74 Kombi - The onion bus

[Welt]

All this rust doesn't seem too bad when you cut most of the car away. Battery tray area could almost be torn away by bare hands. Rear wheel arch was almost the same. Crusty rusty metal. Some areas that have been "welded" have these globs of brass-like metal, like the parts had been brazed on. Wonder what's up with that.

Frame rails should be almost ready now. One torsion tube was rusted through at a sneaky place inside the frame rail. I was lucky I poked it hard enough to reveal the damage. The hole was covered with a nice meaty piece of ~6mm thick tubing I found at a local scrap yard. To be on the safe side, I'll fab additional thick cone shaped support pieces from the frame rails to the tubes on both sides. I really don't want anything to rupture while driving after all this tedious work has been done.

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[Welt]

More welding wire and gas has been spent again. Cargo door area only needs outer sill panel welded. The thick floor panel that the upper slider track is attached to was somehow bent slightly near the depression. Taking some measurements, welding a few ~5cm beads and cooling them with pressurised air pulled it back in line. You don't always need fancy equipment to correct slight flaws .

All the torsion tubes got supports on both sides just in case.

A local paint shop mixed some L90D Pastel Weiss for me. Now that the corners have been open, all the otherwise impossible to paint areas have been painted. No one will see these areas but they're the same colour now. It was also nice to see what the paint really looks like. I think this one is quite nice compared to the bright oversprayed one.

...and now for something completely different. I've been doing other business than the usual rust repairs at the same time. Engine stuff to be exact. Bought a cheap 6 liter ultrasonic cleaner to aid in cleaning the 40 DRLA Dellortos I have saved for this build. Quite a lot of crud from a few cleaning passes for a single carb!

The engine will get a new pair of 40x35.5 041 Autolinea heads. It's pretty apparent that almost all the aftermarket heads need some work and can not be used straight, so decided to buy the budget ones and modify them. The chambers aren't the best and the valve seats wouldn't have sealed anyting if used.

Valve contact pattern would have been bad.

..and the exhaust port don't really match anything.

I'll rework the chambers and ports slightly and send the heads to be cut for larger cylinders and seat/valve work. I'd reckon the monetary investment is about the same as buying better heads straight. Atleast I get the joy of doing stuff myself though.
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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[wcfvw69]

You're doing a great job saving that bay. I'm enjoying your updates as well.

What does that ultrasonic cleaner look like? What did it cost?
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Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[Welt]

[wcfvw69]

Thanks for the link and picture. That cleaner looks like it would be great on carbs, fuel pump and other items like you mentioned.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[Tcash]

At least they where consistent.

Good Luck
Tcash

[Welt]

Some progress on rear corner, battery tray area etc. The corner repair panel for this side wasn't nearly as bad as on the drivers side but still needed a small additional patch near the arch panel. Attaching the outer sill was also easy. Front step, engine bay and rear valance areas are the only big welding jobs still to do. Whoa, am I really this far already?

Did some small patches in the front. May still need to open everything as the inner sheetmetal doesn't look all that good. That would make it easier to attach any pieces inside.

The ultrasonic cleaner has been a great addition. I've been putting many small parts in it and most times the results have been surprising to say the least! The pic below shows all the grit from 4 stock rockers. Water was ugly dark brown after a single 30 min cleaning cycle. Put the rockers in a beaker with citric acid and gave them another cycle to cleanse them from any surface rust. That actually unseized the adjuster nuts that I had tried to wrench open many times. All this makes me wonder how much stuff is hiding in new P&C sets?

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[oscarsnapkin]

Some of you people are amazing when it comes to what you're able to do. I wish I had you're ability/motivation. Nice work.
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- 1977 CEI Sunroof Bus 2.0L F.I. Hydraulic Lifters
- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."

[Tcash]

All this makes me wonder how much stuff is hiding in new P&C sets?
You would be surprised at how much is hiding in those little grooves in the cylinders. I use a five gallon bucket with Tide and a nail brush to clean the cylinders.
Looking good
Tash

[Welt]

Have had a bit of "welding hangover" past few weeks as most of it is done already. It's hard to adjust to doing other things again! The passenger side step is now done, as are the engine bay seal channels etc. which were welded back to their rightful places I removed them from. Didn't find any proper size steel tubing to repair some of the cable conduits under the car from hardware stores, but fortunately a local scrap yard had some.

As there is not much rust repair pics to show atm., a few thoughts on engine building to get some more content. I have been pondering on camshaft choices to compliment all the other engine parts. First thought was to use something fairly mild, like Engle W100. 40x35,5 heads with a W100 might be a good and a passable combo, a W110 wouldn't be bad either to get good use out of the 40 intakes... I kept reading and reading and reading on camshafts and the theory behind them. I came to the conclusion that my little 2 liter would need something with healthy amount of lift on the intake and not a huge amount of duration. A split cam would be quite ideal and a tighter than normal lobe separation angle wouldn't hurt either to push all the torque downward. Therefore I bought the Web 218/119 I thought about earlier but ground on 105 LSA. This kombi won't be spinning huge rpms with the transaxle in warp speed mode, so torque it is! All the Web parts I have seen (the cam and cam gear) seem top notch quality. I'll probably deburr all cam lobes carefully by hand just to be extra sure. The cam was ground on a EP12 blank, so the CB ultralight lifters should be good with it. It would have been a bummer to not be able to use those sweet lifters.

