1975 Beetle Convertible Resto/Mod Build-Chop,Dash,Suicide,Shave.

[MACJELLY58]

Before I get to the doors, I thought I would cover the Wheel well repairs. I kinda just skipped over those. While I was working around the Cross Member and Heater Channels, there was the usual rot where the Heater Channels contact the Wheel wells and assorted other damages.

The Left rear had the P.O.'s handy work. The usual repair panel welded right over the damaged one. You can see the weld marks where the panel was welded.

Here you can see how high the repair panel was welded on the rear Quarter Panel. They had to cut the fender mounting nut area to fit the repair panel over it.

[MACJELLY58]

This is the front Left Wheel well. It had the typical rot where the Heater Channel welds to the Wheel Well and My typical repair panel welded over it!

There was rust through at the spot welds to the Cross Body Trunk panel underneath the rear Strut Tower end.

There also was a Fender nut mount hole up near the Trunk Seal.

Then I don't know why this rust-out was here.

[MACJELLY58]

The right front Wheel well was not as bad. Some smaller holes near the door jam area.

Then again at the end of the Strut Tower.

The end of the Wheel well where it meets the Heater Channel and Package Tray was just about all gone. I had to Fab a good deal there. Also the seam where the Wheel well meets the body at the top of the arch was Holy as well.

[MACJELLY58]

Sorry again for the lack of progression and some finish photos. My intention was to mostly document the before pictures to aid in reassembly years later. If anyone needs reference photos of how things originally looked, I got a lot of those. I just didn't want to bore everyone with yet more pictures of eaten up Buggys. Ohh... how sad it is...

I did not originally intend to share any posts of this build. After all, I didn't think anyone would be interested in my ignorant, naive, novice attempts at ridiculous, unnecessary modifications and repairs. But, I have learned a lot since then, with the help of all of the enthusiasts on theSamba and I wanted to help in whatever way possible.




Well , that pretty much brings us to the present. If you have been Binge Watching for the last week since I started this build post, it is time to feel the pain of catching up to the current episodes. As I said in the first post, "It still isn't Painted".

4-1/2 YEARS! Not terrible though. I always take a break during the holidays, from November to the end of January each year. Spend the time with the family. Let them get used to my face again. A few weeks here and there healing from injuries that my wife(and Doctor) say, most definitely could have been avoided if I had only been less hardheaded and stubborn. TRUE DAT!!

[MACJELLY58]

Back to where I left off...As you remeber, I was gonna work on the doors so I could finish the Suicide install. Ahh...the Doors.

You probably guess it again. The same type of repair...new panel welded over the rusted original panel. I keep harping on that because, I just don't understand. If the P.O. was right there with a beautiful new repair panel, a welder, a cutter of some kind, why not not just cut out the old rusted area. Save as much of the original good steel and weld in the new stuff. It would have saved a lot of time and BONDO!

I feel better now Let's check out the doors. Here is the left one.

Remember I was talking about that Reinforcement Channel that traversed all the way across the the door from jam to jam. I don't remember any other Type 1's with this. Anyone know if any of the Super sedans or standards have something similar? Just curious.

The bottom of the Door Skin and Seal Channels were pretty much goners. You can see the large patch of yellow paint there where it was pounded inward to accept the repair panel.

[MACJELLY58]

I got the outer Door Skin all stripped and cut out patches to fill the Door Handle indent and the Handle mounting holes.
I cut out the Indent as well but, don't have a picture for some reason.

The patches came from the Donor car. It helped that I did not have to Fab the slight curvature of the door patch. I have limited tools of this nature and it's a PITA to get right.

Cut out the rusted lower door Skin and cleaned the bottom out and surveyed the internal damage.

The bottom "C" channel that accepts the rubber door seal was somewhat salvageable. Most of the channel was in decent shape but, the whole bottom lip that welds to the door skin has to be replaced.

It appears that at one time, someone had wide side paneling attached. I found evenly spaced holes down the entire side of the Bug. I wonder what that looked like?

