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1966vwfan Samba Member
Joined: April 22, 2014 Posts: 8 Location: QLD, Australia
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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Absolutely stunning work!!
I am in the same process for my bulkhead / heaters / pillars at the moment
Keep up the amazing work buddy!! |
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joesbuell Samba Member
Joined: November 14, 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Muswellbrook NSW Australia
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 5:31 am Post subject: |
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truly amazing attention to detail! |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:56 am Post subject: |
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Thank you
So next on the list was to sort the crumpled pressing on the right channel, so I cut out the section and welded in a new one.
Sorted
Onwards to the lower front quarter. Now the Virtanen panel I bought is a good pressing but there was a few differences as it was for an oval , so I modified it to the later sixties spec. I cut the end off completely and grafted on a genuine section I had, so that it lined up perfectly
I had to be very careful to get the measurement and cut right
Right shape and thickness
Nutsert started like this, wrong for my car.
Super Tool ;D
Genuine nutsert
Silver soldered in
The bottom didn't flow properly either so I added some metal
Matched from the other side
I needed to trim it down after this shot
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:05 am Post subject: |
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As I wanted a nice invisible repair both inside and out I knew there would be an issue with metal thickness and I was right. Over the years of abuse, rust, blasting, scraping etc the inner quarter had gone thin, it starter from the factory as around 1mm sheet and mine was on average .7mm
Again welding thick to thin does not work especially if you want a nice finish on the inside too. The new repair panel was 1mm
I thought about this problem for a while, what could I do.....?
The only way around it and I know this sounds crazy but I had to make my new panel thinner, so I put it on the linisher ( basically an upside down 4"belt sander) . You can see where I sanded the whole side down.
Got it down to a nice even .73mm
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:15 am Post subject: |
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I epoxy primed the inner door pillar first like the other side
Spent a long time panel prepping
Then started the welding
All the spot welds are just temp plugged for now but the main join is getting there. This took an age.
Inside nearly done
Bare metal
Much nicer than before
No filler
Getting to the inside here was hard
Happy days ;D
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:19 am Post subject: |
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To get away from the welding etc here is some of the other stuff I`ve been doing . All the bolt on panels have had their own various issues, the wings that were on the car when I bought it back were Day moulding ones. They are great quality and I was going to reuse them and had thoughts about getting the insides gel coated too but for a show car fiberglass doesn't cut it. Finding a nice set of original wings is getting harder, especially the fronts. I got a pair off a well known person in the vw scene, they are slightly earlier ones so the indicator holes are wrong for my year but I am going to fill those in anyway and run us spec headlamps. They needed quite a bit of straightening, some of the dents were very difficult to get out but after a lot of beating they are good now.
I had to heat this area up to get it straight
It split
After welding etc
I was not 100% sure if the bonnet on the car was original vw , it fitted ok but I had a nagging doubt that it wasn't so I did a deal with the same well known vw person for my old day wings and bonnet for the two fronts and a genuine bonnet. We arranged to meet one weekend to exchange the panels but when he turned up with the bonnet I was a bit cheesed. He actually turned up with two , one was peppered with stone chips . had some splits here and there , some dents too and there was this one ::)
So I bought both ;D This rusty one had been previously blasted and for some reason just left with no primer or protection whatsoever. Running my hand over it there is no dents and no splits or cracks, just rust. I was confident I could get it back so to start I ran a DA sander over it first , just to get the worst off.
The trim holes had been welded and leaded. I will put the holes back in.
Outside for a bit of rust removal ;D
Other bonnet which maybe for sale soon !
