74 Sunroof Super - Indiana Build

[Kwig]

Introduction:

I have spent the past few years on here reading through pretty much every build thread that I can find and trying to muster up the confidence to tackle some rust areas that I need to fix. Thank you to everyone who has documented their restorations on here, I have enjoyed reading through them and have learned a lot from your experiences. I have never welded or done any type of body work but I am now ready to give it a try. I feel it's my turn to give back so I will be sharing my rebuild with you all.

A condensed backstory about the car:

This car first became part of my family in 1993 (I was 12 years old at the time). My dad purchased the car for the two of us to fix up as a gift for my grandfather who needed a small car to tow behind his motor home. We lived in south Georgia at the time so the car was really solid. We did a basic refresh, seat covers, carpet kit, had a respray on the paint, and rebuilt the engine. Grandpa drove this car all over the eastern half of the US. He named her Black Beauty and was never afraid to hop in and go anywhere. I remember many of trips in this car with my grandpa going back and forth between Indiana and Georgia. Then when I turned 15 I practiced driving in this car while I was working to get my first car on the road (a 74 sunroof standard and a story for a later time). I also drove it on and off through highschool when my beetle needed worked on. Fast forward to 2004, that's when I became the permanent caretaker of Black Beauty. I had recently returned from an overseas tour and was stationed in Oklahoma (Air Force). Grandpa was getting too old to drive and he didn't really want Black Beauty to just be sitting so he called and asked if I wanted to come pick her up. Without hesitation my wife and I made the trip the next day to Indiana and brought her out to Oklahoma. She was my daily driver up until 2007 when I started thinking that a second and more intense restoration was going to be needed soon. By this time the many years of hard driving and to many Indiana winters were starting to take a toll on the old girl, so she became a backup/ loaner vehicle when someone needed a car to drive. My daughter just turned 15 and now getting this car rebuilt has become top priority as this is going to be her first car. I will be working on this project with help from both of my kids (ages 10 & 15) so this should be a lot of fun. They are both excited to get started. That brings us up to present day.

The plan:

The current plan is to strip the car down completely, inspect everything, repair all rust, fresh paint, fresh interior, new wiring harness, rebuild engine, and return the car back to daily driver status. Here are some pictures to show what we are starting with.

[Kwig]

Took note of a few known problem areas prior to starting the disassembling. I'm sure there will be many more areas of concern uncovered the further I dig in. For now this is what I know that needs to be fixed.

The drivers side door skin is crinkled and the A-pillar has a nice dent.

The hood and fresh air vent looks pretty bad. Will probably try to find a replacement hood but I'm not yet sure how I'm going to tackle the damaged vent area.

Then of course I have the dreaded death foam rot. Passenger side has foam showing through to the outside already, but the drivers side only shows a little bubbling under the paint.

[Tim Donahoe]

Looks like you’ve got some bodywork to do. Donor crescent sections in the future.

Have fun with it.

Tim
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Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[Kwig]

We have been busy disassembling things, labeling, and bagging. Not the most exciting work but it has to be done. Most things have come apart easily with exception of a few running board bolts that broke off, and two rear fender captive nuts on each side that twisted out. We also noticed a few broken/ warn out pieces while removing the sunroof.

[Kwig]

We have also started removing paint. Going a section at a time with paint stripper. The paint stripper is nice because it seems to cut through many layers of paint in one go and does not make any dust. The only downfall is that it does not take body filler off so I have to follow up with a grinder anyway. Once bare metal is reached I have been spraying self etching primer. Hopefully that will keep the metal sealed long enough for us to do the rust removal and knock out the dents.

[dagen_1]

sub'd.
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74 Super Beetle

[Hatracks]

Looks like a great project, nothing there looks to scary though you may need to start looking for a hood and door. The sunroof can be tricky (at least the 73 was for finding some of the little parts and quality cables) but there are a couple of good threads on here with details that will get you through it.

For the vent area i would try welding studs to it and with a mix of pulling and hammer work you should be able to get it close. If you have to you could always cut the metal to relieve some of it and get it bent into shape where you could grab it with pliers to bend and then weld it up. You will have to rebuild the sharp edge with a filler but I think you can get that visually acceptable with a little work and definitely good enough for a daily.
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73 Super Build

[Kwig]

Just a little update on the progress before we head out on vacation for a few weeks. Did a little more digging into a few rust areas that we found while removing some paint. Seem to have a few through holes around the window frames where the seal sits, and the death foam rot extends down into the wheel well on the passenger side. Also ground away the filler on the passenger door, it was much thicker than it looked. Finished up for the day by covering and the exposed areas with etch.