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Sun Oct 26, 2025 6:04 pm

EverettB wrote: VW_Jimbo wrote: sportin-wood wrote: Nice work, Jimbo! Make sure to get a pic inside the 54 in costume! :lol:

Sorry man, your request came in after we took off for the party. But we did pose for a picture at the party!

Zombies

FYI - This photo said I had to request access to see it so it's not public

Damn it! When I get back to the house, I will look into what is going on!

Sorry about that!

I changed it to anyone can see it! Let me know if I am reading the access line wrong.

Sun Oct 26, 2025 9:52 pm

Sorry. I would upload it to this site, but it is a non VW photo. I can try using another photo storage site. Let me see what I can do tomorrow.

Sun Oct 26, 2025 10:30 pm

The great Zombi pic is now viewable.
You and the wifey look great!

Mon Oct 27, 2025 7:05 am

Jimbo is that makeup, or have you been welding without your hood on?

Mon Oct 27, 2025 10:37 pm

Ricksurfin wrote: Jimbo is that makeup, or have you been welding without your hood on?

Guilty as charged!

Mon Oct 27, 2025 10:38 pm

67rustavenger wrote: The great Zombi pic is now viewable.
You and the wifey look great!

Thank you, on both comments!

Even as zombies she looks way better than I do!

Sun Nov 09, 2025 5:43 pm

Update time again!

The Halloween party was a blast! All the ladies in the group, about 10 of them, relived their dancing days to Thriller! It was awesome! The following day, I managed to get an hour or so in on the Bug. Got the window in by fabricating an extension to the new division bar. Check it out!

Here is the fabbed piece tack welded into place.

I then reassembled the door mechanisms again.

Put the extension piece in play and did some fine adjustments with a couple of head washers. They were within reach!

TA DA!

Maybe some more progress will happen before Thanksgiving. Maybe. Wish me luck!

Mon Nov 10, 2025 9:06 am

Very nice!

Mon Nov 10, 2025 2:05 pm

matthew henricks wrote: Very nice!

Thank you! Exactly my thought as well!

Tue Nov 11, 2025 6:19 am

Nice Jim, I have wondered about the same thing.. modifying the replacement later divider or rechroming the correct ones? Chrome plating is SO MUCH MONEY :shock:
Is there any indication once the door panel goes on?

Tue Nov 11, 2025 1:44 pm

esde wrote: Nice Jim, I have wondered about the same thing.. modifying the replacement later divider or rechroming the correct ones? Chrome plating is SO MUCH MONEY :shock:
Is there any indication once the door panel goes on?

Nope. Not as far as I can tell. I have not tried a door panel yet. But the modification sits behind the vertical reinforcement, so I highly doubt that there is any interference. I can not think of a way that this would impact anything. But I can let you know when I get to the door panel stage! Might be a few years at my current rate! :)

Tue Nov 18, 2025 2:20 pm

Got 30 minutes during a lunch break, with nothing to think about…..so let me add an update!

With the passenger door zeroed in. I disassembled it and packed up all of it for future use.

I then turned my attention to the driver’s door. Looks like the vent channel is covering up the screw holes for the lock plate. So I pulled out the air grinder and inserted a carbide milling bit. Then enlarged the holes just enough.

Here is the tool I used, along with some skills!

I then shot the exposed steel with some etching primer.

Now I can get the holding screws in! Let’s see what the locking bolt mechanism looks like. Oh look, entombed screw shanks!

Welded on some nuts and freed those holes up!

With that ready to go, it was time for the vent wing install. That was the same grinding as the passenger. Cut the post off and mill out a keyed tab. It was then assembled into the door.

Two weeks later I found myself back out in the garage! Started in n converting the new later style divider bar for this door.

Started by marking out the position of the mounting flange, from the old to the new bar. I then drilled out the spot welds on the old one. Chiseled the bracket off. Then drilled the spot welds out on the new bar and chiseled that mounting flange off. I then took the old one, sand blasted it, clamped it to the new division bar and melted it into place!

With the new division bar now wearing the old mounting flange, I placed it into the door and tightened it up. I installed the window, locking mechanism and track assembly into place. Another completed door!

Oh, and here is the attachment
Section tack welded into place. The entire assembly sat a little bit different than the passenger side did, so the bracket did not intersect the bracket exactly like the passenger side, thus the channel did not line up with the notch. I may go back and weld that cut out piece back into place. Let me think about it.

Here is the piece installed into the door. Window works GREAT!

Hope that helps someone out down the road!

Wed Nov 19, 2025 5:42 pm

Following along! Keep up the great work!

Wed Nov 19, 2025 11:02 pm

obus wrote: Following along! Keep up the great work!

Thanks Obus! I will do my best. Thanks for checking on me!

Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:11 am

Back at it on Sunday afternoon for just a couple of hours. Decided to disassemble the driver’s side door bolt/handle assembly.

Here goes! Set out some paper towels to be able to see all the parts. As my eyes continue to age, they slowly get less able to see everything. If I drop something, sometimes I cannot find it. Thus the paper towels! Plus paper fibers will break down over time more rapidly than linen. Always use paper towels around mechanical stuff!

So, I had already dug out the lock assembly when I test fitted everything. But during that interim I realized how badly the assemblies were. So, let’s clean this one up and move onto the next one.

The assembly landed on the tablesaw/work surface and I focused in on the big issue. The interior handle end is locked up. It will not rotate!

Removed the 2 screws.

Followed that up by grinding off the crimp nut.

