Dougs 56 build

[Volksvr6gti]

Thanks for the advice Tom and Jimbo, today I did the passenger side and I drilled the holes to 3/16. They plugged well. Not as many mishaps as my first side lol. I still kept the same pattern every inch as I had already drilled the holes before seeing your message Jimbo.

[Clatter]

A few things i did wrong learning to weld:

Make sure all metal is 100% clean;
Any old paint/rust/oil anything can make your welds crappy.

Wind must be still. Doors closed. Blows away shielding gas.

Back up anything not a plug with a copper spoon or make something copper to fit. Many hammer copper pipe flat.

Newbies often weld too cold.
Cold welds pile up and don’t penetrate.
Plus it’s a lot more grinding.
Good hot welds lay flat and shiny.
Takes a lot of practice getting the heat way up, and the wire up too,
So you go Pow! And blast a deep shiny flat weld that needs little if any grinding.

Yours look pretty good!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Oh,
And,
Big thing i was doing wrong was grinding.
You want to be grinding ONLY the weld and not be making the adjacent metal thin.
While it might feel good to flap-wheel it all smooth and hidden,
Make sure you’re not making the metal thin.
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Volksvr6gti]

Thank you for the welding tips I will def keep them in mind
Today I welded in the headliner strip that is on the side of the oval window (drivers side). Also went ahead and cleaned up any random holes in the luggage area. There were 9 that I plugged and will grind down another day.

Then I moved to the front of the car and cleaned up the trunk pull conduit where it attaches under the dash. My weld was broken at this point and I need to get it welded back. I noticed to the left of the hood pull under the dash there is a perfectly punched hole (I will measure later, but guessing 3/16”). Do any of you have this on your bug and if so what would it possibly be for?

[Volksvr6gti]

Last night it occurred to me that when I bought this beetle, the previous owner told me that it used to have a stationary heater that ran off the fuel tank. He stated he removed it and patched the holes. I got to looking through the technical bulletins and I think that this small hole (pictured in the post above) may have been the hole for the heater control knob. On the tech bulletins it pretty much shows to install that knob right in that area. I will weld this hole shut today as well

[Volksvr6gti]

Started to look for a set of wide 5 wheels to replace the Porsche Fuchs. From my research they should be 4 inches wide and a 15 inch rim for a 1956... correct me if I am wrong. Noticed that none of the main companies (cip1, ww, wcm, etc.) sell after market rims that are 4 inches wide; looks like theirs are all 5.5 inches. Not really sure why they do not make original replicas... maybe DOT laws? Anywho, for those that have had to purchase rims, do you advise to get these aftermarket 5.5’s or should I aim for an original stock? I’ve went to all my local salvage yards and they do not have any 50’s style. They have the later slotted rims and 4 lugs. I started to look on here and found this set for 200$ shipped. There is not many ads here for 50’s rims. You think that this is a good deal. Opinions appreciated to guide me in the right direction:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2437173

I am looking to go for an original look. Not looking for widened smoothies. Also I plan to take the Porsche brake setup off and get the vw wide 5 disc brake setup.

[Volksvr6gti]

Yesterday I picked up quite a few of my parts from the powder coater. They came out really nice. Going to bring my doors, hood and deck lid to start prepping for paint this weekend

[Volksvr6gti]

Today I spent some time marking some notes on the shell for the paint/ body shop. I also made good detailed notes on a few scratch pads to provide to the shop so they can use them as guides to pay attention on certain items. Few things I noted for them to do is drill all the body trim holes, patch the fuel gauge in the dash, hammer out a few dents here and there, drill new holes for the antenna, and straightens out that rear apron so it falls inline with the rear fenders.

After this I went ahead and mounted the new BBT front fenders.... any boy are they perfect. Went on like a glove. One adjustment body shop will need to do for me is cut the headlight conduit tube and turn them just a bit to line up with the body and weld back. Other than this zero complaints on these fenders. If your in the market get the BBT fenders they are more accurate than the Klassic Fab ones. KF is not bad by any means, but I believe that BBT has their measurements just a little bit more on target.

Plan is to get some panels to the body shop this Saturday...maybe the full shell. We shall see

What’s your opinion on adding bullets? Ya and na. I just see so many peoples aftermarket bullets pointing every which direction, that I don’t what these fenders to get screwed because of.

