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madster Samba Member

Joined: November 01, 2006 Posts: 213 Location: Rio Grande Valley Texas
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Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 9:50 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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 _________________ 1966 BEETLE @ 1973 THING |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 9:28 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Today’s endeavors consisted of knocking down the rest of the welds with a cutoff wheel.
Grind them flush with a sanding disc.
And finish them off with a scotchbrite pad.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2024 7:57 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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This morning I plugged up the rest of the holes.
And started knocking down the high spots.
And then buffed them off with a Scotch Brite surface pad.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 9:01 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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After drilling out the rest of the holes, I slid the seat track into a seat to ensure correct alignment of the tracks.
I then set the assembly onto the pan & positioned it back up to the lines.
And tacked it in place.
Once secured, I removed the seat, flipped the pan over & began filling in the holes.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2024 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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After bending the lower part of the track into shape, & positioning the Beetle track into place, I clamped them together & then scribed a line onto the lower piece.
Once I pared them down, I stitched them to the seat bracket (& forgot to take pics), and then I positioned the seat track in place on the pan half & scribed a line around the perimeter.
And then I began drilling holes into the pan.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2024 8:20 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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So…. How does one make beetle seat tracks fit a Thing/Ghia pan?
Well, after a bit of contemplation & even more redneck imagineering, I lopped the Beetle track off the old pan section…
And after hunting around, I found some cross members that were extracted from a bus project.
And hacked off a section that I drilled out a few spot welds & then tossed into the press to force a chisel between the halves.
I then made a pie cut in the center of each half & bent it to fit the profile of the pan.
With a bit more trimming, I then clamped them to the Beetle seat track.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2024 8:21 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Nothing exciting, but I had to do something, so I mapped out where my welds would be & employed my pneumatic flanger/hole punch.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 2:09 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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The outer lip of the pan was just as ugly.
So I messaged it with a hammer & dolly and filled in the relief cuts in it too.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:24 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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oldcarsguitars wrote: |
Thanks for posting. I am enjoying following along. |
Thank you sir.
And now to finish filling in the relief cuts on the driver side pan.
Here I clamped a copper “spoon” (made out of a section of copper pipe.) against the back of the seam, the weld doesn’t stick to the copper & keeps the filler wire from blowing through the thin sheet metal.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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oldcarsguitars Samba Member
Joined: June 07, 2011 Posts: 19 Location: Durham, NC
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Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 9:10 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Thanks for posting. I am enjoying following along. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 7:53 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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After carefully extracting the seat track, I hacked out the rest of the driver side floor pan.
Then, I used the BFH to bump the remaining strip up enough to get the chisel underneath it.
And continued making ribbons.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2024 2:28 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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With a few moments to spare, last night I started stitching up the new driver side pan to get it ready to install.
And tonight I filled in another.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2024 7:11 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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This morning I grabbed my trusty chisel & proceeded with my “ribbon cutting ceremony” & removed the remaining layer of the old pan on the passenger side.
And laid the new Thing pan into place.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2024 2:17 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Having this turd in the way since I kinda forgot about it while playing with a few dozen different projects & flips, I recently put another VW up for sale & was contacted by a local artist that wanted the shell for some sort of display, but didn’t need the whole car & wanted a better deal.
So I struck up a deal, drug the car to his house, & pointed out what to disassemble.
That left me with the pan & title…. Now let’s see, what should I do with it now?!? Buy a buggy body & shorten the pan?
Oh yeah, the Thing.
After dragging it back to the shop, I commenced to lopping out the old pans.
Ah yes, the obligatory compression fitting on the brake line.
Oh, and the complete lack of a pedal stop and the push rod for the master cylinder…
After breaking a saw blade, and realizing that the shade had shifted away, it stopped being fun & started to suck, so I packed it up & called it a day. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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kent70ghia Samba Member
Joined: June 15, 2020 Posts: 200 Location: Tacoma, WA
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:30 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Need my fix, how are your rides coming along? |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:54 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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I continued plodding along & lopped off the tip of the other trailing arm.
And then tucked it into place…
But again, I couldn’t wait to see what it looked like so I tossed the other drum & wheel on & dropped it down.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 10:57 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Waybackburris wrote: |
Awesome thread.....I'm just curious.....where in NC are you? I'm in NC too.
Thanks!
WBB |
Thank you sir! I’m in Raleigh.
Today I set my sights on installing the Beetle spring plate & torsion bar. The typical means of lowering is to reindex the torsion bars about two outer notches. Since I plan on swapping in the Beetle parts, I needed to get an idea of where that would be with the existing bits still in place so I removed the retainer & adjusted the Thing spring plate up two notches..
And then scribed a line where the bottom of the spring plate would now be.
I then rotated the trailing arm up to see where it would need to be clearanced.
Since earlier & later models do not utilize the fourth bolt hole, I decided to lop off the end where the fourth bolt hole was.
I already had a pair of double spring plates that had been notched for a lifted application, I had notched these before I realized it was not necessary to notch the outer plate so removed these from that vehicle & using the one from the opposite side, I flipped it & began to map out where to notch it for this application.
After removing the torsion bar, I raised the trailing arm as high as it would go to determine where the stop needed to be, I scribed a line on the spring plate & ground away until the new notch was to my satisfaction. If you look closely at where the bump stop should be, you can see that this is the lowest that the car can go before you would need to start cutting the stops off or cutting on the chassis.
I then removed the bolts attaching the leading edge of the fender to allow me to flex it out enough to install the new torsion bar & spring plate. After that was done, I lubed up a new set of urethane bushings & after several adjustments to the torsion bar, I got the spring plate bolted up & dropped the beast back down.
Here it is bearing its own weight again (on this side anyway.)
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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Waybackburris Samba Member

Joined: December 01, 2019 Posts: 5 Location: Concord NC
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:02 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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Awesome thread.....I'm just curious.....where in NC are you? I'm in NC too.
Thanks!
WBB |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:39 pm Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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I was presented with an opportunity to recoup my investment in this beast by someone local that wanted all the goodies that I was removing to slam the beast.
So I had to stop what I was doing & yank the last remaining trailing arm.
WELL! It’s a good damned thing that I didn’t drag this bitch any further than I did. I found that the castle nut was loose.
And I spun it the rest of the way off by hand.
After jacking it up & removing the wheel & drum, I chiseled the concretions out of the CV bolts & zipped the bolts out.
Huh, who knows how long ago that fuel line broke.
Worse yet, what appears to be wet & oozy is more like cured epoxy.
Oh well, off with its last trailing arm.
Like every heavily altered project, there comes a moment when you realize that it’s never going back, with all the Thing suspension gone, this moment came early for this project. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli

Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 13269 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:42 am Post subject: Re: SKULLDUGGERY |
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After thoroughly inspecting the welds, I was fairly confident that there weren’t any porosity issues but... I scored a tube of silicone sealant & schmeared a bead over the seams.
And, well... I lied. I decided to paint some shit after all.
Then I swiped a pair of 195/65/15 tires off a Jetta & had them wrapped around the steelies. Believe it or not, these steelies were a good 3-4 lbs lighter than the alloys off the Jetta.
And then just had to bolt one up.
Yeah!!! THAT’S the look I was shooting for. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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