TX-73 Bug Rebuild

[TX-73]

Interior is about done with light sanding where it will be repainted. As mentioned, areas that are covered are cleaned but no need to repaint. I'll post up a few pics later on.

So, work continues on the outside. A pleasant surprise is that whoever did the previous paintwork did spend some time to do some blocking. The body was fairly straight so what I'm doing is getting past the topcoat layer to expose primer level. That's as far as I need to go with this. As soon as the body is sanded down, it will be ready for a high-build primer and some additional blocking, but overall so far it looks pretty solid and reasonably straight.

Fenders are left on for now so I'm not chasing them around with the DA

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[Rome]

You really are lucky to start with a completely solid (except for your hood seam section) Beetle.

Will you keep those wheels, and just apply a different paint scheme? Those are 5 1/2" wide, from Brazil. I bought the same ones about 20 years ago from JC Whitney, when they had them on sale for $40 each. Were powder coated white with the thin red and blue pinstripes on the very outer edge like on yours. Since I did not like the square brake vent holes, I scuffed the paint, then painted the whole wheel gloss black urethane using Valspar urethane from a can, via a cheap spray gun and home air compressor. Fitted some wide beauty rings on the outer edge of the wheels, and the stock hubcaps when i had them on a Beetle. Then removed the beauty rings and painted the outer rim edges cream using spray cans. They are still like that, now installed on my '70 Fastback. The black portions are still holding up well, despite the car always being parked outside under a car cover . If you decide to paint your Beetle that dark blue metallic, there are many combinations possible- silver or white outer rim edge with black or body color centers; etc.

[TX-73]

[TX-73]

As you can see my progress is somewhat leisurely

Here's the start of the other side, I'm strange that I don't start on one end and work my way from there, I seem to like to get things done equally side to side lol.

Anyway, as mentioned, someone blocked out the body before the repaint, which is great. There's no rust below the filler areas. It's looking like a very light skim coat/primer will provide any additional base for final blocking.

Found this rust hole but looking at the backside, there's no rust area that's trying to bubble out from behind the paint. I'm thinking that something dinged the body early on that was never addressed, caused the eventual hole. It was completely covered by some filler/paint. I will grind this out a bit and weld it closed.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

Continued body prep, I work on this for about an hour or so after work in between other chores but making progress. Looks like I may not have the facility to do my own paintwork, but that's ok, any prep now is money saved if someone takes the painting.
The darker color is simply primer to help temporarily protect areas that had a previous filler skim coat or spots that wound up as bare metal.

Next will be to get the hood/roof/trunk prepped, followed by cleanup of under-hood and engine bay. At that point, windows and fenders will be pulled to finish getting all areas/edges ready for primer.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[Cmontoya9]

Looking good! I'm not too far behind you!
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My First Bug Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6369627&highlight=#6369627

[TX-73]

[TX-73]

Little more work, the roof is sanded down. Just leaves the front/rear decklids as far as "big" exterior areas, but then comes more detail work to finish sanding all of the remaining areas.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

The last couple of months saw a little work here and there to the bug, mostly involved with moving to another home. The garage setup is nice, not like the 2000sf shop I had but that's ok. Smaller projects
Anyway, rather than me painting the car I will just get it ready for body and paint work, I've got a friend that does nice work.
The body is sanded down, but still needs finishing up odds and ends in the interior and in the trunk/engine compartments.

I needed to get some rust repair done so I started with the front hood cowl and driver side section of the hood opening.
Here's what I had originally. The hood edge was rusted but the cowl section looked worse than it actually was. The rust on the cowl was mainly from the hood seal channel, but yes there was some rust on the cowl itself as well.

Cowl after grinding and sanding to clean things up. I plan to re-attach a new OEM-style hood seal channel.

Rust converter applied to the cowl section to keep it clean until I can install the new seal channel.

Hood edge marked for cutting. I left about 1/8" of metal after the bend so there would not be bodywork needed on the outside face of the panel.

Replacement section marked accordingly. It's not in perfect shape but will give a few years of service.

Hood edge section removed.

Replacement section installed. It still needs additional spot welding and grinding but it's almost done. Fits great.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

More work on the cowl to install the new hood seal retainer....
First up was to gently bend the piece to follow the overall vertical contour of the cowl.

