My 62 Beetle Sedan

[John Miller]

Thanks for the comments. Learning to weld has been the one thing that I knew I eventually needed to learn and I'm so happy that I finally did it. I can't even imagine how I lived without knowing how to before. Learning to do my own paint is next.

The beetle is still on hold while I finish the wife's Ghia. I was actually welding on the Ghia this last weekend but haven't undated the thread. Real life just keeps getting in the way of finishing it though. I really need to step it up. I have someone waiting to paint it as soon as I can get the body work finished.

I'm truly envious of you getting to work with your daughter on that project. Mine was in no way interested in cars but I do have a 7 year old grand daughter that is showing promise, so who knows, I still may get my wish.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[Lee Hedges]

That's an inspiring & well-documented series of restoration stories. Being able to handle your own welding must be both a blessing & a curse. You know you can fix things ... so you go for it. My compliments for your hard work and progressive restoration work.

[John Miller]

Nothing new to report. I'm stuck finishing my wife's Ghia first. I hope to have hers back on the road early summer, then back to the beetle.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[JDGas]

Sorry to dig up an oldie, but the work being done is the same as what I'm doing.

Awesome work! Any updates?
_________________
1959 Ragtop Beetle - sold
1958 Danish Beetle
1967 SO-42 West. - sold
1961 Sunroof Beetle - sold
1969 Sunroof Beetle

[Culito]

Very nice work!!
_________________
© CJ Industries, Inc.
'64 standard w/2.0L type 4
'62 bug

[John Miller]

Had a few hours to work in the garage today. This is the first time I've been able to work on it since late August. I started by cutting out these back sections on both sides.

Both sections were in rough shape and need to be replaced.

Here is one of the repo sections compaired to the original.

Needless to say there aren't very similar. Before I cut up the section to do the replacement I decided to try and make one. Mainly to see if I could do it but also to try and get it a little closer to original. That repair section is pretty flimsy. So here is the rough draft.

After some trimming and more bending it is getting a little closer to actually working. This is the back section and made out of 16 guage.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on it but it's getting there.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Well a few weeks ago the decision was made. After going over the car very carefully it was just in to bad a shape to consider fixing it. So on a Friday night after work I spent a few hours cutting it up.

This was actually a shame. A one owner car that had been in KY it's whole life allowed to get into this condition. Anything 12" from the ground was completely rusted through. When I bought the car he had pulled it out into the woods beside his barn and left it. I guess after owning it all those years he was tired of it.

This is what happened when I cut through the windshield pillars. The roof was the only thing that kept it from folding in half. In the picture the doors kept it from falling the rest of the way.

Once the steering coupling was cut loose the body was lifted off the pan. No fasteners had to be removed.

Rear section was held on by three bolts under the seat. Everything else was rusted off.

Just a cool pic.

It's new resting place. The original plan was to cut the roof off and store it inside the garage and just roll the rest of it outside, but once it folded in half plans changed. I've already stripped off all the usable parts and plan on keeping them as backups for the sedan. I'll probably hang on to the chassis since I have a title and birth certificate for it since I may just find a 62 body for it one day.

I have my work area back now so hopefully I'll start making progress on it once again.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Well I got the heater channels and a few other small misc pieces ordered and they finally got here a few weeks back. I am so disappointed in the quality of these pieces. They are going to take quite a bit of work until I can even think about installing them.

There was a change made in the garage last week. This was bought for my wife.

It just needs a few fixes to make it drivable. So I'll be spending most of my time getting it ready.


BUT THAT MEANS THE BEETLE IS MINE NOW!


So that meant I needed to move the ragtop back where it started.

As you can see my body dolly has been adjusted out so the pan can be stored under the body.

I made an error when doing my original measurements. The chassis won't roll under the dolley without lifting the dolley up an inch or so, the shock towers hit. It's not that big a deal but it's just damned annoying that I spent all that time designing it for it not to work perfectly. It will be a fairly easy fix that I'll do before to long.

Now everytime when I want to work on it I'm going to have to roll the chassis out from underneath it and then put it back when I'm finished. I got spoiled when the ragtop wasn't there and it's making me look at it in a whole different light now. As bad a shape as it's in I would probably be better off all the way around to go ahead and take off what usuable parts I can find and then just cut it up. Still thinking on that one.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

I got a little time in on it last weekend. I was able to get the other side out.

I was hoping to be able to save these but upon closer inspection it looks like there is to much rust damage.

Here is some additional areas that will needing some attention also.

Thoses repairs seem pretty straight forward so I'll be attempting to fab those repairs. If things don't go as planned I have already ordered the replacement panels from Wolfsburg West when I ordered the new heater channels. If I don't need them I just add them to the stack of "just in case" parts.

