Walt's 1973 412 Barn Find

[raygreenwood]

[NurseryWalt]

I finally got the two stubborn bolts out and was able to remove the front bumper. On one of them, I used a 1/2" socket (12.7 mm) and the other one need a 14 mm open end to hold the nut. Small victories to keep my happy!

Front bumper top side.

Front bumper underneath. It has the extra metal bar inside.

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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Abelclasico]

That bumper should polish out fine if you use some steel wool + polishing compound. For the inside, if you try to remove as much rust as possible and then apply some Oxigone (or similar) followed by Hammerite paint, you should be able to protect it for years. I did that on mine and they are the shiniest thing on the car right now,
cheers,
Abel

[NurseryWalt]

Hi Abel,
I talked to my restorer about the bumpers. There is a place nearby that does really nice rechroming...at about $2000.00 per bumper! If I go that route, all I would think about while driving is NOT to get hit. I think I will try the steel wool option first.
Thanks, Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Pepperbilly]

Walter,
Does that price include straightening and removing dings? My front bumper is straight but my rear is slightly bent right in the middle. I am also in search of someone to rechrome but have not started looking yet.
Bill

[NurseryWalt]

Bill,
I will probably take my four bumpers to the place and let them pick the best two and give me a quote. The place is Atomic Plating Ltd. in Mission, BC. I'm pretty sure that is the complete price. The chemical disposal fees have shot up recently. I'll keep you posted.

Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Pepperbilly]

Thanks Walter,

It is not easy to find good chrome plating shops these days. Here in the US the EPA pretty much made it impossible to do this anymore and when you find someone good it is EXPENSIVE! I have a feeling you and I think alike when restoring. I am prepared to pay the price to do it right. Yeah, keep me posted.
Bill

[NurseryWalt]

Another Saturday in the garage. I came mentally prepared to fight the two stubborn bolts holding on the front fenders, only to find the came loose as easy as a brand new bolt! Amazing what Liquid Wrench will do over a week.

Here is the right side without the fender with minimal rust underneath.

Close up of the fuel filler release. I'll need to fix that.

Left fender well also not too bad.

Engine lid removed just because it was easy.

Front Trunk removed - notice the dull paint.

Here is the best part of the car...underneath the trunk lid...untouched! Got to love the rich color. My painter friend is excited about this.

Started removing the rear fenders. What an exercise in finding all the bolts. This one was under the headliner, covered in expandable foam. Waiting for Liquid Wrench to loosen up two Phillips screws.

Not too bad a day after all.
Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Abelclasico]

Those fender wheels like like they will be just fine with some cleaning with a wire brush and some protective paint.

How difficult was to remove the passenger's wing compared to the driver's. I know that you have to disconnect the gas cap release, but is there anything else?
cheers,
Abel

[NurseryWalt]

Abel,
Gas cap release was two phillips screws. Then just twist the release through the opening. That part was easy. Some of the fender bolts were a bit tricky to reach.

Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Pepperbilly]

Walter,

My driver side upper corner was pretty bad. Had to cut the lower section of the crumple stiffener out. That section I probably will leave open... unless there are better thoughts on this.
The area above the fuse panel I also had to cut out... there was nothing left. If this area is not structural maybe just pop rivet a plate over that hole and seal up with MasterSeries. Waiting for Ray to chime in!

Bill

[raygreenwood]

Pepperbilly....

The area of that box structure....I believe is a lateral stiffener to keep the "crushable" inner fender well from distorting from normal front end load. I would add some metal onto that. It does not have to be pretty. I think a simple bent strip of metal that is thicker than what is there...lapped underneath and welded on top to encapsulate the thinner original skin could do just fine. Then just a handful of large tack welds on the lower edge to connect it to the body.

Bulges and ribs like those in the red circle can be telltale of where strengthening points are necessary.

The square hole you had to cut....agree. Slap a plate over it with rivets and seal it..

Ray

[NurseryWalt]

Start of the New Year by removing the rear fenders. The 10 mm bolts are fairly straightforward once you find them. Some are even inside the car under the headliner. What really slowed me down were the two Phillips screws. By using a socket wrench with a Phillips bit, I eventually removed the two screws.

Driver's side rear fender area.

Passenger side rear fender area.

The "grill" under the rear bumper with some damage.

I also wanted to remove the chrome around the front and rear glass. The point of no return. I'm committed now!

Managed to remove the chrome from the front passenger window without removing the glass. But I may have to remove the glass from the back doors before proceeding.

What she looks like Saturday, January 2, 2021:

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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Abelclasico]

Like you say. There is no point of return now....

By looking at your rear fender wheels, does it look like the are missing the bottom tray by any chance? I would think they might be similar to the ones found on wagons. Those are a water trap and an ideal spot for rust to hide.
Mine were looking like this

[NurseryWalt]

Another Saturday's work: This time removing all the window glass in the doors and then completing the task of chrome removal around the windows.

The Clymer Manual said to remove the door stops to get easier access, but this hardly made any difference at all. Next step was to remove both outer and inner lower chrome strips.

Safest way to remove would be to use plastic pry bars, or a properly shaped piece of wood. I like to live dangerously, so I used a metal pry bar with painter's tape. It worked just fine.

Next, remove the small corner trim both inside and outside.

The front rounded trim.

Now came the "tricky" part, taking out the window. Remove the two 10 mm bolts. Once I figured out that you can rotate the window 90 degrees, it came out real easy!

Assess the state of rust on the window channel.

Record the measurement of the window channel from the edge of the window.

Remove all the rest of the window chrome and label.

And then, just for something different, drill out the front trunk latch.

Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[ClassicCamper]

This is looking great, Walt. Really enjoying watching the project One note, Ray posted a great read on refreshing the window regulators. I had difficulty finding new ones, so decided to try his plan.

It was tedious, but I'm glad I did it. I thought the crank was stripped, but the tubing just needed to be tightened up in places. I'll try to dig it up and post it here.

Keep up the great work.
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1973 412 Wagon
1976 Westy
1978 SB Vert

[raygreenwood]

[NurseryWalt]

Saturday's goal was to tackle the wiring harness. Started off with great intentions and then hit a few snags.

The start of the day.

I managed to disconnect the four or five wires on the trunk harness from the fuse box. Then everything pulled through the firewall.

However, I could not figure out how to pull the horn wires with the grommets through the hole. (This hole was not the problem, but the inner one was.)

The headlight connectors were also baffling to me. Do they come apart?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I still need to figure out how to pull all the wires out of the engine compartment.
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project

[Pepperbilly]

As I remember the headlight connectors are not as simple. The clear plastic wiring blocks have to be taken off. You can slide a very small screw driver into the block above a small tab and then depress it. The tab is on the wire connector itself. Once depressed with some tugging on the wire it will slip out. I clean up the connector with blaster or wd 40 to see what i’m doing. Take the boot out of it’s seat and pull the wires thru. It’s kind of a fiddley operation.

Bill

[NurseryWalt]

Thank you Bill. That is what I need to know. I'll keep trying to remove the connector blocks.

Walter
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'66 Bug with collector plate and '73 412 project