[MACJELLY58]

True to form...my "FLIBERDIGIBIT" kicked in and I jumped mid-repair to the other door.

This was the first time that the passenger side anything, was worse off than the driver's side. There was a silver dollar size rust hole where the Wing/Vent Window Bar connects to the Mounting Tab. I cut out the mounting tab for the Bar as well. As, I will be going with one piece windows.

Even more amazing, the Donor Car was in good enough shape to harvest these pieces.

[MACJELLY58]

Just a side note. Some of my design decisions are mandated by the previous design decision. With going with the One Piece Windows, this was the case.
I always loved my Wing Windows, even with the security issues. I only got broken into twice. You've seen the bug! I don't know what kinda goodies they thought I was keeping in that thing. Also, I never, ever had to call anyone when I locked my keys in the car. My go to... was the Oil Dipstick. It was always there and fit perfectly between the glass to lift the Vent Knob.
Plus, I was a smoker. The Wing Window could clear out the smoky interior in a flash and I could ash right there and it would disappear.

I don't wanna get into the obligatory "Discussion" of Pro and Con. My problem was... with the Suicide doors in the open position and window down, The lonely looking Wing Glass would be way out there, in the way, maybe even dangerously snagging on things and people.

So, sadly, I had to say goodbye to my Wings.

[MACJELLY58]

So, the Passenger door. Like I said, it was worse than the Driver's side. The bottom front corner was bad. Just my luck, as with the Suicides, it would be out there and very visible.

Sorry again, this was the only picture close. Suffice to say, the front lower corner and about 6" along the botton interior skin was rotted through.

The Door Seal Channel along the bottom was all but gone and large sections of the bottom of the door skin. I had to Fab this channel and and weld it back on and tested the gap with a piece of the old rubber seal to ensure the fit.

Then I cut out the rot at the corner and fabricated pieces for repair. The Donor car's lower corner was even worse so I had no reference or donor piece.
The repair came out..."okay". Some good sculpting with body filler would do the trick. No pictures, because it was then that it came to me. The Donor door's other jams were okay and had just about the same shape. So, I cut out new pieces and redid the repair. I was much more satisfied.

The repair was my typical multi-piece jigsaw puzzle. I think I used about 4 pieces. Here is the new repair and the fabbed new Seal Channel.

[MACJELLY58]

The next badly damaged area on the Passenger door, was the window channel rear end.

After digging out all the Filler, I found that it was pretty eaten up. I marked out the area and began cutting.

Astonishingly enough, the Donor door piece was in really decent shape. I immediately cut it out and got in in.

I used a lot of the donor door for the repairs. The Seal Channels and the shaving of the door handles etc... This is what's left of the Passenger donor.
Isn't that reinforcement bracket heavy duty.

[MACJELLY58]

I went ahead and shaved the Door Handle on the Passenger side. You can see the door Hinge Pockets in the hole.

In prep for the Epoxy Primer, I stripped the inner skin and test fitted the 1968 style window regulator. The mounting indents for the original window guides are in the way and I started to remove those. That's the 3" hole on the bottom front. The indent for the original door release handle is also in the way and will have to be modified.

Still have some finishing work on the bottom channel of the door. But, it's looking like it will be okay. A little tweeking with the Skin repair panel still to do.

[MACJELLY58]

Then back to the Driver's side. I got to work on the Door Seal Channel. This side was a lot easier, as only the bottom lip of the channel had to be replaced. So just a flat piece of metal will do. Got it from the Donor door. I know I'm modifying the hell outta this car but, using reclaimed original VW steel just feels right. It saves me money TOO! Hopefully, one day my heirs will be able to recoup half of what this car is costing me. BUT, I'TS ALL ABOUT THE LOVE!!

This door also had some rot on the front lower corner like the passenger side. Not as bad though and I was able to reclaim another piece farther up the jam from the donor car.