No substitute for blasting
This is the ex rusty one
Other one came up good too
Underseal took an age to scrape off
Came up nice
Last edited by vwhelmot on Sat Jul 11, 2015 3:14 am; edited 1 time in total |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:24 am Post subject: |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:31 am Post subject: |
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The wings like I said had numerous issues, dents and bent etc. Took a week off to massage them out
Doesn't look bad here but it was out of shape
Large area misshapen
Came out nice
Showing the high and low spots on the same wing
Almost there
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:40 am Post subject: |
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Other side had more issues
You cant see it but the whole lip wing edge had been pushed in and was out of shape
Difficult to get straight
Top had a crease
It had stretched too so I had to shrink it with heat
After shrinking and a quick layer of primer to check
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:52 am Post subject: |
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Getting rid of some of the factory pressing marks. Suppose I could have used a bit of filler here but that aint my style
Still work to do on this wing, the mounting flange needs welding etc
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:46 am Post subject: |
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The passenger door that was on the car turned into a bit of an issue. After blasting it looked ok to start of but at closer inspection the skin had stretched and was out of shape and I knew that without many many hours of work it still wouldn't be ok to use. I had worked on the door previously, it was a rust free cali door but was bent when I got it and I remember I had to cut the window frame to straighten it. Maybe the whole door was under tension or something and the blasting process compounded the fault causing metal the stress relieve maybe.
Looked Straight
Being that its a 65 model, these doors are pretty rare in that they only made them for two years so finding another one was going to be a prob. Luckily FBI had one advertised on evilbay so I bought it now ! It looked on the advert to be a really nice one until it arrived.........
It looked like it had been driven over with a forklift truck or something. >:( :( :( :(
I was gutted
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:18 am Post subject: |
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I knew I would get nowhere with the courier company but fbi sorted me out with a discount fairplay, fantastic service. I knew the corner had had a big sqeeze and there was no way of straightening the inner panel so the only way to fix it was to cut it out.
I had another scrap door for the section I needed
Drilled out the spot welds
The reason why most doors rot from the corner is this lump of sealant that they used. Its just a water trap.
Blasted
Fortunately the skin was undamaged and when I removed the damaged inner section , the outer pretty much sprung back into shape
Tacked
Lined up correctly
I was extra careful blasting this one!
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redhouse53 Samba Member
Joined: November 25, 2011 Posts: 1 Location: Anglesey, North Wales
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Lyndon, just read this through, amazing work, really amazing. Looking forward to seeing it finished. |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:32 pm Post subject: |
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Cheers, yer welcome to pop over anytime to have a look. Kettle always on mate. :D |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:56 am Post subject: |
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Onto the front and again it was a proper mix of wrong shape panels and modifications. I`m replacing the front beam for one that doesn't need body mods so I could get rid of my previous cycle chain guards ! :D
It seemed a good idea at the time to modify the bodywork instead of the suspension :-[
Finding the correct replacement front clip sides would prove to be a bit of a problem. I placed various wanted ads on some sites and had a few replies. Some folk on the Samba wanted to charge me up to $1000 to ship the two side panels to the UK ::) but fortunately I came up trumps with a near side one on VZI and then a while later Alex Taylor from Defcon3 sorted me out with both front panels off a UK car. All three panels needed work so I chose the best and took it from there.
Super cycle fenders
Lovely spot of welding
Drilling out
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:05 am Post subject: |
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I blasted the panels and drilled out the tank support and bumper mounts etc as I knew there would be rust behind them. I was right, bet there are plenty of show cars out there with rust behind here :D
It was pretty straight but thin in places. This is the UK one
Nice on the outside....
Shit on the inside
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:20 am Post subject: |
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More
Its strange but there are two captive nuts that are different than the rest. Its more square for some reason. I had a couple spare.
Silver soldering it back on
Lower one
Had your horn mount off recently? ;D
This is the near side Californian panel. It was in good shape
I cut the front off and quickly offered up the replacement
It lined up nice
Wing on to check
Everything was good
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:28 am Post subject: |
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What was left of the original tank support was removed
Plenty of rust
Blasted clean
The UK panel was holed and thin so I had to replace various sections. I cut the repo panel up and used that as donor panels.
Super tool
Matching up to the cali side
Welded on
W |
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:34 am Post subject: |
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I offered up the new tank support which I modified a bit by adding some dimpled holes for that custom touch.
This was encouraging, the spot weld holes all lined up
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vwhelmot Samba Member
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 617 Location: united kingdom
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:02 am Post subject: |
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The UK panel needed more work
I used the old panel as a donor
Neater than factory. This area is always crumpled from the factory
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