The Life and Rebuild of Dad’s Iceland Green 1955 Beetle

[Dan22]

I'm getting to the point to think about the body repairs where the a rotisserie would be handy. I am basing the design on a couple of cheap engine stands and adding the necessary bracketry. The pivot is about 42" up so I can feature a full 360 degree rotation and still have the lower side up where it can be accessed. We will see how well this works.

Started by extending the height and leveling the pivot to a common centerline.

Added cheap casters with outrigger bars to stabilize the width.

Figuring out the rear bumper mount.

One thing this design does not allow is to open the decklid. Of course I can take it off beforehand but in hindsight it would be nice to have that possibility. I can change it if I need to but the arms would have to be much longer. It may not be stable enough in a side tilt situation either.

Finished rear side.

If I find it to be too high, I can cut the added vertical tube down and reweld. I am a mechanical engineer by trade, and normally I would model all this before anything is fabricated. But this time, it is a seat of the pants shop design!

The start on the front. I am planning on having two connection points, one at the bumper brackets, and one at the beam mounting points. I will be able to mix and match to either one or both. Starts with this standoff that was just some scrap safety fence post I aquired with 2" square tubing. I will share the progress as I make it. Bolts nicely to the engine stand face plate.

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[Dan22]

Boooo! I have to take a business trip next week. Two weekends where I will not be able to tinker on the bug.


YAY!

My trip is to Munich, which is a quick train ride to Wolfsburg. Here I come! I am spending 2 1/2 days there this time.

Booo! They are not offering factory tours the week I am there. Probably a holiday production shut down period. I will suffer through it but I will ask when I get there in case it is still happening just not posted online.
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[VW_Jimbo]

BOOOO! Work sucks! Always getting in the way!

But there is the money….

Nice job on the stands for the rotisserie. Your life just got way easier!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[Dan22]

Yup, no money, no restoration...

At least I will be getting some VW experiences there. I will check out all the museums.
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[Dan22]

Some research to post as a result of my trip. I took a walk from the Autostadt to the Wolfsburg castle. I think this view is the inspiration of the crest design. There is a moat around most of the castle too. The east side had the bridge and moat but this side looked more impressive.

The actual wolf was in the museum.

And VW happens to be a very large producer of sausages. Here is a currywurst example.

Enjoy!
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[Dan22]

A few more of the Wolfsburg Castle.

The bridge side. The door is just not impressive, but it may have also influenced the Wolfsburg Crest design with the two facades and central door, and water. I did not count the bricks on either side of the building.

Inside the courtyard. They were doing some maintenance. There was some kind of art gallery inside but it did not look open.

OK that is it for the cultural chapter of this restoration.
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[Dan22]

Progress on the rotisserie. Working on the front mounts. It looks complicated since I made both connection points removable from the main swivel.

Making the top mount.

Welded nut inside the arm so it bolts from below.

The contraption! All made from scrap/recovered metal I had laying around.

I think it will work. The last piece is the joining bar for the front to back swivel bases. I will do that when I first mount the body to the rotisserie.
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[Dan22]

Tackled another problem area this weekend. That bent and stripped out bumper mount needs to go so I can fit the replacement panel in a precise manner. I cannot use my rotisserie until the bumper mounts are repaired and sturdy.

While I was at it, I figured I would begin removal of the rear apron. It is going to be replaced with a proper H pattern style. Ta Da!

The passenger side bumper mount is a bit mangled but at least not stripped out. I plan on replacing it, or posibbly the the whole end of the panel like on the other side. First I will see how servicable I can make the original metal. I tore it up a bit way back when I took the original apron off. The back end of this car got hit when I was in high school so this damage is from that. This bumper mount is bent to the drivers side. The recess where the apron welds on is torn and warped.

It will be pristine again, someday. Documenting how bad it was will make it easy to compare the transitions. This is why I share so many pics.
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[VW_Jimbo]

Looks so familiar! Keep at it, it will get there!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[sunroof]

[Dan22]

Ha! Sunroof got it!

I'm dealing with the woes of aftermarket panels. I can't complain too much of course since they are the best available and overall look like good quality. But the fit does not seem to match my original in this respect.

If I line up the fender holes, the lower edge of the panel doesn't match by about 1/2" at the front. It may align better when the old is cut out, but this is the time to verify hole positions for proper fit to the fender, rear apron, and the bumper.

A decent fit on top.

The offset at the bottom.

I think I have seen somewhere where others have modifiied this piece to fit. If someone can chime and and let me know what you did I would appreciate it. I will search for threads too but something this specific can be difficult to find without reviewing ALL the build threads.
I think I will cut a slot and add a thin wedge of metal to establish proper upper and lower lines but the dilemma is to do this above or below the bumper mount. If I get it wrong, the bumper bracket bolt angle could be wrong and perhaps interfere with the fender hole. And, I don't have the best reference dimensions from the old bracket to judge correct position.

