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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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 Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:25 am Post subject: |
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| WD-40 wrote: |
You might need to drill this one just a few more times to be safe.  |
Ha! I didn't have a plan of attack, so I just attacked it with a hole saw bit. I guess I was partly trying to weaken it, so I could pry out the remaining parts better.
| Quote: |
| Towel Rail wrote: |
The picture doesn't show it well, but I've sliced through about half of the right inner rocker with the Dremel. My line is just under the lowest row of rivets. |
Probably time to weld those braces across the door openings, don't you think?  |
Yep, I'm going to pick up some angle iron in the next couple of days and go to town. I'm thinking of putting two pieces on the outside along the top, and then two more at an angle inside (from below the dash to above the package tray), then adding a diagonal piece or two across the body for more stability. The crosspiece you see in the bottom pic is welded between the two rockers, so it'll help when I'm removing the body, but it'll need to come out when I replace the rockers later.
| Quote: |
| Also, what's trying to escape from the cabinet? |
You talking about the blue tape? When we hauled a bunch of stuff out of the house in advance of the floodwaters, we taped up the doors of the cabinet. And I haven't had a need to remove the tape yet. 
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:13 am Post subject: |
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Picked up four 6' pieces of angle iron and some clamps today. Two of the angle iron pieces are 14 gauge, the other two are 18 gauge -- not sure how much support the latter will be.
Here's one of them clamped in so I could mark where I'll have to grind for the welding.
Also tried out my welder for the first time. It took a couple tries to lay a decent bead, but I should be able to weld the supports (and the floor piece in my '67) pretty soon. My roommate reported that the lights in the house were dimming strangely, and was relieved to find that nothing was shorting out or on fire...
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Gary
Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002
Posts: 17069
Location: 127.0.0.1
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:49 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like your breaker box needs maintenance or else to be upgraded.
_________________
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:40 am Post subject: |
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Yeah. Watching the green flashes through my helmet, I had no idea anything was amiss with the house lights!
Anyhoo, I decided to hell with it, and just cut it in half. This'll make it a little easier to manage the body while I work on the pan, and with enough clamps, I should be able to get everything re-aligned when the time comes.
From underneath, you can see how the hollow spaces were packed with expanding foam.
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Gary
Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002
Posts: 17069
Location: 127.0.0.1
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:46 am Post subject: |
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ACK! Expanding foam. Talk about a sponge.
Hell, why didn't you call? Have sawzall. Will travel.  I've never cut a Thing in half before. 
_________________
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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LuciferRex
Samba Member
Joined: July 23, 2006
Posts: 92
Location: Dayton, OH
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:47 am Post subject: |
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| I can't wait to have a place where I can do this to my Thing |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:16 am Post subject: |
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| Icy wrote: |
| ACK! Expanding foam. Talk about a sponge. |
And there's more in the C pillars!
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| Hell, why didn't you call? Have sawzall. Will travel. I've never cut a Thing in half before. |
Didn't know you made house calls, Gary! Otherwise, this wouldn't've taken long at all!
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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Didn't spend much time in the garage tonight, just rolled the Thing around until it was closer to the side of the garage. After that, I mounted my new wheels/tires up front just for fun:
It took 4" of boards underneath my jack to raise the car enough to put these tires on, so my plan is to build a "jack-block" that I'll keep with the car. Let's take another look at the front beam:
It's crusty, but was sound enough not to kill me while it was on the road. I think the prudent thing will be to replace it, rather than try to reinforce what's left. I'll get a new Type I beam, weld in Sway-A-Way adjusters, and add brackets so that I can reuse the Thing-specific beam-to-pan supports.
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Russ
Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2003
Posts: 1560
Location: Langley B.C.
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| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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wow it did not look to bad from the opening pic but it sure is nasty.
great project glad your getting it done
best of luck with it and keep us updated
_________________
Cruiser pedals for sale (see my ad's)
55 hardtop finally finished
65 beetle done:) |
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WD-40
Samba Member
Joined: May 31, 2006
Posts: 1178
Location: Iowa
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| Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Towel Rail wrote: |
| Anyhoo, I decided to hell with it, and just cut it in half. |
_________________
"The new Volkswagen 1303. We've made so many improvements, they're beginning to show." |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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Nothing earth-shattering to report tonight, so I'll just post random stuff.
