BNR 52 convertible build

[johnshenry]

Brian, pay close attention to the wiring harness conduit. I know you are familiar with this and I think you replaced it on the '51 Karmann that you did. It can be difficult to pull the harness through if it is all crusty inside. The good news about this being a '52 is that the harness is PVC covered wire, not cloth wire like in the '51. Since the cloth wire is actually PVC insulated wire with cloth over the top of it, those harnesses are a bit bigger in diameter than the PVC ones. So this one should be a bit easier than the '51..
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

Got the heater channels cut out of the rear clip, I removed the inner braces under the rear seat I’ll most likely make new braces when I rebuild it. The other areas that I cut out is under the wood bow tack strip above the deck lid. I got pictures of the wire loop tube how it was placed. The pass lower quarter is rusted threw so I didn’t waste time grinding out the spot welds.

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[Two Glove Boxes]

Sick build! I'm always excited to see a conv. Split!
I like your chassis rollers what a great idea.

[splitjunkie]

It's always amazing to see how bad a car is once you get into it. This is just par for the course stuff though so what's left looks pretty solid.
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Chris

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

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

Hey guys got some work done on the convertible took the body parts over to the blaster should be getting it back Monday, I’ve been working on the new channels. I started by making the new wire tube I matched the factory one but made it larger to make pulling the new harness easier I made it long for now so when I get everything thing fitted and ready to weld I’ll trim it back. Also I made the inner support that doesn’t come with any of the new heater channels, I always order the heater channels without the bottoms being welded on so I can put the support in and this way I can spot weld the front and rear quarters on to give that factory look because the job of a true restoration shop is to make it look like no one thouched it. The owner had a set of used support railes so I drilled out the inner supports, I’ve never drilled these out before if you look you can see how there still is bare metal and the chunks of rust I had them blasted to I’ll make a new inner support and spot weld them in, I really like to use as much factory parts as possible or very nice reproduction.

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[lovethatconvertible]

Excellent, Keep the updates coming Please. Love this thread.
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1960 Convertible

[vwhelmot]

Blair spot weld drill = the best

[BryanNunes]

Hey guys sorry for the lack of posting been really busy, so got the body back form the blaster and all the dirty sins showed up, first I squared the heater channels to the pan and got the body on and squared. I used my sweeps to get the right radius across the sides, made new lower quarters using my planishing hammer went up high with the weld seam so I don’t have reach down that far to Planishing out the weld by hand.

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[virtanen]

In this picture is seen the "extra" water drainage hole for split cabriolet.

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Mika
Split beetle restoration panels
Oval beetle restoration panels
New projects

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

So this is how I got the body squared to the pan, I first installed a dummy motor to get my bearings than loosely mounted the heater channels than set the rear body section on first. Working form the very rear I use the engine as a guild to were the body goes cause the engine and trans are not really adjustable, so I centered up the engine opening to the engine than cross checked it. This way you can move the heater channels round until there even side to side and back to front, bolt the rear body mounts down to the pan and cross check again once Im happy with the rear I set the front with the doors on, setting the door opening to 37.5 inches (running the tape measure over the door if not the jam will be to big) cause the doors are 37 1/8” + 3/16 + 3/16 makes 37.5”. So form there I can now adjust the jam so both A and B pillars are parallel to each other, using the straps to pull or push with my hydraulic ram and can get it perfect. Now I drill 1/8” hole and sheet metal screws threw the bottom of the pan into the heater channels and the body to the channels so now I can remove section of the body and put the back on with out guess work. I like using the original pan to car cause every pan is a little different and in the end ther no crosses fingers that it’ll fit.

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[D-train]

Wow! Top job!!!
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shiny paint doesnt make it worth any more

[Hector]

WOW! Impressive work...Metal fabrication at its finest!

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

So once I got the body squared away I fit the outer crossmembers only going half way over the tube and bolting them to pan to insure there in the correct placement and welded them in keeping the factory gas welds cause once the triangle supports go back they’ll be covered and only half the tube is seen and it’ll look correct like no was in there, I mig welded them in cause I didn’t feel like crulling into a ball to tig plus there never going to be seen again.

Than I was able to fit the lower quarters panels on useing of my sweeps to make sure that all the radius’s are correct no high or low spots in the high light lines. Before I welded I scuffed as much as I could my hand inside wiped it down with a good wax and grease remover and sprayed POR15 everywhere to make sure that it ran out out the seeped threw over lapping panels. Form there I tig welded them in and did a quick hammer work (it wasn’t the final just get it close for now and there’s pictures of only one side cause the other looks the same)

Form there I was able to move to the back main body supports there rusted between the bracket, middle, and quarter like every early car is, the driver side wasn’t bad I didn’t have to cut out the actual quarter just drilled out the spot welded and used my mini blaster to clean it out. The pass side was rusted threw so I cut the whole thing out but to cut it underneath the middle panel so later on it’s one less thing that body work needs to be done on, the new brackets didn’t come with the centers so I fabbed up a set and tigged them in. Made new middle panels and fit the bracket used my spot welder and done looks completely factory. One other thing I supported the body the whole time so it wouldn’t sag down and everything I weld get a coat of weld threw primer, the primer I use is form a company called Like 90 it’s a resin based spray that came out of the aerospace field. For those that use that copper and zinc spary switch to this cause when you start mixing different metals toghter it actually speeds up the rusting process.

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[BryanNunes]

I moved on to the upper weld seam, so as everyone know they were leaded in when I got the car in it was blistering on all the leaded seams. I removed the lead and ground back the seam to open it up and let it set for a couple weeks and as I was expecting the acid was still coming out and rusting.

You can see in the pictures it started rust spotting in the seam, so I laid out a small cut section in tape and cut it out to just fully remove the bad area.

I made a patch and determined it had a 48” radius I put in the bead detail on my pullmax (sorry can’t get pictures I work by myself) I clamped it form behind and scribed it, trimmed it, fit it, and tig welded it in.

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