Fubar64 The rebuild of an ex show car

[vwhelmot]

So the body was completely stripped and was solid all over but as everyone knows bare metal is the only way forward. The shell had so many coats of paint , I had splashed something like 25 litres of cellulose on it (remember I had problems with batches) and Mr Gilberts had painted over it with 2 pack. " pack paint is a bastard to blast off, its so hard it takes huge amounts of crushed glass to cut though. I had the bright idea of chemically stripping the main areas first with nitromors , the roof, quarters etc . It would then be easier to blast afterwards. Seam sealer is also a pain in the arse to remove as the glass just bounces off it so that has to be removed by hand too. Now here comes lesson number 1. Do not use a flame gas torch to melt seam sealer while the nitromors is doing its thing!!! Mr stupid here managed to set fire to the shell inside my work. The flame shot up the rear quarter and in a second the whole roof was blazing away, six foot flames. I`m so lucky that there was an extinguisher close upstairs and managed to put it out before any damage. I could here the roof panels of the building starting to creak and sizzle too. Proper scary shit!!

before the fire

just after, notice the burn on the roof of the building

Filled the whole place with corrosive powder. Nice.

[vwhelmot]

[vwhelmot]

So after the big clean up which took hours and hours, the fork lift was put to use again to take the shell to the corner of the yard so I could blast it.

A whole day and a half later I had this. Not a nice job but well worth it!

[vwhelmot]

Next it was forked up again to its home and the start of the metal work. This thread will concentrate just on that and not any of the detail shiny stuff that I have been doing in between as I want some of it to be a surprise for the debut in 2017.

I have worked from the back to the front so I started with the incorrect bumper mounts. I used Hookys panels for these. The first problem I encountered was the fact that there was no return lip on the inside as this had been lost in the previous rebuild, so I had to first guess how much of a lip there should be.

The engine corner back panel was also very thin, and needed replacing so I removed the whole thing.

[vwhelmot]

Tacked in place

It didn't line up at the rear but I sorted that not long after as you will see

Semi welded

The lip wasn't really the correct shape at this stage either.

[vwhelmot]

Tacked in place

It didn't line up at the rear but I sorted that not long after as you will see

Semi welded

The lip wasn't really the correct shape at this stage either.

[vwhelmot]

Part way through welding the corners.

I then blasted it as the joining lip had some surface rust too

I spot blasted the body too as there was rust in between the two panels

[vwhelmot]

More. Notice the shit welding under the floor. Best of show my arse! ;D

Welded back in place. The tar board clips will be removed.

[vwhelmot]

This is the lip I`m talking about. Finished after I had installed the engine tray.

[WayneMcCarthy]

Fantastic Work Lyndon .......
_________________
Pog Mo Thoin

[vwhelmot]

Thanks matey.
The other side needed the same treatment in that I had to create a new lip.

Now to weld in the rear panel and the two side trays , you need a valence to line things up. I managed to source a NOS one which was nice but I had to do something with the wing mounting nutserts first. Now VW in their infinite wisdom decided to use two different types of captive nuts. Unfortunately for me mine has the square recessed type and my car was a right mismatch of types as all these areas had been worked on previously.
I bought another valence on egay which included the sections I was after but it was bent and crusty.

Crusty

This is the section I was after with the correct nutsert

Cut the section out

Blasted

Tacked

[vwhelmot]

Using the NOS valence for fitment

These square serts would become a pain in the arse later as you will see

[fivelugshortaxle]

_________________
Good things come to those who wait.
2332 with lots of goodies....
Rotating assembly balanced by Brothers VW
4340 84mm crank
AA 94mm p&c' s
Total seal 2nd ring, rest are Grants
5.5 h beams
Magnum straight cuts
Steve Long XR310 on a 106
CB 1.4 rockers
CB Magnaspark 2 distributor
NGK D7ea plugs
A1 lowdown 1 3/4 with single muffler
Dellorto 48's with 40 venturies
Kennedy Stage 2 with Daiken disc

[DBK UK]

good work
_________________
DBKUK

[vwhelmot]

Cheers ears :D

Moving on to the other side and it was a similar story, the correct nutsert was missing so a section was cut out and genuine metal was let in.

Again the NOS valence was used for reference.

Nearly there

I used an old steel wing , lines up nice

[vwhelmot]

Engine trays welded from the outside for a neater finish

Weber IDA windows cut out

[vwhelmot]

So both sides nearly done, the square top corner of the LH weber hole was adjusted after I welded in a section to make a curve.

The next on the list was the rear cross members. Now as far as I`m concerned the only was to repair these are to cut them out completely and make them good before welding them back in again, rather than just trying to repair them in place. Its a neater job. I had repaired mine before using a later square type member and it looked far from good.

[vwhelmot]

I managed to get a pair of members off the samba and got them sent over. I think 90% of the member arrived and unfortunately the missing 10% is pretty hard to replicate but its better than what was in the car.

There was part of the boot floor included which turned out to be a bonus

Started cutting out the old one

Gone

[vwhelmot]

Straight away I tried the new old member and even the factory spot welds lined up

Now as it stands, no one makes correct repair cross members sections for mid sixties bugs so I ordered a pair of Virtanen oval repair sections as that was the next best thing. I could have made my own but to save time I went down this road.

It was quite a bit different

Single mount hole as opposed to the dual mount of the earlier cars.

I drilled out the spot welds to separate them which wasn't easy.....

.... and then cut the Virtanen panel almost in half and tacked the old and new together

Trial fitting

fully welded and smoothed although not spot welded back in place yet.

I then had a guide to make the outer from sheet

I blasted the rust off before layering plenty of weld through primer , then welded the two pieces back together.

I would later go back and slightly modify it later but I don't have any pics

[img]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2

[URL=http://s98.photobucket.com/user/vwhelmot/media/Fubar64/89CAEB35-D843-463E-8870-6352205D1E5F.jpg.html]

Checking fitment

[vwhelmot]

I had to next think about the flange where it meets the body. Again there are no repair sections available so I had to fab this myself. I never liked the way the original panel was attached to the member, it didn't flow properly, you will see what I mean ;)....

Smoothed

Semi welded, flows nicer now

Blasted the rest of the member and trial fitted.