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1963 VW Beetle:Ragtop Resto.


63Ragtop

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I also made these this week.

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this is the end cap thing for the front of the heater channel

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these hold the nut plate things in place inside the channels, the second one I made was a much better design.

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and goes together like this.

The old nut plate(is that even what they're called?) where badly pitted so I had the guys across the road knock me up some new ones.

this resto is brought to you by woodstock bourbon and cola.

 

:-D 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

another update guys

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This thing is all stuck together, I welded it in place last night.

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This thing still sucks.

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not quite finished the welding/grinding in the very corner.
I also need to finish the wheelwell panel before I can fold the edge over, which I'm working on now.

The door seems to fit well, might need a 2mm spacer, but I can live with that.

The problem I'm having, is that the lower hinge screws are really hard to tighten, REALLY hard!
I'll do them up as tight as I can, and the door/hinge will still move.
But much easier with the spacer in between the hinge and the A pillar, and tight as a nuns. ???

The thing that confuses and pisses me off is I tried real hard to use as much factory metal as possible, only the outer "cover" of the A pillar is repop steel, and it all seems to line up pretty well.
I guess something somewhere has moved or whatever. Maybe I need to tap the threads out in the bottom of the A pillar?

Ah fuck it! I'm looking forward to finishing up this side and starting the other.

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front cap/bolt plate thing all welded in and ground down.

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patch for the firewall corner.

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I saw this on a thread on the samba, this little step lets the edge sit flat against the bottom of the inner wheelwell panel and the double layer of metal of the channel end cap thing.

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this is the patch now in place.

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this is a close up of the stepped detail and how it attaches to the side of the channel, this makes a nice flat flange for the wheelwell panel to be welded to.

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like this.

Which is the other thing I've been working on,

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my patchwork inner wheelwell panel

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I started making this before the A pillar panels arrived and I forgot that the pillar actually came down another cm from where I'd cut the quarter panel off. icon_lol.gif
Luckly it's only metal so you just stick it back together and add a little bit more.
The curved magnet is a rare earth magnet I pulled out of a dead hard drive I found at work, Hole lee shit it's good!
Very powerful, pretty hard to get off actually, wish I'd got some ages ago!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello, another month, another patch.

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still need to grind the welds down on the inside, just need some new discs for the dremmel, as a normal grinders to big to fit.

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As well as the channel end, I had to replace the flange where the wheelwell meets the panel under the rear seat.
Feels good to have another corner solid.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the rest of the bottom plate off the heater channel.

IMG_0832_zpsgsniuirt.jpg

some funking looking whiteish decay in there.

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small batch on the rear of the sill, was all pin holed.

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Larger patch up front.

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I think I've got making those little dents down now.

And next on the list.

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this fucking mess! icon_eek.gif 

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  • 2 weeks later...

hello everyone, did a little bit more work.

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here.

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and here.

Then I patched this thing up.

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and made it pretty.

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And then started opening up the front and A pillar.

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Still heaps to do, Drivers sides not as wasted as the other side, but still needs nearly the same amount of work to get rid of all the rust.

cheers!

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  • 1 month later...

When we last saw our intrepid hero he had welded up the rear strengthening panel and had cut the other end of the channel and the A pillar open.
Well I don't have a photo but the rear panel is welded back in place and looks just like the other side now, I then chopped even more of the rot out and last week sandblasted the lot.

front

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side

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inside

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the bottom lip on the front of the channel there was not as shot as the passenger side, so I decided to keep it and try to weld up the small pinholes caused but rust pits and some idiot with a spot weld drill(me).

I also sandblasted the top of the sill, where the carpet holder strip was welded on. The metal had very bad surface rust and really needed sorting, I'm still in two minds about replacing this rust trap of a thing, do you guys think it would look super weird without? my other idea was to get some stainless sill steps made up to fit, any thoughts?

carrying on, out with the old shit, in with the new.

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goes here.

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including my world famous pat. pending dents.