I then punched out the remaining portion of the crimp nut.

With those no longer keeping the 2 hemispheres of the handle assembly together, I opened it up!

I removed the washer and found that the handle stem is punched into the cam at its four corners. I will need to get this area free from the lock bolt assembly, before going any further on this end.

The weight of that bolt end makes it hard to work on that handle assembly. It feels like the operating rod is going to bend!

So I flipped the assembly around and started by bending the locking tabs for the operating rod cage.

Got it started to unfold.

Once the tab had some clearance, I used a set of channel locks to fully straighten the tab.

I then flipped the assembly over onto my steel block, so that I could push those straightened out tabs through the steel plate.

The cage easily pushed straight out and the bolt assembly almost fell out of suspension.

So, I helped free it from itself! The bolt and the rod interact like two “C”s do.

I wiggled them apart. Then reached in and dislodged the bolt pin. It is under some pressure from the robust spring that wraps around it!

Check out all 8 spider egg sacks hiding in the cavity of the door bolt!

With the bolt assembly removed from the operating rod, I returned to the frozen interior door handle. Started by filing the 4 corner stamps off. Then moved on to removing the cam from the input shaft. No easy task!

Here is a picture of all of the pieces removed. Note the amount of rust on that handle operating shaft.

I then went about cleaning everything up.

During the cleaning, the spring broke in half from its time being eaten by oxygen.

But, with the spring installed onto the shaft, it works perfectly!

So, I will keep it and see what happens. No big deal to replace it later! I then started to align parts to reassemble the mechanism.

Just making sure, that after the paint dried, that the bolt still operates, as designed.

I then aligned the trip lever.

Installed slide the bolt pin spring retainer onto the pin. That is the correct orientation, for those that need that answered!

Then slip the pin into the bolt and align it with the operating rod.

Be sure the bottom tab on the spring retainer falls into the notch in the lock plate.

It should look like this on the bottom side.

Top side like this. Ready for the retainer to be installed.

Then install the retainer so that the top of the retainer aligns with the notch in the spring cover.

Once it is all lined back up. Flip it over and bend the previously bent tabs, back down to secure the cage into place.

If you look closely, One of the tabs broke. I will need to weld that in a few minutes. But lets finish this off.

Flipped the assembly back over and am now going to reassemble the handle portion.

Here are the pieces, all cleaned up.

Slip the handle rod into the retaining plate. It Works!

Then set the operating rod cam into place.

And then, since punching the handle rod is no longer an option. I tack welded the it into place and filed it back into shape.

Once the shaft end interacted with the rear cover (it took a bit of filing slowly. Then checking, then filing, then checking.......) to get to it fitting! I then installed it onto the back of the handle mounting flange and tack welded these two pieces together.

I then added some 5mm nut crimp sleeves to finish this handle portion off.

I returned back to the bolt assembly and tack welded the cracked retaining tab. I do not need this coming apart down the road!

Reinstalled the mounting screws, so that I do not loose them.

Applied some thick ass axle grease to the sliding plate and spring assembly. Just seemed like the right thing to do, since it moves and I do not want moisture doing any future damage to these freshly cleaned up parts! I followed that up by wiping off the excess grease and called it done until installed for the final time!

Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:41 am

Yikes

I did a clean-up of my door latch mechanisms and at least they still operate. I am going to double check again and will be flooding the interior door handle operating shaft with rust penetrate oil to see how much rust I can bleed out.

Thanks again for an eye opener!!

Tue Nov 25, 2025 8:51 am

kintail wrote: Yikes

I did a clean-up of my door latch mechanisms and at least they still operate. I am going to double check again and will be flooding the interior door handle operating shaft with rust penetrate oil to see how much rust I can bleed out.

Thanks again for an eye opener!!

Yikes! Is correct! I could not believe that piece had rust welded itself together over the last few years! But fortunately, it will not happen again! And that is what counts going down the road!

Now, I just have to repeat that process again!

Have a great day!

Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:50 pm

VW_Jimbo wrote:
Once the tab had some clearance, I used a set of channel locks to fully straighten the tab.

The next time you unbend tabs like that, anneal them, then they won't break when you reinstall it and bend them back down. Heat the tabs with your torch until they are glowing red, then let them cool slowly. Give it a try when you rebuild the right side latch assembly.

Wed Nov 26, 2025 10:40 am

Bruce wrote: VW_Jimbo wrote:
Once the tab had some clearance, I used a set of channel locks to fully straighten the tab.

The next time you unbend tabs like that, anneal them, then they won't break when you reinstall it and bend them back down. Heat the tabs with your torch until they are glowing red, then let them cool slowly. Give it a try when you rebuild the right side latch assembly.

Thank you Bruce! I will. But to be clear. Get the tabs red hot to bend open. Then again when they are recent to the closed position? Or just the one time? They will not get brittle heating them each time?

Wed Nov 26, 2025 3:41 pm

Heating them up glowing red will not make them brittle in any way. Those stampings are just mild steel. There's nothing you can do with heat to cause mild steel to get hardened. There's not enough carbon content in mild steel. High carbon steel is totally different.

When you bend steel, it work hardens. Everyone has bent a piece back and forth multiple times when you want to break it. That's work hardening.

Heating the tabs before unbending is an excellent idea! When VW originally bent them down, they got work hardened. Heating them up will anneal them back to a soft state. On the next one, unbend one all the way, then unbend the other only part way. I think you'll be able to remove the part still. Then after you get it apart, heat them again to anneal them.