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1963 VW Beetle:Ragtop Resto.


63Ragtop

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Thought I should make me one of these thread things for my bug.

redsled.jpg

got it when I was about 21 and was my only car for over 10 years, good old bitch.

redsled2.jpg

over the years it's had new shocks, brakes, gearbox( later 1500 one) tart up panel and paint and a warmed up 1600 engine.

redsled3.jpg

engle 110 cam, lightened flywheel, hd clutch & oil pump, heavy valve springs, 36mm DRLA Dell etc...

enginein.jpg

was still running good, save a dodgee starter, but the rust was starting to get noticeable and was a bit bent here and there.

leftreargutterrust.jpg

gutters

rearleftunderseatrust.jpg

under rear seat

rearscreenbottomrust2.jpg

under rear window

dodgeeleftrearbumpermount.jpg

bad repairs

bonnetlip.jpg

shitty bonnet

driversdoorgap.jpg

drivers door lines up well!

So that's were it started, hopefully it will end well, i've never done any bodywork or welding etc

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one more pic of how it use to look, 20 footer, good from far, far from good.

20footer.jpg

so the plan was to start at the front and finish it as much as possible, and not blow the whole car apart, get overwhelmed and give up(ant' happing)

frontwonk.jpg

car has four differant fenders of four differant years and models bugs

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these cars are so easy to take apart, getting it back together, well.

frontnofenders.jpg

baldbrush.jpg

had to buy a grinder plus wire wheel.

baremetalleftsideapron.jpg

this side had quite a bit of damage which was poorly repaired, then covered in bog.

rightsideapron.jpg

driver side not so bad.

insidemount.jpg

hello rust, i can see you.

ovalfenderwithlight.jpg

so i got this pair of front fenders off a 50's era car, even though the headlights are the same and fit the body, vw changed the pressing though the years, these have been blasted and i hope to repair them.

ovalfenderbaresteel3.jpg

I've now go three pairs of front fenders for the car, should be able to fix these with parts of the other two sets.

frontleftovalfender.jpg

ovalfenderonbug4.jpg

ovalfenderonbug.jpg

wheel sits perfectly in the wheelarch

drills.jpg

got me some spotweld drills

trimspotwelds.jpg

started by removing the seal strip holder thing

trimundernth.jpg

crusty

hornmountoff.jpg

removed the mighty rust trap that is the horn mount.

apronoff.jpg

then got the valance off.

apronleftside.jpg

pretty fucked

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Forgot to say, all this started at the end of 2009, damn that's ages ago.

leftfrontfendermisalinment2.jpg

here you can see how bent the front was, it took much beating to get this fitting better.

sparewheelwellgone.jpg

pulled the spare wheel tray next, was krusty in the corners.

washerbottletraygone.jpg

and the washer bottle tray

alt.jpg

also got a few goodies of some other vw nuts

tach.jpg

tacho

newheads.jpg

NOS stock heads

loom.jpg

compete new loom

bolts.jpg

compete stainless nut and bolt set

ogkey.jpg

found the og key

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bought this POS for $80 on TM

pos4.jpg

pos1.jpg

pos5.jpg

had about 3 inches of swamp in the pan

pos2.jpg

but solid where I wanted it

pos3.jpg

young felix thought I'd bought him a car!

posfelix.jpg

a few weekends later it looked like this

pos6.jpg

then this

IMG_1117.jpg

IMG_1116.jpg

then this

IMG_1153.jpg

IMG_1154.jpg

got what I wanted and sold the rest to the scrapyard and some dude took the pan away for a couple bucks, made most of my 80 back

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got this off a good mate who is an engineer, don't use it no mo.

welder.jpg

let the birdshit commence!

pattern.jpg

templates

patch2.jpg

making replacement patches

patch1.jpg

patch3.jpg

firstwelds.jpg

first welds

valancewelded.jpg

smoothed out

innerwingweld.jpg

then started on the spare wheel panel

wheelwellweld4.jpg

wheelwellweld5.jpg

holes

wheelwellweld3.jpg

and blended into the factory steel

wheelwellweld2.jpg

wheelwellweld1.jpg

and all done, took about 2 months of sundays

wheelfloor.jpg

sandblasted and primed with weldable primer

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In order to get the front panels lining up and looking good, I got a new/old bonnet, mine had never fitted and was rusty plus full of bog.

