TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu Nov 23, 2006 5:07 pm

Hello, the greatest thing happened to me today. My grandfather finally passed down the only vehicle that someone in my family ever bought brand new. He was the only owner. Its a 67 beetle with a 40 ford front end on it. So after getting the good news i went out and looked at the car to start getting some general restoration info and the only thing that seems rusted out bad is the heater channels (probaly the worst thing that could be rusted, go figure). I've been doing some research and the job looks like something that i don't want to tackle. So i was wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark estimate on what a shop is gonna charge me to put in new ones? I am planning on buying the parts myself so all the shop will have to charge for is installation. besides that the car looks pretty good and i look forward to joining you guys here with questions and restoration progress reports. Josh Brady

Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:34 am

I did my own-not really an answer for you. It was a first for me.
As for an estimate, I've seen anywhere between $800- $1400 mentioned here on TS.
Mine: $180 -heater channels
$ 20 - Harbor Freight 4" grinder
$ 20 - approx. for cutting & grinding wheels
$ 0 - borrowed wire welder
$ 40 -Bug - Me Video
____
$260
Time spent with my bug- priceless :D

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:21 am

itlives wrote: I did my own-not really an answer for you. It was a first for me.
As for an estimate, I've seen anywhere between $800- $1400 mentioned here on TS.
Mine: $180 -heater channels
$ 20 - Harbor Freight 4" grinder
$ 20 - approx. for cutting & grinding wheels
$ 0 - borrowed wire welder
$ 40 -Bug - Me Video
____
$260
Time spent with my bug- priceless :D

Hey thanks for the reply, I only say that i can't do it because i don't have a hoist or anything to get the body off the chassis. Besides that I could do it, my dad welds for a living so I'm covered there. Is it worth trying to do myself? I would like this to be a family rebuild, not a send it to the shop once a month to get work done. Is it hard to get the body off enough to do the heater channel job? I'm sure i could search and find this info but since i already have this thread started i'll ask here. thanks

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:47 am

You should grab the Bug Me Video on heater channel replacement. It explains the process pretty well.

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:59 am

Yea I should just go ahead and get the video, but I don't even want to spend that money if I'm just gonna watch it and decide that the job is too much for my work area or tools.

Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:41 pm

JBrady6 wrote: itlives wrote: I did my own-not really an answer for you. It was a first for me.
As for an estimate, I've seen anywhere between $800- $1400 mentioned here on TS.
Mine: $180 -heater channels
$ 20 - Harbor Freight 4" grinder
$ 20 - approx. for cutting & grinding wheels
$ 0 - borrowed wire welder
$ 40 -Bug - Me Video
____
$260
Time spent with my bug- priceless :D

Hey thanks for the reply, I only say that i can't do it because i don't have a hoist or anything to get the body off the chassis. Besides that I could do it, my dad welds for a living so I'm covered there. Is it worth trying to do myself? I would like this to be a family rebuild, not a send it to the shop once a month to get work done. Is it hard to get the body off enough to do the heater channel job? I'm sure i could search and find this info but since i already have this thread started i'll ask here. thanks

It is pretty easy to get the body off - with a three other guys it just lifts off.
You can also jig it such that you can do it yourself (see my gallery - there are others here that have different contraptions that work equally well).

As already mentioned, get the bugme video if anything to get a feel for the difficulty factor.

If you're up for it, try it.

Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:46 am

JBrady6 wrote: Yea I should just go ahead and get the video, but I don't even want to spend that money if I'm just gonna watch it and decide that the job is too much for my work area or tools.

I had the same problem, I did'nt want to spend the money on something that was too hard for me,but the video made it alot easier than I thought it would be.

Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:39 pm

The bugme video is a great idea - i have it myself and find it to be very informative. If you still aren't sure if you want to spend the money on the video, you can check out the stills at www.superbeetles.com. Just go to the 'Tech Talk with Rick' link and it has the entire video in screen shots.

Steve.