This beetle project started with the purchase of a 1967 1500cc beetle. The beetle was in a very bad condition and needed major surgery to be revived to a new state of youth.
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The right heater channel has been removed for some time now, today I removed the left one. The previous owner did some patchwelding to fix it a little bit. But I don't think those repairs are good enough.
These are pictures of it's previous state.
I made the first cut just before the B-post.
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Must admit that I have had little time for my beetle the last couple of month. In 30 days we are expecting kid # 2. So that's going to take up a lot of time.
Last week I had time to finish the luggage shelf. Almost al the rust was removed with the sand blaster and the remaining rust treated with Fertan (chemical rust remover). This is what it looked when I started. And with the Fertan treatment.
This is the first result. Completely sprayed with Zinc spray. Needles to say that I still have to weld in the new parts.
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The last weeks have been very busy with everything but my beetle. Yesterday I couldn't resist the itching anymore; I had to do something for my beetle.
The front of the beetle is what got my attention. The spare wheel well has to be replaced and the bumper mounts are attached to very week metal. First I cut the wheel well out with the reciprocal saw. This resulted in this nice hole.
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The front right inner wheelhouse was covered with a thick layer of undercoating, rust and mud. I first tried to remove the undercoating with a wire brush. But due to the heat generated by the friction it al became one big mess. What worked fine was using a putty-knife to cut big pieces from the hard undercoating. You will damage the paint underneath the schutz in the process.
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The cross connection under the right rear seat is in poor condition, especially the part which connects to the heater channel and the innner wheel arch. So it has to be cut away.
First all spot welds which connects the cross connection to the luggage shelf have to be drilled out.
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Like on most classic Volkswagen Beetles both heater channels have to be replaced. I started with the right heater channel.
First you have to take precautions to prevent the body from deforming after you cut away the heater channel. I decided to weld a steel pipe in the door frame.
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The luggage shelf is one of the most rusted parts of the beetle. I started derusting with a wire-brush to remove surface corrosion, paint and dirt. This is what the shelf looked like when I started:
My strategy on removing the rust was: first use a wire-brush, second use a random orbit sander, third use the sand blaster, fourth use a chemical rust desolver (Fertan) and last spraypaint with zinc spray.
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The body shell is very much work as you have seen in the previous posts. Just to make some progress I decided to take on the chassis, which has been stored in the back yard for some time. At first glance it looks just as bad as the rest of the car, but looks can be deceiving. Underneath the under seal there is some nice (rust free) metal left.
This is what the chassis looked like in the last couple of months.
After removing the green plastic I could see what the rain has done to the remainder of the floor pans.
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On the left of the car are some strange repairs. I still haven't figured out what happened to the car. On the roof next to the rear window you can see two welds. There is also a large dent which would suggest that there has been an accident. But what kind?
If we proceed to the inside we see more strange repairs. The complete inner panel seems to be replaced.
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The beetle is now in the workshop where I can start sanding and sandblasting. To examine the extend of rust I started with basic sanding of a few suspect places. Fortunately not many big holes emerged after grinding with an angle grinder.
It's not a very good picture, but this is a very weak spot.
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Let's focus on the main problem areas. The most worrying damage is left from the rear window. I suspect that the beetle hit something while driving backwards (or it has rolled over, but than I would expect more damage to the roof). The arrow points to trouble.
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After transportation of the beetle to my place I stored it in the back yard. First I had to make a plan how to restore this beetle.
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The rear suspension was (primitively) fixed on the left side. The right site however is one big hole!!!
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After close inspection of the beetle one thing came to my mind, THAT'S A LOT OF RUST!!!!
All the classic rust area's were in poor condition. The heaterchannels were poorly repared, the luggage shelf was covered in a thick layer of rust, the spare wheel well was rusted through, etc. etc.
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How the project started:
After I moved from Rotterdam to a small village in the south of the Netherlands the opportunity arose to start-up an old hobby: restoration of VW Beetles!! Not the expensive nice ones but the old rusty ones. After some nosing around on the Internet I found a nice project.
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