wonkyfront.jpg

BONNETBOG.jpg

BOG2.jpg

attempting to get rid of this gap

rightgap.jpg

new bonnet, ratty but solid.

newbon.jpg

next I started, letting in the repair patches I fabbed up, you can buy repop's for these panels, but thats no fun is it!

TACKED.jpg

test fitting

MOCKFIT.jpg

welded up

STITCHEDUP.jpg

back

BACKOFWELD.jpg

and ground down, pretty happy with it.

WELDDRESSEDFRONT.jpg

WELDDRESSEDBACK.jpg

FRONTMOCKUP.jpg

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Didn't take any pics of fixing the other side of the valance, wasn't as bad as the first side, joined it though the bumper hole, less welding!

moved on to the body side of things

frontleftpatch2.jpg

chop chop.

cut out the bad metal, then blasted as much of the surface rust out as i could.

blast2.jpg

fitting up the patch.

frontleftpatch1.jpg

covered everything with weldable primer

OUTER.jpg

drilled holes for plug welds on the bumper mounts

PLACEMENT.jpg

and after some of the worst welding in the world

GROUND.jpg

just like a new one!

VALANCEFIT.jpg

cracked into the other side

RIGHTMOUNT2.jpg

years of surface rust

RIGHTMOUNT1.jpg

welded

finishweld.jpg

primededgeoutside.jpg

primed

primededgeinside.jpg

just had to weld the fender nuts back in place

captivenuts1.jpg

got the old supercheap sandblaster out

frontstrip1.jpg

better

frontstrip2.jpg

look good just sitting there, will weld everything back together when the body is off the chassis and i can get at the back of the front panels under the gas tank area, sandblast etc...

primedinsidefront.jpg

another mock up to make sure everything still fits

remake.jpg

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To carry on the "bite sized" work that I can handle, I spun the car 180 and started on the rear.

backup.jpg

unbolted the bumper, fenders, engine lid, then dropped the mighty 1600 out.

engineout.jpg

my work space

fullshed2.jpg

then built this little table it store the engine out of the way

enginetable.jpg

cost me a box of woodys from the engineers shop across from work, GC there even cut it to length for me.

then bust out the spot weld drill

rearvalance.jpg

got the old valance off in mostly one part

backcouner.jpg

this is why the valance needed to be removed

rearleftmountoff.jpg

innerrightmountrust.jpg

it's also pretty smashed as it sit's low at the back of the car and would drag on driveways etc..

bashing the exhaust when it hit the ground

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some more damage

rearvalancedetail2.jpg

started by removing the inner panel

rearvalanceinside.jpg

that way i could get in behind the valance it's self with the welder/dollys/sandblaster etc...

rearvalancerepair5.jpg

started on this side

rearvalancepatch4.jpg

then did the top part, should have just replaced the whole thing

rearvalancepatch3.jpg

sanded down

rearvalancerepair3.jpg

needed heaps of little repairs like this

rearvalancerepair4.jpg

For the other side i replaced the whole thing, i didn't cut the shape out for the fender bolt, i thought i'd just drill a hole the same as the fender has so when the fender is bolted on so is the valance, good idea? dunno yet, i'll have to go back and fix the other side

rearvalancerepair.jpg

rearvalanceweld.jpg

this patch was tricky as fuck

rearvalanceweld3.jpg

fit's better than the other side now though

rearvalanceweld2.jpg

another test fit

rearvalancepatch2.jpg

smoothed out

rearvalancepatch1.jpg

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more sandblaster etc...

