Is this square metal in the vents supposed to be here?

[Tusk]

My father went, literally, poking around in the back of the car and this little square of metal fell off inside the air vent. There are two of them. Are they supposed to be there?

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1956 Beetle - Lisbeth - Sold
1979 Bay Window - Betty - Sold
1975 STD Beetle - Lucille - Sold
1964 Beetle - Rita - Restoration in Progress
1971 Squareback - Joanie - Sold
1961 Beetle - Daphne - Sold

[Tempie]

just simple : no
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[Tusk]

[0nebadbug]

If you want it be "perfect" you would have no choice but to remove the lower vent cover to get in there to do any real metalwork or filling or any real finish work to rectify it...

There is probably a better thread but you get the idea...
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=408042

If that's not an option then maybe if you are real lucky the holes were made cleanly with a hole saw and/or are perfect circles & located in mirrored locations. Then maybe just fabricate some nice covers and give it the illusion that they are supposed to be there...

...Or stuff some lights in there and treat it like a third rear brake light and the vent would light up at night...
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::: Slowoval ::: LaDawri Sebring ::: '61 Creampuff ::: Dust Storm '66 :::

[splitjunkie]

Since the car is not a unmolested original, I wouldn't make too big a deal of it.

There are plenty of other things that need work to get it on the road so you can enjoy it. I wouldn't spend too much time or money on this particular issue. If you have plans to paint it at some point then address it properly as Onebadbug suggested.

But until then I would remove the patches, clean the yellow glue off and patch them with fiberglass from the inside of the car. It should look OK if you make the patch smooth on the inside.

Since fiberglass dries clear you could paint it on the inside and it would be pretty hard to see from the outside. You could probably get some paint on it through the vents by either masking off the vents and spraying the area of the patches or you could put a small paint brush on a long stick and just brush paint it. I would go with the brush since it will be faster and easier.
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Chris

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

[Tusk]

Fabulous.
Thanks for the information guys. I shall present this to my father and see what he thinks. He's done his fair share of fiberglass work. Plus he found the hole, he gets to fix it
_________________
1956 Beetle - Lisbeth - Sold
1979 Bay Window - Betty - Sold
1975 STD Beetle - Lucille - Sold
1964 Beetle - Rita - Restoration in Progress
1971 Squareback - Joanie - Sold
1961 Beetle - Daphne - Sold

[srm1956]

Check this out - Back in the April 2011 issue of Hot VW's there was a 54 that had a "fresh air" vent in this same location. This would be a way to go if you don't want to fix it.

[1956vw]

[Tusk]