Next was to identify where I needed to make some section cuts to follow the horizontal bends in the cowl. I took my time with this as a little tweak here and there makes a big difference in the overall fit.

Once I got the new piece to follow the arch and horizontal bends of the cowl without having to force it, I then began to clamp and spot weld in the center, working my way out from the center. The section cuts I had made earlier were also the locations for the spot welds.

Now in place, it doesn't take a lot. Spot welds are ground down. The next step (no pic) was to apply rust converter all over this new piece, including the seam between the back part of the new section and the body. The final step will be to use 3M seam sealer at both the back edge as well as over the flat welded section to ensure a sealed paintable surface. Sorry for the bad pic, I'll get some more.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[Rome]

Nice, careful and quick work that you're doing.

Now that you have the original seal channel in place, were you aware of this alternative?
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Front-Hood-Seal-Beetle-and-Superbeetle-Mexibug-p/mexihoodseal.htm

Have you decided on the Beetle's new color?

[TX-73]

Yes, I knew about that seal but my preference was to replace the retainer and use the OEM lip seal

Final color plan is cobalt blue (base/clearcoat), tan/tweed interior, new set of rims/tires, rims yet undecided but either nice chrome rims or black/chrome mix.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

Rust repairs are about done, except for a final skim coat of filler and light block sanding over the repair areas.

I cleaned out behind the rust holes on the rear quarters, got the surfaces down to clean bare metal and filled the holes. I decided to fiberglass the repairs rather than MIG to avoid panel warping. I've done this before and it works fine, you mainly need a water proof repair.

Similar for the section I welded in for the hood edge. The seam was stitch welded, ground smooth, then a thin skim coat of fiberglass filler was applied to take care of any pinholes and to block the surfaces. Filler was then sanded down to what you see here. Next will be the skim coat of regular filler to block and smooth all of the surfaces.

The seal retainer repair at the cowl turned out pretty good. New section was tack welded into place as described above, then a dab of fiberglass filler was applied over the welds and sanded to generally smoothen things up. I'm not too worried about perfection below where the seal will go, mainly just a clean and smooth surface. The roughness that you see within the lower lip and just above the new retainer will be sanded out before primer, as it would be visible after paint and new seal is installed.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

LOL, time to pick this back up
The little bug has patiently sat in the garage while we finished up with some property selling and moving, plus as we know time just goes by.

I can't paint where we live now, but that's ok. I've got a local collision shop that will be doing the body and paint on it, they are close enough to just tow it over there and pick up a nice fresh cobalt blue bug.

Looking forward to getting this back together again.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to paint we go

This is the color that I picked, it's on new Corvettes. Paint brand is Sikkens.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

Still waiting on the body and paintwork - I knew they would work between insurance work so timeframe is fine, it's not like I don't have other things to do.

I wanted to make a couple of comments on parts clean-up. I've done this in a varierty of ways over the years and always looking to get good results for less time.

I've got a big parts washer but I also wanted a means of cleaning stuff up without time to wire brush, wash, etc. I've got a sandblaster pressure pot but decided to pick up a HF blast cabinet to be able to clean in a more controlled environment and recycle as much media as possible.

I didn't have my truck with me that day so I had to take it out of the box to squeeze it into the car lol. It's the 30 gal version. With sale price plus coupon, it was $103 out the door.

Not a great shot but just a view inside the cabinet, lighting is from a small fluorescent I mounted inside the cabinet. This was just before starting on an intake. I'm going to change the air line as it gets in the way but it's all I had handy at the time. I also have a shop vac connected to pull dust.

Intake cleaned up, about 10 min.

Engine tin cleaned up, about 5 min:

It does work my 5hp/60 gal compressor, but very pleased with the effectiveness and time savings. I use Tractor Supply Black Diamond media, no issues with the final cleaned surfaces.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[TX-73]

Painted yesterday, still needs to be color-sanded and buffed but the color is just right to me. I'll get more pics when I pick it up, they did an excellent, high quality job.

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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[Chochobeef]

Beautiful color! I like it. Great work

[TX-73]

thank you
I think with the tweed/tan interior and a nice set of rims/tires it will look really sharp. More pics to come.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
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[DrummerDaveB]

Love that color.
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79 SB Vert, in pieces.
Kadrons, SVDA.