TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:29 am

I kind of announced this on STF, but now that I just bought a welder, I'm officially digging in!

The car:
1974 VW Thing, which I bought in 2005. This car is a lot of fun, and elicits smiles wherever I go. It came with an aftermarket gas heater installed, so a friend dubbed it "Toasty McThing". :)

Bad stuff: This car spent most of its life in the midwest, and it extremely rusty as a result. (That diamond plate isn't for protection, it was an attempt by a PO to cover up rust.) It also has a lot of mechanical issues that need to be addressed, such as the transmission, brakes, and horn.

The welder. Today I am a real man, lol:

My plan for this car is to take it completely apart and do a ground-up restoration. So many mechanical things need fixing that I can't in good conscience keep patching it as I go. The final straw was when I began to see light through the floor.

On the other hand, I do not intend for this to be a perfect show car -- I'm not a perfectionist, and spending $25,000 to bring this car to trailor queen status would be a ludicrous act IMO. It will get modern rustproofing, many coats of paint, an Eberspaecher gas heater, a raised suspension, 7.0x15 tires, and a couple other mods.

Along the way, we'll see a lot of the hack things done to keep the car running. Instead of assigning blame, I'd rather concentrate on how loved this car was, that previous owners wanted to keep it on the road. So no negativity will be tolerated. That goes for you folks, too. :lol:

Well, enough talk for now. I'm going to start dismantling the car, in preparation for taking the body off and working on the pan.

- Scott

Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:49 am

Here's what was under one of the diamond plates. Eww...

Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:42 am

Keep us updated with plenty of pics if you can. We love looking at projects. Nice welder. I wish i had one and a project car as well.

Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:52 am

Good luck Scott!

Can't wait to see it finished!!!

Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:10 pm

You might want to get a preventative tetanus shot! :D

Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:22 pm

wcfvw69 wrote: You might want to get a preventative tetanus shot! :D

Got my booster in 2005! 8)

Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:50 am

So at this point I've got nearly all the diamond-plate off. And for those of you who were wondering why my Thing had 1-rib rocker panels (reminiscent of the prototype 181s), here's why:

At some point, a PO had cut out the rusty lower sections of the rockers and fashioned some rocker panels out of sheet metal. Affixing them, of course, with fiberglass and pop rivets. And supported by our old friend, expanding foam:

At this point, I needed a drink.

Here's where I was at by the end. Note the piles of rust. I will basically need to reconstruct the bottom 6" of the body. Time to buy some replacement panels!

- Scott

Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:28 pm

Here's how she stands currently. I've removed the rollbar, top, and front seats:

One hurdle I need to get past -- a PO decided to reinforce the body with a zillion pieces of sheet metal and pop rivets. I will need to drill these suckers out to be able to separate the body and pan.

Horrifying Pic of the Day(tm):

- Scott

Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:59 pm

Towel Rail wrote: At some point, a PO had cut out the rusty lower sections of the rockers and fashioned some rocker panels out of sheet metal. Affixing them, of course, with fiberglass and pop rivets. And supported by our old friend, expanding foam:

Damn. :( Between this and the '73 we're not doing so well, are we?

Bondo has lost out. Pop-rivets and expanding foam seem to be the patch of choice nowdays. :(

- David

Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:44 pm

Yeah, but street signs are still going strong. Don't forget about those! ;)

Actually, the more I learn about how the 181 is put together, the more hopeful I get. By and large, the body panels have flanges that are restance-welded together, like so:

These are a piece of cake to separate or redo. Since my rockers are a lost cause anyway, I plan to restore the pan first, then use it as a jig to build up new rockers from replacement panels. Thankfully, the Thing manual gives all the measurements necessary to align everything properly. Even so, I'll tack everything together, and test-fit the doors and stuff before welding it together "for real."

The '73 on the other hand... will "take some doin's." ;)

- Scott

Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:50 am

:shock: Yikes!

If you're looking to save a little on outer rockers, the width of the ribs in the bed of a Chevy S-10 are dead-on. The space between the ribs is different, but if you don't mind a little work it's a good substitute. Rocker panels are pricey...

Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:28 pm

Pinky wrote: :shock: Yikes!

If you're looking to save a little on outer rockers, the width of the ribs in the bed of a Chevy S-10 are dead-on. The space between the ribs is different, but if you don't mind a little work it's a good substitute. Rocker panels are pricey...

Yeah, it's the inner rockers that concern me. Those aren't just pricey, they're hard to come by!

Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:30 pm

little cancerous but at least its all fixable.....

Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:18 pm

Good to see you making progress :)

Towel Rail wrote: At this point, I needed a drink.

- Scott

Nice Choice!

I have to say that Hacker-Pschorr has always been my favorite beer from Munich!
When we were in Germany for Bad Camberg/EBI we found a great little restaurant across from the Hauptbahnhof in Munich:

Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:37 pm

Holy shit that thing HAD to come from Mario's :shock:

Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:59 am

Tonight I just removed some more stuff.

Used the extra-large Phillips screwdriver bit from my Klein impact set for the hood bolts. These also fit the door hinge bolts perfectly. Always nice to have the right tools!

From the looks of it, my Thing had the usual problem of the windshield leaning back too far. Given how little metal there is to resist it, it's no surprise:

In fact, a PO installed another layer of metal on the backside of the windshield to restore the geometry!

These fender bolts were a PITA. Both were completely frozen, and threatened to wreck my allen wrench. I ended up sawing one off, and drilling out the other. Despite my purist tendencies, these will be replaced with stainless M8 bolts.

The car as it sits:

Next step will be to remove the fenders, and undo enough wiring to take off the body. Stay tuned!

- Scott

Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:40 am

Well, got one of the fenders off!

It's about time I replaced some of these 33-year-old seals:

It pains me to say this, but I don't think I'll be able to save the original beam after all. It'll probably make more sense to buy a new beam and transfer the old leaves and pan-support pieces over to it. That would also make installing the adjusters a little easier.

- Scott

Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:59 pm

Nice project...good thread - keep it going!

Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:41 pm

How are you planning to repair the rot damage on the bottom of the backbone? If you need donor metal, I can help.

Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:41 pm

Icy wrote:

How are you planning to repair the rot damage on the bottom of the backbone? If you need donor metal, I can help.

That's our family's '73 Super Beetle, BTW, not the Thing -- I'm not sure where we're going to start on the Super!

OTOH, if you have any solid Ghia pans, let's talk business. I could use a driver's side front corner and maybe some other scraps. :)

- Scott