1975 Beetle Convertible Resto/Mod Build-Chop,Dash,Suicide,Shave.

[MACJELLY58]

Aloha all,

Work continued during the later part of August. However, I ran into a bit of a snag toward the end of the month. More on that later.

I didn't have much time to post, so I'll just pick up where I left off. I finished repairing my repair.

Now it looked like it would accept the quarter panel repair panel better. Then much like the other side, I repaired and put in the little triangle brace, as well as, the reinforcement "elbow". Seam sealing and spraying some welding primer.

I was pleased to get them in and solid. The carpet edge retainer channel for these "elbow" pieces were rotten and beaten up, so I had thrown the pieces away years ago. I just assumed on getting new channel segments but really couldn't find any. I decided to stop wasting time and just make some. It's only a small segments anyway? As others wisely advise...Never throw anything away!!

After getting them in, I sprayed the Eastwood channel spray all inside to catch any bare metal in there and seal up the welds. Then did the POR thing.

I moved on to finishing up the quarter panel section. I still had the holes for the installation of the top hinges. I used some pieces from the donor panel. It has the ribs for strengthening, so I went with that.

Someone might have been looking at this arrangement and thinking, "That's where the rear window crank used to be", and "How's the rear window gonna roll down if the top hinge is right there?". True...so true! My brain could not imagine a way in which the rear window could remain functional. I do not want a Roadster, with no windows. The idea is to have the rear window in or the rear window out. I hopefully can construct a channel for the rear window to slide into and lock for when the top is up and slide out when the top is down. We will have to wait and see how that turns out.

[MACJELLY58]

Sorry, I got called away and could not continue yesterday's post...............

After firming up the reinforcements and filling the hinge holes, I was feeling good. Now I could fit the driver's side door. If you remember, it was a tighter fit than the passenger side. It rubbed a little bit at the highest point when in operation. I had heard that is the case sometimes, because the door flexes if there isn't any reinforcement to the interior door skin.

I was confidant that after I welded in the 1/8" bar, it would be fine. So, I tack welded the driver's door hinge pockets and gave it a go.

The rub was a lot less, but there was still contact. I rechecked the door opening measurements, comparing the driver's side with the passenger side. There was about 1/8" difference. The door widths were the same. So basically, either the driver's door opening was always smaller and the stock hinges allowed the door to operate freely or I messed up somehow when I replaced the heater channel and support rail. The gap is even down the height of the door so, I don't think jacking it up at the jam to widen the door opening would solve it. Also, I JUST welded everything solid at the quarter panel and reinforcement "elbow" . This will take a bit of thinking.


True to form, I did my usual -AVOIDANCE. I moved on to something else for now. I got out the driver's side fenders. They looked like they were in better shape than the passenger side. It should be quick satisfying work.

Then I came upon this damage. It appears that the PO had used a screw-in type dent puller with some heat. I thought it would be a good idea to just replace the entire area.

Made a patch and welded it in. I think maybe it was a mistake to go big on the patch. It did not come out very well and I may have to fix it again.

A few other repairs to the rear fender. More cut and paste.
Lower fender bolt area with previous fix and a couple of smaller rust holes.

Then onto the front driver's fender.

Some rusty holes and a couple of previous repairs.

A good length of the bottom mounting tab was in horrible shape. Sorry, didn't post the really blurry picture before I cut it out.

Filled in the turn signal housing holes.

Metal prepped and POR the underneath.

[MACJELLY58]

At this point I had come up with my options for the driver's side door rub.

Option#1
Don't do anything and live with the paint rubbing off the 1/2"
section on the door jam and skin. It will be mostly hidden in the
jam when the door is closed.

Option#2
Cut out all the welds of the reinforcement elbow and triangle. Then
cut out the all the welds of the heater channel to the quarter panel.
Then I could move the quarter panel section a whopping 1/8" back
and re-weld everything back in place.

Option#3
Cut out 1/16" of the door skin on both ends of the door in the door
seal channel. Re-weld them back together leaving two door height
welding scars on each side, as well as, I would now have to trim
the rubber door seals when they are installed to fit.

Option#4
Buzzzz, cut the whole door in half and remove 1/8" of material and
re-weld the door together, leaving one large welding scar down the
height of door. The one-piece windows and seals will have to be
custom made/sized, door release hardware as well so, not any
added work there.

Now I just gotta pick an option and live with it. Stay tuned!

[MACJELLY58]

THE FOLLOWING POST IS RATED NC17

Please remove small children from the room and if you have a weak stomach, you may want to look away at this time.

