My 68 standard 1200 model restoration

[Mabbo]

Hello,

I have a UK spec 1200 model standard Beetle which is my first car. When I got it I lowered it at the front and fitted some repro Rivieras



It was rotten so I took it off the road to repair it. I bought a 67 1500, raised the back, fitted a 1776 then 1955cc engine and fitted 4 stud Mahle Baby Burners


I drove that daily for quite a few years while I repaired my 68. I eventually sold the 67, kept the engine and fitted it to the 68 with Megasquirt and a turbo.


I sold the turbo and injection stuff and ran it like this for a while
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/themabbo/30062010039.jpg

I then build a mild 2276. CB crank, CB Unitec plus rods, Std lightened flywheel, Stg 1 Kennedy, Engle FK8, Manton pushrods, Mahle 94mm B+P, Scat D port heads, 45 DRLAs


Then I decided to restore it properly as I want to keep it... so the proper work begins:

Removing the previous paint jobs


Some accident damage to repair


Got the body off:


Started stripping it all down:




Had replaced the pans before but not very well, so cut them out



Repairing framehead bottom plate and section of the tunnel




New bottom plate and top hat


Ready for the pans


Started on the body:

Rear tubs and luggage tray out






Some rust to repair under the back window



Lining the new panels up



Welding them in



Putting the back end back together



Checking the door gaps with new doors before replacing the channels


Bracing the body up


Removing the front end



Trial fit of new bulkhead


Welding the heater holes up in genuine channels



Front quarter and channel out


Tacking panels in place and replacing A post




Remains of the quarters off - guttering unpicked



Genuine front quarter in place and original bonnet lined up


Welding in


Donor sections to repair body



Thats it so far

[miguel]

FUCK that's a big restoration  , i wish you good luk with it 

[rene]

What a job!! So nice.

[fahrvergnugen]

This All looks very familiar Good job.

[Neil Davies]

FUCK that's a big restoration  , i wish you good luk with it 

No, that's pretty standard for a UK car! 

Neil, it's looking good, and using genuine parts makes it so much easier! On my car, when it was restored for my brother back in the late 90's, we used one genuine and one repro quarter. We ended up cutting off the repro one and using another genuine one when they became available.

[Mabbo]

Cheers for the comments

Moved the car around in the unit and made a start on the drivers side A post. Got the old one cut out and the new one trimmed to fit, ready to weld in:



I got a couple of bits back from the blasters, quite pleased. No holes but a couple of small areas to sort.

Rear valance has a crease in it but overall shape is good and no rot:


Back side of valance, they are not holes that you can see, just dots of surface rust:


Rear cross members, need to repair the ends but no rot:


The underneath, nice and smooth


I forgot to get this section tidied up and sent to the blasters, so will do what I can with it, need to finish getting the old panels off it, started cleaning it up today... the back was plastered in underseal. Needs a bit of love...


Got a bit of work done on the body cut to repair the rear drivers side window, drilled out a load of spot welds around the frame and cleaned it up a little. There is quite a bit of rot at the back around the swage line but it should just be ok to repair the body:


Got both front quarters and front valance in place to see how everything lines up. Looks pretty good so far but the repro valance needs a bit of work. Starting to look a bit more like a car again:





Getting there slowly...

[cedric]

Nice job

[Tourist]

Nice one HPMB 

Martin.

[Mabbo]

Cheers Cedric / Martin

Rich did a bit of work on the donor section for my rear side window frame today while I cleaned up the washer bottle area. He cleaned the back of the panel up and welded up the half moon vent and repaired a little section just below:



This shows some of the damage that needs to be replaced:



Roughly in place:


I spent ages cleaning up underseal and the old wheel well repair panel ready for welding the front quarters on:

[Mabbo]

I decided to carry on with the rear side window repair today. Pleased with how it went.

Decided to trim the donor section down a little more:



Cut out the old, cleaned up the surface rust, bit of rust killer, bit of paint:


Panel in place:


Tacked in place:





Will get it seamed up on Monday, and hopefully get the channels and front quarters finished

[Type1/DVK]

wow, you've build a brand new one! nice job.. 

[Mabbo]

Spent a while on my car today, dont look much different to how it did at the start of the day, but we got quite a bit done.

Trial fit of the new WW pans, line up well. We drilled holes to plug weld to the Napolians hat and the rear cross member section.


Fitted the body and made sure everything lined up well, and welded the rear sections in.


Found some old floor pan bolts and washers, lined up the genuine heater channel bottom plates with the holes in the pans. All line up well.


Got the body back onto the floor and placed lined the top half of the channels up with the bottom plate and got the spot welder out.

[Mabbo]

Got some more done...

Napolians hat and floor pans welded:



Lots of plug welds later:


My donor rear valance was pretty good but not perfect. Came back from blasting with no rot to sort out, which was nice. It does have a couple of dents that need sorting and it was cut off the car on one side instead of drilling out the spot welds. I started repairing that.

What I started with:


Copied the profile off the good side of the valance and cut a section out and welded it to the other side:


Will drill a few holes to plug weld when I fit it

My bodywork just above where the heater channel meets the rear quarter had been patched in the past.

Started with this:


Got it tacked in ready for final welding:


My dash had been cut for a modern stereo. I got hold of a donor section to repair it.

Cut the dash section out:


Donor section in place:


Welded in and ground down ready for a skim of filler:

[Mabbo]

We got some work done on the quarters today... got them cleaned up and held in place with some panel pins and clamps:



Got both sides welded in, still got to weld the inside:




Not happy with the fuel filler recess on the new front quarter panel. The shape is different to the original. Its more rounded on the front corners, and the recess at the back of the flap looks wrong.

