1303s bare metal respray - home garage

[Pikey15]

Looking good and thank you for all the links for us fellow Kiwis

[1303s]

Sanding, sand blasting and rust neutraliser. Then two wet coats of 2k epoxy primer. Challenging to get under the lip and not get runs - more practice required. For this one I'll sand them out and carry on!

[66brm]

With regard to not having a large enough tank on the compressor, I run something similar to what you have but added another tank that I got through my work, it's for a heavy semi trailer. There are two sizes made typically, I went with the larger one and joined the two with some 5/8" air hose. It doubles the volume of air stored for when I run my da sander or3/4 drive rattle gun
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Aust. RHD 66 Type 1
Aust. RHD 57 Type 1 Oval

[Chris333]

I had to brush the epoxy primer up into those lips. Used those throw away foam brushes and kept checking with a mirror to make sure it was all covered. You'll never see up in there, but nice to get it done.

[1303s]

Quite a lot happened since my last post! Block sanding, fine bodyfiller to get the final shape, 2k Urethane Primer ... and then spraying colour and clear! Not many dust nibs or runs, but horrendous orange peel - not enough clear on my last coat Maybe when I get to the last panel for painting I will have my painting technique sorted

[1303s]

And now onto the second area, the dreaded Death Foam. Left hand side was sorted by a panelbeater a few years ago, but I'm tackling the right hand side. The bubble looks big, and that always means its bigger when you start digging into it ...

I've hit it with a strip disc and cut away the smallest piece with a dremel disc. There is lots of rust going on inside ...

[1303s]

Next I'm going to take the lining off inside and cut out an access hole in the panel next to the backseat - that will let me see the damage, remove the foam, weld up the outer skin, do the rust treatment and weld the access hole shut again ...

[theKbStockpiler]

[Mike Fisher]

I don't necessarily think you have to strip the interior paint if it's not bubbling.
You'll need to fab an 'egg beater' coat hanger gizmo for your drill to root out the death foam.
Keep it up '1 fender at a time'.
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[1303s]

I just couldn't face doing this again in the future, so took the plunge and decided to take the inside skin off so I could make SURE all the foam was gone, and I could treat all the rust in there (made putting a copper backer behind the patch panel easier too! )

Removing the inside skin, and exposing the horror ...

[1303s]

And then fixing the rust on the outside skin and welding in a patch. Some pretty thin steel in a few places where the corrosion had had a nibble, but got there in the end. Should have made a bigger hole and patched that, know that for next time

[Mike Fisher]

Bobnotch says to weld in numerous small pieces if necessary to cure all the rust on tough compound curves.
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[1303s]

On to the front apron. A bit of rust showing through, so scratching that away shows someone had a Bog party - plenty of filler in there to make the shape look right. Further investigation: a front-end ding has moved some panels around and a bit of realignment required ...

Out comes the spot-weld cutter and take the front apron off. Glad I did, rust all over the panel overlap.

Fit in the new panel (not the best quality repair panel ...) - there's a big gap at the front, and there shouldn't be ... Power Porta needed to bring the shape back closed to what Wolfsburg intended it to be!

and check shape against the guards:

[/img]

[1303s]

So ... skipping ahead ... busy at work and home life (and it's winter, not great in an unheated garage!). Stripping paint from inside the bonnet area, just tackling parts at a time:

I found a weird hole in behind the dash - looks like someone bodged a hole to get access. That's got to be filled (OCD, much?)

So dash out (had to happen anyway!):

And voila - a dodgy hole ...

[1303s]

Patch for the hole, tscked in. I'll finish welding it from the inside and clean the welds up another day
All the masking tape is to stop the epoxy primer in the front area getting into the cabin

Primer on it - will sand some areas back that I didn't get back to metal (around shock towers, front wheels are still on) and hit them with some more primer another day. At least the bare metal is safe!

[1303s]

What lurks beneath

First cut, more surgery to come ...

This is the panel I've got, it's a poor fit but some of the curves in it will speed up the process of not having to form them; so I guess it saves me some time, but there are major differences to the 1303s original shape. FYI: Klokkerholm.

[1303s]

The hole gets bigger

Fabricating a patch and test fitting

Welding and grinding, voila! (actually about 3 hours later ... )

[1303s]

A lot has happened since the last post, but not that much on the bug!

Continuing on the paint stripping, and finding cracked seam sealer ... equals rust in behind Luckily nothing that the sandbalster couldn't clear up. Front end now finally all in 2k epoxy

Front end stripped (almost ...)

Rust found behind the seam sealer - I took all the seam sealer off, quite a chore...

Rust under the hood seal channel ... take it off and clean it up! I'll weld in another one later in the rebuild. I want to get on with the doors ...

Ta Da!!

[1303s]

The right-side door has been bent back on its hinges when the PO had it, so the hinges were bent out of whack and the door gap at the front edge was 0mm ...

So time to take that door off and have a look. Apparently some other issues in a previous life - someone had taken a gas axe to the door inner and done a half-job of welding it in. I decided to weld up the whole cut. Tack Tack Tack on the MIG!

The hinge was not looking good:

So drill out the rivets and have a look ...

I'll try to straighten it, otherwise it's either a new one or find a good used one.

[beetlenut]

Nice job on all your repairs. I did all the same repairs, and more, as you on my 74 Super, so must be their common rust-out locations on these cars. Lots of pics in my gallery if you need to see other areas going forward. Just got mine back on the road after 20 years, and it was worth taking the time to do it right.

Enjoy your bug, and the process it took to get there!
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scrapyards are for quitters
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