In the absence of any advice, I picked Option #4. I would cut the door in half and remove 1/8". Then weld it back together. What could go wrong!

I decided to cut the door near the front jam. It's a little stiffer there closer to the door frame.

I made the cuts to the inner skin at the narrowest points to minimize the welding. This would also stagger the welds, hopefully it would make the re-welded door a little stronger than if the cut was made with a single straight cut line down the middle. Kinda like an interlocking puzzle piece.

After a few tack welds, I checked the fit and swing of the door. It swung free and clear, much like the passenger side. The gaps looked better as well.

I finished the welds. Then a refit.

Satisfied that the fix would work, I locked in the Hinge pockets.

As far as I can imagine, the only problems this fix would cause would be the window and window scraper length. These had to be custom anyway because of the chop. The interior door handle release would also have to be reversed anyway, so that also would not be any additional work. I'm thinking....I guess with all that I'm doing...I'm going to be that dreaded P.O. that some guy in the future will complain about !! :2gunfire:

I have made detailed notes in a receipt and expenditure log that I keep for the project. So, the next guy will at least know what year dash, what brand of upgrades, and now- The Driver's side door is 1/8" narrower than stock.

I may have mentioned that 4 years ago I had cut off the rear quarter panel previous patch way too big. The P.O. had just hammered the rotted panel inward, then welded the repair panel right over the rusted original panel. This made me think that the panel was bad all the way up to the welded joint. I should have investigated more, but hey...I don't know what I'm doing almost all the time.

So now, I gotta make an extension piece to fill the gap between the new repair panel(large one) and what's left of the original panel.

Not real happy about this, but it looks like it will work. I cut the door sill repair panel to size and flanged it to install. Then, I mocked up the Running Board( it finally came in!!) the quarter panel and the door. There still needs a bit of tweaking here and there but the lines looked okay.

[Epilog79]

All I can say is WOW!!!
This whole build has been so over the top. The incredible amount of metal fabrication is so beyond anything I could even dream of attempting.
I think the reason why there was no response regarding your 4 options were we were are too humble to offer up any advise to an obvious master. Good job on the 1/8in removal.
Keep up the amazing work. I have been following since day one and look forward to your progress.

[MACJELLY58]

Hey Epilog,

Thanks for the good words. I just figured no one gave an opinion on an option because, THE OPTIONS ALL SUCKED!
I was hoping that someone would post a link on where to find a Magic Wand to make it all go away.
One of the reasons I decided to post this fiasco was to say, anybody can do anything they want. You don't need a whole bunch of special tools, don't need no experience, all the knowledge you need is here on The Samba and YouTube.

The only thing you need is desire and maybe 5 or 6 years!!

[Epilog79]

MacJelly58, What would we do without YouTube and The Samba here to help us educate ourselves on these little cars. Without the help of fellow members sharing their stories, tribulations and follies about their projects, where would we be? I finished up my project nearly 20 years ago and man could I have used this site back in the day. Watching someone attempt a repair or modification on-line gives me the encouragement to try. I have just enough knowledge to get myself in trouble. No where near your skill set, but someday when the kids have finished sucking my funds dry, I will get another project car. When I started my 79 back in 1994 I had no idea that I still would have the car. My 15yr old son told me today that I cannot ever sell the Bug. He has only has his permit a week and is already wondering when he will get a chance to drive.
Keep up the great work on your project. All the documentation and pictures are great and will help countless people down the road.

[VERTED71]

[MACJELLY58]

71VERT,

Thanks for the support! It's nice to see that there are more SuperVerts on the island. Not many of us out there. The Rustmonster seems to work overtime in the islands.

If needed, I got some SuperVert parts that I probably won't need to use and will just put in the classifieds when I'm done anyway. Just shoot me a quick PM.

K-den, Brahdah!

[MACJELLY58]

I had a short weekend, but I was able to squeeze in a few hours on the car. Hopefully when I retire, I can have some non-rushed free time. Then, I can truly enjoy playing around in the garage. Until then, I just gotta enjoy SQUEEZING in the fun in short pushes.

After mocking up the repair panels last time, there was a little tweaking to be done. I don't remember why there was a missing piece at the upper rear of the quarter panel. I assume that I got a little aggressive with the cutting. Also, the bottom wheel well corner was too low compared to the wheel well on the body. It was about 1/4" lower.

I made a piece for the top hole and cut out and trimmed the bottom wheel well corner.

I really hate the corners of the repair panels. They are just bent over and sloppy. But hey, they are relatively cheap and can be fixed the way you like.

The front bottom corner was welded as well.