primedrearvalance.jpg

the inner panel there, was bent, rusted and needs alot of work

insidepanel.jpg

started by knocking it back into shape, then trimmed the raggy bottom edges

insidepanel1.jpg

this thing is normally bends back(up in the pic) and is spot welded to the bottom of the valance, I wanted to trim the valance down to give more room for the exhaust system, so i rolled the edge under and then needed to extend the inner panel to meet it.

but first, an't it pretty.

rearvalanceprimed2.jpg

rearvalanceprimed.jpg

so, started fixing the inner panel

rearvalancepatch7.jpg

insidepanelrepair1.jpg

insidepanelrepair2.jpg

here it is welded in place

rearvalanceinnerpanelweld2.jpg

first i had just folded the end over but that looked shit, so i did a little hammering and stretching, much better.

rearvalanceinnerpanelweld.jpg

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Above birdshit was ground down, I then filled the hole for the fender bolt on the other side so they matchy matchy

rearvalancepatch5.jpg

I'm going to make this panel bolt on, rather than weld it back on, will make pulling the engine even easier.

With the valance sorted, i took the spot weld drill and cut off wheel to the rusty thing that use to be a bumper mount.

rearleftmountoff2.jpg

this part of the car has cleverly been designed to create as much rust as possible

rearleftmountoffcloseup.jpg

not much left of the old one

restedjunk.jpg

also removed the inside engine tray so I had full access to both sides of the panel

rightenginetray.jpg

out

gone.jpg

again you can buy these panels as replacement pressing, but they are not very accurate repro's of the factory metal, so I thought i'd have a crack myself.

topofpatch.jpg

wish i had real metal work tools and not just a hammer and a vice, still pretty happy with the way they turned out.

profile.jpg

rearpatch.jpg

this was fun, had it make some cuts to get the metal to bend in the right places, then weld back together, then grind

patchwelded.jpg

then I cut the rust out

baja.jpg

baja spec

rearpatchfitted.jpg

fitted in place

rearpatchfittedinside.jpg

and welded up

rearpatchfullywelded.jpg

on to the other side, something like 36 spotwelds on these pricks

rearrightmountgone.jpg

rearrightmountinside.jpg

thought about trying to fix this mount up, but na

rearrightmountoutside.jpg

got two new ones from the metric nut in chch

newleftrearmountmockup.jpg

they fit very well, just a little long at the bottom edge, easy fixed

newrightrearmount.jpg

and that's me up to date, i have ground the welds down on the patch and have started making up the replacement panel for the drivers side quarter and will hopefully let that in, in the next week or two, from now on this is going to be a slow update thread.

i also scored these on TM, 36mm DRLA Dellorto's got em cheap as some one thought or was told they were sidedrafts, they are not. bad for ford owner, good for me!

carbs.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

got onto the right side, had to replace more than the other side as the damage went up a bit higher up.

baja2.jpg

chop chop

so the replacement had to be bigger

newrightpatchpanel1.jpg

i can not tell you how long this took to make, ages, just ages.The indent where the valance overlaps took some thinking and a lot of hammering, pretty pleased with how it turned out.

and just when i thought i was getting there, i offered the panel up to the car and it was not bent enough.

newrightpatchpanelcrack.jpg

so i pushed until, crack! back to the welder.

as you can see in the first pic, the panel was not long enough by 5-6cm, i did this just to save a bit of metal

oh well , the plan was to join it at the bottom then let in a small patch on the side, but as i was trying to fit the replacement, i found i'd cut it too short :evil:

I spent another night extending the panel to fix my fuck up.

newrightpatchpanelweld.jpg

at lease I got to practice my welding more.

This is the finished thing.

newrightpatchpanel.jpg

then tacked in place and test fitting the fenders etc.

newrightpatch.jpg

inside

newrightpatch2.jpg

and welded in

newrightpatchweld.jpg

spent alot of time smoothing it out as best i could

newrightpatchsmoothed.jpg

eally hard to get a good photo with the reflections, not perfect but the bumper mount will cover it anyway :lol: :lol:

I took a photo in primer but it just looked completely flat.

