New Zealand T34 Ghia project

racoguy · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:41 pm Post subject:

Finaly feel like I've turned the corner with this rear area since the welding has begun, no longer does it feel like I'm just tearing stuff apart anymore.
Got all the holes pre drilled in the new panels and also epoxy primed inside the rear chassis legs before welding the new stuff in.
Finished final fit on the smaller shelf which will get welded in next, just have it located with a bunch of screws right now.
Idealy I wanted to re blast the area I did last week but watching the weather it said there would be rain so I flagged that and did a bunch of other rust repairs instead.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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

Repaired both lower corners of the body where it meets the pan, finished off the rear wheel house and also around one of the heater outlets, funny thing was that as I finished up for the day the sun was still out so could have done blasting anyway! Sad

You can never tell..................
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Bobnotch · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:07 pm Post subject:

Look at the bright side of things, you still needed to do something with those spots anyway. Wink

I normally watch the weather channel, then look out the window, and then decide IF I can blast, and for how long. Rolling Eyes

Looks good. I'd be laying down some epoxy on that new metal if it were me, but you can do what you want. I only say that, because I'm in a humid area, and can't leave bare metal exposed for more than 2 hours. Evil or Very Mad

_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here; http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240540 -tear down
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

racoguy · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:57 am Post subject:

Yeah the plan is to epoxy everything inc the new metal, humidity here in Auckland is ridiculous.............a good day is 70%!
We are also heading into winter too so blasting outside isn't going to be an option for much longer either......... Crying or Very sad

I have an insulated 20ft grain container outside which I'm going to clear of junk and hopefully use that for blasting instead but time will tell how that goes.

racoguy · Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:25 am Post subject:

Sandblasted and epoxied a couple of areas so the welding can continue, so far I have both lower C pillar repair panels welded in and ground up.
Put the rear bulkhead / firewall back in with bolts just to hold it in the right spot.
Will continue the welding of that tomorow night and hopefully then I can put the new box section in that the parcell shelf sits on.
Been thinking about what to tackle next so I think the bottoms of both rear fenders will be cut off and new sections made, both are rusted through and some idiot has already done a jam job on them before Rolling Eyes

Bobnotch · Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 6:37 am Post subject:

racoguy · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:35 pm Post subject:

Bit of an update from this last week with the welding, got the rear bulkhead / firewall back in the right spot and also welded in the new panels below the C pillar.
When I removed the parcel shelf I found the ends of the box section under it to be quite rusty so rather than patch them I folded up a new one.

With the side panels in place I could finally measure the length it needed to be and finish that piece.
Trial fitted the parcel shelf held in with some bolts giving me the exact place to weld in the new box section.
Also finished and installed the small lower back seat shelf as well.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

The small corner pieces at the C pillar were completely rusted through so new ones had to be fabbed up.
I used one of the old ones to make some cuts so that I could squash it flat to be able to make a card pattern.
With that done I traced it on to metal. cut it out and folded it.
Bit of extra hammer / dolly work to get the rounds and curves in it like the original.
Welded up the cut lines and ground up it looks just like the original, now to make a reverse one for the other side!
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Saturday morning I started on one of the C pillars, best way forward was just to make a new one and replace the whole thing.
Again a card template to give the rough shape did the trick and with a combination of hammer / dolly and the bead roller we have this...........almost ready to weld in
The front face where the seal attaches will be replaced as well, just too rotten to do anything with Rolling Eyes

Seeing as the weather was playing ball this afternoon I decided to re blast the interior rear area plus all my welded bits and prime them.
Since it was just the remainder of the gluggy acid that was left it came off in a big hurry so I kept going and also did the top of the rear compartment as well as the water drain area right at the back and inside the C pillar while its cut apart (well whats left of it anyway............)
All epoxied it sure looks a whole lot different now than that rusty mess I had before.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Bobnotch · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:40 am Post subject:

Yup, those look very familar (both sides of the wall). Here's mine at that same stage. Wink

_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here; http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240540 -tear down
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

racoguy · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:14 pm Post subject:

Looks like you have the same pin holes in the wheel arch as me too, my right side was really bad compared to the left. Must just be down to soaked carpet from leaking windows.
Sure glad all of that is repaired now though.

