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Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:17 pm

Makes me want to go out and use that roof section I have had for over a year to fix my oval.Keep up the progress.

Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:56 pm

Towel Rail wrote: Stuggi wrote: Need an update here! :D

Basically, it's still cold and there's ice on the floor of my garage! :shock:

Maybe I should send you a portable propane heater so I could get some updates, but the shipping for a 10kW heater from Finland to the US would cost a bit too much, so I think I'll just wait for spring.

Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:51 am

In regard to cold garages, this past fall I got an oil filled radiant heater like this one: (http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-TRH0715-Filled-Radiator-Heater/dp/B000FT1XZW/ref=pd_sbs_k_title_5) Mine's a Kenwood but you get the idea. It was on sale at Home Depot or Lowe's or something for $25.

It's not going to heat the garage to 70-80 degrees, but it's good enough to take the chill off and make it 50-55 degrees. Plus, it's a radiant heater so there are no open electric elements to spark any flammable gases/dust.

Works very nicely and it was cheap. I prefer it a little cooler when I work anyway, so it works perfectly for me.

Just a thought.

Merc

Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:01 pm

any warmer in the garage yet? :D

Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:15 pm

Man that reminds me too much of what I went thru with my 71 Notch. :shock: I think you're going about it all wrong though, as you should just get out a metabo (with plenty of blades) and cut that sucker up. I think you're trying to delay the inevitable, and seperate that thing into 3 pieces (pan, front clip, rear clip). You're most likely replacing both rocker sections in their entirety(sp?), so why not get busy and do it, it'll save you some work in the long run. You could use an engine lifter to help move the clip sections.
I know when I redid my dad's Thing for him, it wasn't near as rusty, (only the floors and the rear parcel tray sections were toast), but the fenders were rebuildable. It also had some smaller spots of rust in the areas where yours were covered by diamond plate. We (my son and I) only worked on it for 3.5 months, before it was done. Needless to say we didn't mess around, and just got busy getting after it.

Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:16 pm

NEED UPDATE BEFORE THE WINTER COMES BACK AGAIN!!! ^^

Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:50 pm

As soon as it got warm, he got flooded out of his house. :(

Wouldn't it be ironic if he got a heater and made more progress this winter than in the summer? :D

Sat May 16, 2009 1:52 am

Ha, that would be! Yeah, after last year's late spring, then early-summer flooding, I never did get into "VW mood". On the plus side, the damage to my basement wasn't as bad as it could have been, and I've been driving the '67 a lot lately, so perhaps I'll get to work on the Thing soon.

Thanks for all the well-wishes! 8)

- Scott

P.S. Bob, I'm getting caught up on your Notch threads -- you made a lot of progress on it while I've been gone! :shock:

Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:26 am

How's "Toasty" doing?

Sun Jun 07, 2009 12:21 am

So glad you asked! :lol:

I got out my drill, some bits, and a little liquid courage and drilled out/chiseled off more of those pop rivets. Removed the steering column so it wouldn't be in my way.

I still haven't gotten the largest pieces of the patch metal out of the way yet, but you can see how I can fold them out more:

It's wasted enough to drive a man to drink!

- Scott

Sun Jun 07, 2009 12:40 am

Oh. I also did some grinding to find out where the original rocker ends, and the patch piece begins.

Looks like the new piece is stitched right under the upper rib. When I bought the car, it was kind of neat because it reminded me of the original prototype 181's that only had one rib, but since this turned out to be so rotten, I'm just going to get new outer rocker skins.

- Scott

Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:13 pm

Keep up the good work. Keep us posted. :D

Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:18 pm

Towel Rail wrote: Oh. I also did some grinding to find out where the original rocker ends, and the patch piece begins.

Looks like the new piece is stitched right under the upper rib.

