Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon

[djkeev]

That came out great!
(Even if you did use plastic instead of welding)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dave
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Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[The Pilch]

Hello guys. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are suitably 20lbs overweight yet warm and happy.

So, Freddie's sliding door....

I had a feeling about it. Not a good feeling. My friend doesn't have a spare door I can buy. By the magic of sight I expected a bit of a dumpster fire with regards to this door.

I was right.

I've been heating the door up with a heat gun, and scraping filler for about two hours and already I am angrier than a Trump voter in 2020...

The barest metal I can see so far, is oil canning like a sumbitch - making me think the past owners just dumped 60lbs of filler into a cavernous dent without shrinking the metal back nor treating the rust - which in turn sees the cracking and bubbling. This door is going to take longer than the rest of the freaking van. Me no happy.
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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[djkeev]

Door panels are a bugger and rarely come out “right”.

They can be made to be Ok but perfection is extremely hard to obtain.

Good luck with the project!
I fear you will soon learn why the PO resorted to gallons of plastic.

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[DuncanS]

When she's stripped down to shiny, send some pics. Include one with a wood piece sawn out to match the undamaged curve taken from the front or back so we can see how depressed the tin is.

I had to repair the steel centerboard in my boat which had been covered with a polyester mash to build up the proper curve. At the thickest it was about a half inch thick. Total area on one side about what it appears you have.

Once down to shiny bare steel, a couple coats of epoxy were applied. Then fiberglass cloth was added in several layers until only the center higher raised areas were about 1/4" below what was needed. The entire repair was then ground and sanded down to be about an 1/8 below the final shape. Epoxy underwater fairing compound was then added until the whole repair was ~1/8" below the final required surface. 'Glass and epoxy added over the whole and sanded to pretty darn close. Then several hundred bits of "spot" fairing until it looked like showroom condition. The entire operation was done with epoxy. No Bondo or polyester filling.

A week of elapsed time and perhaps 10? hours. But I had two sides and so had to keep flipping the 200 pound item.

Maybe this would stabilize the oil caning and ....................?

Duncan

[Bulli Klinik]

Not sure of your skill set or tool access, but here’s how I attacked mine:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=80
_________________
I've never met a Bus I didn't like.
Mike K
Bulli Klinik
Colorado Springs

[The Pilch]

Thanks Dunc, Dave an Bulli. It sure is a bummer, not a surprise in all honesty, but "challenge accepted".

Thanks to one of my friends, a legend at bodywork, I have a small idea of how I'll attack the oil canning. Of course, once this filler is all stripped off and sanded to bare, I'll know more, so I'll post some photos, seeing as, to quote Celine Dion, "this is getting serious"

I also have a large sheet of 030, but no English Wheel, I only have a hammer and dolly, a torch for shrinking, the desire, and YOUR GUYS' ADVICE so I'm super thankful for that.

More pics later today.

Bulli - that thread you posted is fantastic - quality skills brother.
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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[The Pilch]

During my '67 Bug project, in which I repaired, replaced or restored almost everything on, in and around the car, my very least favorite job of all, was trying to fit the chrome trim back into the window seals, and then the seals back into the car. I hated it. My friends came to help. They hated it and left. It took a lot of painful hours, and I was unhappy to the point where I would pay anything for someone else to do it for me.

The task of replacing chrome trim on window seals from a '67 Bug pales into insignificance, compared to the arduous torture of scraping 3/8" of very aged filler from a Vanagon's sliding door.

There's nothing I would like to do less, than the aforementioned filler removal. Yet judging by the progress in the picture below, it appears i still have "some hours" to go before I can laugh about how wretched the job was, and how it was completed all those years ago, by a baffoon..... Strength needed.

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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[Red Ryder]

[The Pilch]

[The Pilch]

It's just too much of a fiddle with the van inside the garage, covering everything in dust, our bikes, my tools, my Dodge, and everything else. So me and wifey did this...

It wasn't too much hassle actually, she held one end while I undid all the necessary hardware. This means we can service the rollers while the door is off so that's great.

I put the door down on two trash cans and my Workmate inside the car port, which is a perfect height for my roller chair. I'm sure it'll get cold but I intend to work fast and get it back on the van asap.

With a quick lick of primer for visual purposes, you can see the issue I'm up against. The door is oil canned to all hell, so from what I can see, the repairer just pushed the oil canning inwards, and slopped filler into the cavernous holes.

I spent an hour messing with a torch and a pickle fork, a wet rag, a hammer and dolly shrinking and stretching and with the help of the low sun began to get some of this horror back towards where it should be.

I am still mad, though. I know I'll never be talented enough to get this door perfect, and it will definitely have some filler on it once more, BUT not as much as before. I estimate ten hours work on this door alone, thats without removal, reinstalling, and paint. Eurgghhhh...Wish me luck.
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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[DuncanS]

You are gaining nicely. Horizontal really helps.

Duncan

[The Pilch]

[The Pilch]

Another couple hours of tap-tap-tapping and heating and shrinking and getting it wrong and trying again. Doesn't look like I've done much but I promise it's so much better. I've gotten rid of the oil canning too.

I'm not sure how much better I can get it, so I'm sure some filler is coming.
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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[DuncanS]

Better than anyone could have expected.

Watched this which seems like the guy doesn't plan to use any filler at all. Just get it perfect. Gillions of hours. Interesting technique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGuc06GMwG4

Duncan

[The Pilch]

[DuncanS]

A gillion years ago, while studying metal working, the instructor brought in an auto body guy. This is before Bondo and lead was the filler of choice. This guy took a 37 coupe or something that had been rolled up into a ball and to develop his skills, he determined to restore it with NO lead. He did!!!

Sometimes when doing an impossibly never ending task, like sanding into a corner and getting it perfect, I imagine a prisoner with all the time in the world. If given my task he could complete it perfectly. At this point I usually say; "Close enough".

Duncan

[The Pilch]

[The Pilch]

Spreading.

Inside, because it's cold. So cold.

Yawn.....sanding with a 12" block and 100g...yawn.....

It's definitely getting there. So dull, though.
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'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it.

[djkeev]

My good sir, you do have skills.

Maybe you aren't a pro...... but you have abilities way beyond many.

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[DuncanS]

And none of us naysayers said it could be done. Very nice. Where were you when my centerboard needed fixing?

A little more sheetrock work and ready for primer.

Freddie is going to look pretty nice when Santa comes. I'm so sure he will be so impressed that: