Whitebrow's 65 Bug Full Restoration

Quote :

How much more dude?!? looks like you have an epic restoration on your hands!!

Best of luck fella  

erm... i really dont want to say as ive been totally screwed with this bug. The buy I bought it off was adament that is was a solid bug. Lots of OG features and well looked after. As you can see from first pic, it did look good until I really started to strip back the carpet which was clued down and then the layer of horse hair that was moist, soon to realise my worse nightmare.

It also looks like he covered up alot of the rust underneath and in the arches by using alot of the stone chip stuff.

Anyway to cut along story short ;)I paid 4K.... I know, i know! Im been royally bummed sideways with a rust iron bar with rusty nails.

I got to a point where I actually felt sorry for the car so I decided to spend some serious dollar on making sure it was going to last another 50-60 years.

Im very new to all this, which is why i was screwed over but it seems fun plannig it all and learning all the trades.

WizBizMartin wrote:

indeed he has , far play though Craig for tackling a lot of this on your own !
Let me know when you wanna drop the engine out one eve.

Cheers Marty

I would appreciate help with dropping the motor out in the next week if you're around?

I'll order some food in!

All the piss taking aside dude, Fair-Do's to you.

whitebrow83 wrote:

WizBizMartin wrote:

indeed he has , far play though Craig for tackling a lot of this on your own !
Let me know when you wanna drop the engine out one eve.

Cheers Marty

I would appreciate help with dropping the motor out in the next week if you're around?

I'll order some food in!

just let me know when

Mr Scoops wrote:

All the piss taking aside dude, Fair-Do's to you.

Cheers Scoops. Hopefully this week i'll bestarting to add stuff back in rather than taking stuff out.

just let me know when [/quote]
Anytime this week mate? Wednesday or will we need more time so maybe Saturday? Im easy really as i'll be spending this week on removing the front apron and both floor pans.

Somebody may correct me here but,
If I was doing it I wouldnt cut it up so much in one go, I would remove something and then replace. Rather than cutting it all out and making swiss cheese out of the car.

Otherwise things may get out of align and you may forget how panels were fitted in.

Again I may be wrong and I have never done this sort of thing to this scale.
Just my 2 pence

It's the way I was looking at it but it's hard to find panels for a 65. Especially complete panels and good quality.

Fair play to you, you're in it now as you say and you're going to put the work in to bring the old girl back to life so good on you.

Did look sweet in the first picture, I even wondered why you were tearing it down! Like I said, best of luck with it dude.

Im looking at floor pans and i'll also need the cross members that are welded to the chassis as they are rusted to fuck and the lip where the floor pan is welded to has almost rusted through.

Anyone used these: http://www.justkampers.com/vw-beetle-parts/body-panels/floor-pan-sills/112-701-062-k-best-quality-beetle-floor-pan-half-offside-right-1956-1970.html

They seem good quality and the cross members comes separate.

Joker mentioned about some other but they were like £250 with another £100 deliver and that was just for one  

they are the pans you need.

Vw heritage do nice red ones that look good and they have the cross member support which I also need.

I found an epic voucher code using my developer skills and it gets me £40 off. Happy days.

Listen to Obi-Shortman-Kenobi young Padawan!

WizBizMartin wrote:

Somebody may correct me here but,
If I was doing it I wouldnt cut it up so much in one go, I would remove something and then replace. Rather than cutting it all out and making swiss cheese out of the car.

Otherwise things may get out of align and you may forget how panels were fitted in.

I thought the same, until i realised I needed to replace the cross members, the struts, possibly parts of the boot floor, heater channels, floor pans, lower door pillars and the front lower firewall. im having to cut the section in the photo out as it was a patch and its linked to 6-7 other parts.

Ive sat and looked at it for a week trying to figure out the best way. Im not removing the heater channels until last as its keeping the body from twisting.

Right are you going to listen to advice, or are you just asking and then going to carry on what you think is right.

The grey pans are the correct ones to get as they are the best quality, and they are complete just in sections.

Red are the next ones down.

Then imp crap black ones.

The reasond I said repair rear x members, they are different for pre 68 models, I wish I had repaired mine, but they were too far gone.

It might be old metal, but it's not crap grade steel like most repair panels.

We are only giving advice to help you, and advice costs less money in the end.

Pretty much what I said on FB.

Craig, people don't want to have a dig, they want to help and advise you and certainly don't want to see you simply end up with a huge pile of sheet metal and nothing else.

sheet metal, new panels and some rust

tango_van wrote:

sheet metal, new panels and some rust

        

again all joking aside, fair play to what you are taking on, I personally have never done this level of repair but i I was Id take advice from people who have done before like Andy for example. He know his stuff LOL.

Nobody wants you to waste money and time on doing things twice.

When i first started my bug and to now what i am able to do, I would never have been able to do half the stuff I have without help and taking advice, its how you learn


For example of where I didn't listen

Few people said take the pan of and tidy it up when the body is being painted,

Did I no

What am I doing next year

 

Seriously guys, the only reason I'm doing this build thread is to get advice and help.

I appreciate all the help and advice so far and will be definately buying all helpies a pint or two when it's done.

Although I do need to say... IM NOT FUCKING MINTED! So that's why I'm trying to get the best parts for the right price. This is why I'm asking about other options for the floor pans!!! I can safely say I'm not spending almost £700 on floor pans which don't have battery fixings and seat rails.

I'm not just cutting shit up and hopin for the best I've spend hour watching videos on YouTube. Watching, watching and watching again the Bug Me videos. Plus when I can't get a response on here I've asked Chris Vallone who I have to say is bloody helpful.

Keep the advice coming and I'll post some pics when I get into work of where I am now.

Cheers guys.

Heres some photos of the removal of the cross member.

The cross member has a large patch to it which had a shocking repair. The sheet metal wasn't primed or treated, just had some weird looking sealant that didn't work as the welds were rusted.







This is the cross member that was removed. The left side up to the heater input was all solid which I would have loved to keep if there was a repair panel that fitted the correct shape but the new ones available which I got from VW Heritage were more square in shape and not finished that great.



Here's the ones I've ordered.



As you can see they look completely different shape to the original ones. They have harsh edges. Im not that fussed as they're going to be under the seat. Although im tempted to grind down and fill all the creases the repro ones have. Maybe a little anal!

Even though they're really shit reproductions, they seem to fit in place ok.

I had a delivery from Auto Craft yesterday that im very excited about.

I order the front apron for the correct year and the lower front door pillars. :D:D



I might be able to save my apron but need to remove the spare wheel well first to see how rusted it is. My current apron has a large dent and a few of the previous owners dodgy patches. I should have it out in the next week or so.

Last night I started to remove the passenger pan. I wanted to replace one pan at a time as the drivers side is welded to the heater channel the full length.

I found the best way to remove the spot welded was to use Cobalt drill bits. I used a 10mm drill after center punching each spot. Then used 8mm bit to remove the last bit of weld.

I then used a thin screw driver to pop the metal from the lip. Worked a treat! Had to stop though as my neighbors complain at any noise past 8pm.

I did find some absolutely awesome x members in America but £180 each seemed too much.

http://www.wolfparts.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=88&osCsid=kv3slqoq8nvc2ecajcqplu9iq4



They do looks absolutely awesome though!  

shoes are way to clean !

Lol they're the shoes I wear to work. I was too excited to work on the bug and thought changing them would be a waste of time.