Whoa! A patch that was actually welded instead of pop-riveted! :shock:

How much integrity does the remaining body structure have? I'm wondering if you will have to start repairing before you finish tearing out the patches, just to keep the whole thing from crumbling into a pile of dust. :(

Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:03 pm

WD-40 wrote: Whoa! A patch that was actually welded instead of pop-riveted! :shock:

How much integrity does the remaining body structure have? I'm wondering if you will have to start repairing before you finish tearing out the patches, just to keep the whole thing from crumbling into a pile of dust. :(

There are a couple sections, especially toward the front, where it's just expanding foam with patch panels pop-riveted over it. :shock:

I think my next big goal will be to reinforce, then remove the body from the pan. Restoring the pan should be pretty straightforward, and will allow me to put the body out of my mind for a while. :wink: After that, I'll chop out more of the offending rust and expanding foam from the body. Pretty much every panel apart from the doors and hoods has rust somewhere, so it'll have to come to pieces.

The Thing manual is good about showing dimensions and measurements between pieces, but I worry about missing something important, then not being able to get things like the roof to align when I'm done.

Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. If I can't find all of the replacement body metal for the inner panels, I might try bolting together what I have and fabbing up the missing parts.

More thoughts from the peanut gallery are welcome! :lol:

- Scott

Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:17 am

MOAR GORE!!

Imagine my surprise when I found that there were patches in the rear fender wells. I guess the undercoating was thick enough to fool me:

This patch piece truly was holding the rocker to the floor. I should start welding on the braces before I remove any more.

Removed the front left inner fender patch:

Guess I don't need to worry about undoing these chassis-to-body bolts:

BTW, I tried to remove one of the rear shock-mount-to-body bolts, and have nearly rounded the head over. Looks like I'll need to weld on some "help" to get it out.

Finding chunks like this makes me feel like the guy who discovered the Titanic, only to find that it'll take more than some Wetsteel(tm) to bring it back to the surface...

- Scott

Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:59 am

Now that is a project.. :shock:

Looks like the disassembly is progressing well, make sure to keep working on this one. One more Thing off of the junkyard list..

Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:02 pm

No pictures tonight, but I've made some baby-steps toward getting the body off. I removed nearly all of the patch that was holding the front end of the body to the pan. I bought some cut-off wheels for my Dremel, and I think that'll make the right-side rocker go a little smoother. (Buying all those drill bits was starting to add up!)

Bled out more of the brake fluid, drained off the reservoir, and capped off the hoses, so they don't connect to the master cylinder anymore...

Also, got both of the rear chassis-to-shock-mount bolts! My job was made much nicer when I noticed that the nuts weren't captive in the body, but were accessible from the inward side. :lol: One of them came all the way out, the head of the other bolt broke off. Still a happy ending, and when I lifted on the rear end of the body, I got some more "give" along with some new creaking sounds. I'm getting really close to having the body off! :cool:

Over and out,
- Scott

Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:28 am

Got a couple things done today. Finally got rid of that audio crossover board in the trunk:

And removed the inner and outer patches on the front passenger side:

The picture doesn't show it well, but I've sliced through about half of the right inner rocker with the Dremel. My line is just under the lowest row of rivets.

BTW, here's the new transmission:

It's a rebuilt unit from Transworks. You can't see it from the outside, but it's got a 0.94 fourth gear and a 4.37 R&P. According to my math, it should play nicely with the new tires.

On the right is one of the 205/75R14's that came with my car. On the left is a Nanco 7.0x15, which is roughly 3" taller. :cool:

- Scott

Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:55 pm

Hooray, more new metal arrived today from EIS!

New Danish outer rocker skins. :grin:

- Scott

Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:50 pm

Towel Rail wrote: Finally got rid of that audio crossover board in the trunk:

You might need to drill this one just a few more times to be safe. :D

Towel Rail wrote:

The picture doesn't show it well, but I've sliced through about half of the right inner rocker with the Dremel. My line is just under the lowest row of rivets.

Probably time to weld those braces across the door openings, don't you think? :shock:

Also, what's trying to escape from the cabinet? :D