1955 Hardtop Resto - Way to much

[lardawge]

Heater channel repair part 2. This will be picture-heavy given the setup in the previous post. I will say that I was pleased to see that there wasn't any extra damage that I had to deal with, and the repair went according to plan.

I found the weld to attach the heater muffler was difficult because I was trying to match the original welds, which are not great. That was probably advantagious given my welding skills at the time were mediocre.

Test fitting the replacement channel. I also covered the inside as best I could with Master Series coating.

Then, welding and grinding to get the channel installed.

Lastly, installing the heater muffler. I had drilled the spotwelds on the back half of the pipe. I also had to repair a tab that had broken off while removing the muffler. When installing, I plug-welded from the inside.

Lastly, before buttoning it up, a full round of Master Series coating to stop it from happening in the future.

Next up, bottom cap, finishing work, and primer.
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11/2/54 L227 Strato Silver Ragtop - Build Thread
1/7/55 L275 Light Beige - Build Thread

[lardawge]

Let's wrap up the heater channel repair. Again, the goal for me was to leave it better than I started and as close to factory as possible. It took longer to do it this way because of how tedious it is to grind metal off versus drilling spot welds. I did not have confidence that I could replicate the spot welds if I drilled them out.

Installing the bottom cap. This piece came from Wolfpart and matched the original quite well.

I am very happy with how it turned out. One thing I didn't cover but did have to do, is install a weldnut for the running board. That was easy enough to do and was supplied by Wolfsburg West.

I am not sure what I will cover next. To give a glimpse, the doors and rear quarters were oilcanned pretty badly. I believe it was from the media blaster that the shop used that had done the initial work, but I can't say for sure because I didn't check and just trusted the shop.

That led to a whole lot of hand ringing and trying to figure out how to tackle it. I will say, I am very happy with how they turned out, but it was many hours of work to get them there. Stay tuned...
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11/2/54 L227 Strato Silver Ragtop - Build Thread
1/7/55 L275 Light Beige - Build Thread

[Dan22]

That does look great!

Will you seam seal the laps in the wheel well to keep the water out of the gaps?
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1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074

[VW_Jimbo]

Clean work!
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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!

[lardawge]

[lardawge]

Here we go with what turned out to be the most difficult part of the work. It took me a while to even want to attempt this given I had no experience shrinking metal.

I purchased the shrinking disc from Pro Shaper. Out of the two main offerings, this was the least dangerous-looking. I wanted to keep all my fingers at the end of this.

I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and got the basics. The main issue I had was that the doors and rear quarter had really bad oil canning. I was also not interested in taking a torch to anything. I had done that in high school with a 66 bug in auto shop that did not turn out very well.

So the goal with these panels was to remove any oilcanning first and foremost with straighening the panel second. As I started working the panel, I quickly realized that the two go hand in hand. That lead me to change my strategy a bit and remove the low spots which eventually, with much patience, got rid of the oil canning.

Here is what I was dealing with.

This entire process took me about 16 total hours. It is a laborious process that requires a lot of patience. Unfortunately, you can't rush it. Just when you think you have the oil canning sorted, it isn't quite there, and you have to continue.

Here is the stripped panel.

I used magic marker to cool the panel as well as show highs and lows. I don't currently use this much when working a panel, but didn't know any better at the time.

Then a coat of primer followed by filler. I then removed a large amount of filler. What was left was about 1/16 or so in areas that needed it. At this point I was working with 80 grit then a guide coat with 120 grit followed by more primer.

I later followed this up with Dolphin Glaze and 2k primer. That sets up nicely for 180 > 200 > 400.

Here is the main tools I use for shrinking.

Next up, the driver's door.
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11/2/54 L227 Strato Silver Ragtop - Build Thread
1/7/55 L275 Light Beige - Build Thread

[lardawge]

On to the next bit of work, sorting out the driver's side door. I have to say that I was pretty excited about doing this, having finished the rear quarter and having some success. Again, the main issue I was trying to solve was the oil canning with straightness coming a close second.

The main worrying factor was trying to match the original curvature and not getting too far off course. These doors are an engineering marvel given that there is no internal bracing and they have enough curvature to stand firm.

Then rough body work to finalize.

As you can see from the starting picture, there was quite a bit of wave to the panel, and it had a large oil can in the area by the lower hinge. As before, I didn't focus specifically on that area but instead figured that if I could shrink the highs and get the lows pushed up, eventually the panel would firm up, which it did.

Although it will be repetitive, I will post the work on the other side next. The passenger side rear quarter was a beast that I thought would break me. The main reason for this is that I am right-handed, and it was very unnatural to have to lean through the window to get to the back side.
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11/2/54 L227 Strato Silver Ragtop - Build Thread
1/7/55 L275 Light Beige - Build Thread

[VW_Jimbo]