and trying to plug up the holes, but just blasted more and more holes in the flippin thing!

so I cut it all out.

made up a patch and very carefully welded it in.

which was not easy with the rib and crescent shape, but much happier with it now.

also, Santa brought these up from kapiti for me.

they fit good, are comfortable as and not nearly as fucked as I thought they would be.

[img]http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc299/sarahandgus/project/IMG_1673_zpshjxqfpid.jpg?t=1451597309[/img]

because race car!!!


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If you can't join them, beat them!

[63Ragtop NZ]

Hi everyone, managed to get a few things done in the madness between christmas and new years.
I folded the gutter seams back over the new metal, tidied up alot of small details like s few of the spot welds had burned right thought both layers of metal so I had to plug them up, tidied up the inside of the window, pretty happy.

Stripped the bog off the weld to the rear of the sunroof, shit was over a cm deep in places.

it's a bit of a mess, heaps of warpage, dents surface rust and even a nice rust hole to fix.

Then the other day I finally bit the bullet and fixed my cockup were I had tried to weld up a 1 inch hole in the firewall, I think I had the welder on the wrong setting and just kept trying and trying to plug up the holes, but just blasted more and more holes in the flippin thing!

so I cut it all out.

made up a patch and very carefully welded it in.

which was not easy with the rib and crescent shape, but much happier with it now.

also, Santa brought these up from kapiti for me.

they fit good, are comfortable as and not nearly as fucked as I thought they would be.

because race car!!!


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[63Ragtop NZ]

so, the next step!

the front scuttle panel has been replaced before, welded in from the corner of the bonnet opening, diagonally towards the wiper holes. Why they did it like this I don't know, as the corners of the screen appear to have need alot of work, as well as half way up the pillars.

I have not been looking forward to trying to seperate these as it was all just MIGed together.

So take a not quite as stuffed example.

this panel was on the old baja I cut up, seems the short baja fibreglass bonnet needed some clearance.

spot the diff

this side is rough!

started hammering it into shape.

nasty.

then I chopped this out, just past the old welds.

tried to save the dash side of the lip, but as you see....

so I guess I'll have to make a new one?

trimmed the new panel up and had it blasted by the same crowd on henderson valley road

pulled the dash out, thought about cutting the lip off it as a doner.

now I've just got to make this all fit back together again.

I also spent some time hammering on the roof, got it much looking much nicer and shouldn't need half as much bog to cover the lap weld up, sprayed some primer on for now, and cut out and patched the holes.

oh, and I welded up about 15 holes under the dash from radios and stuff over the years.
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[vw62kid]

Wow, nice work man! looks like that bugs gonna be solid when its done. good work!

[63Ragtop NZ]

thanks man, solid is the plan!

started welding the scuttle in place last night, pics when finished.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

and here we are!

yes , some very cold looking welds, but I didn't want to blow any holes in this right now.

I had to plug weld the corners as the spot welder couldn't get in behind the corner air vents.

all stitched up.

and smoothed out.

managed to keep the joins looking factory as.

and the bonnet fits much better than the kippered old scuttle.

just need to weld up the folded over thingys and that is the rust and metal work just about fucking done!

So I need to find something else to do huh? One of these finally turned up cheap, didn't want to spend to much on something I was just going to chop up.

excellent.

gunna make me a vert lid!
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[HUGO bOSS]

Love this project!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Cheers Bro, thanks!

Engine lid update when i get the balls up to cut great big holes in engine lid, for now I finished up the last of the scuttle transplant, not bad.

Thought I'd make a start on fixing the doors, pulled out the super rusted doners from under the house.

hoping to make one pair outta these two sets.

need to sort the bottom drivers door hinge, its fucked

I also want to make it so my one piece windows actually work and have something for the scrapers to attach to,

so i harvested the drivers hinge, inside and outside window sills from the doners.

The half ass plan is to use the rear half of the sills to replace the front half of the good doors to replace the narrow area where the quarter windows go, this area has always pissed me of as there was never enough inner sill to even glue the scraper to, but after this I'm hoping to be able to clip the one piece scraper all the was along the sill to give it a almost factory look and function. Only problem is one of the doner is completely rustfucked!
Also in the above pic is the engine lid vents and hinges which is a bonus as two of mine had threads stripped out,now all blasted and primed.

here is what i'm dealing with on both doors, although the passenger side seems a little worse than the drivers.

like I said plan to extend the inside lip so the window scraper will have something to clip or glue to.

Stupidly I went over the bottom of the passenger door with the wire wheel, hmmm why so much bog?

Oh.

Oh shit.

