My restoration project, a 1971 Westfalia. Still learning.

[ateneo]

April 12, 2014

Today I finally decided to do my first metal patch on my 71 Westy. The rust repair area is located on the rear right lower corner of the Westy. I kind of hesitated a bit at first because of the fear that I might mess things up. But I figured that everybody goes through the same learning curve when it comes to auto body restoration and so I just have to learn from my mistakes and hopefully improve as a go along.

I grinded the area around the rusted hole using a paint remover disc that I bought from Harbor Freight. While grinding, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of bondo in that area. I decided to grind to bare metal the areas below the rusted hole that I am about to repair. I discovered that there was a damage area below the hole. Whoever repaired that area did not want to spend a lot of time fixing the wrinkles on the body. Using auto body hammers and dollies, I spent about 30 minutes or so straightening out the dents and other wrinkles. I was able to repair some of it but I found it tough to restore the curve back to its original form. I wanted to grind more areas to find out if there are areas that had been damage but I decided to just focus on repairing the area that I could see right now.

Instead of using a pen marker to trace the area I need to cut around the rust hole, I decided to use a leftover tape that I used when I painted our bathroom. In my desire to keep as much of the original sheet metal on the body, I decided to cut close to the rusted area only. Using a cutting disc in my angled grinder, I slowly cut the metal allowing only enough amount of the tip of the cutting disc to cut the metal to avoid the disc from pulling forward & running off course. After the cut was done, I used a file to remove excess thin pieces of metal off of the edges of the cut to make it a clean edge making it easier and cleaner to do a butt weld.

I laid a piece of paper over the hole and traced the hole by just pressing the edges of the hole to the paper using my fingers. I cut the form using a scissor and then cut the same form on a 20 gauge sheet metal. Using the curvature on the area above the hole as my guide, I placed the cut off sheet on the curve and bended it. After making a few adjustments on the edges of the cut off sheet using a file, I was able to fit it on the hole.

I set my MIG welder on voltage level “D” with wire speed 4.5. Before starting, I did a few tack welds on two short metal sheets for practice. Feeling that the setting is right, I began my welding on the patch. At first I did not know where I should start tack welding. I started thinking, “Do I do my first tack on the top middle section first then do the second one on the bottom and tack both the right and left ends?”. I did 6 initial tacks before doing bead welds. I noticed that I seemed to be having ‘burn through’ when welding one edge of the patch. I figured that the metal sheet in that area is thinner because it was grinded previously. I did very short weld bursts to cover up the burn through holes. I had to constantly hammer the patch to keep the two connecting sheets leveled. I also had to immediately do my hammerings quickly while the spot weld is still hot because I found it easier to level the sheets together that way.

After welding the whole patch, I used an electric cutoff tool to grind the welds down. So that the cutoff tool does not heat up too much, I decided to run it for 30 seconds then turn it off for 30 seconds then do another 30 seconds of grinding. That seems to work because it did not heat up that much. After the beads had been grinded down, I used an 80-grit flap disc to grind down the weld some more.

Though I tried my best to keep the metal patch level with the body of the bus, I was slightly off. The patch is slightly short inwards. It made me wonder if warping caused that but it could be anything. One thing I notice though is it is important to have a small gap when butt welding a patch because the sheet expanded a little bit causing the tiny gap on one side to close up.

Done with the first patch. It is not perfect but at least it is a patch. When I paint this patch, I am afraid that I will need to cheat and use an evil material called bondo to level the surface. It is disappointing but I just need to work on the next patch hoping that I will become better as I weld more patches.

[Tcash]

Hello. A forty grit flap wheel works well to strip the paint. Get a piece of copper to put on the back side when you burn threw. It makes it easier to fill the holes.
Good Luck

[busdaddy]

Those wheels work really well and are my first choice for paint/rust stripping but not when you spin them so fast, the ones that go in a drill work better or that style but on a polisher opposed to a high speed grinder.

Nice work and I like the added notes and descriptions, looks good!
_________________
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[joey1320]

Glad to see a beginner tackle such a job. Gives me inspiration on my rusty type 3.
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**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[ateneo]

[ateneo]

April 21, 2014

While trying to repair the area below the battery tray, I hit a road block. I cut the rear edge of the wheel well because when the splash shield was pulled up by the previous owner, it ripped off the tack welds causing small holes and rust grew from there. When I tried to form a piece to weld to the edge of the wheel well, I had a hard time forming it because the piece needs to curve a bit. To form the piece correctly, I will need to use a metal shrinker-stretcher tool, which I don’t currently have.

I checked Harbor Freight and their shrinker-stretcher tool set costs $139.99 (sale price) and if I want to buy the stand for it, the sale price is $134.99. Eastwood sells them for $179.99 for 1 housing and two jaws or $199.99 for a pair of jaws, one for shrinking & the other for stretching. Before I start shelling out money to buy a new shrinker-stretcher, it is best that I check around first to see if I can find a used one. For now, I will start working on the other parts of the bus.

