Beetle roof repair

Cortland15B · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:41 am Post subject: Beetle roof repair

So I have a 1970 and a 1974 beetle body that I want to try to replace. The 1974 body had a tree fell on it and its dented pretty bad, pillars too. So I want to swap the 1970 roof onto the 1974. I know that the rear window on the 1974 has bigger glass but how should I go about cutting this section? I want to keep the smaller window just because I already have the glass for it. We were thinking of cutting it below the window somewhere between it and the louvers. Is there any other better way of doing it? And are there any other compatibility issues I should know about?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Cortland15B · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 10:18 pm Post subject:

Bump.

So the front and side pillars are pretty straightforward. But what should I do about the rear window? Where should I cut it? Above the louvers? Below? At the end of the drip rail? What one do you think is the best, and why? What are the pros and cons of each?
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Mike Fisher · Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 8:12 am Post subject:

Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:45 pm Post subject:

So I've been thinking and looking a lot and I think I've come up with a good plan. I realized we have to take into account both the outside and inside panels. Let me know if you think it will work. The whole plan is based on taking it apart at the factory panels.

So first off I color coded all the panels so it makes it easier for me to explain what the plan is and so you can visualize it better. First off we would drill out the spot welds holding the yellow panel to the red panel. How does the yellow panel connect to the blue panel though? And how would we separate them? Preferably drilling where the factory spot welded it.

A broader view of the back window. Note the factory panel (yellow) encompasses the entire rear window and is separate from the pillars (red).

We would then peal back the drip rail all the way down to the yellow panel freeing the roof (green) from the outside of the drip rail which should be part of the inside pillar (red). Note the yellow at the bottom right, this should be part of the yellow panel in the picture above.

Here is a close up of the area from the previous picture. This shows where the drip rail ends. This yellow panel should be the back side of the yellow panel from the first 2 pictures, or at least be the same piece just lower. The blue part would be the backside of the blue from the first 2 pictures as well.

The biggest thing that will either make or break this plan is whether or not the panel labeled yellow is in fact the same panel in all 4 pictures. Do you think this will work? Do you see any problems with this plan? Please share your thoughts.

The 2nd part is getting the drip rail bent up without damaging it, any ideas of how to do this? Heat? What tool would work best?
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Busbodger · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:09 pm Post subject:

Actually Idon't know. Just trying to drive away the crickets. Am interested in knowing...

Cortland15B · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:09 pm Post subject:

Yeah its been surprisingly dead. We'll be finding out in a few weeks, thats when I'll be doing it. I plan on doing step by step with pictures. How they put these cars together is amazing, never really looked that close at it till now. Getting that drip rail up without damaging it concerns me the most.
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eyetzr · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:12 am Post subject:

I tried to save a drip rail long ago, was not worth the effort. I have always cut the posts & separated the inner from outer. Drill out the spot welds & plug weld with a mig. The roof has been crimped over the inner frame & it will be a large mess to try to save it. You could run a grinder over the lip to separate the skins & reweld along the drip, lots of welding, lots of potential for warp age. I like how Cortland15B was showing you.

Cortland15B · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:08 am Post subject:

eyetzr · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:00 am Post subject:

Sorry on that, I missed the different window thing & totally missed the name at the start of the post. As far as how the panels on the inside of the car are held together, they looked to have flanges that would have been spot welded together, then the outer skin would be attached. Not sure if you want that much work. You could use a zip cutter to cut the panels apart then reweld. It would be a bit of a hack. I would take apart the donor, get the roof skin off, cut into the body around those ares & see what is there. I have a picture of the factory assembling beetles & the shell is a pile of parts, 1/4 panels & roof skins.

eyetzr · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:28 am Post subject:

eyetzr · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:30 am Post subject:

I know it is a type 2 but you get the idea.

eyetzr · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 11:22 am Post subject:

This might help you.

Cortland15B · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 2:54 pm Post subject:

Wow those photos are awesome, its really neat to see them back in the factories. Even in the bus one you can see part of a bug sticking out. In that last one is that the backside of an oval window? Thanks for the pics.
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Mike Fisher · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:43 pm Post subject:

Cortland15B · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:47 am Post subject:

Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:32 pm Post subject:

So I have started the roof swap, gonna be a lot of pics.

The first step was to clean all of the areas up with a wire brush on a grinder.

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Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:33 pm Post subject:

The next step was to start peeling up the drip rail, I used screw drivers, cold chisels, and regular chisels of varying sizes to get the drip rail up. I did find one that worked very very well and used it for practically all of it. When I got it started I would put the screw driver in and start hammering it through. Starting with a smaller screwdriver then working to a bigger one. When the screw driver is in the channel, you get it underneath the edge, then you have to hold onto it very tightly as you hammer it so it doesn’t just unseat itself. While you are holding the screw driver and its in the channel, twist the screwdriver in the opposite direction of the drip rail. This puts pressure on the drip rail as you hammer it. This not only helped get the drip rail up farther but it also helped to keep the screwdriver seated properly and therefore be able to do longer sections at a time.

The hardest part is that the screwdriver would pop out after a few inches and you would have to reseat the screwdriver and do it over and over again. Very tedious work and it took about 8-10 hours to do both sides. Thats with frequent breaks for my arms, you are literally the only thing stopping the screwdriver from popping out. But after I implemented the twisting motion while hammering on the 2nd side it went ALOT faster. I did a 3-foot section without the screwdriver popping out!.

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Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:34 pm Post subject:

The next step was to drill out all the spot welds and cut the 2 spots where they welded the window frame to the inside pillar. I used a center punch so the drill wouldn’t walk as much but it did walk a little bit on a couple of them. It was one of the recommended ones on the spot weld cutter post. 40$ off amazon. Made in the USA too. After the piece was free I put and jack underneath it with a board and started to jack it up. I would jack it enough to put some pressure then have my dad help pry the roof out of the channel. This step took about 5-6 hours. This is where we are at so far. I will be doing the front window section tomorrow. Total time so far: about 15 hours.

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Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject:

So I finished with the front section and got the roof off today. I made a cardboard template for the front window so we can cut at the same spot. Went pretty well. The only thing I'm concerned about is getting the drip rail peeled back over and looking good again after we get the other roof on. Not bad for 3 days worth of work.

Good time to get the death foam out too!

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Cortland15B · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject:

So I got the good roof off the old body, did it exactly the same except for the drip rail, instead of peeling it back I just ground it off enough to separate the piece folded on itself. And I was able to do whatever I wanted to the body so I was able to cut any panels I wanted to get the roof off easier which helped. This one had about 4 more spot welds, 2 in each corner, than the old one which made it more difficult. Got it off though.

I also made the mistake of grinding down the drip rail on the small section up front which I needed to save the drip rail because I cut that part out of the old one. Opps.

I did a little rust prevention on the good body inside the pillars.

I am also taking care of the rust that the death foam caused. I knew it was going to be there because of the paint bubbling. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I won't have to cut it out or anything. I tried to depress the area with my hands and it didn't move so its still pretty strong, even with a few holes in it. You can see the naval jelly I used to treat the area, I used a tooth brush to apply it and rinse it with water afterwards. The other side was not bad at all.

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