[psimitar]

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

Cheers dude Nice to know someone is watching. Makes ones resolve stronger

The CS bolts were the only way to go on the doors as the original fasteners were CS rivets and the hinges are CS'd too.

I even got my cheap as chinese tungsten carbide tipped holesaw the other day so I have cut out of some 3mm plate a few plugs to weld into 3 of my steels so I can then drill them out to use modern tyre valves. You should see how the tyre shop bodged the when they fitted the new tyres

 

[psimitar]

Yay!!!!! Last bit of welding on the main body today. Well I can't think of anything else that needs welding

Anyhow, here's the before and after of the passenger plower rear wing/arch area.

Just a few fixes on the drivers door and hopefully by the end of the weekend the doors will be back on

 

[Bathtub57]

Good news - lets see some pics of the whole car when the doors go back on.

Glad you didn't get blown away I was there during the storms in 2011 wasn't nice.

 

[psimitar]

Good news - lets see some pics of the whole car when the doors go back on.

Glad you didn't get blown away I was there during the storms in 2011 wasn't nice.

Yea, I was here for the 2011 flood. Weren't so bad tho we didn't get flooded. With my job back then got to see some good views and fix lots of devastation.

Good thing about being a pom is that such weather I lived with a fair bit more often in the UK so I'm not so phased by such things

 

[thmpptrck]

 

[psimitar]

Maybe I was being cocky?!?!

So was tidying up the welds on the lower rear quarter and when I came to wire brush the pin hole repairs on the inner wing panel I came across this and so thought best lop it out

bit of a nuisance really as I'd cleaned the car of tools and the welder so now have to lug it back up to the car again. Hey ho

Interior in and doors on by end of weekend may be pushing it now. We'll see :crazy:

 

[psimitar]

Managed to get the little repair section I found the rust on yesterday sorted out and tidied up. Weld ain't totally flat but it's tricky to get too and it ain't gonna be seen under the seat anyhow

Also vacuumed and washed the floor down so it's all nice and clean for the interior to go in.

Of course as my brain is always on the go and can go from subject to subject so quick I forget what I was originally thinking of. Well basically I remembered a bit of welding on the drivers footwell that needs grinding. Arg!!! And I just washed and vacuumed the bloody floor DOH!!!!!!

 

[psimitar]

FINALLY!!! The doors are back on

Yup, you heard right. The doors are finally back on the Beetle.

Interior cleaned out of all 50 yr old sound deadener and altho may not look it is nice and clean inside now.

Then popped the interior back in and the small bit of carpet in the front she came with.

Quite like the colour of the carpet and texture so gonna find a nice new piece along with headliner, seat covers and vinyl for the doors cards.

Few bits for finish on the exterior but next thing for the interior is media blasting and epoxy painting when funds allow plus the dash being in body colour once I have got some swatches painted up.

YAY

 

[thmpptrck]

Bang on!

 

[psimitar]

Damn tinware paint!!!!

So last weekend I took the engine out so I could put the new engine bay seals in. When I took the engine out I noticed the tinware wasn't looking too good as it's got a bit wet in all the rain lately and seems the paint weren't very water resistant and looked like this

But like this on the dry side

So decided after all the effort to make the engine look nice before I may as well make it look nice again and so out with the wet n dry plus gave me a chance to fit a mist baffle to the inside of the gen stand and weld up the lower tinware mounting holes

Then taken most the week to prime and paint the tinware and only just about to do last coat on last piece, so had a look at the semi-W decklid I bought ages ago and found myself glad I only paid $100 for it and a popes nose cos it's 'so called' good condition was rather less than good.

As you can see the hinge areas are pretty bad and the hinges had been brazed in place cos the spotwelded area was so rusty and weak. Then where some logo had been drilled thru near one hinge area had badly split and torn the support area under the hinge and dented the outer panel inwards. As for the size of holes drilled for the licence plate were 10mm and also had dented the outer panel. Oh, and the paint used is cracking off in large chunks so dunno what type of paint it was re-sparyed in during the past

Next is engine back in so can move her back to resting place whilst 2 wheels are removed so the valve stem holes can be welded smaller for modern valves.

 

[chontay]

Loving the work fella. Amazing attention to detail. I just got a welder at last so will be learning that this year and applying it to the car to get all the niggles done. Hope I can get close to your detail.

 

[psimitar]

Loving the work fella. Amazing attention to detail. I just got a welder at last so will be learning that this year and applying it to the car to get all the niggles done. Hope I can get close to your detail.

Cheers dude

As I'm half German and my dad taught me to 'only do a job once and to do it well'. So this means I'm somewhat anal about things but I'm also lazy in that I don't like having to do things twice. Inefficient use of time

Once you get to know your welder then things get easier and easier. Also, I find using a small blow torch helps to warm the metal at the start of the weld so you don't get so much spatter and better penetration on start up. Very useful tip when doing plug welds. Only try this tho once you've got the hang of things.

 

[chontay]

Thanks for the tip mate. I haven't even fired it up yet just haven't had time and the weather. But itching to get going with this I've always wanted to try it.

Got some body work to sort out and want to redesign the ally bolt together seat frames I built a few years back and get them in steel and welded together and to the floor.

 

[misterecks]

Dude... you have a part two (don't get on here much these days)

Top work as usual and awesome attention to detail.

How's tricks??

 

[psimitar]

Hey dude,

Long time no hello. How's ya doing?

Thought I'd start a part 2 as had reached 500 posts on part 1 tho looks like a fair few threads are WAY over 500 these days. No biggie tho

I got the engine back in today but was too dark at 6pm to take a picture. Oh how I miss the longer UK days.

 

[misterecks]

I'm good mate, very busy with work so not much bug time but can't moan.

Need to see pics of the engine back in

 

[psimitar]

As requested a pic of the engine back in

Looking good in non rusty black again

Exhaust is unfortunately farting quite nicely on one side but that should be a small fix.

Couple of tyres to take off the rims tomoro so I can fix the large valve holes ready for new narrower valves in keeping with the rest of the car and modern vehicles

 

[psimitar]

Been a slow week of fixing the Beetle but have managed to weld up the oversized valve holes in the wide 5 steels and re-drilled ready for modern size valves. No pics of that as forgot and not all that amazing.

However I have finished repairing the semi-W decklid

Nice solid metal again plus by using my blowtorch method to pre-heat the metal I got good plug weld penetration using 6mm holes in the hinges.

Gotta make up some steering stops due to tyre rub at full lock, and that's a no no in Oz. So one welded to the framehead and the other to the beam upright by the steer box.

Just trying to get some steel organised for the shortened subaru sump and reckon I may make me own running boards as I can't be arsed phoning around the Oz VW shops to see if they sell quality ones and not cheap mexican ones. Then the welding gas can be returned

 

[psimitar]

Shortened Subaru sump

So one of last big jobs b4 the gas bottle is returned is shortening the sump on the EJ22 motor.

Here's the first stage of welding tube over the bolt holes. Bit of a different approach as pushing the outer skin to the edge of the sump gives 1/2litre of volume so the wings don't have to be so big and the sump can be shallower.

And a new meaning to the term 'tinworm'

Thanks to an Aussie VW member I don't need to make steering stops now as longer bolts in the front backplate hole will act as a stop on the LP steering knuckle.

 

[psimitar]

The EJ22 sump is nearly done

Baffle plate and bottom plate to go