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Third time lucky 69 bug resto.

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128K views 509 replies 51 participants last post by  misterecks  
#1 ·
After following various restos on here over the years, Jon of doom, Alex b, Last triumph, Danregs etc, I have bitten the bullet and made a start on the third, count them, resto on my 69 bug...... only this time I want to do it properly!

Here it is.........
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This shot was taken at bugfreeze 05.
 
#2 ·
This will be the third resto as I have owned the car since 1985 and I couldn't really start the thread without some history.

This is the car as I bought it in 85, a solid ish 69 1300 with a 1500 engine in.

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Check out the hair :eek:

After running the car as it was for a few years as a daily driver I had to take it of the road for some MOT welding and thought i might as well turn it into the cal looker I had always wanted. The plan was for a late model looker with colour coded bumpers and headlight rims/handles etc a good smack with the low stick at the front and some wheels.

So into the garage it went...

And all this started to happen!

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until I ended up with this....

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Well it was 1989 by this point :D
 
#4 ·
Stock 69 would be cool, but not this time ;)

What I have planned is an almost stock exterior, lowered front end and some nice wheels, flat four fuchs are favorite at the mo. oh and returning it to its original colour, I think it's kings red but could be wrong.

Inside I'm not sure yet, I might keep the early rocco seats I had re trimmed in 89 or I might go standard.

Engine wise it will be my current 1776 with 40 dells as a minimum but I will see what the budget is like once it's painted and put back together.
 
#5 ·
Anyhoo, I'll finish up the history so I can get to the good bits!

After running the bug for five or six years after the first resto it once more needed some work to get past the MOT man and as I was on the verge of starting project "house that needs knocking down but you're too dumb to let them" the bug went into my mums garage until the house was done.

Nine years later I got the bug out with a view to fixing it up quick and having some summer fun...

resto number two.....

this is the car the day I bought it home...

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it was fairly solid apart from this horror above the passenger door..

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#7 ·
First job had to be filling the hole above the passenger door, so off I popped to see the guys at Bughaus in Nottingham and returned with a nice rust free section of roof to splice in. Mine for free as long as I cut it out, top blokes!

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First I cut the repair section down to size before drilling out the spot welds and unpicking the joint.

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leaving me with a suitable repair section.

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I then removed the rusty bit

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before tacking in the repair

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ending up with this...

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#8 ·
With that out of the way I then set about painting it, I did most of the panels off the car, thats why its a patchwork in the following, I also admit that painting isn't my strong point hence some panels seem further along than others that have had to be re done

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but eventually I got it to this point...

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before the mate I had borrowed the compressor from asked for it back for a few days, so I put all the new trim on and the interior back in.

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After a couple of weeks of no compressor I went and bought one and painted the doors

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Note: this is not a good way to paint doors, you have to touch up the bit of the hinge you see when the door is shut, you live and learn!

And that brings us up to where the car is now, the second resto was only ever meant to be a quick job to last a year before I got a chance to do it for real, that was three years ago now so I have to say I'm pleased with how it has lasted.
 
#10 ·
Haven't had a lot of time this week but have made a start...

First squeezed the bug into my tiny garage.

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so that I could start to replace this lot...

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with this lot...

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An hour later and thanking god I remembered the copper grease when I put it together we have this..

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then this another hour later..

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need a new one of those then, only done a few hundred miles :rolleyes:

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Ok, for any of you that might have thought "looks ok as it is" at the start of this thread this is what it looks like under the paint :eek:

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but don't worry, the grinder comes out tomorrow :D
 
#12 ·
Ok, Time for an update!

Two weeks ago I was about to start putting this lot...
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Into here...
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However after a couple of hours poking and cleaning it started to dawn on me that after I had welded in all of the new metal I would need there wouldn't be very much of the original rear quarter left, as I have a new boot floor panel and rear cross members to go in I thought it would be a shame to weld them to a bodge so I decided two new rear quarters where needed.

As I had already started cutting the right hand side I tried to get that panel only to find that nobody seems to have any!! My local GSF could get a left hand one so I bought one and set about that side instead....

Bring on the grinder :D
 
#13 ·
This next bit is scary, in terms of both what I have done and the state of some of the "professional" repairs I have come across.

Time to remove old quarter panel, first I started to unpick the engine side tray to boot floor welds, after a few seconds I came to the conclusion there was no point.

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Even worse that that is the fact that the heater channel where the rear quarter joins was the same :eek:

Moving to the inside I cleaned all the old seam sealer off

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and drilled out the welds
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continuing all the way round to the boot floor
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before cutting this horror out
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three layers of patches in that one!

Having done the arch section I cleaned the B pillar up and drilled the welds
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cleaned the window frame
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and drilled the welds
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before making a cut through the B pillar
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#14 ·
All I had to do them was mark the C pillar area for cutting
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Before cutting that area and a whole bunch of patches where the cross member joins the arch near the spring plate retainer and....

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off it comes!!! It was at this point that I started to think "shit will it go back OK?"

Only job I had to do now was to weld a nut onto the body mount bolt I had to muller to get the old panel off so I could get it off and guess what, the only part I don't have a spare of for the welder broke bringing play to an end.