The seemingly random spot weld cutter holes in the jam and inner skin are where I removed the inner original hinge reinforcement plate. I would've left it but, there was so much rust in that area on both doors, I decide to remove them and clean all that out. I may weld in some kind of replacement but, we'll see if it's necessary since the hinges are not there anymore.

I ran outta time...or was it energy, I could not decided. I just knew I was done for the day. Of course, I wanna see what it looks like. So, I placed the doors back on the car. I thought to myself....It's getting there. LOL

You can see here that the Hinge Pockets will not be as hidden as I would've liked. I traded off for the strength of the larger hinges and the widest possible spread of the hinges. But, I can make it look nice in the end, right?

[BIGMIKEY]

Really nice metalwork. Nice tidy looking chassis too.

Mike T
_________________
BIGMIKEY

Deserter Series 1 project.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=787047&highlight=

1973 Beetle Driver, Marina Blue.

[MACJELLY58]

"BIG MIKEY" I just like saying it! I might just legally change my name to BIG MIKEY.

Thanks for the compliment. I really think I'm getting better. It's still a pain though. Speaking of metal work I was just thinking about doing a step by step patch for the guys who haven't tried it yet. There's a couple of videos on YouTube of a guy restoring a '56 Baby Window. Damn, he was good! He made it look effortless. I think he was in the Navy or something. He was about to finish that beauty and then just stopped putting up videos. He was a young guy and he played great shop Rock music. I hope that he is alright.

Here's a link, if anybody wants to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGePWHSIvzg

I tried to follow his process in putting in patches and it kinda works for me.

The Driver's door still had a couple of pieces missing. I did a step by step, taking pictures after each action. It was really messing with my groove. Thank you VERY MUCH!, to the guys that do that for us all the time. They are Saints.

So, first thing I do is measure the hole. then go find a suitable scrap metal piece. In this case, I have the donor door.

Mark it out and start cutting with the Angle grinder with 4-1/2" cutting wheel.

Bummers, I picked a piece that is spot welded to the Latch post reinforcement Plate. More work. I found all the welds and used a "Bear" brand spot weld cutter tool to drill/cut them out.

Here's my piece all cleaned up using my broken down, bearing worn, wobbly "Skill" drill and a MMM Paint and Rust Remover "Sea weed" wheel.

Next, I go back and stretch some blue painter's tape over the hole. I like the blue tape because it peels away easily. Then, I use my filthy finger to press the outline of the opening all around. When my blurry eyes can see the line, I go over it with a fine Sharpe.

Peel the tape off, transfer the tape to a cardboard cereal box and cut out a template. I cut out the template on the outside of the Sharpe line. This ensures that the patch is about a 1/16th inch larger that the repair area. My first tries at this, I would try to make the patch fit exactly by cutting perfectly. I'm not that good and would end up with a patch that was too small, after all that work.

Then transfer over to the patch piece. This I cut out right down the center of the line. It seems to work. This leaves the patch just slightly larger that the repair area. Then, there's the fine fitting with a Dremel tool and their "EZ Change" grinding wheel(expensive, but I love them).

When I get it just right, which means I get tired of trying to get it just right and give up, I hold it in place with some cheap Rare Earth magnets or if it's a small piece, I just blue tape it,(It smells good when it burns). I start spot welding, trying to move around so as not warp the metal too bad. This area was small and had corners and bends so, I wasn't too worried. You can see one of the magnets up on the right. I love these, they are really strong and cheap. I think there was like 16 of them for $14 on Amazon.

Then I cut the tops off the welds using a Angle Grinder with a 4-1/4" grinding wheel then finish the grinding with the Dremel grinding wheel.

Like I said, doing this really threw my groove off. I jump around so much, I have to try to remember to take the pictures. For instance, while I was waiting for the welds to cool, I jumped over to the Paneling holes that have been bothering me.

Then, since I had the welder setup, I went to patch the Hinge hole.

