Fubar 64

[vwhelmot]

Cut out



I first had to make an infill panel to make up for the indent left from the pressing used for the later heater outlet.





Onto the roller with some fresh steel. I used the old section to get the correct curve.

[vwhelmot]

[vwhelmot]

Next to go was the cheap heater vent pressing. I did toy with the idea of replacing this with a genuine section of vents but went for the smooth look anyway.







Traced a line to cut the extra wide lip down too





better

[vwhelmot]

Other side smoothed and trimmed too





Modified for the correct smooth style

[vwhelmot]

Now the next section to get attention was the door pillar. Now I could have just used a chunk of filler to smooth over the seam and job done as it was not rusty or welded in the wrong place but that wasn't going to cut it and I needed access to the wing nutserts on the front quarter panel. I thought about what options I had , door pillar repair panels are not high enough to get decent access so I managed to get a nos dash and pillar panel so I could cut that up instead.





Nos door pillar



Goes to show what lies beneath. This seam was only about seven years old as the front quarter had been replaced in the crash. Lack of weld through primer.







As you can see, the nutserts were wrong. Access was still a pain in the arse and also I had to replicate the original look as they are visible from inside the bonnet. Trusty press tool was used again.

Grinding off the incorrect nutsert took a while as not to damage the panel.





They were well stuck on!



Indent making



Outside



A square hole was made to accept the genuine nutsert



Inside



Both





Each nut was blasted and the inside of the quarter was too.



Now , silver soldering the nut in place was tricky, limited access and heat damage.





Nearly done

[vwhelmot]

Just the inside of the pillar was used. I wanted the seam to be flawless.



The wiring hole was in the wrong place too.



Used a dimple die to give it a little custom touch 



Filler piece and welded up the old wiring hole



New was made closer to the pillar.



I added a second tab so to keep the main loom tidier.





Now before welding in the panel, I epoxy primed the lower front quarter on the inside so that it is protected and the correct colour. I have premixed colour matched  (near as dammit) epoxy. There is now way to get this coverage after the panel is welded back on.



I had blasted this area before paint.

[karl h]

what kind of weld-through primer do you use?

[vwhelmot]

upol Wed#2 Good stuff

[vwhelmot]

Half way through welding it in













nicer than before

[BeetleBug]

upol Wed#2 Good stuff

Volvo also have a really good one:



Best rgs
BB

[vwhelmot]

Yeah but that's only for Volvos 

[VWGlassee]

Really loving your resto!

Keep the updates commin'! 

[karl h]

i tried to get the upol primer, but no one in the uk will ship it to Austria

[vwhelmot]

I`m sure there are other products on the market 

Next on the list was to do something about the poor quality pressing on the front of the channel. It had not been formed properly so I had to do something about it.
 The black line was where I had to cut the lower quarter as it sloped downwards and I wanted it straight.



Trimmed straight first



These are the two sections I had to cut out



Done





Up to this point the shell looked like this . More and more silver areas were added 

[vwhelmot]

I knew the other side would be a problem, I had tried to get a nos front quarter but failed so I was left with the job of rebuilding the original.  So much of it had been changed, Its had two front clips since I`ve known the car, so trying to put it back to how it should look like was going to be a lot of graft .  I started with the door pillar.





Cut out



Even though I had blasted the shell, there are still areas where you cannot get too..   Rusty shit.



The door pillar is made up of two skins and I`ve wondered about how many cars  are out there with just the outer skin welded and not the inner strengthener panel touched . I used a Hookys panel for this which I straight away drilled out the spot welds to separate them.



Tool



Hidden rust



Welded and smoothed



I blasted the whole area



Blasted all this





Trial fitting the outer. Notice that the seam does not line up as the panel was too long.



Rest of it fitted nice









First tack



Door on to check gaps





I had to cut and adjust the seam so it lined up correctly



Nearly there, tonnes of time spent here.







I drilled and spot welded the inner to the outer like it should be done.







No filler reqd 




I cant believe I`m skipping through all this so quick, its taken a lot of hours to get to just this point and there is a lot more to come. Hope I`m entertaining you and not boring you with my shit. I just wanted to show what has been done so that when its finished its not just the same car tidied up.  Many many hours have been put into all the other detail stuff too. I think I should slow this thread down a bit. 

[BeetleBug]

I cant believe I`m skipping through all this so quick, its taken a lot of hours to get to just this point and there is a lot more to come. Hope I`m entertaining you and not boring you with my shit. I just wanted to show what has been done so that when its finished its not just the same car tidied up.  Many many hours have been put into all the other detail stuff too. I think I should slow this thread down a bit. 

Please keep the updates coming. You are setting new standards and it is really interesting to see all the work you have done and your detailed pictures.

Best rgs
BB

[Eddie DVK]

I cant believe I`m skipping through all this so quick, its taken a lot of hours to get to just this point and there is a lot more to come. Hope I`m entertaining you and not boring you with my shit. I just wanted to show what has been done so that when its finished its not just the same car tidied up.  Many many hours have been put into all the other detail stuff too. I think I should slow this thread down a bit. 

Please keep the updates coming. You are setting new standards and it is really interesting to see all the work you have done and your detailed pictures.

Best rgs
BB

Yep and the sh... part is it looks so easy... 

but I tried it sometimes I am not skilled yet.. 