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just finished welding up the heat pipe last night, while I had the blaster out I cleaned up the air scoop that goes inside the channel, and bent up the inside panel that it mounts to. Just need to smooth the welds on the heat pipe out and weld into the channel, was hoping to have it done this week but i kinda forgot about the heater pipe things.

Chur

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  • 3 weeks later...

So the answer to the the above question is...

 

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icon_biggrin.gif 

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but first I had to fit this little patch to the bottom of the firewall, as after blasting it looked pretty thin.

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it's only small, but there are four different angles to match up, not as simple as i thought!

So I get a PM from a fellow nzveedubnut asking if I'd like to use spotwelder, as he doesn't need his for awhile yet? HELL YES! I'm not really ready yet either so I've been bustin my ass this week.

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say hello to my little friend!

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this will speed things up!

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swapped out the big boys out for these easier to handle electrodes.
Still weighs about 12kg! Quite alot to swing around, hold and operate.

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got this assembled and welded in place last night in about 45mins, saving about 2 weeks time in the process.
So I carried on and welded in the firewall patch, if i could magic up some more compressed air to cool the welds I may have worked though the night, so stoked!

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I'll sleep when I'm dead!!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Please to meet you, hope you guess my name!?

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got both sides all welded up last week, minor/major milestone, still heaps to do!

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but that's the front firewall and wheelwells both done.

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detail of the little triangle sticky out bit.

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and I folded/hammered the fold back over yesterday, pretty pleased with that also.

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  • 4 weeks later...

next up I started finishing up the panel I had roughed up months ago when I first cut this side open.

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mocking up er'thang, Door to panel to fender to running board to door to....

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With the extra weight of the door and fenders on one side, I have to prop the stand up with my chair. icon_lol.gif 

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this corner bit was tricky as, I nearly said bugger it, and was about to chop it off.

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Got there in the end.

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Started tacking it in, messed a little, so ended up with a sweet gap to bridge.

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and though the magic of television it's all done.

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looks real good here, but just okay in real life.

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nothing Mr Newtech can't fix!

Just the other side to do, then bottom plates!

Made a start on repairing the old panel off the drivers side, not as rusted as the one I just finished, and making that one was a bitch of a thing, so this will do.

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welded up all the spotweld drill holes and managed to fill the rust holes up after I had sandblasted it.
So really just that back corner to fab up, whoo who!


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Oh, and spot-welder are awesome!

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  • 3 weeks later...

So drivers side,

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Fabbed up the tail end of the OG panel, no it's not made of playdough, it just looks like it in this pic.

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Welded that sucker in, getting a bit over this rust bidness.

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Not really all that happy with the finished result, the front wheelwells are better, and no one will ever see them!
Very tricky not being able to reach the back of the panel, there is a very gentle curve to these sides, nothing is flat, anyway, I gave it a bit of a beating with hammers and leavers and got it much better, will have another go at it later.

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I did start getting the bottom plates ready to be spotted into place, stripped the black paint off, welded the nuts (just in case) flattened and welded the two big drain holes up, dunno if this was a good idea or not, might be a reason the factory added these?

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primed with the weldable stuff, and some very tidy tail light housings I got on the weekend.

So the next update should have the body temporarily back on the pan, hopefully everything still lines up and I can spot the bottom plates in place.

Gotta get hold of my brother in law first, he's a cop and works crazy shifts so is hard to reach sometimes, even though he lives about 2 minutes away. I need his thread tap set, one of the runningboard bolts is broken off in the sill, it's always been there since I've owned the car, so I'd like to sort that before the sills get closed up.

And then, um, I'm not sure then.

Body will have to come back off to finish up the spot welds and will need to put some paint on everything.
I'd like to paint the whole shell off the pan but will prolly just do the inside, bottom/underneath, sill, wheelwell etc and then paint the outside on the pan/rolling body.

Then I guess it's time to strip and paint the pan so the body can go back on for good.

icon_eek.gif 

HELP!!

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