Bobnotch · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:10 pm Post subject:

Bobnotch · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:15 am Post subject:

racoguy · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:41 pm Post subject:

Didn't look like there was an indent there, pop out latch just wraps around two faces of the pillar if that makes sense?
Mine supposedly is a late 62 production, doesn't have the rear grills in the air intake either so perhaps the pop out latch another thing they changed?

Any chance of posting up a pic of how your indent looked Bob?

gregson1 · Samba Member Joined: December 13, 2004 Posts: 243

My November 1963 car does not have indentations in the 'C' pillar for the quarter window latches.

Bobnotch

racoguy · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:18 am Post subject:

Finished up all the welding and grinding of the C pillar, in the end I replaced the entire front face as well with just the holes left to drill for the molding which I'll hopefully remember to do before I paint the body!
Started cutting on the left pillar as thats in even worse shape, parcell tray is back in too ready to be welded.

May just do as Bob suggested and finish off the whole inside of the car, have quite a major repair on the dash and both front trunk corners are rusted out, would be nice to have that whole area in primer though.

Bobnotch · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:15 am Post subject:

bobnorman · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:24 am Post subject:

racoguy · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:42 pm Post subject:

Not sure on the tonnage but saw the gauge hit 200bar when pressing the big panel.

vlad01 · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:37 am Post subject:

Your fabrication skills are absolutely amazing! Shocked

I still can't comprehend how you do it so good.

You should start a repoping service for car restorers. I would buy sheet metal from you Wink

racoguy · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:50 am Post subject:

Been chipping away at the underseal the last couple of nights doing one wheel arch each night, I started out with the propane torch but that set the underseal alight so in the end a heat gun set at 300 C and a gasket scraper did the job very well.
Didn't end up taking as long as first thought so both arches are ready for blasting, they look to be in pretty decent shape which is a nice surprise!
Looks like Saturday is going to be a cracker weather wise so I'm going to make the most of it.
Here's a couple of pics of the finished pillars too, not much to look at I know but its all progesss............
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

racoguy · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 2:49 pm Post subject:

Had a play around trying to shrink the oil can effect on the rear panel with limited success, more than anything it seems to shift the high spot more towards the rear of the car rather than getting rid of it.
What did work fairly well was to mig weld a couple of blobs on the inside of the panel right in the middle of the high spot which seems to have pulled in most of it.
Also brought out the swage line most of the way with a very wide chisel and hammer which has brought out the panel above and below the swage with it.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

It still needs a bunch more work before I'm happy to leave it be, as I don't want to just put filler back in.
Nothing wrong with filler in limited amounts but I'm trying to learn how to do hammer / file work so I'll try to get it as good as I can.
The drivers rear wheel arch had taken a nudge too at some stage so a scissor jack was handy in that area to push the fender lip back out to where it should be.
That brings me to yesterday, planned to do blasting again but really bit off more than I could chew and just worked on too big of an area to get completed in one day, started at 11 and worked through to 3-3.30 when I finished priming everything after which I still had 2 hours of sweeping up / cleaning to do Crying or Very sad

Our yard out back looked like a beach by the time I finished.
All in all a very exhausting day...... #Sleep

Sooooo lesson learned, do smaller areas next time!
Still its nice to go from a big rusty mess to clean primer, no more RUST!! Rust holes yes........
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

>Help >Donate >Buy Shirts >Register >Log in	See all Samba banner ads \| Advertise on TheSamba.com

New Zealand T34 Ghia project
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 20, 21, 22 Next Jump to:

	Forum Index -> Type 3	All times are Mountain Standard Time/Pacific Daylight Savings Time Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 20, 21, 22 Next Jump to:
Page 4 of 22