I decided to start working on the dog legs of the passenger side. There is bubbling on the middle section of the dog legs indicating that there is bondo applied on that area. When I grinded that area, a large section of it revealed lots of rust. Half of the doglegs has been eaten by rust and I am debating if I need to just replace half of the doglegs or remove the whole thing and replace it with a whole new piece. I started checking other restorers in thesamba and found that many of them took off the whole dogleg and replaced it with a new one. I guess they did this to avoid bothering with alignment and pieces that do not fit perfectly.

There are two brands that I always consider when buying panels—Klassic Fab & WolfburgWest. A complete set of doglegs on each side for Klassic Fab is $225 plus tax & shipping. Wolfburg West sells them for $107.10 plus tax. I wonder why Klassic Fab panels cost double than those of Wolfburg West? Hopefully K.F. has a dealer on Bug-in show this month so that I could compare their quality with those of Wolfburg West.

Oh boy, my shopping list of tools and parts is just adding up. Yours truly has conservative pockets and so I will need to take my time when making a purchase on both parts and tools. If I can find original cut-off dogleg panels at the Bug-in at a cheaper price then I might have to go for those. Though I am still an amateur VW restorer, it is my desire to do a quality work on my restoration project. To achieve this, I will need to use quality parts. There will be times when I will have to buy the “second best” choice on tools & parts just so that I could stretch my budget. When the time comes to sell the Westy, at least I will be able to tell prospective buyers that I installed quality parts on the Westy.

I decided to stop working on the dog legs until I get replacement parts. I also need to do some planning on how I will attack that part of the restoration. The body area behind the front wheels have also been eaten by rust and that too will need extensive metal repairs. I am thinking that I might have to work on that area before I start working on the dog legs. I will have to figure out how thick is the sheet metal that I will have to use to repair that area.

Shelving the doglegs work for now, I decided to work on the rocker area between the wheel well and the sliding door. I can tell that it had been padded with loads of bondo because it is bulging. Using a paint removing disc, I started grinding on the surface waiting to hit bare metal. My grinding went deeper….and deeper…this is beginning to remind me of the grand Canyon! Finally I hit bare metal. I looked at the metal and it appears to be a thin galvanized metal sheet. Wait a minute, I don’t recall seeing galvanized metal sheet used on buses before. I was able to pull out the sheet and it turned out that the previous restorer just placed a 24 gauge galvanized metal sheet and inserted the edges behind the original metal panel. After doing that, the restorer just cemented the whole area with bondo!

After pulling the thin galvanized sheet, I noticed that there is a cut above the rocker area. I followed the cut by grinding bondo off and found that a foot-size square was also cut off above the rocker and another galvanized sheet was used with its edges tucked behind the original panel. I saw a few tack welds which I was able to pry off and remove the sheet metal. I became puzzled as to why such a big area was cut? I thought that there was some hidden compartment inside it to hide contraband or money but I just found an empty space behind the wooden cabinet walls. Oh boy, I will have to figure out how I will fix this problem that I just dug up.

[Tyler 5447]

Good job so far.

You are giving me all kinds of inspiration to learn how to weld and get going on my bus.

[busdaddy]

Oh my Looks like you've discovered the work of a PO, not the first tie that's happened, bummer. Still looks salvageable though.
Spend the extra few bucks on the Eastwood shrinker/stretcher combo, I've had a similar tool for 25+ years and I can't imagine doing any sort of metalwork without it, when I bought it it was close to $500 so the price has dropped considerably, I still consider it money well spent although I wonder if the quality today compares to my early model?

As for repair panels I can't comment on the WW doglegs ( haven't heard many bad things) but I can say you won't be sorry spending the extra dough on the KF, sometimes the thick metal and proper shape is worth the extra bucks compared to hours spent reworking halfassed thin stuff to sort of fit. I'd rather pay triple the Klokkerholm like red or black crap price to save hours making it fit, what's your time worth?
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[ateneo]

[ateneo]

[ateneo]

While I was hunting for a dog legs for my 71 Westy, I started asking myself, "How do I know if a dog leg is for a 1971 & not for a 1972? What's the difference?".

The 1971 & 72 turn lights on the face seemed to be the same but its changes its location in the 73 models.

I walked around the Bugin show and spotted a 1973 bus parked next to a 1969(?) bus. I noticed that the 73's dog legs has a "lip" while the 69 does not.

I checked out the 71 & 72 models and noticed that the turn lights on both models are the same and the bumpers curve around the corner. The difference I saw was the dog legs are different.

When the 73 models came out, the "lip" on the dog legs stayed and the bumper no longer curves around the corner of the front face of the bus.

[ateneo]

I started working on the right side rocker of my 1971 Westy.

