'75 UK 1303 Build Thread

Dodgy · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:03 am Post subject:

Did a bit more work over the last couple of weeks. Added patch panels to upper & lower parts of the body section so it's now solid again. But I think I removed about the same amount of (further) rusty metal as I've added in new pieces! I guess it's still progress though - although I'm looking forward to the point when the body actually starts getting heavier again!

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

I've now removed the rear part of the strut tower reinforcement to prepare for replacing the rusty sheet metal behind. All this will have to be stabilised before tackling the bulkhead.
_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

don't_bug_me · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:18 am Post subject:

You do good work, and i've seen a lot of people as of late doing extensive serious body work repair to some of these bugs, not ones with any great meaning either, like they've been in the family, rare car, etc, leading up to a question I guess, in the long run, wouldn't it be easier to find a donor body in better shape both for time and cost savings, I guess unless they are hard to come by where you may happen to be, but I seem to run across a lot of people taking the bodies off, some in real decent condition for whatever trike or buggy project they happen to be creating at the time, and most of them initially try to sell the body for some money, and after a couple weeks they practically try to give them away for mere pennies on the dollar to just get it out of their way.

Joel · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:56 am Post subject:

Well they're not making any more of them,
Good project bugs have been starting to dry up due to people in the past scrapping good cars so its either fix a rotten one or pay through the nose for a solid one.

Some people have the skills and like the satisfaction of fixing a rotten one, it doesnt always need to have sentimental value.

don't_bug_me · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:29 am Post subject:

Oh by no means am I putting anyone down for this, some people I can tell just enjoy the body work, I guess I don't mind the mechanical end of it, and prefer to do less body work, and have seen quite a few bodies for sale this past year, craigs in my area is full of project starter wannabees who never finish them, whether it's a car, bike, atv, etc, I usually have a pretty good pool to choose from, lucky I guess, maybe compared to others.

Dodgy · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:56 am Post subject:

Well, as I've owned this car so long and it was my first car, with the family connections etc, I guess a body swap is out and the sentimental value aspect is worth the work. And bad as it is (in some areas) there are plenty of people who have rescued far worse Beetles than this one. I've been a bit surprised how rotten this car is, especially bearing in mind that it's spent about a third of its life (so far) in dry storage.

It would be far harder if this car was less original than it is. For example having to re-do previously replaced heater channels would be a nightmare - it's not too bad picking apart the factory spot welds on an original body. That's where the additional challenge of 'project cars of the future' will be.

I don't mind bodywork, although it requires (a lot) more patience than mechanical jobs. I keep reminding myself that the end result will be worth it - and if I do it right this time I won't have to do it again - I'm reminded of that now I'm picking apart repairs that were just bodged on in the past.
_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

Dodgy · Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:08 am Post subject:

Thought it is time for an update, although I haven't had much garage time so not a lot of progress...

Finally completed the patch to go over the huge hole in the inner wing - this was a real pain to get all the curves correct and match the features on the panel. I lost 1 of the circular recesses and formed a new one using a couple of sockets and my vice, came out pretty good! I don't want this to be an obvious repair when finished and painted. I've drilled holes to plug weld through onto the various panels / sections behind that tie to this surface to make sure everything is as strong as it should be. The panel is just clamped in position for now, as I'm waiting until I finally weld the inner reinforcement in place, then can repaint where the welds have burnt the paint of.

I've cleaned up the inner reinforcement and welded in a patch where it was thinned due to rust, between the holes for the steering rack bolts, this is ready for refit but I'm still debating the refit order, inner wing panel, reinforcement, bulkhead etc

Have welded in a patch to repair the big hole in the inner wing by the A-pillar. This was a pain to match the deceptively simple curves. Still have to grind back the weld bead and make good. (Heater channel is just clamped in place in this photo)

Lastly, have started drilling out the spot welds to remove the bulkhead. This is going to be a big job as the pattern panel needs LOTS of work before it can be fitted.

Still going... Smile

_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Dodgy · Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 1:25 am Post subject:

The bulkhead is out!!!