For the fender bolts, I made this metal jig that is bent and holes added to match the original bolt positions. I will use this as one of several ways to gauge the new panel location.

Another task I accomplished was to realign the right side bumper bracket. It will get replaced but I wanted to straighten it for comparision purposes to the left side, and to decide how much metal to replace.

Bolted a bar to the bracket, and set up a beam from the shock tower with a chain at the bar for a dead man.

Used my hydraulic press beaver tool to apply the force.

It finished up with the bracket now parallel to the inner fender body line. I should have done this 40 years ago during the first restoration.

Stay tuned for more....
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[VW_Jimbo]

I did a few rounds with those rear panels. Page 19 might have some info for you, but that is one of a few go around with lining it up!

Hope page 19 helps you!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[Dan22]

Thanks for the pointer to your thread. Looks like your panels overlaid better than mine to the orginal.

I am in the process of searching where you put your bumper mounts back on. Im up to page 26 on your thread but still looking!
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[Dan22]

Some digging and I found this. Unfortuately it does not state the position of the front bolt or angle between them. A good check point though.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=690502

I bought a fancy digital level/angle measurement gauge to confirm the slope between the bumper mount holes on the old parts. More data to gather, and I will share it on the forum.
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[VW_Jimbo]

[Dan22]

OK I have the bumper bracket slope data to share. I use bolts threaded into the bracket to rest the flat bar with the level. The body was level to 0.1 degree for the baseline.

The right side, which I consider to be close enough to an undamaged condition for this measurement. 4.3 degrees.

The damaged left side, with the hammered bracket that I removed, but clamped in as close as I could get it. 7.4 degees

Left side with the new panel attached through the fender holes. This is essentially with the upper surface aligned with original. 8 degrees.

Left side with the new bracket rotated so the lower edge aligns with the original panel. Pivoting at the rear fender bolt. 6.7 degrees.

The lower edge.

The new panel, rotated to the lower edge aligned, then I loosely attached a (restored) bumper bracket. I am determining how much slop I have to work with from the slotted holes. 5.6 to 6.9 deg slope.

I am being extra picky here because I want to avoid any metal rework later on, and to certainly avoid the worst case of finding an alignment problem with installing the bumper on a freshly painted car. I plan on installing the fenders and bumper brackets on both sides before welding anything home. I just want to share the progress steps along the way.

My initial conclusion is to align the lower edge of the new panel, and splice a wedge shape in to lift the upper edge to fit. It will be about a 4mm wide pie piece. The sharpie pen line is approximately where I would do the cut. The wiring hole will also line up when cut this way.

One more day off left to make more progress...
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[sunroof]

When I did mine I did not pay attention to angles or measurements or anything of that sort. I clamped the repair panel in place, bolted the fenders on and the decklid and then bolted the bumpers in place. I adjusted the repair panels so the bumper brackets came through the center of the slots in the fenders and the decklid opened without interference and fixed that position.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[Dan22]

I committed to making the panel mods to get a good fit. My fender template bar was key at keeping the rear position matching original.

I cut a line and wedged it out to the shape I needed. It ended up being close to 6-7mm at the widest.

I plan on welding on the matching square nuts to this panel as that is what this car uses for weldnuts.

Still good fit on the front.

Here is the bar in place. The upper line is good, and the bumper hole distance of 44.5" is good (no pic).

Welding progress. I cut a thin strip to fill most of the gap. The narrower section I was able to weld with a copper backer.

The next step is to tack it in and assemble the fender and apron for test fitting. I think my fender is in good enough shape to judge the fit.

This has been a LOT of work! This panel could have easily been closer to the proper shape. Maybe it is based on a different year of car, other than the bracket itself.
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[Dan22]

I was happy with the modifications and measurements to the repair panel. I finished it up today by exchanging the weld nuts on the fender mount, and a small tweak to the lower edge U-channel where it will match up with the original metal.

I was not sure that I could effectively spot weld the new nuts in place. I think the factory did the 4 spots simultaneously but I had to do one at a time. It worked but I also used the MIG to add a reinforcement bead. I don't want them to break off.

The final fit. The paint runs are from spraying primer down into the cavity of the bumper bracket. There is no real good way after installing this to protect in there, that I know of. It was the zinc weld through primer and it soaked between the spot welds.

Tacked in and checking the fender and bumper bracket. I could not see anything out of place.

The finished step for the day. No pic but I spot welded the engine bay piece. It had a nice fit to the new metal. The weld surface was not the best as I would do on an external surface. I plan on testing out some lead free solder on joints like this to learn that technique, and hide the joint better. It is not bad as-is, and would pass especially if I under coat in here. But, I plan on just leaving the wheel wells painted.

Enjoy!
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[esde]

Excellent!!
if you don't pay attention to all the little details, there are a number of ways that repair can bite you later, but I think you nailed it!
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.