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Mon Jun 09, 2025 4:49 pm

Very nice, Jim! Thank God you're correctly placing the taillights height-wise. I love that!

Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:39 pm

lardawge wrote: Great work.

Is there a reason you are rehabbing a really beat up fender that is not correct for the car? Seems like purchasing a set of replacements that are at least built correctly would be a better use of your hard-earned time in the shop. You would have a much better set of fenders and be able to spend time on other parts of the car. WW sells a good set that are pretty well made... pricey but worth the time saving.

Other than that, carry on! It's nice to see it coming together. I struggle with my obsession with perfection and get pretty discouraged some days when things don't fit correctly (fighting the hood at the moment).

Cheers!

Thank you! There is a reason. #1 reason is money. I do not have an endless supply of it. Those new fenders are $1020.00 a piece. So, for $2040, plus tax and shipping. So, a rough $2500 I could have 2 new fenders that most likely still need to be massaged, puttied, sanded and primed.

My reasoning is, since this is a hobby, I enjoy my time working on the Bug, and I have no hard set time limit; I will just repair what I have and save a little bit in the process. I think in working over what I can, saves me from buying it, paying the man and keeps me out of the therapist office! That is my second reason.

Because dealing with Joe and Jane public is hard on a person - right? I just pound the shit out of the steel instead of some thing else! Therapy! Keeps me safe and sane!

Dude! The hood is a challenge! You probably have read my struggles with it. I finally kicked its ass when I threw my arms up and said, “Fuck it! If this does not change this time, I am dumping the car.” That’s when I just started hitting it with a hammer and dolly. I had to stretch out the hood along the outside rails. Took several hours of pounding. I used my air hammer on a low psi and a steel block that I radiused out to mimic the hood detail on the outside edge. I then flipped the hood on its outside surface and worked the edge by laying the hood in the block of steel and hammering away on it with the air hammer. It worked and I managed to squeeze about an 1/8” out of the 4 foot long hood!!!! Made a huge difference in how it laid down on the car.

For the remaining amount needed, I worked the front apron. I hammered it into the trunk just a tiny bit where the hood lays down on the apron. It is slightly recessed but is unnoticeable looking at it! It allowed the hood to sit dead on the money!!!!

I probably should have documented that a bit, but I was just so pissed off with it. I had no clear mind to even consider taking a picture. I was not in a good place with the Bug at that time. But it did end well!

If I were you, I would figure out if the hood needs to stretch or shrink and then figure out how to make that happen.

Good luck man!

Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:41 pm

matthew henricks wrote: VW_Jimbo wrote: Got me in several more great hours over the last week!

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Anything look off to anyone?

Fantastic work Jim. Your skills and dedication to perfection is inspiring.

Thanks Matthew! Appreciate the kind words!

Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:42 pm

Juju32 wrote: Good job 8)

Thank you Juju! That is what I called my little sister when we were growing up. It was easier to say and bugged her!

Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:45 pm

67rustavenger wrote: Amazing craftsmanship on display in every post.

RUSTY!!!! Thanks man! Your support through the years has been great! A few times, my only reason to go out and get something done, was knowing you would be posting up a big ? If I did not produce some forward progress! Thank you for that level of support!

Thank you!

Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:50 pm

sportin-wood wrote: Very nice, Jim! Thank God you're correctly placing the taillights height-wise. I love that!

Thank you! Agreed! I hate it when the lights are wrong! I am floored when I see any tail lights sitting way too high on the fenders! How can people do that level of work? Foreign thinking to me!

Honestly, I was thinking they might be a hair too high. But I think they will look more correct with the bumper on. But I had already had the bumper on when I drilled the holes for the tail light brackets, so, they gotta be in the right spots!

Regardless, it ain’t changing now! Well unless I do find some thing is off!

Sat Jun 14, 2025 9:11 pm

VW_Jimbo wrote:

And back on the car to check out everything! I had to stick the tail light housings on to just remember what I was working so hard for! Looks great to me! Anything look off to anyone?

ANYTHING LOOK OFF?

Yes Sir. It looks OFF THE HOOK!!

Finally, I feel like I can relate. Something that I have some experience with, Filler. Of course your work looks awesome. But, your attitude is what I need to emulate. It actually sounds like you're having fun sanding and reapplying!
I gotta work on my attitude toward our chosen Hobby.