Half way grinding the spot welds individual using a cut off tool, I decided to just grind the whole section using my angle grinder and when it became thin, I decided to use a flap disc to thin it the metal then pry off the thin metal. This seemed to be faster. I just needed to be careful and patient to avoid grinding through the metal I do not want to grind.

[ateneo]

[notchboy]

That's a lot of details in them pics.
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[ateneo]

[ateneo]

May 19, 2014

Another day, another darn rust! This is beginning to be the story of my 1971 Westy.

It seems like the more I dig through the panels to find out the extent of a rust spot, the more rust spots I discover. It’s like opening a can of worms and finding more worms as I continue to open the can. What’s frightening is the new rust spots that I discover appears to be more difficult to repair than the ones I was initially trying to repair.

Am I disheartened? I have harsher words than “disheartened”. But since this is a family oriented website, I need to be prim & proper on the words I write.

I don’t really call this a restoration anymore because it is more of a RUST-toration because it feels like I have a 360-degree scenic view of rust whenever I am underneath the bus. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but it feels like it sometimes.

So far what I have done is to concentrate on restoring the right side of the bus because that seems to be the easier side to restore compared to the left side of the bus. The areas I am working right now on the right side are:

Battery Tray
Outer Rocker area
Jack points
Doglegs
Door Pillars both front and back and areas around it
Front edge of the back floor area

After removing the rusty battery tray, I decided to be cautious before welding the replacement tray. Do you guys still remember the old carpenter’s rule of “Measure twice, Cut once”? Since I am a self studying student of metal fabrication, the rule that I follow is, “Study different techniques, Cut & weld once”.

On the panel area between the wheel well and the sliding door where I removed two sheets of galvanized sheets that were cemented by bondo, I was about to patch it with a sheet of metal when I discovered that some of the areas around it had been grinded thin by the previous restorer. The thin areas would pop in whenever I put pressure on it. The only solution I could think of is to cut off the areas with thin metal that way when I weld the patch, I won’t have a problem with one area wobbling.

I bought a short rocker panel to patch the area on the right side of the wheel well but decided to delay welding it in because the door pillar and the area around it is rusted.

I probed the metal areas on the jack outlet and the areas above it using a screw driver. The outriggers seemed to be fine but the side of the jack outlet has crumbled from rust. I had to cut to pieces the rusted jack outlet using an angled grinder hoping to save the outrigger. With my angle grinder using a 4-inch cut wheel, I had a hard time finding a way through the tight areas to cut the rust. With the amount of rusts that I am discovering, I am beginning to be worried about the condition of the B pillars. My suspicion was confirmed when I poked the lower part of the B-pillar using a screw driver just above the water drain hole and the surface crumbled leaving a small hole. I am still trying to figure out if I can still patch up parts of the B pillars so that I do not have to cut and replace them.

I found the website www.vintagewagen.com that sells B pillars for bay windows and they are just located at Castaic in California. They are advertising that they are the only U.S. distributor of Auto Craft engineering of United Kingdom. I heard a few good things about the Autocraft products from restorers but since their parts are not widely sold in the U.S., I cannot compare their products with those made by Klassic Fabs.

I recently received the Shrinker-Stretcher tool that I ordered from Eastwood. I look forward to learning how to use them and hopefully I can fabricate a few panels to save myself money instead of buying pre-fabricated panels. Some of the body parts I need are not being manufactured and so the only choice I have is to make one from sheet metal.

[ateneo]

I bought some surplus metal sheet and tube and welded them together and built a simple platform for the shrinker-stretcher to sit on so that I could use them. The platform is not the best looking around but it will do for now. I am thinking of putting a foot pedal but I will just add those in a later date.

[notchboy]

Keep on pluggin along. Ive never had the skillz to weld. I started to learn but never followed through. Im sure I could learn and pick it up, but that would detract from my time spent scouring the internet for rare parts

Just setting up that tool in the pic above tells me you have a great chance at following through with your restoration. I look forward in seeing it get done! Good luck and hang in there.
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[pioneer1]

You should be very proud of yourself and the monumental task which you are doing very well. My '73 looked fairly rust free when I bought it but I uncovered all the same problem you have ,and like you, I now have all new metal instead of rust. Thankfully my bus will never see snow and salty roads again so my work will not be in vane.
Embrace bondo. It has a useful function and is used by all the pro restoration shops to get the surfaces flat and contoured correctly. My dad used lead as a filler back in his day. Thankfully we don't have to do that anymore!
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"Always waiting for tomorrow ruined everything"

'85 Porsche 911 Targa

'76 Westfalia project

[ateneo]

I tested the Shrinker-Stretcher this morning on 18 & 20 gauge sheet metal strips that I cut off. Getting results on the stretcher seems easier than the shrinker. I put less effort in stretching metal compared to shrinking them. They worked pretty well on the 20 gauge but had some difficulty on the 18 gauge. I think it will help me operate the shrinker-stretcher better if I install a foot pedal on the stand.