Yup, you guessed it, I then remembered the patch piece and went back to that. Which made me forget to take fished photos of the the other two spots. That done, I went on to the thing I was gonna do when I left the house in the morning. Finish the Hinge Pocket reinforcements. With the amount of things I get started, it's amazing anything gets finished.

[MACJELLY58]

The instructions for most mod kits are very sparse and vague. The hinge kit was no different. Apparently, the Hinge Pockets come with two lengths. I'm assuming a bottom and a top Hinge Pocket. I'm thinking, that the longer one would go on the bottom, as most of the weight would transfer down and stress the bottom more.
As the "Luck of the Irish" would have it, and yes I have about 1/2 Scotch-Irish blood, I had test/spot welded both of the short ones on one door and both the long ones on the other door. I had started to remove them but, you can see that the long one is on the top. This may interfere with the window operation more than if it was at the bottom.

And the short one on the bottom. Even if I'm wrong, I'm thinking two short ones should not be on one side and two long ones on the other.

I had to do the thing I hate the most, "The Redo". Redoing stuff just kills me! But, gotta do what you gotta do. With one of each length now in hand, I started the Passenger door. I bought 4 each of 3'x4" lengths of 12ga. bar for the reinforcing of the inner door skin. This will prevent the door from warping when open. One length goes from the top of the skin, under the window sill and down to the bottom of the door sill. Then a second length butts up along that one on the inside about 3/4 as long.

After tacking them in, I took the door back off and started to weld them up. I ran outta time. Still gotta finish welding them in and the put in a horizontal section that will go from the inner length to under the Armrest for support.

[buggyboyshane]

awesome thread buddy, great skills.

[MACJELLY58]

Well, I got back to the Passenger door this weekend.

Ever have one of those days where you do a lot of work, but it seems like nothing gets done or worse, you make more work for yourself? That's kinda how my weekend went. I haven't had a major foul up in a while, so I guess I was due.

I needed to finish welding in the vertical reinforcements which I had just tacked in last time. Also, finish-weld the Hinge Pockets in there solid.

Before:

After:

Then I went on to welding in the horizontal brace under the Armrest.

I had made some considerations for the clearance for inserting and removing the '68 style Window Regulator I'm using for the One Piece Windows. I got to work on making the access just big enough, so as to not give up too much structural strength.

Of course, I could not get them in the adjusted access hole. No surprise there. I'll make them a little bigger, but I was getting frustrated. That was a bad sign, I should've taken a break. Instead, I jumped to filling in the gaps and holes, then to cleaning up the welds a bit.

Okay, I'm getting stuff done! Feeling good, I went back to trying to get that '68 Window Regulator in and out. I got out the Angle Grinder again and cut the interior door skin a little bigger and was able to fit and remove the Regulator. Then I had to clean up the edges of the gaping hole I just made. I bent and pounded the raw metal edges and was able to make them look rather decent.
Sorry, I can't find any pics. I was really losing the "Feeling" at this time. I have been working on this door for longer than I expected.

I cleaned up the welds a little more and then noticed that I had not welded in the top and bottom of the vertical reinforcement. Also, the top reinforcement butts up to the area of the door lock pull which I will not need anymore because of the shaved door handles. So, I welded the reinforcement at the same time that I closed the lock pull hole and removed the hump that it had.

You can see the reinforcement bar in the hole. Just a correction, the bar is a
3'x4"x1/8" stock. I had guessed it was 14ga. before. Not much difference though. The cuts along the top are where the reinforcement bar contacts the door and will be welded.

Here's a shot of the patch.

By now you must be thinking,"What was he whining about, looks like he's making progress?" Well, if you haven't noticed(I hadn't) there's no mention of any test fittings of the door. I had been going full steam Welding, Pounding, Bending and Grinding. When it finally dawned on me it was too late. Somewhere along the way, the door warped.

The top rear jam, where the door handle was, would not sit flush with the rear Quarter panel. About the top third was sticking out about an 1/8th inch. the bottom 2/3 was okay. Also the front jam looked okay. So initially, I got out the "Big Hammer" and gave the top hinge a couple of good whacks! It did nothing. A couple more forceful whacks and all I did was crack/tear the weld to the door skin at the end of the hinge.