Your Bug has come a long way and it is going to be a Big payoff when your done.
Again, I'm grateful for the lessons.

Sun Jun 15, 2025 2:31 pm

MACJELLY58 wrote: VW_Jimbo wrote:

And back on the car to check out everything! I had to stick the tail light housings on to just remember what I was working so hard for! Looks great to me! Anything look off to anyone?

ANYTHING LOOK OFF?

Yes Sir. It looks OFF THE HOOK!!

Finally, I feel like I can relate. Something that I have some experience with, Filler. Of course your work looks awesome. But, your attitude is what I need to emulate. It actually sounds like you're having fun sanding and reapplying!
I gotta work on my attitude toward our chosen Hobby.

Your Bug has come a long way and it is going to be a Big payoff when your done.
Again, I'm grateful for the lessons.

Thank you Bruddah Jellyman! Dims kind words BRAUGH!

I was taught that success was 90% attitude and 10% action. I try my best to keep my attitude positive! I am
TOTALLY having a fun time making the car look great! I know it will only get better the more I work on it! It is all positive direction, even the set backs, because I learn something everytime. Because I am a student. I love the quote (author unknown) “Change your outlook and you change the world.” Simple sentence with a profound meaning!
Shaka!

Sun Jun 15, 2025 7:49 pm

Congratulations on you daughters nuptials.

The pic you posted of the "Kombi-Keg" looks like the reception was well taken care of. :wink:

Both of my SIL's are great men and take good care of their wives and children.

Enjoy the times with family and future grandchildren. It's a blast! :D

Sun Jun 15, 2025 10:17 pm

67rustavenger wrote: Congratulations on you daughters nuptials.

The pic you posted of the "Kombi-Keg" looks like the reception was well taken care of. :wink:

Both of my SIL's are great men and take good care of their wives and children.

Enjoy the times with family and future grandchildren. It's a blast! :D

The wedding was AMAZING! Out on the camp ground cliffs of San Clemente State Beach. 180 degree view of the mighty Pacific Ocean. Blue sky with no cloud cover. And all that beauty with a crisp 76 degrees! The entire wedding took place at an old cottage converted for events.

The entire wedding crowd walked back on the dirt path, about 200 yards, to the cottage and partied till the Rangers said, go home. Had the Kombie Keg on site with 5 beers and a non alcoholic pink lemonade.

We also hired In N Out for the meal. We even got the sole French Fry truck! It was uber efficient and tasty. I even went back to the order window and got me an additional cheese burger, before they left! I will admit, I did have 1 too many Negro Modelo’s and had a rough morning, the next day. But, it was just an upset stomach, more than likely from eating too much and drinking WAY TOO MUCH! I actually kept track of my beers. They served them in 12 ounce plastic cups. I stacked up 4 cups. Threw those away. And did another stack of 4. Then I had the bar tender pour into my stack 2 more times! So good!

It was a blast!

Thanks brother!

Sun Jun 22, 2025 9:12 am

lardawge wrote: Great work.

Is there a reason you are rehabbing a really beat up fender that is not correct for the car? Seems like purchasing a set of replacements that are at least built correctly would be a better use of your hard-earned time in the shop. You would have a much better set of fenders and be able to spend time on other parts of the car. WW sells a good set that are pretty well made... pricey but worth the time saving.

Other than that, carry on! It's nice to see it coming together. I struggle with my obsession with perfection and get pretty discouraged some days when things don't fit correctly (fighting the hood at the moment).

Cheers!

Thank you! No new complete panels for this beast. Only old used VW steel.

THE HOOD! WOW! I am having flashbacks! Okay, that is far and away the worst panel, on the entire car, for working on it. It seems to me, from my experiences, that if you decide to touch the left side with anything, ANYTHING, it sends shockwaves throughout the panel, and alerts all of it to change shape! That is my consensus of this paradigm.

What I will now do, with my fingers crossed. Place the hood onto the car, preferably bolted on. Then beat the shit out of it, like they are growing on the tree in the front yard and are ripe. That way if this one you are beating on does not change appropriately, you can discard it and go pick a new one! You have to tell this all to the hood, well, more like sell it to the hood! You need the hood to really believe you will throw it away. Once you can sell this thought to the hood (and yourself) the game changes! You start swinging the hammer like you mean it! And that moves the panel as needed!

My 2 cents!

