63Ragtop

Above birdshit was ground down, I then filled the hole for the fender bolt on the other side so they matchy matchy 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. this part of the car has cleverly been designed to create as much rust as possible not much left of the old one also removed the inside engine tray so I had full access to both sides of the panel out 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. wish i had real metal work tools and not just a hammer and a vice, still pretty happy with the way they turned out. this was fun, had it make some cuts to get the metal to bend in the right places, then weld back together, then grind then I cut the rust out baja spec fitted in place and welded up on to the other side, something like 36 spotwelds on these pricks thought about trying to fix this mount up, but na got two new ones from the metric nut in chch they fit very well, just a little long at the bottom edge, easy fixed 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!

more sandblaster etc... the inner panel there, was bent, rusted and needs alot of work started by knocking it back into shape, then trimmed the raggy bottom edges 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. so, started fixing the inner panel here it is welded in place first i had just folded the end over but that looked shit, so i did a little hammering and stretching, much better.

Thanks man! I sometimes wonder what the hell I'm doing! just trying to do it the right way, is a heap of fun and very satisfying when finished. will try to get this thread up to speed.

some more damage started by removing the inner panel that way i could get in behind the valance it's self with the welder/dollys/sandblaster etc... started on this side then did the top part, should have just replaced the whole thing sanded down needed heaps of little repairs like this 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 this patch was tricky as fuck fit's better than the other side now though another test fit smoothed out

for sure, when I dropped the motor out this last time, I'd forgot what a pain in the ass it was. won't even need it jack the car up next time, just wheel the motor in, done. a must for a turbo engine bro!

To carry on the "bite sized" work that I can handle, I spun the car 180 and started on the rear. unbolted the bumper, fenders, engine lid, then dropped the mighty 1600 out. my work space then built this little table it store the engine out of the way 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 got the old valance off in mostly one part this is why the valance needed to be removed 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

saw this thing parked up today, sucker looks low.

that's 50 year old bug you got there, there will be rot somewhere! i've never done anything like this, I'm just learning as i got/fuck it up

moved on to the wheel arch areas carefull cutting weld primed welded up the ariel holes, the bottom one should only about 5mm, but had rusted out. finished

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 chop chop. cut out the bad metal, then blasted as much of the surface rust out as i could. fitting up the patch. covered everything with weldable primer drilled holes for plug welds on the bumper mounts and after some of the worst welding in the world just like a new one! cracked into the other side years of surface rust welded primed just had to weld the fender nuts back in place got the old supercheap sandblaster out better 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... another mock up to make sure everything still fits

so jealous, wish I was pulling road trips like that, was that the powder run?

thanks for that advice nigel, welder is a gas/gasless model but it's been trashed within a inch of it's life, nothing to hook the gas up to, also the wire was very old, which I was told makes it shitty. Got some new flux core wire awhile ago, it is much better. also the clamp pretty much fell off the earth wire it was so worn, crimped it to other side of the handle, these pic's are a couple years old, hopefully I'm improving. and 10speed, I fuckin love that green car too, but I think my car should stay red too, everyone knows it's the fastest colour. have always liked ruby red

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. attempting to get rid of this gap new bonnet, ratty but solid. 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! test fitting welded up back and ground down, pretty happy with it.

took the rest of the parts car apart

got this off a good mate who is an engineer, don't use it no mo. let the birdshit commence! templates making replacement patches first welds smoothed out then started on the spare wheel panel holes and blended into the factory steel and all done, took about 2 months of sundays sandblasted and primed with weldable primer

bought this POS for $80 on TM had about 3 inches of swamp in the pan but solid where I wanted it young felix thought I'd bought him a car! a few weekends later it looked like this then this then this 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

Forgot to say, all this started at the end of 2009, damn that's ages ago. here you can see how bent the front was, it took much beating to get this fitting better. pulled the spare wheel tray next, was krusty in the corners. and the washer bottle tray also got a few goodies of some other vw nuts tacho NOS stock heads compete new loom compete stainless nut and bolt set found the og key

more pics thinking about darker spokes or win lotto green? I like.

these cars are so easy to take apart, getting it back together, well. had to buy a grinder plus wire wheel. this side had quite a bit of damage which was poorly repaired, then covered in bog. driver side not so bad. hello rust, i can see you. 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. 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. wheel sits perfectly in the wheelarch got me some spotweld drills started by removing the seal strip holder thing crusty removed the mighty rust trap that is the horn mount. then got the valance off. pretty fucked

one more pic of how it use to look, 20 footer, good from far, far from good. 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) car has four differant fenders of four differant years and models bugs

chur

Thought I should make me one of these thread things for my bug. got it when I was about 21 and was my only car for over 10 years, good old bitch. over the years it's had new shocks, brakes, gearbox( later 1500 one) tart up panel and paint and a warmed up 1600 engine. engle 110 cam, lightened flywheel, hd clutch & oil pump, heavy valve springs, 36mm DRLA Dell etc... was still running good, save a dodgee starter, but the rust was starting to get noticeable and was a bit bent here and there. gutters under rear seat under rear window bad repairs shitty bonnet 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

Incredible work man! I didn't even know it was possible to to what you did to this car! outstanding!

paint looks sweet mate, hope those wide rims don't mess up your fresh fenders. you need one of these the turbo engine will be fun! better upgrade the gbox and brakes!

nice bus seedy, i don't know a heap about T2's but if you really want to get it low check this out, http://www.restowagenuk.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=13810 not bags though. look forwards to the progress.