Then all cleaned up. I think grinding is the real challenge. Beautiful welds are great! But if I can grind well, who can tell that my welding sucks!

The leading edge(door jam) is bent over kinda lazily. The bend is not as sharp as the rest of the quarter panel. I'm gonna work on that later.

Prepped to accept the panel and sprayed some zinc weld through primer to the spots that I will not be able to get the POR into.

lined up everything as best that I could. A little banging persuasion helped to close the gap in the wheel well.

It went in pretty well.

The door was next. The front edge of the repair panel had the hole for the stock hinges(sorry no picture here). That was the best place to shorten the width. As you remember, the the door is now skinnier by 1/8". I had to fill the hole anyway, so that kinda worked out.

Fitted it up. There's those corners again.

Put in the Clecos and did a quick test fit. The front door gap lined up pretty good. The rear was again tucked in at the rear bottom, like the passenger door was. The driver's door was in way better shape than the passenger door was, so now I'm thinking that the quarter repair panel maybe the problem.

I adjusted the door repair panel as much as I could to compensate and welded it up.

With the door sill repair panel adjusted as much as possible, I thought I'd take a little out of the quarter panel to bring it in a bit. Also, the lazy bend of the repair panel jam had to be addressed. It looked really out of place as compared to the rest of the quarter panel. I cut right on the corner at the point that it deviated from the jam line. I used the Angle Grinder with a 4-1/2" cutting wheel. The Wheel is about 1/16" thick, so it would remove about that much material. I did not want to take too much out and have the quarter panel curve in too much.

It's time to see it all come together(or not!). I prepared to fit the door again. I'm getting pretty good at mounting the door at this point. If you remember, I had used wooden dowels to help line up the door to the hinges. They were great but after a few uses, they kinda started getting sloppy. So, I got some bolts and cut off the heads. These work a lot better.

Then the moment of truth.

NOPE!! Close... but no cigar. The bottom door line looks as though it is curving a little bit too much toward the rear quarter panel, like the passenger side was. I guess I gotta do the same bottom door wedge cut. But, That's where I ran outta time.

[MACJELLY58]

***TWO MONTHS LATER!!***

Well, we've heard it before,"life got in the way". This time life came at me from all known directions: work, home, family, personal, physical, you name it.
When life plays fair, I can usually get in a few hours here and there. On this occasion, there was literally just no time or energy. It was then that I realized, that I really rely on fiddling with this car for my therapeutic mental well being. It was kinda ironic that all the stress and chaos going on kept me from the one thing that I used to cope. Well, besides Adult Beverages!!

A couple of fronts started to let up a bit. I was able to finally get in a few hours but, it's kinda hard to jump right in there with the same enthusiasm. Especially, when its back to my nemesis, those doors!

I got the driver's door off again and marked up a "pie cut" on the bottom rear corner. I was gonna try and get the outer skin about 1/8" outward to line up with the rear quarter panel.

Welded it up and cleaned it up a bit before I remembered to try a test fit. I fell back to my rushing mentality.

A little bummed that I may have created more unnecessary work again, I went on to cutting the extra piece out of the 1/8" bar, like I did on the passenger side.

Then the test fit. It looks pretty good. Really close. Maybe a little tweaking....O.C.D.?

Two months of sitting and there is a little bit of surface rust. It appears that it is only where I have touched and left some contaminates. So, not bad I guess. I really want to get all this bare metal covered though. But, like I said I only had a few hours....so next time I hope.

Anyway.....What are you doing reading this. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Now, go eat some TURKEY!!!

[MACJELLY58]

For some reason I didn't feel like working on the door this weekend. So, I worked on removing the door seam/drip rails on the driver's side. Kinda redundant, much like the passenger side.

I measured the passenger side and marked the driver's side for the cut. I made it about a 1/16" larger just in case. I can grind it to the correct size slowly to be sure.

Towards the bottom where the door line is, there was some rust eating at the internal seam crevice, causing some separation. I cleaned and prepped it with the Phosphorous acid, then hit it with some weld through primer.

I did some clamping as I welded the edge of the seam.

Then I put in the plug welds, about 3/8" apart for strength.

Cleaned them up a little and brought the width down to match the Passenger side.

I moved on to the door seam. I started in the lower mid point, taking about a 4" section at time. This should keep the panel aligned as I replace the sections.

At this point, I was appreciating my '61 Dash. Using it to place my tools on as I worked. One of the biggest complaints I had about the large stock dash was the way it sloped downward. That made it impossible to utilize for anything. I realize that anything up there while driving is gonna fly into your lap, but when parked, I always wished I could have set things up there to make things easier.