For me, I really think I was being too careful with the hood. Almost scared to ruin it, or that I may ruin it by beating it into shape. And I really do think it is a fundamental reasoning of the hood being worth so much money! After finally throwing my arms up and giving in to man handling the hood, the hood finally changed shape, in a great way! It now lays better than it ever did. It has no more tears (there were 4), it has no more broken loose weld nuts (there were 2), it is ridging (better than I remember my 55 back in 89 being).

With that I say, let loose and make that hood your bitch! Go man, GO!

Sun Jun 22, 2025 9:51 am

Been a hot minute since I last worked on the Bug. Got some free time yesterday and spent it with the Bug!

Back onto the rear pass fender. Only have an a few hours before other life pressing things need my attention, so……

Got the work space set up and then 36 grit sanded the fender. I had hammer and dollied it for a few hours last time out. It is really down to just a few small ripples and old holes from rust. Plus, I need to seal up the weld pin holes I cannot see. And with that last thought, I mixed up some fiberglass resin and smeared it into the fender at those welded up repairs.

Tape is in place to try and keep the filler excess in check.

I then sanded that down. After which I spread some Rage Ultra over those same spots on the fender. And sanded that down with 36 grit.

Followed that with a full coat of Rage over the entire fender surface, then sanded to a rough close shape with 36 again. Skimmed it with another coat, really thin and finished it all off with 80 grit.

That is super close to done. Just one detail I need to iron out first. The shape of that lower edge. I need each fender on the rear looking the same. The driver side rear fender is sitting at 14 1/2 inches across the widest area, I could find.

I then went over to the passenger side fender and measured 14 inches. I will need to reshape the passenger side fender to mirror the driver side. So, with the fender mounted to the body, I wedged in a wooden stick in between the inner wheel well and the fender, pushing the fender out, past the tire by about 1/2 inch more, obtains the same 14 1/2” measured on the driver side of the car. I then laid down on my creeper and tack welded the segmented fender edge to hold the shape!

Removed the fender for next time.

That was it! Time is up!

Mon Jun 23, 2025 1:53 pm

Wrapped up the rear fender yesterday. Took it off and set it up to work on.

I then cleaned up the segment edges and welded it all up.

All welded up.

Ground that all down.

Then onto an old weld through hole. Same process.

I then fiberglassed all the welded up areas.

Followed the glass up with a skim coat of Rage. Sanded it all. Then back on the car to check it all out!

Then the beer bell went off! Time to walk over to Flashpoint brewery, to meet with some great friends and have dinner and a few beers!

That was an AWESOME weekend!

Sun Jun 29, 2025 3:16 am

Soooo......

I got the fender on, yep. Back out to the Bug yesterday and while I am shaping the fender I hear a "POP" noise. Start looking the fender over and find.

A CRACK! Damn thin steel!

Off came the fender. Set it up on the dolly, ground the filler and what not off from the area of the crack and welded it up.

Ground that down and moved onto extending the location of one of the fender mounting holes, as the fender does not line up right there. Set it up on the dolly, then cut out the area with the offset hole and welded in new steel with a relocated hole.

Marked it and drilled holes at the corners.

Fabricated a patch and outlined my cut out.

Cut out the steel.

Clamped in the new steel with a copper backer. Welded it in.

Ground it down.

Reinstalled for a test fit.

Yep! It lined up and is secure!

Back off for some sanding and a priming job.

Then back on the car!

Then I installed the rear bumper, again.

Close enough for the moment. It looks like the fender tapers up more on the passenger side. I have chosen to ignore that for the moment. Lets see how much it bugs me!

Sun Jun 29, 2025 3:40 am

Onto a different spot with it's own issues. Seems that someone (Hmmm) removed the headliner retaining grabber bars at the B pillars and did not weld them back in, before sending the car off to the blasters. Dude! So.....

Here it is, the passenger side B pillar missing the grab bar.

I then went and located the piece, which I purchased several months ago from Autocraft. It does not come shaped, so that is the first step.

Over to the Stretcher!

I stretched it here and there. It got really close. I was going to keep going, but realized that I had to remove the coating from the piece, so that I could weld it onto the body. That is when I noticed that the size is too big to fit into the blast cabinet! Damn it! No biggie. I own a welder, so....I cut it just past the half way point!