Once I get the new channels in and patch these few small areas that should have most on the metal work done. The more I get to work on it the more I really want to get this thing running so I can drive it. I'm seriously considering just blending in the repair areas and start working on the mechanicals so I can be driving this coming spring.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Got a chance this weekend to do a little work. First I got the bracing in

Then, no turning back now

That was a bastard to get out. It took a few hours, several cuss words and a little blood.

With the majority of the damage just on the ends I'm thinking about trying to repair these with some replacement ends. The worst thing that can happen is I screw them up and have to buy full channels. Still thinking about it.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[estofer]

Great thread - nice job on the bodywork!
_________________
1964 Type 1 Vert "Ruby"
2019 Tiguan
2020 Tiguan

[John Miller]

Well I got the body off yesterday and the lift worked. The only issue I had was I didn't get the pulleys on the car lined up with the pulleys on the lift and the cable was binding a little so the car wanted to tilt as it was being raised. It was easily adjusted with one hand so with more carefull set up it should work perfect.

I was nervous and very carefull in the beginning. That thing was making some pretty ugly noises. I left it in the posistion for about 5 minutes. I figured if something failed it would do to much damage.

To late to back out now. Lifted just high enough to clear the shock towers.

My new desktop pic.

And this is how things stand now. The majority of the damage to the heater channels are in the first few inches of the ends. So my plan now is to hopefully repair the ends instead of replacing the whole channel. Once I get them removed I'll have a better idea.

Also the cart worked perfectly. I can roll the body around by grabbing it with one hand anywhere on the body. Since both of them worked so well I'm thinking of building a rotisserie now.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

I got the two pulleys welded on but it took quite a few adjustments to the holes to keep the cable from rubbing. If I had to do it again I would make the hole much bigger and just weld a sleeve in it. Oh well, it's finished and that's all that matters now. After I got everything together and tightened up I went ahead and raised the front end with the chassis still attached and it had no problem what so ever handling the weight. So hopefully with just the body only it will be a piece of cake. I only raised it a few inches but I wanted to check how those mountings would hold and so far so good.

While I was at it I went ahead and loosened everything to prepare for taking the body off hopefully next weekend. I got just the two bolts on the front beam and the two at the rear wheelwell holding it down. I only broke off 5 out of the 18 on the sides and had to cut off one of the four in the front floorboard. Not bad considering how rusty some of them were.

I found some more rust that will have to be dealt with and expect to find a lot more once the body is off.

It was a very productive weekend.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Well it looks like those few weeks turned into several months. I did finish up the welding in January and was able to start back on it today. I started by laying out the completed frames.

Next was the installation of the cranks and all the pulleys. This took quite a while since I'm pretty much making it up as I go.

It was originally designed to attach to the bumper mounting points and on the back it basicly worked out, I had to extend the pulley a few inches up since the cables were only an 1/8" for rubbing on the body. The front turned out to be a whole different issue. By using the front bumper mounting holes there was no way it was going to work without the cables rubbing. So this is what I came up with.

I'm wondering if this is going to be strong enough? It is not going to be hanging for extended periods of time. Mainly just long enough to get it on and off the dolley.

So this is where I stopped off today. Tomorrow I plan on welding those two pulleys in their final location on the sides, elongating the holes through the side peices to keep the cable from rubbing and start getting ready to take that body off next weekend.

Man it feels good to be able to work on this thing again.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Here are a few teaser pics on what I was working on and what I'll be finishing up hopefully in the next few weeks.

The gantry crane will allow me to remove the body by myself safely.

The body dolley is fully adjustable in lenght, width and height.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[iaccy]

sorry for this noobish question but what is that box attached to the firewall with the hose running to the oil filler neck? An oil overflow reservoir thing?

[roy63]

My hat is off i wish I had the skills to redo my own bodywork. My 63 has the exact same rust. It is a skill that itimidates me to know end. keep us updated..
_________________
MyBuild http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571921

Some day when the rust is gone, I will at last found inner peace... (Peace has Been Found)

"Wide awake, and keeping distance from my soul"

[AJ Quick]

Great job!

You are really good at getting those things to fit right. I only hope I put enough attention into mine.
_________________
Read My Beetle Restoration Blog!
http://www.RideSpace.net/
http://www.AJQuick.com/

[John Miller]

Looks like it might be time for an update.
I'm still about a month away from getting to work on the car again but in the next few days I try a find the pics of what I was doing before I had to stop and post up a little update. I was welding up an adjustable body dolley and a one man body lift. The body dolley is finished and the lift has about 2 or 3 days more work left on it.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[benjyhas]

Here goes my attempt at pictures! This is how my bug looked 18 months ago ......

Nearly finished now and L=looking like this now...