Also this is my passenger door. Is this hole supposed to be here? If not I’ll patch it:

[Dan22]

Its a US spec car, right? If so Bullets came on it originally. I certainly like them.

The mount is supposed to point straight ahead. Once you figure out the proper hole size and location, it is fairly easy to get them in right. Having the fender on the car should help visualize.

Those fenders certainly do look sweet!
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1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074

[lardawge]

Those fenders look great!

There should be a drain hole in the door. You do not want to fill it. The early doors have 3. I would have to look at my 58 to see if it only has one.
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11/2/54 L227 Strato Silver Ragtop - Soon to be L41 Black - Build Thread
1/7/55 L275 Light Beige

[Volksvr6gti]

[Rome]

[lardawge]

[Volksvr6gti]

Yeah I may have to settle for the 4.5 rims. Prob better to go that route anywho as stock wheels will have seen better days. Really like the smoothie look, the slotted has not grown on me yet.

Today I dropped the doors, deck lid and hood off with the painter. They are going to walnut blast them and fix any metal work that needs to be done and then epoxy prime

Moving right along

[tomsbuggered]

Congratulations on getting to the body work and paint stage.

You are going to have one sweet Oval when it is done.
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June 1956 VW Oval Beetle

[Volksvr6gti]

Thanks Tom for the nice comments

This weekend I helped a buddy install a fence around his backyard, so not much time for the bug. My wife reminded me that we had not installed the passenger side pop out window. Good thinking before getting the shell sent off for paint! So tonight we spent some time test fitting the pop out window and drilled all the holes for it nice and straight, then uninstalled it and boxed it back up to protect it. I am fairly certain that is my last thing on the body to do.

[raindog]

Your build is looking really great, Doug.

I saw in a previous post that your pop-out windows are from WCM? What are your thoughts on the quality and fitment? Does it have any logos/branding etched in the glass? I’d like to buy a set, but it’s hard to tell the quality just from the vendor’s website.

[Volksvr6gti]

raindog, thanks buddy. the WCM are nice. I have no complaints. easy install and good fitment. no logos or etching. they do have very small printed numbers (maybe 6 font) on one edge, but looks like they can be easily scrapped off with a razor or acetone. have not been able to do a rain test yet as the car is not complete.

[raindog]

Thank you so much. I will give them a try.

[Volksvr6gti]

I recently posted a separate thread in the oval forum about the correct location of the bumper overrider holes for the front and rear. To my benefit a member posted some links for me that included templates that VW used to measure the hole location. I will post those links here as well, for anyone that may read this thread in the future and might need this information:

Front overrider holes:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/techbulletins/a7/9_55_page2.jpg

Rear overrider holes:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/techbulletins/a7/9_55_page4.jpg

I was able to duplicate these templates with some card stock paper and they worked out great.

Drawn out:

holes cut:

Final templates:

I then lined up the oval hole cutout from the template to the oval holes on my bug and taped them in place. Next I traced the overrider holes with a fine sharpie. Found the center of the hole and punched with a center punch and then drilled a pilot hole. All 4 holes are to be drilled to 26mm... which is coming next.

If I had to do this over the only thing I would have done differently to make it easier would be to NOT cut out the overrider hole on the templates themselves. Instead I would have traced the holes on the templates and found the center of the hole on the templates. I would have then used a needle to punch a hole directly in the center of the overrider hole on the template. I would have next lined these up on the car the same way I described above. Once lined up, I would have used my center punch and place it on the needled hole and pressed it. This gives you the dimple to drill and make your pilot hole to get to 26mm. All in all, I just think it is easier to find the center of a hole on the paper than on the body itself.

Also, I just ordered and received my bullet lights from WCM.

At first sight I noticed that both my light housings had the extra hole (water drainage hole) on the same side. They had given me two drivers sides. I contacted WCM and they replied fast and sent me a third housing that was correct and now I have the passengers side as well. Blue arrows are both the drivers sides, Green and red arrow is the passengers side.

The one thing I noticed with all 3 of these housings is that they have a hammered look and feel to them. They would all need some work to not show this hammered texture through paint. You can kind of see it in these pictures:

I did have 2 other housings that came with the care from the previous owner. I only had the housings, but did not have the bases, bulb covers or light assembly itself. You can see in the ones I already had they are much smoother and do not have that hammered appearance:

I will use these housings with the rest of the WCM light kit and set the new housings they sent me to the side. Just a heads up for anyone that might be buying these soon, be prepared for the hammered look.