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richardc
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Joined: September 06, 2010
Posts: 269
Location: New Jersey & North Carolina
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 Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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The inner panel (with the torsion hole) and the outer panel(with the torsion hole)are they attached together somehow?
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Rich |
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72Ghia
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Joined: November 11, 2007
Posts: 1253
Location: Baltimore Maryland
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cool karmann collected
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Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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Right it's been a while and I've made a lot of progress so I thought I'd share another chunk with you. It's been mega cold here recently which seemed to send my enthusiasm for laying on a concrete garage floor into a deep freeze, but I've soldiered on and I'm now onto what I consider the finishing jobs for this side of the car. Before that though there was the small matter of welding in the front and rear quarter panels, I'll start with the rear as that's where I left off.
I'd already fitted up the panel as seen in the earlier posts but now needed to get it exactly positioned before any welding commenced. One thing I'd had to do to be able to load in the channel and rocker was cut away a small portion of the inner lip near the base of the B pillar that the outer panel attaches to. You can see the it missing in the photo below and then where I've re-welded it back on in the pic below that.
With that done, I set to work with the hole punch prepping the lower edge of the panel and the edge that meets with the door pillar. As I mentioned, I'd cut through the upper trim holes on the body as this was where I was planning to make the join. The panel comes supplied with some small dimples pressed into it to denote the position of where to drill the trim clip holes, however, with the panel offered up to the car I laid a straight edge across from the door trim strip and found that the holes would be slightly too low (just a few mm) if I drilled through the 'dimples' This meant I had to dress the dimples flat with a hammer and dolly, then re-mark and drill the holes in the correct position. This part was important as I intended to use the trim holes to clamp the panel to the body along the top edge whilst welding it. I wanted to minimize distortion where possible so I made a 'clamp' from a section of shelving on the outside with a long flat strip of copper on the inside (as a heat sink) The result was pretty good, the spacing of the holes in the shelving allowed me to tack weld at equal intervals too.
Sorry about the dull pics, only had phone camera to hand!
More soon.
Ant |
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Greezy Joe
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Joined: April 12, 2010
Posts: 1534
Location: Crawfordville, Fl
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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Good post Dude, doing the same to my 71 Ghia Vert, it is a Heck of a project your's is going well. 
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Current:74 Ghia Coupe w/ 2276
71 Ghia Vert w/ 1835
07 GMC Truck
12 Jeep Wrangler
73 Harley FLH 93 cid
89 Harley 883 Sportster (1200)
Owned before: 58, 69 Ghia Coupes, 64 Canvas Sunroof, 68, 72, 73, & 74 Bugs, 63 Single Cab, 65 Bus, 66 & 70 Camper
" Duct tape can't fix stupid, but it'll muffle the sound". |
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cool karmann collected
Samba Member
Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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Well It's mostly done now, I do still have the small matter of repairing the splash panel on the inside of the wheel arch, but this is a bolt on part so not so critical.
The pictures are fairly self-explanatory, I rebuilt the bulbous 'hockey-stick' bit and added some drain holes to the bottom of it to let condensation out.
Closed off the end of the front portion of the channel at the bulkhead and sealed it up.
I used the same procedure as the rear quarter for holding the panel whilst welding
Where things got tricky was getting the front lower quarter panel lined up with everything, the radiused portion that matches the bottom of the door corner wasn't well defined in that where it lips over the existing bodywork, the edge on the panel isn't as 'sharp' as the one on the body so I had to do a bit of hammering (not easy with no proper tools) try and sharpen it up.
Even then, once the door was fitted I found out my alignments weren't as hot as I thought. I had to disc away some metal where the gap was tight and reweld the seam and shape it with file. same for the radius gap, had to build that up to better match the door.
Next stop paint!
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anthracitedub
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Joined: June 20, 2007
Posts: 3241
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Gotta say man…you rock….doing a very good job on this car. |
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70 140
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Joined: September 22, 2002
Posts: 8471
Location: Ontario Canada
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| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| slick! |
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aaronr25
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Joined: September 06, 2009
Posts: 267
Location: NW Arkansas
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| Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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Nice Work !
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66 Landcruiser FJ40
Life's too short to drive a stock VW |
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32632
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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cool karmann collected
Samba Member
Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:05 am Post subject: |
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These are probably the clearest, although they don't show the welds I made (I will have a look through the pics to see if there are any more. The rocker is not that hard to do, try to imagine a few puddle welds where the little lip sits up against the hinge pillar and a great long row of them on the top and bottom front to back.
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
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Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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cool karmann collected
Samba Member
Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, these are early photos from when I was just getting an idea of how close the repair metal was. |
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cool karmann collected
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Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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Well, she's all orange again! Only rattle cans for now, maybe a full repray in a few years...
Refitted the trim with new clips, definately glad I took the time to re-drill the trim holes rather than just go with the dimples on the repair panels.
Door back on, some new plastic behind the trim panel - tucked into the door this time for proper drainage 
Carpet back in, refitted the little flap on the heater outlet, aluminium trim back on with correct sealant pattern underneath - using the original cross head screws even - wow.
not looking too bad, cetainly better than August last year when I started! |
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cool karmann collected
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Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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OK, so the 'final' job. I'd been putting this off for the simple reason that it looked boring, and it was. No matter, I'd run out things to do so I spent a day finally repairing the rusted 'splash guard' inside of the wheel arch. I did briefly think about buying a new one but they retail for about £100 a side which was enough to make me drop that thought and pick up the welder.
I made a template out of carboard and transfered the shape to some steel sheet, added a lip to the curve and spotted the whole thing together. You may notice the repaired bit kicks off at an angle rather than being straight all the way down, I think it must have been straight originally but it was too rusted for me to know, anyway it followed the shape of the channel end seam better so I'm comfortable with it.
Coated it in seam sealer and stone-chip paint, fitted a new seal and screwed it back in place. I went on to coat the thing in under-body seal as the last thing I want is any road spray making its way into my freshly repaired channel!
Back on four wheels for the first time in a while.
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bugninva
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Joined: December 14, 2004
Posts: 8858
Location: sound it out.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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looks great!.... excellent job, and thanks for posting for others to see... 
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gregmporter
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Joined: July 21, 2008
Posts: 531
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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nice job on the mud plates.
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You Tube Channel w/vids of the car's progress
http://www.youtube.com/user/gregmporter
1974 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet
1964 356C Coupe (in progress) |
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djkeev
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Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32632
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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hunternicholas
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Joined: March 12, 2011
Posts: 18
Location: Wallingford, CT
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 5:46 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for sharing. Most impressive. Beautiful work.
I imagine that occasionally you must contemplate "If VW had only used some aluminum here and there." |
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whocanduncan
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Joined: March 14, 2013
Posts: 4
Location: Austin, TX
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| Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:17 pm Post subject: 69 heater channel replacement (pic heavy!) |
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Awesome thread! I am about to start this same project on a '70 vert. I realize it is an old thread but I am hoping you can answer one question. Was it necessary to remove the quarter panel? Thanks in advance.
Duncan |
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cool karmann collected
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Joined: November 23, 2008
Posts: 631
Location: Oxford, U.K.
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| Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 5:00 am Post subject: |
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Yes, if the body is staying on the pan like I did it, then there's no way to access the rear section of the channel unless the rear quarter panel is cut out of the way. If the body was off the pan and maybe on a rotisserie you might have access enough to extract the old channel in several pieces and leave the outer quarter panel in place, although the qtr is likely to be rusty anyway if the channels are in need of replacement.
Can you post any pics of what you're up against?
Ant |
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