BBT Front Wings/Fenders For Pre Oct 52 Beetles/Bugs

[bob1]

Dear All

Thanks for positive comments on our fenders, as you can imagine it was a huge project that kept me busy for a while (over 5 years actually) and is still not finished...

We load this week several new containers @ the factory for American and Euro soils with new production fenders...

Must say the shipping is killing us, shipping out of Asia is moved up 3 times the price as early last year, because of shortage of equipment, so we might need to raise prices for a while... but as my friend always says, better expensive as not available.

The second horn grill in split export fender was made because in oval fender there is also two horn grills, so laser cut operator did to do good, new production should have that fixed (I hope...)

Also the captive nut is taken care for, its only split that has a captive nut for the headlight screw, the oval window has a square nut, and beside all other developments this escaped my attention at the first real production run...

should be fixed now.

These been the easy things...

In general the new production has another 5 (so 7 in total) upgrades... we're continuously working on a better product.

And... we started tooling for the rear fenders as well...

Thanks for using our products and all support, the more BBT products you buy the more we invest in new developments....

Wish you all a great and fantastic 2021 with loads of VW love in your VW life...

Bob, BBT HQ Belgium

PS for latest developments and product upgrade, follow our Blog, Instagram or FB….

[splitjunkie]

Thanks Bob. And thank you for investing all of the time and capital that it took to bring these to market. I know it wasn't cheap.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[peter schepens]

[Martin Southwell]

Indeed, many thanks for this feedback, and for making them in the 1st place. Plus, it's nice to know that the person 'at the helm' is looking at, and responding to, observations about their product.

It's still hard to believe that after all of these years (45) of being into early Beetles/Bugs, whereby these early wings/fenders have always been difficult to find, in any condition, that they are now going to be readily available, and at a sensible price.

As for the shipping problems, I was reading about these issue a couple of days ago. The Covid pandemic seems to have caused the Chinese, who produce 90% of the world's container output, to cease production last year. This has lead to a shortage of containers worldwide, whilst Chinese output (not necessarily of containers) in now back to normal, but without the means of shipping all goods out. https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/news-insights/insig...lenge.html

This coupled with logistical problems of containers and ships ending up around the world, and not in Asia, has resulted is competition for space on ships, with the result that costs have risen 3 fold. https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9276676/2020-wa...-shipping/

[50Splitman]

[50Splitman]

[50Splitman]

I just received my standard split (no horn grille holes) from CIP1 today. Here are some pics and my observations based on installing the passenger-side fender on an NOS front quarter panel. The quarter panel has some surface rust from sitting for decades, but is straight and undamaged.

Positives:

- High-quality metal - same weight and thickness as my original front fenders. They feel great to handle.
- Overall hump/curves and dimensions the same as my original front fenders (e.g., these are not oval-window spec fenders)
- Great packaging - zero damage during shipping
- Generally fit on first attempt my NOS front quarter panel
- Since I only have old, beat-up original fenders to compare to, and limited options for aftermarket, I have to say that overall I'm happy with BBT's attempt, and admit that as an early adopter, I may have missed out on areas that can (will?) be addressed below in future production runs.

Areas that need to be addressed:

- Needs some work where the flange and quarter panel meet above the spare tire indent - the fender flange hits this area and stops it from sitting flush against the quarter panel. Should be addressable by taking a little off the flange to increase clearance, and re-working the angle of the flange to fit more flush against the quarter panel.
- Lots of wavy metal on the flange - my originals aren't like this, and a bit surprised at this price point. I'm going to try and smooth out a bit. May need to shrink here.
- Front leading edge of the fender that falls below the front apron needs to be curved a little backwards to follow front apron line - no big deal
- Wrong headlight captive nut - I need to change this out carefully for the correct one. Will be tedious, but should be possible.
- Passenger-side has a very wavy bottom half of the leading edge below the headlight. I'm going to have my body guy look at it, but I may want to have this fender replaced by CIP1 The driver side is smooth, but this side will need some work to straighten out. The waviness is not from shipping damage - it was manufactured this way. I do not want to fill this area, and don't want to spend as much as the fender cost to get it smoothed out. Given the precision of the driver's side fender, I know it can be done better.
- Some areas along the fender edges need welding/finishing to make it seamless. I don't want open/overlapping seams around the edges of the fender - this needs to be addressed. I'll need to weld and metal-finish these areas.
- Headlight bucket is not level, so the headlight trim ring doesn't fit flush against the fender. Not sure if I can address this issue or not, so I'm a little concerned. I've tried 2 NOS headlights and same results. The remedy may be to slightly work my headlight trim rings to better align with the fender vs. trying to modify the fender.
- Headlight wiring tube doesn't align with the quarter panel indent. My NOS quarter panel doesn't have the holes drilled out yet, but the tube still falls too far forward. Looking at both of my original fenders, the tube is actually angled a bit towards the rear of the car, and these were manufactured with the tube at a right-angle. I'm not sure if these can be bent backwards. I may have to cut at the bottom of the headlight bucket and re-weld That is a real bummer.
- Missing drain hole in the rear lower side edge of the fender. Small item, easy to address.

