Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby the researcher » Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:16 am

Classic car restoration is on channel 5 tonight at 8pm they are doing a ford mustang this week
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:20 pm

So three months have passed and finally I have made some progress on this project.

A combination of Christmas, work and waiting for my knee to heal has kept me away from the garage but today I got back to it.

Job one today was pulling out the back seat, carpet and parcel shelf.

As usual the glue holding the carpet to the sound deadening was no where near as strong as the glue holding the messy stuff to the car.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 1 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

So a bit of time was needed to scrape off the tar hairy stuff sound deadening and see what the steel underneath is like.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 2 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

In all the steel was very good. The only crusty stuff is in this corner and I think I would have been more surprised if this hadnt been rusty.
On the bottom right you can see where the wiring loom passes through the heater channel into the quarter where it runs into the engine bay.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 3 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

This is a problem as I either need to cut and re-connect the loom here or dissconnect the full loom in the engine bay and feed it through the hole.

Think I may cut it but need to sleep on the idea first.

So while thinking about the loom I thought I would remove the last of the floor pan bolts.

These bolts wouldnt come out with a socket as the captive nuts have stopped being captive.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 4 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Best method I could think of to remove these bolts was to cut through them with my reciprocating saw.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 5 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

That was easy peasy so now there are no bolts holding the body down on this side of the car.

Last job today was to mark out a template where the new panel will be let in at the back.

Image
Project progress 12/01/13 6 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

So thats where I left it today and it better not be another 3 months before I get to it again.

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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby HelenD » Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:31 pm

Jolly good. Keep up the good work. Shame about the Sod's Glue, but it's all progress.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:51 pm

Got back to the garage today and it was bloody cold but took another big step towards that BIG cut.;

Image
Cold day in the garage. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I dont smoke so what you are seeing coming from my mouth is an example of how cold it was today in the garage.

My first task was to remove these spot welds. I want to keep as much of the boot floor panel as possible to try and keep the join looking like it did when it left the factory.

Image
P1000307 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

So with a 5mm drill I ran along all the spot welds. I wasnt worried about going through to the lower panel as this will be on the scrap pile by the end.

Image
P1000308 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

With the welds driled through I separated the panels with the best chisel in the world....A big screwdriver.

Image
P1000310 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

After sleeping on the problem of what to do with the loom I decided that soldering the wires back together here was easier than trying top feed the loom back through to the engine bay.

Image
P1000316 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I cleaned out the rot and the previous repair plate in the rear corner. It will help getting the new panel in place and I wanted it to be fresh so that I dont have to worry about it again.

Image
P1000340 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

To get ready for welding this part on I needed to clean off the paint along the edge so that I could get a clean weld.

Image
P1000337 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Before I left today I was worried about the cold and the moisture causing rust on the 1/4 panels so a quick coat of primer for protection then home for a heat.

Image
P1000341 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Hopefully get back to it soon and get on with the big cut.

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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:40 pm

Next update and the first bit of welding complete. Its only a small bit but its a start.

Todays job, replace the rear crossmember. I chose to start here so that I could use the bolt holes on the body to line up this part and once this is in place I can line up the body with the crossmember bolt holes.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

This part will be welded to the floor pan and bolted to the body.

Started by cleaning the paint from the areas that will be welded.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I cut a small section from the body to allow me access to the weld seam.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

The body part I cut will be replaced anyway. I could have cut the complete section here but I would have lost the bolt holes for reference.

With the section removed I could get to the weld line to clean it up.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Annoyingly when the floorpans were replaced in the past they were seam welded instead of plug welded so there will be a lot of cleaning up needed when I get to that point.

With the old panel cut out I could clean up the chassis where the cross member will be welded to it.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

The new crossmember is in place, seam welded and quickly covered with primer.

Image
cross member on by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I will do a bit of cleaning up in this area then seam seal it when its not -2 in the garage.

Im now waiting for heater pipe to run up the A pillars and maybe a warmer day to start on the sill/heater channel replacement......The big job.

Dave.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby moonbeam » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:01 pm

Brilliant. I suggest you buy a new wiring loom.I was told seam welding was not a good idea. Suggestion was in a crash the car would not "crumple" the way it was or is designed to. Also it was suggested that extra stress could occur with seam welding.Plug/spot welding was better. Are you using a MIG welder. I had a go with a borrowed TIG -very expensive. But gave nice clean welds. In this cold weather condensation on nice new shiny metal is a problem. I welded in some nice new metal. Went back two days later and the dreaded tin worm had appeared. I use Jenolite to get ride of surface rust. Then a quick coat of red oxide which keeps the tin worm away for a day or two. The last car I did was a Mark 1 sprite. Some of the "new" panels I got were a pig to fit. I could go on at length on "remanufactured" parts for so called classic cars that either dont fit, dont work or are just plain useless. Plus dont get me started on thread systems. VWs are all nice metric. So called British classics are UNF/UNC/ Whitworth/ BA/ British Standard Fine BSF and British Standard Pipe BSP not to mention ACME threads. What surprised me some BL cars from the 1980s had BSF threads-ok on obscure grease nipples etc.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby moonbeam » Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:50 pm

Is yours still a 6v beetle. If so I would consider an upgrade to 12v. However if you want orginality then stay with 6v. The 12v upgrade is fairly simple and worthwhile.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:20 pm

Hi Moonbeam, the reason I cut the loom was because to get the loom to the engine bay it passes through a small, inaccessable hole in the bulkhead and at the factory they inject expanding foam around it to seal it in so there is no way to remove the loom and even less way of getting it back when I finish so I will solder up the cuts I made onece done.