Anyway, I then did a section below and then one above.

Then the very top. This area has the indent for the top stock hinge. Like the other side, the mounting plate was welded to the cage to keep it from rattling. and then I cleaned and prepped with the weld through primer. I then made the piece to fill that indent. Again, there was a lot of lead in this area making getting a good weld base hard. The lead isn't structural, so i'm not worried about strength here. It will just look ugly until I get to the body filler stage.

Then there was the last bottom section. I had replaced the bottom post section when I first started the project. It was one of my first repairs, as it was rusted and mangled by the PO. That being said, I did a horrible job myself. The jam lines are not straight and I had warped the lower panel area with too much heat.


There was a severe inward wave near the bottom of the panel. The only access I had to try and pound it out was a 1/2" hole inside the cabin. I used a Ratchet handle to try to pound it outward. Bad mistake. You can see all the little dents here.

The heat also traveled up the panel. A friend had experimented with the "Glue" type dent pullers and said that they do indeed work. So, I got a cheap set and gave it a try. Takes patience, but yes it does work relatively well. I have used it on my wife's car also with great success, as it is a "paint-less" repair.

As for the bottom section, perhaps if I started with the "Glue" puller it would have not been so bad. But now, it was too late for that and I just cut it out. Live and Learn!!

I did some grinding and cleaned up the welds a little bit. I got some finishing grinding still to be done, but it looked a lot better.

[MACJELLY58]

I took overtime for the Holidays, so no days off for the hobby. I'm gonna try and squeeze in a few hours before work when I can. I'll post when I got enough to show something, instead of a bunch of little snippets.

I did some of the finish grinding to the front Quarter panel/drip rail removal. Much better, although there are still some low spots that I'll get with filler when I start with the actual bodywork.

Then I moved to the hinge side of the jam. I had to fill the two Quarter window adjustment holes and the hole for the top stock hinge adjuster. There is also some missing sheet metal that needed to be filled too. These were left overs from the hinge and rear quarter panel installations. At the time I said, "I'll take care of that later". Of course "Later" always comes due. I would advise to NOT push this kinda stuff to "Later". It's a bummer to still have to take care of it, "Later".

More welds and the finish.

[MACJELLY58]

Well it's been awhile, the overtime at work hasn't stopped. Money is GOOD! I like money, but it sure sucks not having any time. Luckily, I've had time to watch Jeremy "G's" build to keep my enthusiasm going. That guy's a machine!! I think he's gonna finish his car way ahead of mine and I've been at it for 5 YEARS!!

However, I did get a day off with nothing else that was really screaming for my attention...so, I got back to it! The problem is, it's not that easy for me to just jump right back into it. I had just dropped everything when I last worked on the car and it was a mess. To ease back into it, I first decided to clean up and organized everything to get my mind right. Now with everything looking fresh, I was able to continue where I left off.

I was on the door jam, so I started there. I still had to tweek the bottom of the quarter panel, as the very bottom corner was still sticking out and not lining up with the door. Also, take care of a few empty spaces that needed filling.
First I cut the corner of the quarter panel, removing about 1/8" of material and welding it back up. Then there was the space at the heater channel where the Krappy repair panel joins.

I had to weld up a couple of areas around the Hinge pocket and a few holes I used as access to apply some channel spray.

The jam looks like it's now acceptable for bodywork to make it look nice. I then moved back to the driver's door. There was still a little finishing to do with the hinge mounts and some clean up to the wedge welds.

Filled the holes and gaps at the Hinge mounts.

Then cleaned them up a bit.

Did some pin hole filling at the Wedge cut and cleaned that up a bit.

The top corners of the window openings have a lot of brazing. I'm not sure why they did this. Someone said that they had cut down sedans to make the convertibles early on in the process. But, these later ones were supposed to be specifically built as convertibles. So again, I don't know why but it sucks. The brazing can't handle the stress at these points and the corners crack. I'm gonna fly in the face of German engineering and I ground out the brazing and I'm gonna put some good ol' German steel in there. Well, next time. Hopefully SOON!!

[MACJELLY58]

If you don't mind, I'd like to CRY to you for a moment. As you know my time right now is precious, so I was excited to get a few hours in this morning. I was planning on continuing where I left off, when I noticed a little bump on the front quarter panel. I thought why not tap that down real quick. I got out the dolly and my little body hammer. Stuck the dolly in the trunk area up against the panel and gave it a little tap with the hammer. DOWN goes the dolly into the abyss of the quarter panel. All the way down to the heater channel.