Oh well!

blasted in a wee thing to hopefully hold the hinge to the door and bent up a very small patch for the outer corner.

And then covered that rangi shit up with this neat little thing, was fun to make.

I'm a bit over this bullshit in case you're wondering, gotta get this sucker on the road.

that'll fookn do!

outside corner

This was welded over the top of rust on the outside of the door, at the other end along the bottom.

nice, so I made a new inner lip

smoothed it out.

made this to fit the outside.

and done. It really needs this doing to the whole bottom of the door as the very bottom of the inner panel is nearly completely gone, but not keen after the mess I made of the quarter panels, to big and flat.

still haven't started the windows!

[/list]
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[wcfvw69]

I love you mental fortitude in continuing to press on through these obstacles you're running into. It's a shame you don't have more options for spare parts where you are. I saw the damage to the doors and thought "why doesn't he simply go get some good, rust free ones?" Then, I remembered where you were located.

Anyway, nice job!
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
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**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
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**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
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[HUGO bOSS]

Allmost there!
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538182

[63Ragtop NZ]

[63Ragtop NZ]

So I want these doors solid, I'm just not completely disassembling them like the shell.
That said the bottom hinge on the drivers door needs some major work, some numpty(me) tried to drill out the pin about ten years ago, removed runningboard, jack car up on one side and drilled straight up, sept the car was on a angle icon this it's self would be bad enough, having to drill out the rivets in the door, fit a new hinge and then suss out nuts and bolts to hold it in place, but I can't. Because someone at some point folded this door right round and half ripped the rivets out, and then welded everything back together.

So.

This is stuffed anyway, so off it came. See how I skillfully drilled out half of the pin!

this is looking from the bottom of the door, there is even less meat left on the top of the hinge.
I was hoping to somehow fix this half of the hinge and just use half of the new hinge, but everything is so bent and twisted it really needs replacing.

after thinking long and hard about the easiest, fastest or best way to fix this thing, I did this.

and chopped the inner panel, hinge and all, out.

started removing rust and hammering the folded door skin flat, something I couldn't do with the inner panel in the way.

Also cut this out of the other end on the bottom of the same door.

very krusty in here.

removed parts and new hinge

from this angle you can see how far the hinge has pulled though the door.

it's going to take some work still to separate the hinge without damaging the door panels shape.

Again, What have I done!!



started making a patch for the bottom corner

[img]http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc299/sarahandgus/project/IMG_0084_zpsn641caro.jpg?t=1458116696[/img]

Also finally welded up what must be the last rust hole in the body, on the passenger rear quarter window sill.

and just a wide shot of the shed just to prove I haven't cut the whole thing into tiny chunks.

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If you can't join them, beat them!

[HUGO bOSS]

Great job...
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538182

[bobnorman]

Awesome metal work. Keep it up, this is a great inspirational thread showing just what can be done.
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[63Ragtop NZ]

Thanks again guys, I would never even tried something like this if it wasn't for all the great info, knowledge and help from forums like thesamba!

managed to make a bit of mess of this patch!

I'm sure it was all nice and flat?? before??

that is terrible.

solid as though, must remember this is the bottom of the door, so fuck it.

looks good from this angle.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Now, the hinge side of things, bit of a mission.

first I had to cut what was left of the old hinge out.

I managed to separate the hinge cleanly from the 3rd rivet, and drill a hole through the center of it, which would help in lining the new hinge up in the right place, after much beating and grinding I was happy with how the hinge was sitting.

then I made up a patch to fill in the gaps

welded it in place and ground smooth.

using the dremel on the inside so I could fit another even smaller patch to the inside panel.
the steel I'm using is actually a little thicker than the vw stuff, but this is not a area I want to crack in the future.

I also stuck a few spot welds between them because I could and just in case.

the inside had to be smoothed out so the hinge would sit right and I also welded up the 3rd hole/mess once the hinge could be bolted in place.

like this!

nearly a door again.

and weldy weldy

o after all that, it all seems to go back together the same, which is handy.

but it still doesn't fit the body correctly, the belt line is still a good 5mm lower than the door.
But I can't lift the door much as it is already tight against the A pillar.

least I didn't make it worse, which I was worried about.

Made a start on the window sills.

patches

lined up using the clip holder that the one piece glass scraper is held in with.

kinda hard to photograph.

and welded up.

Factory cal looker!!


so I still need to do this on the other door, but I really want to get on with finishing the heater channels and get some paint on the underneath and the pan before the weather gets colder

thanks for reading this stuff, if i can do it anyone can!
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[Beetlebaum]

Nice welding work! I've got quite a bit of that to do this summer on my Super Beetle.
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