Bobby's 71

[louisb]

I am helping a good friend with the rebuild of his '71 beetle. This was actually my first VW beetle that I sold to him 12 or 13 years ago. He has had it in storage since then and has finally decided to rebuild it. Plans are for a clean Cal-look style car with a mild motor for now. He is more interested in cruising than building a boulevard bruiser. Maybe I can get him to join up here and post some of the pics of his work. I am going to do some minor rust repair and then both of us are going to try our hand at painting it. I think it will look really nice in some GM Refrigerator White.


Hoped for final results:




When I had the car a friend of mine backed into it with his Honda and dented the hood. It pushed in the hood handle and dented it on the side. I hammered it back out to fix it.







Welding up the trim holes. The PO, not me, had filled them with bondo:




I am thinking about shaving the air vents and the hood emblem next. As we make more progress I will post more pics.

--louis

[Peter]

will be a cool car!
i like rivis on a late car

[nicolas]

wow!! i made the exact same car on the selecta a year ago, and i hesitated between a late model and a 67 US spec car, but with 4 lugs wheels. i picked a US 67, but a 68 - 72 would be awesome as well. good luck with the project.

[javabug]

I think some white accents on the wheels would be cool, similar to Dave Ward's yellow car from the 80s.

[louisb]

I think some white accents on the wheels would be cool, similar to Dave Ward's yellow car from the 80s.

I was actually thinking it might look good painting the center sections white and polishing the lips. He has the early style Rivs without the raised section on the spokes.

--louis

[javabug]

That'll work!

[speedwell]

 

[louisb]

BTW, here is what we are starting with. Here Bobby has it "suspended" from a rather large oak tree so he could remove it from the pan. He installed new pan halves and painted it with por-15.



--louis

[louisb]

Finally got a chance to finish the welding on Bobby's hood. I shaved the hood vents and the emblem area. It didn't come out as well as I wanted and the hood fought me the whole way. At first I tried it without removing the brace from the underside of the hood. But even with just using spot welds it warped too much and I ended up cutting it out anyway. If I had done that in the first place I think it would have come out with less filler needed. You can see one section where I messed up and had to cut out a section and reweld it. After all that it is still not to bad. The pics look worse than it actually is and the hood will require only minimal filler.

Measure once, cut twice. 







Doors make great donor material. (And yes that is a '67 door.)













Cutting out the hood brace. I should have done this in the first place.




Not everyone shows you there f*ckups. 




And the final product. It is actually pretty straight and will only need a little filler to cover the welds. There is probably a good 15 hours in that little project.




We plan to bring the shell up to my house this weekend and get started on the rust repair.

--louis

[louisb]

We got Bobby's 71 over to my house this weekend. I took a few more pics. The car has a little rust in it but nothing that is not easily fixed. The worst places are the heater channels, near the rear window vents and some strange rust in both front quarters.










We plan to fill the quarter window vents so it looks like a '68.




The gas filler dor will be shaved as well.




Fill in the dash so it looks like an early metal dash.





He has already replaced one heater channel. I just need to do some finish welding. It also need a rear quarter patch.




Rear package shelf is in good shape, always a plus.




Some small pin holes in one rear window corner.




Small holes in the roof from moisture getting in through the quarter vents.




Same on the other side. I have a donor roof that will supply the needed patches.




This area will need some work.




He has a German rear apron to replace this one which is full of bondo. We plan to make it removable at the same time.




Drivers quarter is very solid. So are the doors. (I need to convince him to put in 1 piece windows though.  )




Both front quarters have rust high up on the door seam. Not sure why. should not be too difficult to patch. I have a spare front clip to get them from already.






And a little rust here. I have patch material for this as well.




All in all, not bad for a southern car.

--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Looks like a hand full to me Louis LOL  do yourself a favor fill in the half moon 1/4 vents they rust out on all later models

[Neil Davies]

I like the metal dash idea - make it look like a European-spec car. I'm sure between all of us on here we can sort out a set of switches for the dash.

[louisb]

We have been busy on Bobby's 71. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pics. We have the Pass side heater channel in and fitted up the new rear cross member. I have almost finished patching up the front wheel well. Not quiet done as we need to replace the front bulkhead as well. I filled all the trim holes and patched one of the holes in the roof today. At least its some progress.














Still need to do a little hand filing but I think it came out pretty well. Filing trim holes:







You can also see where I cut out the gas filler door. Going to use an early style tank and fill it from under the hood. I have not filled the hole yet as it makes a handy place to put the MIG clamp.  I hope to have the rest of the roof repaired next weekend and maybe the new rear apron installed.

--louis

[ESH]

... Here Bobby has it "suspended" from a rather large oak tree so he could remove it from the pan ...

That's a tool and a half! 

[louisb]

... Here Bobby has it "suspended" from a rather large oak tree so he could remove it from the pan ...

That's a tool and a half! 

Yeah, talk about shade tree mechanics lol. We have hung so many car parts, engines, etc form that tree. The base would require three grown men to reach around it. I remember one time we had a Pontiac 455 hanging from it like a pinata.

--louis

[ESH]

... Yeah, talk about shade tree mechanics lol. We have hung so many car parts, engines, etc form that tree. The base would require three grown men to reach around it. I remember one time we had a Pontiac 455 hanging from it like a pinata ...

Making use of natural resources is a good thing. 

[louisb]

Some update pics. We got the rear body support welded in. Still need to dress the welds where I had to patch up the package shelf and side body bracing. You can also see the new heater channel we put in. It may not look like it but my welding is improving. Next up is replacing that quarter and this side of the body will be done.













--louis

[ESH]

... We got the rear body support welded in. Still need to dress the welds where I had to patch up the package shelf and side body bracing. You can also see the new heater channel we put in. It may not look like it but my welding is improving. Next up is replacing that quarter and this side of the body will be done ...

To me that bit of the shell looks like a pretty crapy place to sort out, the last time I saw a shell looking like that I was pleased not to be the one doing the welding, good work. Have fun closing up the first side.

[louisb]

We fitted up and tacked in the pass side rear quarter. I need to do the finish welding and metal work it but that will have to wait for another weekend. What made me really happy is that after all this welding, the door still shuts correctly. I do need to "adjust" the gap a bit at the bottom of the door but it should not be too bad.








Here you can see the crappy fit of the replacement panel. That hole you see in the replacement is supposed to be for the fender bolt. The original one is just above it. I had to "massage" the whole panel to get it to fit.













Next weekend we hope to get that finished up.

--louis