Here's a shot of the left rear passenger corner. So much has rotted away that I'll need to research some healthy vehicles to figure out how the heck these went together! Only then will I be able to fab up new pieces.
Good news is, once I've sliced through the rest of the inner rocker, that side of the body will be free of the pan.
This shot illustrates where I'll need to do some clearancing of the pan in order to restore some of the steering travel with the big tires!
Lastly, I threw one of the new tires on the rear. Good clearance all around. I measured about 3/4" between it and the torsion tube.
Even without adjusting the suspension upwards (as I plan to do), I'm up to 13" of ground clearance under the front shock towers, and 10.25" under the rear shock tower (stock is 8.1")
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:18 am Post subject: |
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No monumental progress as of late, but I've removed all the remaining body bolts in the rear, and dropped the engine. Should be easier to take off the rear section now. Just need to get a couple friends to help!
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Gary
Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002
Posts: 17069
Location: 127.0.0.1
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| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:50 am Post subject: |
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| Towel Rail wrote: |
No monumental progress as of late, but I've removed all the remaining body bolts in the rear, and dropped the engine. Should be easier to take off the rear section now. Just need to get a couple friends to help!
- Scott |
Two words: Free beer.
_________________
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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Big Luni
Samba Member
Joined: December 29, 2003
Posts: 427
Location: Hartford, CT
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:40 am Post subject: |
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You might already be aware of this, but I was surprised to see it -- CIP1 has inner and outer rocker panels for $150 a piece. They're not giving them away, but they're way cheaper than I've seen them for elsewhere.
http://www2.cip1.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=181+rocker
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I'm All About My Fetti! |
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:00 am Post subject: |
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Not bad -- I bought all mine (inner and outer) from EIS for $160 a pop. No biggie.
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Stuggi
Samba Member
Joined: October 16, 2007
Posts: 1208
Location: Jakobstad, Finland
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Yarkle
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2009
Posts: 1218
Location: the Hills of Western Maine
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Towel Rail
Horizontally Opposed
Joined: April 15, 2005
Posts: 4622
Location: SE CR IA US NA PE
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Yarkle wrote: |
| Towel rail, I saw you posted in another thread..how did this ever come out? |
Hey Yarkle, I started to get really discouraged at my prospects by the time I last posted in this thread. Some friends got me interested in biking, and that became my main focus for a couple of years. Rescuing and rebuilding bikes is a lot easier, quicker, and less heartbreaking than cars, not to mention cheaper.
So the Thing is still hanging out in my garage, waiting for me to summon enough courage for another round. I'd like to say that I've developed more discipline and mechanical skills in the intervening years, so I may carve out some time for it again soon. My hope is that restoring the pan and being able to drive that around will give me enough motivation to tackle the body. We'll see!
- Scott
_________________
1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car
049 > 070 > 053 > 009 |
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Yarkle
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2009
Posts: 1218
Location: the Hills of Western Maine
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:06 am Post subject: |
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Well, at least youve done some work on your thing, mine keeps getting lower and lower on the totem pole. Theres always something that needs to get done
You had a real rough canvas to start with too, so i can see how it can be discouraging.
_________________
Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight= |
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WD-40
Samba Member
Joined: May 31, 2006
Posts: 1178
Location: Iowa
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Towel Rail wrote: |
| My hope is that restoring the pan and being able to drive that around will give me enough motivation to tackle the body. We'll see! |
What's the plan for the pan? Does it need anything other than the beam replacement, tire clearancing, and the bit of rust fix on the edges?
Also:
| Towel Rail wrote: |
Let's take another look at the front beam:
It's crusty, but was sound enough not to kill me while it was on the road. I think the prudent thing will be to replace it, rather than try to reinforce what's left. I'll get a new Type I beam, weld in Sway-A-Way adjusters, and add brackets so that I can reuse the Thing-specific beam-to-pan supports. |
Instead of doing all of that, maybe you can convince this seller to ship?
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1611588
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Type 181 beam Price: $125
Real deal thing beam in restorable condition with no rot... Blast, paint, use!! Not looking to ship as it's too heavy!!
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You would save a bunch of money, and a ton of time too.
_________________
"The new Volkswagen 1303. We've made so many improvements, they're beginning to show." |
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan