March 63 RHD Notch

[260KMN]

Yet another update.
Carried on with the rusty RH front fender this week, after removing the rotten bulkhead the fender skin is more accessible, so clean up the area and chop out the rot, to remove the paint and surface rust i use one of those polycarbonate wheels in either a drill or grinder. Any deep pits in the steel i cut out.

Make a new piece and line it up, i try i leave edges a bit longer, like the bottom of this piece, so when it comes to welding you dont get blowthrough so much. I then cut it down after with some suitable tooling.

Weld it in, sounds dead easy doesnt it, if only , followed by grinding down and then its ready for a smidge of filler.

Trial fitting panels, this is the first time in nearly two years its had panels on the shell. Looks like a Notch again, momentarily.

Bulkhead repairs next.

[Bobnotch]

Thanks for the pictures, they'll help my son out when he starts rebuilding the front fenders. The progress looks great though. You're really moving along with it now, and getting close to having all of the rust removed. Nice job.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[260KMN]

Belated Happy New Year to anyone that is actually following this and thanks for your support, Yes i am still here, xmas and birthdays got in the way, Continuing on the front fender repair attempts, heres the latest.
Bulkhead repairs, bottom

Top

Reinstalled after grinding and rust treating/paint

Top outer skin repair next,

Then ground and cleaned

Then finally front area around headlamp bowl, which i removed earlier.
Paint removed and rust initially treated, perforations extended all the way around the top parts, so cut out is the only fix

Made up the inner ring part first and attached it

temporary support to keep it in position

Then make up some filler parts for the removed rot.

Weld in and grind down. Sounds easy but this front fender has occupied loads of hours time. I think it will be useable so am quite pleased with the outcome.
Off for a few weeks away with work now so no progress for a while once again.
Thanks for looking
Paul

[bobnorman]

I always seem to learn something from your updates. Very clever way of doing that repair while maintaining the correct shape. Well done.
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Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[260KMN]

Thanks for the support Bob

[260KMN]

Hello to all in sambaland, i am still here, no progress to report i am afraid.
I have been in the US for most of February and am now in Germany for most of March with work. Will be back on the 63 after Easter hopefully, i know you are all eagerly waiting for the next installment, not.
I did bring a carb rebuild kit and a headliner kit, plus a NOS master cylinder back from The US with me so i am still progressing the build.
Wonder what i can source in Koln.
Cheers
Paul

[notchboy]

[260KMN]

Yes i am still here, been a while but i have been slowly progressing, i finally finished the wing/fender. Turned out ok if i say so myself.

and also finished the inner wings with stone chip and a bit of topcoat.

Will try to keep this thread moving along.

[MonT3]

That fender and inner fender well look sweet! Keep up the great work 260KMN. Have no doubt the body will turn out great as that fender looks as if it came off the machine press!
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[260KMN]

Hello fellow sambanistas, small bit of progress to report.
Getting the body prepped for paint is my least favourite part so this will be slow.
First off, i started reassembling the panels to get some idea of fit.

Also refitted the deck lid hinges and springs. Thats a pain in the arse, i had to make up a mini spring compressor to refit them.
Bit dark and blurry in the cave tonight.

Also made a start on what initially looked like a nice left door. Actually its full of slonk below the beltline, which i will have to grind out over the next couple of evenings.
Fortunately, although its bashed, theres no rot in it.

looking at the rear wing on that side it too shows plenty of filler.
Oh well a white cloud is about to build in the cave.

more later.

[W1K1]

I'm curious on the story of your garage. it looks like you have multiple materials in the walls. what does the outside look like? or is this a super secret batcave?
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[260KMN]

So last night i removed all the slonk/paint layers etc from the lower skin to reveal a rust free door with a large dent and score in it.

I will etch it and pass it on to the body shop to fix as its beyond my skill level i think. Rear wing is tonights project.

For info W1K1 the garage walls would originally have been all the same material. The garage (which would presumably have been a storeroom/workshop/stable) and house were built in the 1820's using Cob, which is a traditional building material in this part of the UK. Its basically mud and straw, the soil round here is very iron rich hence the red colour. I guess over the nearly 200 years since it was built, the odd repair was needed, which was obviously done using whatever was suitable, the outside of the walls are smoothish render.
Google Devon Cob houses for more info and images.

[260KMN]

So its been more than two months since my last post, i have had other things going on over our summer, so not much has happened.
I have finally got some time now so will hopefully be progressing a bit.
The last body panel has been stripped of slonk and this revealed, as expected some old damage. No serious rot though.

A small repair to the bottom edge was all that was required. I High zinc primed the panel and left the damage visible for the body shop to sort out.

Next was the rear bumper. Mine was badly rusted at each end and trying to find a decent affordable one is nigh on impossible.
One did come up for sale so i snapped it up, it was however bent.
So, i tried an experiment, why not cut the ends off the new one and weld them onto my old original centre section. Worth a try as its going to be rechromed anyway and if cut in the right place the overriders will hide any messy join.
Chop chop

Bit of lining up and welding later

Now i should be able to use the original date stamped rear centre section with the slightly newer corners.

.

I have three fronts also, the original is straightest but also needs rechroming.

thats all for now, onto scraping the underseal off the pan next, hopefully more updates to follow.

[corythosaurus]

Great work. But, I was more interested in your work environment, very cool "garage"
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'65 Karmann Ghia
'72 Squareback

[joey1320]

Great work man. This is great motivation for my own project.

Yeah that garage looks cool
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**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[260KMN]

Thanks for the comments, the garage was discussed earlier.
Been doing some more this last week, onto the pan now.
For 50+ years old and being a UK car the pan is in great shape with mainly just some light surface rust. The only holes are LH front corner and RH jack point. Not the most exciting pix once again but some people find it useful i guess.
So some pix.
Heres the pan after days spent scaping the underseal and loose paint off.

and the biggest patch of surface rust

Front corner repairs,

rusty but not that bad, small hole but it was thin for quite a distance so chop chop.

Make a patch

Weld and grind

followed by a coat of zinc primer.
Should be able to do some more this week, so more boring pix to follow later.
Thanks for looking and the continued support.

[bobnorman]

[260KMN]

Yes, i used a shrinker for that, bought a set cheap from harbor freight on one of my many "business" trips, worth every cent.
Thanks for looking

[MonT3]

Beautiful work on that pan corner. You put that stretcher to work! I had bought the combo set thinking I'd use it on my project but never did. How much experience did you have with the tool before making this corner piece? Was it hard to make the curve and bend?
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[260KMN]

Belated happy New year to all.
Crikey its 4 months since i last updated this, it has been progressing, just very slowly. I am still buying parts too, although my hunt for a good pair of rear bumper brackets and some hubcaps has so far drawn a blank.
Other things seem to get in the way and stop me from going out into the garage, but heres the latest.
Continuing with the pan repairs, i think i said previously that the pan was pretty straight just some surface rust patches, although around the jacking points there were some small perforations which required action.

Rusty RH jack point

Perforations through the gap above the jack point into the pan itself.

No option but to cut the section out

Cleaned up the jack point and then i fabricated some filler bits.

Once installed ot was a simple case of rust removal priming and finally paint

I used two coats of POR15 semi gloss for the final paint, sprayed in a dampish garage in the winter, we will see how well it dries out in due course, looks ok so far.

The pan is now finished, so i can get on to the body work now and then paint, hopefully in the summer.
Will try to update this a bit more often in future.

Monty i have no prior experience of using a shrinker/stretcher, i just try it and see what happens.
Thanks for looking.