[psimitar]

Today I r mostly been fixing me doors

So last few days after finishing the wifes easel I have been prepping all the bits to get the doors back on the Beetle with new hinges/pins. Get ready.......

Original re-pinned hinges welded up to remove wear in mounting holes.

Cleaned up and re-drilled

Inner door strengthener splits n ovalled hinge holes

Both strengtheners welded up and fettled back to round holes

 

[psimitar]

And continuing......

Splits and panel beaten hinge area on passenger door

welded up and bit of filler weld in trough in panel

Drivers door lower hinge torn outer skin and crappy door mirror holes

Welded up and fettled into shape

More tomoro as no noise after 7pm here

 

[Bathtub57]

Blimey, that's some serious attention to detail! Not seen fill in welds before. Keep posting!

 

[psimitar]

Thanks fella some may call it anal but to me its doing the job properly. Im of a dying breed maybe?

 

[It's only metal]

Quality work here - keep at it.

 

[psimitar]

So a bit longer than the next day like I said but waiting for knifing putty and paint to dry chews the days up especially when you have to wait until nitetime to apply the paint due to it being above 30 here.

Anyway,

Quick bolt welded to battery clamp to hold the plastic cover on

Stainless window channel repaired

Door hinge area's smoothed a little n painted

Door seal channels and bottom area de-rusted and painted

And the hinges and door inner upper support plates painted ready for welding back in

Also, getting the drivers wing bolts lubed up ready for removal so I can make a wee repair to the inner wings drain hole area and also the split to the passengers lower hinge area.

Doors so close to going back on after 3 months or more from when I removed them to 'fix the hinges quick'

 

[psimitar]

Whilst I've been waiting for the rust cure paint to harden properly in the doors so they don't react to the zinc welding spray I've been tackling what I thought was a quick little patch at the bottom of the driver A pillar. Turned out to be rather holey after wire brushing

Then spent a good few hours making a multi-angle plate to replicate the original panel

Tomoro I should hopefully get the door inner upper support plates welded back in. probably take the rear wings off to sort a few tears in the lower return lips and then I can move me welding gear up to the Beetle for a few jobs on the body itself

So close to doors going back on

 

[psimitar]

So been at it all week getting the doors finished and sorting the rear wings out. Doors still new another coat on the outside but still too fecking hot

Anyway, Door upper strengtheners back in

And door edges back in shape

Lower rear wing edges crusty and mangled

And then welded new piece in and welded any tears up and whacked em back into shape (forgot the pic of the drivers back into shape better)

And found large areas of bog in the passenger wing. Roughly hammered back into shape but will give it some more later

 

[psimitar]

And finally a few tears in the bonnet front lip welded up to stop the bonnet sagging to one side when open, the passenger door lower hinge area tears welded up and the repair panel for the drivers A piller welded in

SO so close to doors back on

 

[Tsettle]

some reet good fettling there dude, yur doing a super job. Im loving how you've been doing all your work bare footed and looks like on them photos of the painted hinges is in the top of one of thoses trees haha.

 

[psimitar]

some reet good fettling there dude, yur doing a super job. Im loving how you've been doing all your work bare footed and looks like on them photos of the painted hinges is in the top of one of thoses trees haha.

Well it is just after xmas so thought I'd decorate the yard

Bare foot is the way to go over here at present. Heck it's been so hot this week I was doing naked welding and grinding. Not that I'd recommend that

 

[psimitar]

Ouch, splatter burns to your meat and veg, never have that here!

Are you gonna narrow/lower your bug or keep it original?

Take a look at my part one thread below in my signature.

Beam is 2inch narrowed so I can fit vented discs to the front which will increase the track a bit.

Rarely get spatter with my welding but my feet move like lightning when some splatter hits them

 

[thmpptrck]

Excellent work fella, love looking through threads for insparation and ideas, Also help knowing people are in the same position and willing to put in a shift..

love the barefoot! although in my garage if I tried that it would rip my feet to shreads..

 

[psimitar]

Cheers dude

I've got fairly used to standing on sharp bits of metal, gravel driveways and sharp Aussie tree fragments and can ignore most of it

 

[psimitar]

So, made up some little brackets to weld into the footwells for the speaker pods I'll make down the line sometime but whilst I have the gas I'm getting any welding job I can think of done

Brackets

Welded into footwell

And the unfortunate bit of rust I found when cleaning round a bolt hole for a good welding ground

So, another wee repair panel to fab before continuing with the list of jobs for the doors to go on. Will it ever end

 

[psimitar]

Got the repair panel for the passenger front wing welded in today finally after titting about with a small plate on the heater channel to keep the channel water tight. So the welder didn't like the unclean underside of the metal and took much fettling with the dremel to grind the welds down so the outer repair could go on.

and then decided to bite the bullet and see how bad the lower passenger rear panel was with the awesomely brutal twisted wire cup brush on the grinder.

As you can see that cup brush sure shows up any dodgy areas.

Shame as the bottom folded edge is hole free but now means the panel I make has to somehow replicate the drain hole channels that early Beetles came with. Still, apart from having to wait between stitch welds to stop panel warpage it means this should be pretty quick as a nice large panel to pop in

 

[thmpptrck]

 

[psimitar]

Keep rollin rollin rollin

welding on the interior was finished today and the hinges bolted to the doors last nite so pretty much ready for them to go back on again

Captive nuts welded into rear inner wings for rear shelf supports and few plug welds where the luggage floor had seperated from some impact in time and a wee hole the lazy previous fecker had used to run indicator wires.

Both lower front inner wings rust proof painted after welding now finished

And the new and old repaired hinges finally bolted up to the doors with 1/4" inch stainless CS bolts

Got a few holes to plug in the decklid and then I can move the welding gear back down to my work area and start getting the interior back in b4 the doors go back on

 

[thmpptrck]

welding on the interior was finished today and the hinges bolted to the doors last nite so pretty much ready for them to go back on again

Captive nuts welded into rear inner wings for rear shelf supports and few plug welds where the luggage floor had seperated from some impact in time and a wee hole the lazy previous fecker had used to run indicator wires.

Both lower front inner wings rust proof painted after welding now finished

And the new and old repaired hinges finally bolted up to the doors with 1/4" inch stainless CS bolts

Got a few holes to plug in the decklid and then I can move the welding gear back down to my work area and start getting the interior back in b4 the doors go back on

Love the cs bolts got boxes of them from an old job everything will be stainless on mine.. Top job fella...

 

[psimitar]

Lower rear arch repair section

So as soe tropical cyclone thingy makes it very wet outside so that not even the rust converter has dried after a whole day then I have been fashioning an accurate replica of the lower rear arch panel.

Here is the efforts of my labour

No idea when I can get it on the car as the weather is fully shite for at least the next few days