I was very happy with this finish, as i was stressing about it a bit with all the angles etc.

newrightpatchsmoothedcloseup.jpg

I been so focused on this panel so much, now it's done I'm not sure what to do next? got to put the engine trays back in I guess then the bumper mounts.

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  • 5 months later...

Been meaning to update this for age's, not that I've done heaps, just keep chipping away.

rearmock.jpg

everything still seems to fit

Started on the engine lid

enginelid.jpg

and found it's full of lead! oldschool right there!

removed the inner panel

enginelidapart.jpg

50 years of crud

enginelidinsidecleaned.jpg

found some factory paint

enginelidpanel.jpg

this is lead also, and crud

fixed up the engine bay side trays

enginetrayswelded.jpg

and the engine bay corners

rightfirewall.jpg

rightfirewallwelded.jpg

leftfirewall.jpg

leftfirewallwelded.jpg

all that was left after removing the lead and rust

enginelidpanelstrip_zpsc253b01e.jpg

enginelidpanelstripback_zpsce72c99a.jpg

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So in the above pic you can see the start of the repair panel I thought I'd have a crack at making

This is actually the second attempt to make this piece, the first one I just kind of free styled it, which is why it failed, I had to take a much more measured approach.

enginelidrepairpanel_zps7f20afa5.jpg

so after much fuckingabout....

enginelidrepairpanel2_zps5cacd038.jpg

enginelidrepairpanel3_zps592617b0.jpg

it might actually be getting close.

And the newest addition to my high tech arsenal of metal working tools, behold!

wood_zpse7a67df2.jpg

I made this out of a old post so i could make a start on the outside of the lid,

enginelidpatch_zpsfae27fee.jpg

chop chop choppity chop

enginelidpatched_zpsac41bc3b.jpg

check out the rust holes!

enginelidpatched2_zpseee1b2a6.jpg

fitting up the patch

enginelidrepairpanel6_zpsac926232.jpg

tacked up

didn't notice that the lids shape had relaxed after I'd cut a hole in it, about 5mm's of wonk

enginelidpatched3_zps225e2dfd.jpg

nailed the second one better

enginelidpatched4_zps81800c68.jpg

the under side, many little cuts to get the metal to fold under.

enginelidrepairpanel5_zps3bf44a39.jpg

the outside all ground down

enginelidpatched5_zps22659d64.jpg

and primed

enginelidpatchedup_zps409c93d6.jpg

with the lip all smoothed out

enginelidinsidepatchup_zps947e283e.jpg

not bad!

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Guest 63Ragtop

In other news my mate ed came round and we refitted the engine the other friday.

testfit4_zps02ff8df9.jpg

and it still fits!

the side trays are just sitting there in these pics...

9f06e8cb-3165-49e0-a659-63bb8fb46bfe_zps83a05e5e.jpg

wanted to be sure after chopping so much of the rear off, that the 1-2 side would clear, It was always a mission getting the valve cover off that side as the body was so close, is that normal? is it cause I have a 1600 in a 1200 body?

Anyway it's still close and maybe a little better? but not worse so sweet as!

testfit_zps33e54e1b.jpg

also did the points on eds esky

5b5c4114-9b9e-48d7-abec-8542380cfa9a_zps2d4b32d4.jpg

then took it for a thrash in the waitakes! such a awesome wee car. icon_cool.gif

back to working on the inner panel now, slowly getting there!

meanwhile, a little bug waits.....

icon_cry.gificon_cry.gif

5c1ede72-a18c-4522-8922-c7e66579dc2b_zps643ea4ca.jpg

icon_lol.gif

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Guest 63Ragtop

Got a bit more done on the inner panel for the lid.

innerpanelwelded_zps5490bbf0.jpg

smoothed out

innerpanelfixed2_zps30d6adab.jpg

seems to fit.

innerpanelfixed_zps2f4e3736.jpg

innerpanelfixed1_zpsd3eab1f5.jpg

I still need to figure out how I'm going to weld this together, I thought about just cutting the rest off and welding the inner panel into the lid with out the second layer but I'll see if I can make it look factory.

innerpanelfixed3_zps45fa4e6a.jpg

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