Heater Channel and Rear Cross Member fitting!!! HELP!

thebugnut · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:45 am Post subject: Rear 1/4 panel Skin

Now that the cross member is in, I have moved on to the outside skin for the 1/4 panel. The main outside seam will be a lap joint. I slanged one edge and will puddle weld it together. The wheelhouse and door jam areas will be butt welded.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Much nicer to work on with the body separated from the pan! Mine is not. Looks like it is going together nicely. I found that the back edge of the 1/4 panel, where it wraps around the top of the rear cross member in the front wheel house, to be an odd fit. I notice on yours it also wraps around underneath without really touching the bottom side of the rear cross member. I just finished that same rear 1/4 panel on the drivers side. I had to take off the rear spring plate and torsion bar housing to get to that area to weld up. I'll post a pic later. I also notice you had that same 1/2 inch gap between the rear outer rocker and the rear cross member/rear 1/4 panel. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392353 Must just be the nature of the fit of the currently available repair panels.
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thebugnut · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:05 am Post subject: Rear 1/4 Panel

Everything fits pretty good. Once it is tacked in place I will bust out the hammer and make sure that everything is touching what it needs to be touching in order to get good welds and seal things up.

I took the body off mainly because I had to fix the section. Taking the body off is fairly easy and makes working on these strange and hard to get at areas much easier.
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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

thebugnut · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:30 am Post subject: Rear Cross Member Area

That looks pretty darn good. It is one strange spot on the car. When I started to repair it I didn't realize how many things attach to that one spot. However, if you can fix that you should be good for the rest of the car.
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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Thanks. Yea, kind of scary when you think of how that area use to be when you were ripping around in your car. Majorly strong when all the pieces are welded together.
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thebugnut · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 8:13 am Post subject: Outside rear 1/4 panel skin

I started welding in the rear 1/4 panel skin. I took my time and everything went fairly well. I even ended up filling in all the old rivet holes with the torch. With a few more welds and some grinding I will be almost ready to mover over to the other site.

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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

I notice you too had that little weird spot with that panel.

I had a bunch of little filler pieces I had to make with the repair panels I used. Did you get much warpage along the seam on the lap weld of the quarter panel? I had to use a dolly quite a bit to get things back to flat. Do you plan to put a plug in that hole at the rear of the heater channel in the rear corss member piece, or just fill it? I'm still debating what to do with that. Looking good! I feel like I'm looking at pictures of my car, since I just did those areas, and my car is green too!
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thebugnut · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:24 am Post subject: strange spots

I have a friend in town that said not to worry about those strange spots. He said the panels are always a little strange and you just have to get creative filling them in. On the front I was thinking of building up a weld there and grinding it back down. In the back I will probably get a plug. My buddy Gary knows where you can buy them.

I don't think the panel warped too much at all.

The tricky thing was that the cut line was pre-existing on the car. I had fixed this spot poorly with a panel and rivets 11 years ago. Because of this I couldn't cut a nice new line or my panel would be to short.

I just had to take my time.
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thebugnut · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:46 pm Post subject: Driver Side Body Mount

Hello Again... I almost have the passenger side done, but I have not been sure on one area... the body mount. It is made up of a double wall and the mount itself It is a hard place to work and on the driver side it is in worse shape then the passenger side.

can this area be repaired with out having to remove the luggage tray?

Can someone look at these pictures and let me know what you think?

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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

That area is the intersection of several panels. The rear cross member along with the lower rear quarter panel, and forward rear wheel house will fill most of that area. You will probably have to make some smaller filler stuff too. I just finished that area.
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thebugnut · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:23 am Post subject:

I did a little more work on the driver side rear 1/4 panel / cross member / Wheelhouse. I decided to only cut a minimal amount of the original car off and left the upper area on the car since it was still solid. This would allow be to easily re-locate the position on the body mount.

I ground off the rust and cut off the bad metal.

The next step will be in weld in the cross member on the driver side. With that in place I can start to see where everything will eventually come together. With this situation I will probably to the outer 1/4 panel skin next. That will give me the location for the bottom of the wheelhouse I just cut off.

Here are some pictures...

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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Ah the memories! Cool

You almost have to take pictures of all your work, because once it's back together, you forget how much you had it ripped apart and how much work you put into it. The mind tends to block out those tramatic events! Wink

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thebugnut · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:08 am Post subject: Body Work

I am finding myself getting much better at knowing where and what to cut off. I used to be very unsure, now I can see it like the MATRIX. Thanks for all the help so far. i will keep posting updates of the repairs as I go.
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thebugnut · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:04 am Post subject:

Just a quick update. I have started to weld in the driver side cross member. I also fabricated a nice piece for the frame that welds to the cross member and the heater channels. Once I grind down the welds it should look pretty good. It has been a while since I used the welder... it took some time getting the hang of it again.

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thebugnut · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:09 am Post subject:

If anyone is interested to read about the entire project you can visit HotRodding.ca for my thread over there...

http://www.hotrodding.ca/FUDforums/index.php?t=msg&th=775&start=0&
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thebugnut · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:13 pm Post subject: Another Update

OK, I was in the garage again making my own patch panels and cutting out the hole for the wire harness to go through and fed the engine and tail lights. I was also modifying the outer 1/4 panel skin so it will fit properly. I was just about ready to weld it in place when I realized I was starting to get tired. I packed it in for the day before I did something stupid.

Here are some more pictures...

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beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Lots of nice bright shiny clean metal! Looks like you're getting good welds! What are you going to do about the overlap of the rear quarter panel and the rear cross member in the bottom pic?
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thebugnut · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:49 am Post subject:

I am doing the same thing as the other side. Everything will be welded up and sealed tight. Hard to explain, I will have to just take more pictures when I get there.

I find that these replacement panels for the outer 1/4 panel seem to be a couple mm small. Both sides felt the same. Oh well... I do what I can with what I have.

It's coming together anyway.

I hope to have the body on and the car painted before winter. If I can get that done, I can do the wiring and interior and external trip over the winter. I just need the warm summer weather for painting and priming and body filler. You can't do that stuff when it gets cold.
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Heater Channel and Rear Cross Member fitting!!! HELP!
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