Where I welded yesterday was seam welded from factory but the pans would have been spot welded originally so seam welding was a bit un-necessary.

Im using a 120amp mig(mag) welder. Not as clean as Tig but easier to control and strong enough for what I need.

I believe the term if flash rust where you can almost see it turn brown in front of your eyes. Once I have it assembled I will coat the chassis in marine apoxy and then seam seal all the joints before a top coat of gloss black. If time and space allows it will be a body off joj to allow full access.

The repro panels are on the whole appaulingly bad which is why I got cuts from solid cars out in the USA. The pans are repro but best quality and cost me £250 compaired with the £75 for the cheap rubbish.

I always fancied a TR7 or a P5b but as you say, I would need new tools. I come accross some odd bolts with the vans I bring in from the US. They seem to have a habit of making imperial headed bolts and nuts to fit VW's which are all metric.

The Beetle is 12 volt. It would have been one of the last 6v cars but has been converted in the past. I can find out when as Joanne is only the second owner since 1967.

Hope you are enjoying the thread and dont laugh too much if you see me making a mistake.

Dave.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby moonbeam » Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:58 pm

Hi. No I wont laugh. I put the petrol tank sender unit in the Mark 1 Sprite the wrong way round and had to take the whole thing apart. I use a curtain wire and hook to feed cables through bulkheads. Re the expansion foam. Seemed to be popular to do this in the late 1960s. However I found some panels badly rusted behind the foam. Agree the repro panels are appalling. I did a couple of Mark 1 and 2 Escorts-front wings/valance etc. Supposed Ford panels must have been secondhand factory rejects! I struck lucky with the Sprite as I got genuine BMC rear wings. They are actually 18 gauge. Most repo panels are 20 g although I have seen 22g. You could almost "p**" through them!! I have used "red" distributor rotors as the Lucas repo items are not very good. One thing I dont see regarding so called Classic cars or rustybuckets as she who must be obeyed refers to them-a Renault Laguna owner with strange electric problems-the car that is-enough said. There are a few people selling so called "upgrades". ie faster engines, 5-6 speed gear boxes, uprated suspensions. Do these guys give guarantees? Are they properly road tested? Some of the kits I have seen have been very poorly engineered.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Sun Apr 28, 2013 8:39 pm

I have dropped the ball a bit with this car recently. Last year I blamed the wedding and this year its been a house move but I have a week off now and I intend to get a shift on.

Today I gave the underside of the heater chanels a coat of paint from this;

Image
heater channel paint by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Image
heater channel paint by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

To this;

Image
heater channel paint by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Image
heater channel paint by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Needed to paint it now as I wont be able to get to this surface once its in place and bolted to the floor.
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:58 pm

Guess what? I finally took the plunge today and cut off the old sill!!!

After all the measuring and worrying this was the first cut;

Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Then within 10 minutes I had a rather large bit of Joannes car on my lap;

Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Not that it was very heavy due to it being made of Bran flakes;
Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Getting the new sill to line up was tricky, especially as its such a big part. I had the back in place then went to line up the front and had to start all over a few times.

Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I trial fitted the door a few times while getting the sill lined up then when I was happy I tacked it in place;

Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I then put the door back on to check panel gaps which all seem to be pretty good;

Image
The big cut....Sill swapped. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Hopefully tomorrow I will get on with finishing some of the welding.

While working today I tried a wee experiment. I set my camera up to take a time lapse sequence of my days work, see what you think;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf4vppdl ... e=youtu.be
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby tombro » Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:39 am

Looking forward to lots more, Dave ! Great vid !

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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:03 pm

I didnt get much done today, a combination of being sunny outside, having a banging headache from yesterdays work and then running out of gas for the welder. I did take some pics to show how close I managed to get the panel gaps around the door.

Image
Panel gaps by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Image
Panel gaps by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Dave
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Check oot ma flickr page;
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Sun Aug 18, 2013 4:08 pm

Just to proove that this is still an ongoing project here are a couple of pics from todays work.

Nothing too exciting as its more cleaning and welding but its still a step closer to finishing.

(got to try out my auto darkening helmet and freshly serviced welder as well, cheers Jack)

Image
more welding by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Image
more welding 1 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

I got confused and had a homosexual electricity moment here. 2 Plugs and no socket.

Image
more welding 2 by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Dave.
My all new film location website is here;
www.rewoundandfound.com

Check oot ma flickr page;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/route9autos/

For handmade jewellery, go to:
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Re: Latest project, 1967 VW beetle restoration.

Postby BTJustice » Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:35 pm

No real progress to post but thought I would show whats happened. Sadly the garage where the bug was stored has been sold so this week I had to shift the beetle.

Image
Time to move. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Back on its wheels;

Image
Time to move. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Image
Time to move. by route9autos.co.uk, on Flickr

Dave.
My all new film location website is here;
www.rewoundandfound.com

Check oot ma flickr page;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/route9autos/

For handmade jewellery, go to:
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