[50Splitman]

Peter -

What have you done about the headlight wiring tube not aligned with the holes in the quarter panel? I've sent an email to BBT asking for guidance before going back to CIP1, as in a previous call with CIP1 about these fenders, they didn't seem to have any specifics, as they are simply a reseller.

The tubes are quite rigid, and it doesn't feel like it will go well if I attempt to bend the tube to meet up with the holes, and the only answer may be to cut the tubes and re-weld them into the proper position.

[pastellgreen]

[peter schepens]

[50Splitman]

[50Splitman]

UPDATE: I figured out the headlight tube situation for my particular situation. It was not that the tube was too far forward. That was just a symptom of another issue, which I pointed out in my pictures in this thread where the fender flange hits the spare tire indentation. When I compare my original fenders to the BBT ones, the fender flange tapers down to about 1 inch wide once it starts to bend down towards the front apron behind the headlight bucket. I trimmed down the flange to ensure that the fender flange no longer is blocked by the spare tire indentation and how the headlight tube aligns with the holes in the fender! I'm fitting to an NOS full front quarter panel, so your experience may vary if your car was tapped in the front before, but I no longer need to bend my headlight tube.

[peter schepens]

Thanks Splitman50. I had not pay attention on them. I opened the boxes, screw them on the body that stand in storage to take some picts and that 's it. I will remind you when the final trimming wille be done. Overall.. i am realy happy with the wings how they are.
_________________
Zelensis, glassfibre body made in Belgium , disigned and built on a VW platform About 25 body's built.
Hebmuller info wanted for http://www.hebmueller-registry.com/home.html

[peter schepens]

As you know, BBT is always inovating.. today they posted the update on the front wings..
https://blog.bbt4vw.com/2021/02/03/beetle-front-fe...roduction/
_________________
Zelensis, glassfibre body made in Belgium , disigned and built on a VW platform About 25 body's built.
Hebmuller info wanted for http://www.hebmueller-registry.com/home.html

[splitjunkie]

Outstanding. All vendors should be so responsive.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[Robs54sedan]

[esde]

I posted a response to this thread yesterday, and then deleted it. I spent several hours last night comparing the BBT to an OG fender, and trying to understand why I was having issues before adding to this thread. I'm still not 100% sure so any insight is appreciated.
I purchased a driver side front fender for my Zwitter in April of 22 from cip1, with the full understanding that it was very good but not perfect. Before going any further I will make the disclosure that my car has had the apron replaced and extensive work on the inner fender well. That said, a friends early fender and one I borrowed from my 56 fit without the issues the BBT fender presents.
Initial comparison was promising

But there are some smaller issues.
For starters:

This wrinkle causes this to happen.

The corner where the flange goes from the apron to the inner fender is poorly stamped. There are several wrinkles, plus the angle is off a bit. All of this is fixable, but it is also 14mm higher than the OG 55 fender I had to compare it to. This line shows where the "bend" starts on the 55 fender, using the center of the bolt holes to measure from. If you look closely you can see the bend is to the left of my line (14mm)

I did go through some fussing to cut and weld the wrinkle, and tweaked it to fit the front acceptably well. The bolt holes line up, the bottom edge lines up, and the angle appears to be correct. The welting does help hide a bit. Originally I thought the headlight was higher on the BBT fender than the OG one but after some fussing it is closer than I thought.
Here's where I am

But, at the rear I have an issue that I cannot make easily resolve
The angle where the fender bottom edge meets the running board is wrong.
Here I am holding up an original running board to illustrate how far off it is.

Here's the BBT compared to the original German fender
BBT

original

In these pics the fender bolts are in but not tightened all the way. I could modify the fender to pull the mounting flange rearward slightly but it won't be enough to fix the issue. So, I'm sort of stuck here. I had suspected the prior bodywork was causing the issues, but the good fit of the original fender makes me suspect the BBT fender. Still to be fair I'll probably take the fender down to my friend Roberts, to mount on his 52 zwitter shell, as it's much less bodywork than mine. SD
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[50Splitman]

I finally got to the point where I have the front of my 50 standard together and mounted both fenders, hood, etc. Everything lined up OK, but I did have to bend the headlight wiring tubes back about a 1/2 inch, but that was the easy part. The issue I now have is exactly what you state above - the running board profile and the lower end of the fender do not align. It is basically impossible to install the running board without either cutting and re-shaping the running board or the fender. I have my original 50 running board, as well as one from Mika, and they both do not align with the fenders. I have both original front split fenders, which are in bad shape, but the running boards line up perfectly. I'm also now stuck, which is a shame because I was able to also correct the other small issues and was overall happy with the fenders until now....

[empiracer]

Curious if anyone has any feedback re : painting over the silver weld through coating , wondering if they should be stripped, or Ok to prime / paint right over the coating

[vwhelmot]

Strip that off. I blasted mine with fine glass.