Now it gets worse... I'm in a frenzy at this point. I gotta get this thing fixed Now! Bad idea, again, I shoulda taken a break. Nope. I got out a 2'x4' laid it on the ground and placed the door on it diagonally. Then proceeded to stand on the two opposite corners to get the door nice and square again.

Now the door is square, but there's a big DENT and KINK from the 2'x4' on the interior door sill area. How big?...about the size of a 2'x4'!

I was flipping out! Even more frenzied now. I couldn't take a picture...I would have probably thrown the camera! I calmed down enough not to do really crazy things that most definitely would have caused even more damage. I decided to cut out the severely dented area, straighten it and the door, then weld it back in.

So, I got it back to a decent kinda straight. But now, the door is about 3/32" inside the jam. This is where I regained enough composure to remeber to take some pics.

The hammer(it's not the BIG one) is in there to kinda get the metal to relax at the dent. I usually work on the Bug a few hours before work but, I think I may take that break now and do some thinking. In fact, I may go back to my previous work method of doing more thinking/drinking and working slower.

Anyway, I should at this point of the fiasco, be able to just "shim" the top hinge and it may work out. But, it sounds like a Band-Aid and would make the hinge sit that much farther into the cab. I would prefer to get it "right" again, if that's even possible. I will let you all know.

[MACJELLY58]

[MACJELLY58]

I was able to clear my mind after having a few adult beverages last night and went out today to survey the damage. I was able to straighten the door up a little bit more by just pulling on it while the door was closed.

Still having the same problem though. The door is sitting about 1/8" into the jam.

The door is not able to stay closed. The hinge(s) are just too much inward after all the banging.

Just thought I'd share my plan of action. In case anyone was worried that I had set the car on fire and called it a day. My plan is to make a wooden formed pry bar to try to get the general shape back and the frame as close as possible to the way it was before I messed it up.

You can kinda see the bulge there at the bottom corner, apparently from the other end of the 2'x4'.

Then, I'm gonna suck it up and "REDO" the hinge(s). Yes, start from almost scratch. Cut out the affected hinge(s) and reset the door and weld them back in. But first, I will complete the necessary alterations/repairs that are left, so after the hinge(s) are redone the door will be complete-No worries-.

[MACJELLY58]

Wow! This door is killing me. I've been self diagnosed as A.D.H.D. along with O.C.D. So, not only do I have trouble focusing on things for long periods, but then I get obsessive about things a the same time. Is that even possible?

I was able to take some measurements of the window gaps and the squareness as compared to the Driver's side door. They were close and I was able to correct them with a little persuasion.

I also used a straight edge to check the inner skin straightness, as compared again with the other side door.

After a little more gentle coaxing, I did some side by side comparisons and it was looking pretty good.

I wanted to move on to cleaning it up a bit. I am trying to get POR15 into the areas that have shown to be attractive to the rust monster. I'm gonna do the inside of the doors and the Door Seal Channels. These areas were either rotted away, or had some nuisance rust. I left the open areas that I had cut out for other reasons, in order to improve access to the inner door areas. It was really difficult to reach inside with the Dremel and I cut up my hands trying to sand deep inside the doors. So, I got some BBQ grill wire brushes to help. CHECK OUT that huge pizza oven wire brush. "Over Kill".

But before I got to scrubbing, I thought I should try and finish all the small tweeks that needed to get done. Fill all the screw access holes in the jams. These would look very uncool when the doors were open. Heck! There were a lot of them. I also had to do a bunch of touch up welding to my patches. Small pin holes and such.

The Door Seal Channel lip was also filled in to look more uniform.

There were some holes in the bottom that I welded up and pounded the new bottom "Lip" that I made to look more finished.

On the other end I put a strengthening weld bead at the corner. This is were the metal had no bend to strengthen it, so the bead should help.