What a ba***rd of a job Evil or Very Mad

Unfortunately removing it has, unsurprisingly, revealed more rust on the RH side inner wing. This means that the corner reinforcement piece on that side is going to have to come off. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this...

The [wheel side] inner wing panel on this side is solid, so I'll have to try and remove the corner reinforcement welds from the underside, this is much harder than finding the welds from inside the chassis box section.

Here are the photos of the original bulkhead showing the differences to the pattern panel currently sold. I think this pattern panel is basically one from a standard beetle fitted with a slightly wider flat front panel.

1) The inner panel on the original has a flat top and completely different profile. It also has a centre face at 45 degrees to support the bracket that bolts to the top of the floorpan tunnel - missing from the pattern part

2) Front panel is similar - probably close enough to live with. There is a raised panel on the LH side (RH in photo), not sure if I'll have to remove this or not. Bracket from the top of the bulkhead that bolts to the floorpan framehead is missing and will have to be transferred over

3) Hole for drain tube is missing, I think the profile of the top flange is different too, but maybe not significantly.

4) The depth between inner and outer faces is different and will have to be built up, the pattern panel narrows towards the centre while the original is a constant depth.

On top of this of course, the reinforcement 'boxes' containing the captive threaded plates for the body mounts will need to be made up, as the bottoms had completely rusted away on both sides.

Feels like I'm staring into a (rusty) abyss at the moment, but trying to keep motivated to see it through. It'll be worth it when it all goes back together and is (a) solid and (b) correctly done. Smile

_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

Dodgy · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:47 pm Post subject:

Been a while since I updated here. Started to get frustrated and thought it better to take a while off than start rushing things and screwing the job up.

Finally got the second corner reinforcement bracket off. I think my car was built after lunchtime in the VW factory, and Herman the German (after his lunchtime beer) got carried away with the spot weld tool. In the end I had to cut into the solid inner wing panel and get to the welds from the inside. Never mind...

The small rust patches on the inner body section lower corner and between the steering rack mounting bolts have now been fully repaired.

So... started working on making a new 'proper' bulkhead from a combination of the original panel and the crappy pattern one.

Measured the better of the two (remnants of) reinforcement 'boxes' for the front crossmember captive nuts, drew it in CAD to develop a flat pattern, and knocked one up in 2mm steel.

Split both bulkhead panels

You can see the KlokkerCrap quality shining through - no inner paint coating at all, and already rusty just from storage Evil or Very Mad

Added the cutout slot for the vent drain tube to the top of the pattern panel

Fixed the centre area on the original panel which was damaged when removing the bracket that bolts to the chassis tunnel - this area was completely different on the pattern panel which is one of the reasons I'm doing this repair the hard way.

Now started to build up the bulkhead inner panel, reshaping the corners of the pattern part to join with the good steel on the genuine one. You can just see poking out part of the reinforcement box for the front crossmember captive nuts.

This is as far as I've got for now. Still, making progress. Maybe things will speed up as the garage gets warmer again Smile

_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

beetlenut · Samba Member Joined: May 27, 2009 Posts: 2983 Location: RI

Coming along slowly but surely. I had to make all those revisions to my new front firewall repair panel too! Seriously a POS replacement piece! Make sure you leave room for the captive nut plate to float inside the little housings that you're going to put into the firewall, so you have some play for the bolts that go up through everything. I made a slot in mine so the nut plate could slide around, without moving up or down.

Don't lose that bracket that bolts to the top of the floor pan tunnel! You think it sucked getting the front firewall out! Wait till you have to put the new one in. Some serious metal origami happening there. I had to end up taking both corner reinforcement brackets off in order to just get the mushroom-shaped firewall up in place, and I replaced the spare tire well, so I had a little more room to work with the old one out of the way. It's like the worst 3-D puzzle with no instructions! Smile

Keep hammering away at it (sometimes literally)!
_________________
scrapyards are for quitters
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Dodgy · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:17 am Post subject:

OK, time for an update. Been a few busy months without much time in the garage (again), but some progress has been made...

Finally got all the pieces assembled and welded together, and the bulkhead is now complete

Here's all that's left of the pattern panel and the original bulkhead

I made the two reinforcement brackets, copied the originals as closely as possible so they will tie into the structure in the same way as originally designed. The original rusty parts are shown for comparison

So, time to trial fit on the floorpan...