Original:


Mexican:


I think I'll end up chopping out the whole section and welding the original in because it dont look as good as the original, and the flap dont fit properly. Its too square at the front corners and catches the quarter panel.

Its getting there

[modnrod]

 
Bloody hell.......
 

And I was sooking to myself a bit because I had a front inner and both pan halves to do.........

[andy198712]

what make are the floor pans?

nice job here! should last decades for you!

[Mabbo]

Wolfsburg West pans

Cheers dude

[Jeff68]

Bloody Hell!!.......My hats off to you on this Project!!  Great work being done here to resurrect your car. Coming out great! Keep going....you're almost there!
Cheers!!

[Mabbo]

Cheers Jeff...

Got a bit more done today. Was 2 steps forward and 1 step back really, but glad I decided to do it.

I found a cut from a genuine rear quarter for sale. I had already fitted a pair of repro tubs, and some Hookeys rear bumper hangers. The plan was to drill out the spot welds of the early bumper hangers and fit a pair of genuine bumper brackets that I sourced. I was going to re use the repro body mounts I removed before. So fitting this panel saved me a bit of work, and Iv not got a genuine tub, and body mount. The fit is great.



The fit inside:


Will get a bit more work done tomorrow.

[cedric]

Lucky one with youre orginal part... For me its bad repro stuf but it go to.....you do a verry good job!

[Mabbo]

Cheers Cedric

Small update. I got the tubs and luggage tray welded in:




I fitted a Hookeys bumper hanger, and removed the early bracket and tidied it up ready for the genuine late bracket I picked up:


Lining up the rear valance ready to be fitted (again!). Put the wings on loose to check it all looked OK:

[Mabbo]

I bought a front body cut from a 1969 model, but not a 1200 style. I originally only intended to use the washer bottle recess and surrounding area but decided Im going to modify the valance and use that as its a much nicer shape compared to the repro panel.

Before:



I drilled out the spot welds and cut all the parts out i didnt need and tidied up the lips, removed most of the underseal then we blasted the two sections that I wanted to use.







They came up well with the valance needing a little bit of work, as well as the two bumper slots adding. Worth the extra work though I think

Got the fuel tank supports, washer recess section, wheel well, and valance all fitted and held in place with panel pins



I wanted to spot weld as much of it as possible to make it look factory:




As my bug is a 1200, it only came with a mirror on the drivers door. The passenger side door had no threaded section for the mirror, so I welded my new door up. Needs a skim of filler:


Got the rear valance welded in, needs a little bit of tidying. Look how well the corners of the valance meet with the bodywork. Loads better than repro:


Lined up the Hookeys engine side trays.


I done a little work on the rear crossmembers. This is what I started with:


Cut out a couple of sections to fill the holes for the heating. (My heater channels have also had the heating holes welded up):


Welded up:


Ground down:


Got the rear crossmembers on:




Then I cut out the fuel filler recess:


Old and new to compare:


Lining the old section up:


Tacked in to place;

[Mabbo]

Today I got the front valance repaired and fitted. I cut the slots in the front valance and cut out the bit of rust out and let in a new section.


Finished welding the fuel filler recess:


Fitted the passenger rear body mount:


All the welding around the front end is finished other than a few plug welds to do on the bottom of the fuel tank supports. Ill do that once the body is back off the floor:



My wheels arrived. Rears are 15x5 thin lip Formula Vee wheels, the fronts are original 15x4.5 Rivieras:



The wheels are exactly the same other than the raised squares on the spokes on the Rivieras... I will machine this off and detail them to match the Formula Vees, so I will have a set of 4.5 and 5" thin lips.

My seats are stripped down and the frames has been blasted ready for paint, then off to Trimming Tonic in Lancashire.


Not too much welding left to do 

[Mabbo]

I took my seats to the trimmers last week.

I finished off bits of welding and grinding welds down etc. Almost there:


You can see the pan leaning up the wall awaiting the framehead bottom plate. I had already started fitting a Klokkenholm panel, but it was shit, so I cut it back off. Iv ordered one from Machine 7. Should arrive Tuesday, hopefully its a bit better, we will see... then hopefully I can finish the floor

We got my HiPacs fitted:



Made a start on the prep the other day.

Smoothing the rear cross members:


After some filling and sanding to the rear quarters, the shape is getting there:


Bit more to do to the rear valance:


Got some high build on the rear quarters and valance last night. This morning I put some guide coat on and rubbed it down... it showin they needed a bit more work. I sorted the rear quarters and spent some time on the dash, front 1/4s, A posts and B posts.

Got a bit more high build on tonight:









I need to do a bit more prep on the front inner arches and rear inner tubs as they are not as smooth as Id like.

[andy198712]

blimey mate!

you keeping this one after all this work? putting a 1200 in it or...?

[Mabbo]

Hello Andy. Yeah mate, definately keeping it. It was my first Beetle / first car... I wont be selling it

I have done a fair bit since the last update so the following is not in order or anything. Just a selection of pictures of some of the work.

We spot welded the bottom plate on and replaced the repro brake line brackets with the genuine ones, and repaired the spine section:


After blasting, we seam sealed the joints and painted it 2k gloss black:



Some pics of the colour sanding and mopping:


Paint finish:


Fitting the interior:



One of the engine:


Building the car back up:


The car was supposed to be on display at the Volksworld show, but we got stuck in the snow and couldnt make it. I was gutted, was looking forward to seeing it on display.

[andy198712]

Gutted for you mate would had loved to have seen it!

[Gaz1]

Shame the snow spoilt plans but car looks great mate,like the interior choice 

[71CALRIPPER]

Sorry to here that dude , car looks cool as !!

[modnrod]

Paint finish:

Uhmmm........fuck me!
 

Oh, sorry. DAMN that's straight man!