My 181 bundeswehr olf friend, time to do a body swap ...

[joghia]

this evening i finally finished my second pan , completely wirebrushed it , to get rid of the factory shitty paint and put some good 'rotbraun' on it !

now the 2 pans are ready to be fitted.




next up : remove frontaxle, remove transmission and small parts, so i can completely paint the frame and tunnel in rotbraun, then fit the pans , this is gonna be tricky, i need some help to put the body on and off for exact fitment,

also i have a fitment issue with my left front door, gonna tackle that this tomorrow, a bit of 'tweeking' , some wood and muscles ....

[joghia]

ok now i have a question for you 181 and or ghia pan owners
, i need to know the correct lenght for the rear pan supports, i only had bug ones, so i need a few inches left and right to have the correct width for a 181 pan


can anyone please tell me how much cm or inches the left an the rear stick out, i need to be correct here

thanks in advance

[el_safari]

Hi Joghia
We took the body off from my Nigerian 181 and I made those pictures for you .
Hope it helps ...

_________________
La terre n'est qu'un seul pays

[joghia]

that is what i needed !!! there is a flow between the rear corners and the edge of the pan, !!

thanks ! i only need to lenghten the 2 rear corners with an inch or so, they are left loose so i can adjust them ..


ooh now its coming along fine, this weekend i had a lot of friends over to help me carry the body and the tunnel and really take a good fitment for the first time, wauw !

now i need to spotweld the pan halfs ,

then its 'kit' and then paint,



and then finally the body back on !!!!!! i can't wait !!!

come'on summer !!!!!!

[joghia]

topside alle 'kitted' up !

underside alle 'kitted' up ! almost ready for paint,

i need to make a few holes in the rear and some threadnuts, and we're there...


the seatsliders are a different thing..........


before i paint my pan i like to get all the welding done, but my seat bases are very bad, rusted, previous bad repairs and so on


does anyone know these seat rails are the same ones of a 55 to '70 beetle ? it is a l shape , not a t-shape

thanks a lot !

[ente_kaefer]

[Ron Domeck]

Seat tracks are Thing only. Beetle will not fit the floor. Also don't forget to weld all the little brackets on for pedal stop, seat belts, floor mat studs if using,jack points if using.

[el_safari]

Hi Joghia
Your seat tracks are from a 1970 model year .
You can use somme from 1956-1970 bug but you have to trim them , they are too high in the front .
I used to own a 181 with bug tracks and the position was not comfortable .
I think you have the skills to repair yours ...
_________________
La terre n'est qu'un seul pays

[joghia]

here is what i started with, first i sandblasted it to see what whe've got....

a few hours later, after sandblasting and welding some og style looking iron on it, and some redness much better, it turns out i have 2 different seats

my driver seat is l shaped, and my right front seat is t shaped ? the right seat also seems to have a recliner back and even the back of the seat is lower then the left one

been driven for 5 years and never noticed it , go figure...



then i turned to my left seat, there were 2 spring ends poking trough the upholstary, so everytime i drove it i had a hole in my t shirt

some welding en reupholstering and all is ready now i hope.... the color is not good but perhaps some vinyl spray cans can fix that, or some bug seats in black or so ..

then we fitted the seats in the rails and tried to find the right location to weld them, we're not 100 percent sure, but we had to bite the bullit !

so here we are now, then we drilled a hole for the front pedal plate and welded a nut on the underside, also made a batteryplate and a stop , testfitted the seats and the battery ! looks fine !

finaly we could throw on the black paint on the underside of the pan, there will be nothing else on there, only the shiny stuff, hope this will be enough to maintain it


now she is ready to be turned over, that will be the last time the pan is in this position (hopefully),

this evening, front axle, and i'm still not sure which transmission to use, i have a few, the one that was under it is all greasy and leaky, and i have a few 'cleaner ones', not sure or they will be as good as the old, but we'll see,

shiny shiny ! ready for some bolting !

[joghia]

time to turn the pan around for the last time ! at last,

i always have to call a friend or some of my friends to help carry and flip and lift things....

me at work ...........

the first coat on the pan of wehrmacht gray

ral 7021 stumpfmatt

my friend yannick approved !

so the frontaxle is on, this eveining after work we'll try to clean the pedals and some smalls tuff, bend some brakelines, and get the front together !!!

[joghia]

time to turn the pan around for the last time ! at last,

i always have to call a friend or some of my friends to help carry and flip and lift things....

me at work ...........

the first coat on the pan of wehrmacht gray

ral 7021 stumpfmatt

my friend yannick approved !

so the frontaxle is on, this evening after work we'll try to clean the pedals and some small stuff, bend some brakelines, and get the front together !!!

[joghia]

some pieces painted in the color


the hood, the 4 door insides and a few smaller pieces like the handbrake lever, and shifter and so


today, the transmission is almost in, needs a few hours , a new clutch lever spring, and some new axle rubbers lef and right

[joghia]

transmission installed, some cables installed, next up are the pedal assembly, and some pre-tensioning



also wheels are in, porsche 1978 968 rims, 2 rims are made for the front i sanded them down, located some og porsche emblems and they are ready for paint now !

then i found a straight rear bumper in the north of holland, luckily the guy came to bruges in belgium for a weekend so we hooked up, only 300 km drive for me instaed of 470 km

i put a few hours of elbow grease in there and got rid of al the paint, then i painted it with some red primer

looks allready perfect to me

so far so good, now on to the last brake line , i also bought the rubbers between pan and body and the ones between the fenders and the body !!!

[ente_kaefer]

Sehr geil !!

I am really liking how the RAP 7021 Stumpfmatt looks on the pan, you are giving me an idea of what color to repaint my car, once I have the monies . . .