I then placed into the blast cabinet and removed the coating. It was onto stretching and shrinking the edge metal of the piece, until each portion fit the curve of the body and wrapped around the lock plate location. It was then clamped onto the cleaned up body. Next, I set up some anti sparky shields (Recognize that shield? That was the steel top cut out from the rag top), and clamped the top piece into it's home!

Drilled out some 3/16" holes.

Then welded away!

Followed that up with the grinder.

Then ran a wire brush over the area a few times to get the soot and shitola off of the new steel. I got a tiny bit too close to the teeth portion of the steel, while using the wire brush. Ended up with a decent cut across my thumb! OUCH! Then primed it!

It was after priming that the new bride blessed the wife and I with her presence, plus she had a shit ton of laundry to do, from having spent time in Hawaii for the honeymoon! So I dropped working on the Bug, cleaned up and we walked over to the watering hole for dinner and a few brews! Great end to a very good day!

Sun Jun 29, 2025 6:44 am

Looking good, Jim! And congrats on getting through your daughter's wedding. Hopefully you'll be blessed with grandchildren you can take for rides in your finished Oval, and in true grandpa fashion, sit them down and tell them all you went through to get to the beautiful finished VW they see in front of them. :)

Sun Jun 29, 2025 7:26 am

X2 congratulations on the wedding! And as for future grandchildren, be sure to point out how much work went in those damn fenders EVERY SINGLE TIME they get in the beetle for a ride!
Anyway that bug is looking great to me. I feel ya on fenders as I had a drivers front in particular that needed a ton of repairs but as a first timer with not nearly the welding experience as you I did it the best I can with mine. I’m happy with my results but I know it’s not perfect and mine is a 71 driver. I totally get you wanting it perfect being it’s a holy grail oval especially with your knowledge and experience with these cars. We can all say it looks great and it definitely does but only you know what you see and what will bother you down the line. I think this is the most detailed and helpful build on here. Keep up the great work! You’re getting there!
Jim

Sun Jun 29, 2025 4:07 pm

sportin-wood wrote: Looking good, Jim! And congrats on getting through your daughter's wedding. Hopefully you'll be blessed with grandchildren you can take for rides in your finished Oval, and in true grandpa fashion, sit them down and tell them all you went through to get to the beautiful finished VW they see in front of them. :)

Thank you Dave! I am in no hurry for her to have kids, and when it happens I will be one of the happiest people on the planet!

Plan is to take them for rides, teach them how to turn a wrench and then help them become productive members of society. Happy, functional and fun!

It will be awesome having a young mind to relay the trail I blazed turning a rust bucket into a decent grocery getter! I can hardly wait to be there!

Thanks for the positive energy! It helps out a ton!

Sun Jun 29, 2025 4:14 pm

Jhp212 wrote: X2 congratulations on the wedding! And as for future grandchildren, be sure to point out how much work went in those damn fenders EVERY SINGLE TIME they get in the beetle for a ride!
Anyway that bug is looking great to me. I feel ya on fenders as I had a drivers front in particular that needed a ton of repairs but as a first timer with not nearly the welding experience as you I did it the best I can with mine. I’m happy with my results but I know it’s not perfect and mine is a 71 driver. I totally get you wanting it perfect being it’s a holy grail oval especially with your knowledge and experience with these cars. We can all say it looks great and it definitely does but only you know what you see and what will bother you down the line. I think this is the most detailed and helpful build on here. Keep up the great work! You’re getting there!
Jim

Hey Jim! Yep. They are never perfect. I know but one can try! :D You are hitting the nail smack dab in the head! I am a high functioning obsessive compulsive disorder victim! My OCD is great 90% of the time! It is the 10% that is a bear to deal with. It is a blessing and a curse. I am really trying to ignore that fender, for the moment. Hoping I forget about it and just keep going. Time will tell.

Thanks for the support and chiming in! The comments actually help push me. Today is one of them days I could have just went and did something else. But instead, you got me thinking and I got out to the Bug for a few hours. Thank you!

Sun Jun 29, 2025 4:18 pm

Got a few hours in on the Bug this morning. Little bit of work. I welded up the extra threaded fender bolt hole in the rear fender, along with the tiny tear in the rear apron. Took longer to pull the tools out and clean up then it took to weld the tear up, grind it smooth and prime it! But that part is done!

See that tiny spot with the word “weld” written. That’s where the tear is.

Now it is gone! Crossed it off of my list!