Anyway 45 minutes later and a makeshift magnet extractor I got it out! Sorry, just had to vent.

Okay, so I went back to the planned work. Here you can kinda see the bronze color there in the corner of the opening. I tried to grind out enough to let me get a steel patch in there. I wasn't worried about getting it all out.

Put the patch in and cleaned it up.

I had to do all four corners, just to make sure that if I get this thing painted one day, It won't crack.

Other side.

Mentally drained, I played around with the glue dent puller thingy. I don't think that makes for interesting posting. Until next time. Whenever that's gonna be.

[jeremy.g]

Good to see you back at it, M.J.!!! One piece at a time, right? You'll get there.

-Jeremy

[Mark 75 Super Convertible]

Amazing work, and dedication! Since you chopped the windshield, are you planning to do the side glass and top too, or just leave the top down all the time? Sorry if you already covered this and I missed it.

[MACJELLY58]

-Mark '75

Thanks for looking! Yes, the plan is to have a fully functional top. I will need to lengthen the Top frame to meet up with the new location of the windshield and depending on how it looks, I may have to chop down the Top frame in the back so it doesn't look too raked. Then, of course, I gotta sew a custom fitting canvas "STAYFAST" material top covering. The windows will be custom ordered or I will cut them from Safety Glass myself.

Wow! Now that you made me say it out loud, it sure sounds like a lot of work! Especially since I've never done any of that before. But heck, I didn't do any of this stuff before EITHER!!

LIVE AND LEARN

[MACJELLY58]

Hello All,

It's been EIGHT MONTHS since I was able to work on the Bug! The usual...Work, Family and then this COVID thang. Me and mine are okay, so far, and I hope that all of you are and remain healthy.

I have looked at the car everyday and wanted to work on something but, could never pull it together. I would read the posts from Jeremey "G", Mr. "Buggeee" and JIMBO, get excited and then loose it by the time I get to the car. I've also been looking for seats for the car. I was thinking the "New" Beetle seats. The later years looked pretty cool and they looked like they could fit nicely. Plus, I liked the idea that they were still Beetle seats and kinda brought continuity through the years and visions.

Alas, they are hard to come by. If found, they want an arm and a leg!
$375 a Seat, CRAZAY!

I looked on Craigslist almost everyday. Ebay is out of the question, as shipping anything to the middle of the ocean is ridiculous. Finally, I found a pair of used ProCar seats. They were in good shape and were only $150 for the pair!

They are not mounted. I just placed them inside to get a look at the fit. The front edge near the thighs is a little wide, even if I were to shift the seat more towards the Tunnel. My plan is to reupholster the seats, so I guess I could trim the foam there a bit.

My vision is a "three-seater". So, I pulled one of my Ford Explorer third row seat for this purpose. I will need to shorten the backrest, so that when folded flat, it will clear the front seats. Mounting will also be interesting.

[MACJELLY58]

After seeing the seats in the car, I decided to make up my mind and make the time to work on the car again. As you may remember, I was working on the repair/modification of the doors and repairing the four fenders.

Well, I left them in bare metal for the past 8 months, only with the metal treatment for protection. The doors were toward the rear of the garage and held up rather well.

The fenders were near the garage door uncovered and in an area where I wash my car and rain drifts in if the garage door is open. They did not hold up as well.

First order of business, is to get them in some Epoxy Primer! Should be quick, a little Prep and taping, then SPRAY! Nope, I forgot that I did not really finish up the repairs nicely. Everything fit but, they still needed massaging before Primer. I did some finish grinding and then I found High Surf, (waves) in the repair panel at the bottom. Time to practice with the "Glue Puller". I went to the Gas Flap area. That's where the trash can hit and I think there was some warpage there as well. There was a good "Oil Canning there".

If you're not familiar with "Oil Can", then good for you. It's a pain. When you have warping, the heat stretches the metal and you have a hump. When you try to push the hump down, it pops right back up-"Tonk-Toonk", like an oil can sound( See-Wizard of OZ/ "Tin Man"). There are two ways that I found to fix that by shrinking the metal.

1. A shrinking Disc that attaches to the grinder and appears to heat up the
metal and pull it in?
2. Heat up the area with a Torch and wack it with a hammer, then quickly cool
it back down with a wet rag or compressed air.

I'm really scared of heating it up and cooling it back down. Wasn't that how I got the problem in the first place?


I sprayed some ugly flat brown paint I had to do some block sanding.

Tapped down some high spots and used the Glue Puller on the lows.
Luckily, the "Oil Canning" went away. Wasn't that bad I guess.

After this many pulls and about 2 hours, I got this.