[vwhelmot]

Ta muchly 

Next was the front cross member or napoleons hat or what ever you call it. I decided to tackle this section next rather than the lower front O/S quarter because its best way round as you will see.

This bit





I had previously worked on this area and it was far from show worthy. In amongst the box of body cuts I got from the states I had a replacement cross member inc the front firewall which was still spot welded on..



Where it had been cut off he had caught a few of the seams which pleased me no end 




This seam was missing completely 



Nicely butchered



The missing seam was found still stuck on the quarter panel lower which I had bought too ( and never used as it was shit, really shit!)



I drilled the seam off and it would have been rude not to use it..







Tacked back on



Separated the two, at this point I had just blasted the outside.



Little bit of rot but nothing serious





Now, being that my car is RHD , I didn't see the point in keeping the ugly LHD dip switch recess as this area will not be carpeted because carpet hides nasties.  So I made this...














Also filled in the slots for the foot plates









Nice and flat












 

[vwhelmot]

Before I cut the cross member out , I cut out the horrible repair I did years ago on the front quarter. It was nasty..



The 'needed' writing was there so there was no confusion as to what sections i needed when emailing people with photos with exactly what i wanted!



This is what it was hiding!  :shock:



Told you it was nasty!





I was dreading this area to be honest, i knew it would be difficult to get it to look factory fresh.

Cut out the old one, which was a bastard of a job





Job done.....





Only joking 

[karl h]

going to smooth the boss where the steering column passes through the bulkhead on LHD cars?

[vwhelmot]

You got me !    I did think about it and I still might delete it but being that its a flat panel and thin sheet (0.6mm)  it would be really difficult to get it right and also I might use that raised area for something else. 

[vwhelmot]

Started by cutting out the bad and cleaning up the channel. The end plate was shit , so I cut that off too.



I had this genuine end plate which was a little bit crusty but useable



Now the firewall. This is an area that's got to look right and unfortunately its made of thin steel. Why vw chose to use such thin steel I will never know. Even the replacement section I got from the states was thin and that was in good condition.  Welding thick to thin sheet is a no no , it will cause you all sorts of grief, not only clamping it in position , but welding it and finally flatting and dressing it after.

Good genuine vw replacement, original thickness of 0.6mm



Original on my car



Fortunately I had some correct thickness sheet to make my own section . Now you are prob wondering why I didn't use the one from the states? It had been butchered so I couldn't use it. 



Used a straight edge and clamped my sheet to it after putting a 90 degree bend in it





Missing the dimple and we all know its all about the dimple!  As it happens, the dimple is not a straight forward shape to replicate as it has a flat surface where it sits on the inner bulkhead ,so making a press tool to get the shape 100% correct would be difficult.

See what I mean?



So I cut out the genuine dimple









Yet to sort out the end plate.




Also the seam does not flow straight, it has a ridge at the bottom to account for the channel end plate. I formed mine like the genuine one.









You can see here what its for



Still needed blasting at this point

[vwhelmot]

Cleaned up and blasted.



This side was really bad





Starting to look better





End plate needed a bit of work

















Getting the repair panel into place. This takes ages to get right as I wanted a nice uniform weld gap as welding this thin sheet is difficult





Tacked



Nearly done









No filler 



One of the biggest pain in the arse was seeing what you are doing , no kidding , being able to see what you are grinding without steaming goggles etc is half the battle!! I`ve found that a full face shield is the way to go, full protection and no steaming up , I combine this with a 3m mask. Makes all the difference.

[Lids]

This is an awesome thread your work is amazing.

It reminds me of the 50's cabriolet on restowagen all those years ago.

[DHP 60]

This is an awesome thread your work is amazing.

It reminds me of the 50's cabriolet on restowagen all those years ago.

Thought same thing. This is great work.

[WCB Hitler's Hot Rod]

Keep 'em coming. This thread shows some amazing work. You're a true master at what you do. Unbelievable. I spend an hour just looking at your pics. How many hours do you have in time so far? I can only imagine!!

[j-f]

Awesome work and great pictures! Very instructive! Thanks for sharing and to spend times taken pics and explain what you do.

[vwhelmot]

Thanks for the kind comments, I just love what I do and I`m doing it for myself and for no one else. 

This lot got blasted next



This side was going to be a lot of work as it was a mess and I had to replace a section of the smile 



If you ignore the straight edge measuring that was going on, you can see the difference in the pressing. The panel I had got hold of was from a slightly earlier car and the smile was longer so that ruled out using the whole panel     So I had to cut through the smile at a point and join it half way down which was very tricky as not only was it thin but I had a dip in the pressing to contend with...





Again , I cut off the end plate





I had a genuine end plate to use again



You can see that I bent the lower quarter to get better access to this area.  Blasted the surface rust away.



Part way through welding it on after careful measuring





I had already repaired the lower on the replacement panel as it was a little bit crusty



Nice fit which is half the battle





Final panel prep before tacking in









Finished the smile first as this bit was the most difficult

[vwhelmot]

Nearly there





Bent the quarter back into shape and yet to weld the seam in place

[vwhelmot]

In amongst the body cuts I had there was a section of the front cross member that showed me how it was welded from the factory. It was a bit untidy to be honest.



Made my own seam, it is a complex curve and took a bit of time to get right.















Other side



Slowly getting there



I also trimmed the late front quarter to the correct sixties style