1970 Beetle Body Removal

[dexter551]

First timer working on a Volkswagen beetle after 35 years of mostly GM (sorry) vehicles in my shop. It is for my niece so I agreed to fix some things to make the beetle safe to drive. The floor pans are starting to rust under the seat area on both sides. Somebody "fixed" the underside by spraying rustproofing on everything so I am guessing it is bad in other areas as well. Any advice or links on how to remove the body if I need to replace the whole pans? Also who sells the the best quality pans? 1970 regular Beetle with an Auto Stick transmission is any of that helps.

Thanks!

[tthoms]

I've never done it, but here's a link to a Youtube showing the mointing points in a '66.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4T7txSDHiQ

Sorry, I can't recommend pans, although if you do a search on this site, I'm sure you'll find a few.

[scottyrocks]

Some of the restoration threads feature homemade rolling carts that the body is put on top of after removal from the chassis. Maybe someone knows of one or two of these threads off-hand.

[Evil_Fiz]

Here are the plans I created and built for my 70 Convertible Karmann Ghia. The plans are actually a 3D model created using the free version of Sketshup. PM me your email if you want a copy of the model files. You can then download Sketchup and edit away if needed. See my build thread (In my sig) for additional details on the process.

NOTE:
I used 2x6 lumber because I had a surplus of material from a different project. I recommend 4x4 lumber for the cross members to reduce flex and the possibility of thinner lumber breaking under load. I used a 2x6 in my cross members and have to use a removable vertical brace in the front due to the way the body rests closer to the middle on the front member. The rear mounts outboard enough that a 2x6 is sufficient.

Dolly Plans
I recommend you go with 6"+ casters because the 3" ones I used create too much resistance when moving the body/dolly around. Eight inch pneumatic casters are ideal if you will be rolling over non-flat/hard surfaces such as gravel or grass. You may also want to use fixed casters on one end and swivel on the other to keep the dolly from drifting when moving fore and aft.

Hoist frame Plans

Dolly set up for use

Hoist frame in use
I used 1 come-along and lifted the front onto the dolly, then the back.
The legs on the dolly are hinged to allow them to be lifted into place after the car is in the air. I was able to mount the body onto the dolly by myself in about 1 hour.

Result
As you can see the car body makes contact with the dolly at the "Napoleon Hat" and the the rear pan mounting edge. This should be the same for a Beetle. If you want to mount the body using the rear and front wheel arch areas you will need to make the dolly longer front to back ( I can't recall the dimension.) The height of the dolly cross members is such that the rolling pan will fit under the dolly with the shifter and full suspension mounted.

We're all in this together,
Emil
_________________
“…It's not just about what's interesting. It's also about what's helpful, and it's helpful even if it helps just one other guy working on a Ghia.”
kiwighia68

See my build on TheSamba at:
The K_R_A_K_E_N_N : a 70 Ghia Convertible reinterpreted

[andk5591]

Can't remember if your car has the extra pair of bolts in front of the ones by the shock towers. There is usually seal sealer filling the holes in the body. Be careful of the ones at the front corners of the cowl. (2 each side). Sometimes the are rusted into the tapped plate. Not a big deal to cut a slot to get to the plates and patch after to put it back together. BUT look carefully at the outer perimeter of the floor pans. If they are good around the edge, you cab just cut out the inside of the floor and weld your new pans in without removeing the body.

As far as lifting the body, if you have exposed rafters in your work space, 3 come-alongs work great - 2 on one end and one on the other. Have done several body removals that way before I got my shop with the lift.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[Evil_Fiz]

[andk5591]

yes on the bolts. Keep in mind that some are only for verts. When you lift, just be gentle and dont forget things like all the wires and the steering.

How much your rafters can handle is more about how the garage roof is designed. What I did to play it safe was use a couple pieces of 4x4 to straddle several of the rafters to spread the load at leach lift point. Was probably overkill, but still not a bad idea. I got 3 cheap Harbor Freight come-alongs and lifted using the bumper brackets.

Just go slow and make sure you have all the bolts out.

Here's a trick for setting the body. Get 4 4" long bolts (I think 10mm) and cut the heads off, then grind the end to a point. Screw 2 into the top of the beam and 2 into the pan by the rear shocks. Makes lining things up really easy. DON'T forget to replace the body/pan rubber bushings. Since I do a lot of this work solo, I have all kinds if tricks. This aint my first rodeo
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[kman]

Chain hoist and straps. I have the chain hoist hanging off of a heavy duty angle iron bracket that I made that spans and is bolted through two of the rafters.

_________________
71 vert build. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=572951&highlight=dead

[Digger89L]

VERY NICE ...exactly the kind of info I was looking for for my 66 Bug project. I'm not familiar with the dimension of the Ghia, so have to ask a couple of questions. (1) is the hoist tall enough to lift a Bug body off the chassis? (2) are the body dolly mounting points at different dimensions for a Bug?
Thanks for any advice you or others can provide.
_________________
"If you can't fix it with pop rivets, crazy glue and duct tape, or hold it together with zip ties, velcro or magnets, it REALLY is broken."

[bomberbob]

If you can view a bug me video, they show how to lift the body enough to replace pans and heater channels. There is also some you tube videos of people using jacks to lift it up onto sawhorses. I watched all this stuff and then proceeded to lift the body. I left the motor in. Do not do this. The body shifted aft and got up against the oil cooler and I had a heck of a time. Had to pull the motor right in the middle of the operation. I went and borrowed my sons engine hoist. Chain under the bumper, now I have a lot more control of what is going on. Its slower, but you can move it left and right to get things lined up.
I guess there are probably 20 different ways to lift the body.
_________________
1968 Beetle (storage)
1990 Jetta GLI megasquirted, burning E85 (currently in heavy maintenance)
2004 Jetta turbo GLI
Marion, Iowa

[Digger89L]

"If you can view a bug me video, they show how to lift the body enough to replace pans and heater channels."

I want to lift the body completely off the chassis, as the body needs a lot more than just heater channel replacement. I have room in my shop to do a 'gantry' style lift. The main reason for wanting to do it that way is I know that I will have to do several 'trial fits' of the body with replaced heater channels onto the chassis with replaced floor pans ....and I don't have anyone to help me with that kind of multiple lift and re-lift to adjust, etc. work. Yesterday I came across the "Hannah's Bug" videos on YouTube, the one where she built a gantry style chain hoist lift ...that seems like a safe and reasonable way to go. But is seems like she way over-built it if its just going to be used for a 400 pound VW body lift.
I am planning to leave the engine on the chassis when I lift the body off ...so, thanks for the heads-up on potential problems.
_________________
"If you can't fix it with pop rivets, crazy glue and duct tape, or hold it together with zip ties, velcro or magnets, it REALLY is broken."