(Seeing it in place like this makes all the work worthwhile, the centre bracket fits properly and the footplates will fit correctly too - neither would be the case with the pattern panel)

...but not before finding out that the pattern heater channels are not correct at the front end (although I'd heard this was the case beforehand) - photo shows the front plate cut off and moved about 3/4" forward over the bolt holes

One small extension piece later

Now time to trial fit in the body...

...but the only way I could make it fit was cut into some of the parts I'd already repaired Sad

It's so great to see this big hole finally filled. Trial fitted the heater channel too, and the fit of all the parts is good

Next job is to tack weld everything in place and drop the body back onto the floorpan to check alignment before welding everything together.

Then onto the heater channel and rear crossmember on the other side!
_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

Dodgy · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:08 am Post subject:

Time for another occasional update...

Body is back on the pan! (Well, for now)
Made sure all the bolts lined up before tacking everything together in final position

Bulkhead looks good, worth all the effort. Fit over 'nap hat' looks fine.

Then puddle welded all the original spot welds back together

While the body is back on, thought I'd finish the LH side of the car before embarking on the RH heater channel. So time to deal with the big hole in the inner wing / rusty body mount

Here's what it looks like at the moment

Some work to go, but nothing like the bulkhead - if I can survive that I can survive anything!
Already see problems with the pattern panels - wrong curvature, poor form etc. Same old, same old.
_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

Metamatic · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:34 pm Post subject:

I am seriously impressed how well you are working with the metal.

I am currently working on a 1303 convertible and I've observed that my vert has similar rot in the bulkhead. Unfortunately I think I'm lacking the skill to repair it the way you do. But I am tempted to try because of your thread. So I will give it a go without removing the bulkhead. I suppose I have to build a rotisserie now. Rolling Eyes

Anyways, keep up the good work! I am really jealous!

Dodgy · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 11:48 pm Post subject:

vwrobert · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:05 am Post subject:

Dodgy · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:20 pm Post subject:

Time for another intermittent update Very Happy

The inner wing panel is now fitted - dots show puddle welds from the inside replacing the original factory spot welds - all properly tied in!

View from inside - oh yes this floor repair piece also needed substantial reworking before it could be fitted to the car. Originally had a deep recess that had to be removed, maybe from later / Mexican Beetles?? (the panel was much larger than just the piece I've fitted)

View from underneath showing the third layer, the upper / rear part of the crossmember. Seemed a shame to purchase a whole crossmember panel and then just use this part, but there you go. Right now it's all about keeping as much original metal as possible.

So now the dilemma. I have to fit the reinforcement panel with the body mount. I have the pattern part but it's just as crap as the others I've had to deal with so far:
- Metal is thinner than stock
- Form of part is awful
- Body mount is thin steel and only single thickness (original is double thickness)
- Body mount bracket isn't even folded square
- Has maybe a quarter of the welds holding the original panels together (count the holes where I drilled them out!)
- Knowing Klokkercrap, the gap between these panels is already rusty from new

I'm thinking of repairing the front rotten part of the original reinforcement panel, then refitting the original body mount which had surface rust only.

Maybe I just look for the hard way to do everything? But I know it will annoy me to (a) fit and (b) forever see the crap panel in situ on the car, let alone be aware of the reduced strength in this area.

I'm trying not to look over at the other side of the car while I'm working here, it's too depressing

Oops I just did Twisted Evil

_________________
'75 1303 (current project) owned since 1989!
'72 Squareback - full resto completed 2008 - now sold
356 Speedster kit, completed 2005 - now sold

Metamatic · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:27 pm Post subject:

Impressive work! Applause

I haven't even started on my body yet and it's in even worse condition than yours.

houseofboyd · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:36 pm Post subject:

Very nice work...wish I had your skills... Smile

_________________
Our 1968 Zenith Blue Beetle: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619501

My '74 SB Build On The Samba: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=609943

Our Web Site: http://www.kentuckyhotwheels.com

1968 VW Beetle
2012 Turbo VW Beetle


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