Tomorrow it's off to machine mart for welder bits and I can start to get the new one on, I have offered it up and it seems to fit fine apart from the engine side tray that seems to be set a little to far back. It might be fine once I've got things fitting a little better.
 
#15 ·
Only had half an hour to play tonight but got a little bit done.

I nipped into Machine mart at lunch today and got:
Swans neck liner (the broken bit)
.8mm tips
.6mm wire
.6mm tips
2 spare shrouds
and half a dozen 1mm grinder discs
Amazing haw quick £25 disappears :(

Having got the welder running again I set it to kill and welded a nut to the mullered stud

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and out it came,

now that may not seem like much but I was pleased as you like to get it out in one piece.

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I also tried the new quarter and got it to almost fit, the engine side tray isn't an issue at all but I think I will have to remove the cross member to get it in properly, there is a mess of old patches and crap in that area and I think it will all go back together much better once its all cut out.

Never having done this before I don't really know what the area should look like, anyone got any photos??

Also while I'm on I'm thinking of getting the German made heater channels VW Status are selling, has anybody on here used them or heard what they fit like??

Any help would be great.
 
#19 ·
Hey there - your doing a great job dude keep it up. I just bought German heater channels from status and they are made of good quality steel (better than GSF) The only thing is "dont believe their website prices" as they are total bollox. Channels for my 66 were listed as £49 each but when I ordered them they were £65 each plus vat and shipping came to a total of £87. Still they are worth it, in the long run

2 channels and 2 floorpans came to a total of £288 delivered. but well worth the price and the wait as they dont keep much stock as you would expect from a small company

hope this helps

Dave H
 
#21 ·
Had an hour to play this evening so I set about getting the passenger side cross member out so that I can get a better idea of how the rear quarter will go back on. The corner where the cross member, heater channel and rear arch meet is a total mess of rust and old patches and it's pretty hard to tell whats what so once again out with the grinder...

Today's job, replace all this
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With this
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I love the twisted wire brush for my grinder, it takes no prisoners :D

Cleaning old seam sealer and crap off
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And drilling yet more spot welds
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I had to chisel some of it as I couldn't see the spot welds through the pitting. Doesn't matter though, new bootfloor will sort that.

Had to cut through a solid weld at the back
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before it all came out
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And a quick trial fit of the new bit
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whoooo hoooo, a non rusty bit :D

Having got the cross member in some thing like I quickly tried the quarter again, it still doesn't want to go in, it is in the right position at the body mounting point but I think the cross member might need a bit of trimming, it looks different on the back edge to the old one.
 
#22 ·
I still had a little time left to play so I thought I would see if I could get the new quarter a bit closer, first remove the top of the window frame.

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that felt a bit strange, taking a grinder to a brand new, perfectly good panel!!

After taking the crossmember out again and a bit of wiggling..
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Very close to fitting :D

Tomorrow I am going to get it fitting properly before looking at the crossmember issue, I think with a bit of trimming all should be well.

The bit circled wasn't on the original panel so I think that can come off without causing a problem.

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Once I have all that sorted there are a few small repairs needed to the inner skin before the whole lot is covered in POR15 prior to welding the new panels in.
 
#23 ·
Haven't had much time on the bug in the last few days but have made a little progress.

After much cutting and checking and having had the panels on and off the car about a thousand times I have the rear quarter somewhere near fitting. It's been a right bleedin mission but it looks quite sweet even if I do say so myself ;) Probably look a right state by the time I've welded it in lol.

I first cut through the B pillar section of the new panel and what was left on the car at the same time with a hacksaw leaving a nice weldable gap.
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I then clamped new panel in place so as to mark the cut along the rear section.
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I have made the cut quite close to the swage line as this should provide a strong section and help to keep the distortion down to a minimum, yeah, right :rolleyes:

And about twenty fit, take apart, trim and fits later.
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The gap along the rear section is nice and close apart from where it turns the corner onto the decklid flange type area, I think I might have to let a thin strip into this bit.

I hope to get a few repairs done on the rear quarter inner panel tomorrow night, whack a coat of POR15 on and be ready to start the welding on Saturday.
 
#28 ·
Quick update...

Gave inner panel a good clean yesterday and gave it a couple of coats of POR15 to help keep the nasties at bay a little longer
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Before mocking up with the wing and running board
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Then today I cleaned the rust from the flanges where they meet the new panel and gave them a coat of weld through primer
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Punched the holes for plug welds
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Before a final mock up to check alignment
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All seems good, the door gap is ok (wide angle lens makes it look narrow at the bottom) but to be honest I'm not using the door thats on at the moment and the bottom hinge section on the A pillar needs replacing so there is plenty of scope to get it spot on.
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Which left me nothing to do but crank up the welder
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Everything is tacked in place awaiting proper welding tomorrow, I am not going to weld the inner part of the B pillar just yet, I am going to wait until I put the heater channel back in so that I have a bit of flex to get things lined up better.

And one final thing, I have found that using the weld through primer makes welding a nightmare!
 
#29 ·
Awesome stuff!!! Third resto.....one has been more than enough for me!! How much are those rear quarters? Onr thing I wish I had done on my bug that I haven't is the rear inner wing sections and those carb access panels!! Got a horrible feeling I'll be doing them before long!

Keep all the photos coming! :)

Ben
 
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