I was going to order a Vintage Speed setup at first. Then I realised that after being so anal with cam choice, would that kind of exhaust system negate everything? Didn't want to use Empi quality headers and mufflers, but didn't want to spend Ahnendorp/CSP Python kind of money on exhaust either. In the end, I chose the JustKampers stainless single quiet pack kit. The kits looks quite amazing! JK packaging department elves were also super fast as I got a tracking code and shipping confirmation only ~3hrs after ordering! Superb service.

The collector isn't the greatest though, but I didn't expect top dollar quality from a setup that's something like half the price compared to the pricier ones.

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[Welt]

I guess the underside rust repairs are done?

Just put a new layer of epoxy in there. Getting to this point took longer than I expected, so had to roughen up the older paint slightly to get the new layer to adhere to the old one. The underside looks good, but everything else is still pretty much f'd up. Finally got the driver's seat deattached too, took some hydraulic jacks and support plates on the compartment divider to finally do the job. It really didn't want to come loose!

Sanding all the insides have begun also. Nothing big there, but that'll take some time to do good. Many places need sand blasting to be passable for new paint. For that I did some "booster" tanks to aid the compressors. I've always had difficulties with moisture blocking paint guns and sand blasting equipment. Few old gas bottles installed in series like this worked like a charm. The air has room to expand, cool and the moisture accumulates on the bottom! The few small air compressors I have working together won't destroy themselves running 24/7 now that there's some extra volume to run all the equipment. Super!

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[Welt]

Long time no update, but work hasn't stopped. Lots of sandblasting, so not much update worthy stuff.

Cargo area cleaned up quite nicely. Here's a few before pics. Sanding old paint and rust off was an ok start, but left much to hope for. Media blasting was a must to get all those tight areas nice and clean!

Blasted and primered.

Sealed some areas (my own welds especially) with paintable seam sealer. I always like to use contrasting colours. Much easier to see if a spot was missed. It might look odd at this point, but new paint will hide all.

Not all rust repairs are yet done. There are still lots of spots like this. PITA to repair these rusted out seal channels. Mmm, pretty!

Did some work on the tailgate too. Blasted thoroughly.

Many areas had the lunar landscape look to them. No amount of grinding/sanding would have helped to get all the tiny rust spots hiding in those valleys. I used quite rough grit sand, so put some rust treatment coating on before first primer.

Some spots need to be fixed before proper painting, but this primer coat will rust proof the part in the meantime.

...and lastly something completely different. Fooled around in the last days before summer holidays. Just wanted to see if the front emblem works as a casting pattern. Didn't have time to cast them yet, but no problems with moulding. Not quite sure what I'm going to use these for, but it shall be seen if casting these in aluminium gets good results. Weird home decor if nothing else.

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[Volktales]

Enjoying your workmanship and what you have accomplished. Inspiring stuff!
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1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
1969 Chevrolet CST/10 (family owned since new)
1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
1966 and 1965 Monza 2022-

[BusPriest]

Still loving and following your thread. Will you body fill the pitting, do you need to body fill any of the panels?
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1977 Champagne Transporter Custom Camper.
SOHC EJ25, tubbed, wagenswest
Work in progress build thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619684
Not a Priest.

[Welt]

[Welt]

Went ahead and gave the cargo area a final coat of Pastelweiss.

While I had all the spray guns etc. ready, some parts got a black coat of 2K urethane paint. Cleaning all the equipment is PITA to do, so best to do as much spraying as possible when they're all there.

Next step is the cabin area. Finally took the windshield out, which revealed the usual nasty rust areas. Need to disassemble everything the and cover/clean all the electrics, which I really abhor. No shortcuts here though.

I've tried straightening some bangs and dings here and there. What has baffled me the most is that many of these valleys of filler are quite pointless. Simply hammering this particular area from the backside straightened the outside by a mile. A lot of filler would have been saved if the damage would had been straightened even marginally. Well, if one is a bondo artist, might as well go all out, right?

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1956 Oval
1971 Type 181
1974 Baywindow
1974 Beetle

[Tcash]

Well, if one is a bondo artist, might as well go all out, right?
I just don't understand how there can be so many?

[Welt]

[Kirk]

This is fantastic to watch. Those bumpers look amazing.
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MAKE FORUMS GREAT AGAIN

Bear
Coble
Super
Oppenheim

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

You have done an insane amount of work! Really cool.

How long did it take the sandblaster you hired to do the bottom?
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Orange 1973 Campervan. Rebuilt 1700cc with dual Solex carbs. Pertronix electronic points on stock distributor. Engine rebuild in progress (fall 2023).