1967 VW Variant.

kadman

A quick look at the floorpan and heater channel areas.

With VW Type 3 there are certain areas that attract rust. Similar to the beetles.
Both A and B posts, under the back seat, battery tray, and in particular heater channels

On this car for all intents and purposes, its rust free. Surface rust is just that, surface rust.
No metal degradation or corrosion, just rust on the surface, easily dealt with.

I will show a vid on how easily surface rust is dealt with. But next the heater/floorpan area.:)

kadman

Hey alfa, i found this down by the drivers seat. So its your mum's or dad's.
I will send it to you as a nice keepsake if you would like.:)

BonnieSituation

SmartinMartin wrote: »

Here's one for you to do next weekend.

https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/vw-trekker/25566244

Why would you import something in such a state. Flipper!

---

Excellent work kadman as always. She's looking great.

WildWater

In the late 70’s or maybe early 80’s a friends dad had a VW estate. From memory it was similar to yours, perhaps bigger, and maybe 4 doors? Anyway, what I do remember clearly is him showing me that if you pushed down hard at the front of the passenger foot well the accelerator went down (accelerated) thank feck we were too young to drive!

Brilliant work Kadman.

kadman

WildWater wrote: »

In the late 70’s or maybe early 80’s a friends dad had a VW estate. From memory it was similar to yours, perhaps bigger, and maybe 4 doors? Anyway, what I do remember clearly is him showing me that if you pushed down hard at the front of the passenger foot well the accelerator went down (accelerated) thank feck we were too young to drive!

Brilliant work Kadman.

Thats because the accerator rod went from the drivers side, throuigh the tunnel towards the passenger side, where the cable was hooked up, and back through the tunnel.

You forced down the passenger footplate, as well as the cover over the hookup maybe, and the car accelerated.

jelutong

Is the car fitted with a petrol fuelled heater? Asking for a friend who worked on them in a VW Dealership many moons ago.

kadman

jelutong wrote: »

Is the car fitted with a petrol fuelled heater? Asking for a friend who worked on them in a VW Dealership many moons ago.

I assume you are referring to the eberspacher heater ( spelling)

No this car is not fitted with it, it does not need it to be honest.While we were tuning the engine, John was in the cabin area, and the heat was stifling.

kadman

Gave the Variant a good wash today to get the crap off before I put it inside for work







I gave the carpets a good scrub too to get the muck off and use them for templates for the
new carpets that i will make.



Cleaner

Are those hubcaps hard to find? They seem to be the type with the raised centre.

alfa beta

kadman wrote: »

Hey alfa, i found this down by the drivers seat. So its your mum's or dad's.
I will send it to you as a nice keepsake if you would like.:)

Do that - she can keep it with the chestnuts!!

kadman

Consider it done...

kadman

Fratello wrote: »

Are those hubcaps hard to find? They seem to be the type with the raised centre.

Hard to find in good condition. New old stock would be expensive.

And new repro caps would be crap,

But I might have some;)

ohnonotgmail

is it just my imagination but is it what you would imagine a 911 estate from that era would look like. assuming one were to be made. it is the headlights and bonnet that are making me think that.

Jeff2

How will you get rid of rust.

Sandblasting. ?

kadman

Jeff2 wrote: »

How will you get rid of rust.

Sandblasting. ?

What rust??

You must be confusing this with some other car

kadman

On the surface rust issue.

Thats easily dealt with by a number of methods. Chemical stripping, mechanical stripping

or blasting. Not sandblasting, it does too much damage. Media blasting.

I made a few preliminary enquiries on the media blasting. I was quoted 100 euro a panel.

2 doors , 2 boot lids, 4 wings. 800 euro total. Media blast machine is 1800 euro. I dont know what the hire

rate would be. DIY option is DA sander and the appropriate discs for all the panels. I have plenty of time,

as I am basically forcibly retired. Who wants to employ me at 65 years of age. Nobody only the missus,

and the wages are miserable:D:D


and she is a tough boss to work for :eek::P:P

kadman

Before i get stuck into the variant in a big way, I have some small issues with my own fastback.

So I need to clear the decks on that first. I dont really want 2 cars on the go at the same time.

My drivers door on the fastback basically had no bottom rail, it was completely rusted out.

So these not being available, I had to make a new one. At the time the body was not completed , so I had to make and fit this on the
fly , so to speak.

Consequently the bottom corner of the door flicks out for about 10 mm, about 200m horizontally along the bottom rail.

Solution is to partially cut the new bottom rail, realign, and re weld.

As it is a type 3 as well, if you want me to post details and pics , I can. Or leave this thread to 67 Variant.

Your call chaps.

jozi

I've had good success with bilthamber detox gel. You apply the gel and let it do it's thing, I used to cover with cling film to prevent it from drying out over a few days. Rinse off to reveal nice shiny fresh metal.

A tub of it is 20e or less and covers quite a bit. I did typically run a wire wheel over the surface rust first to lift most of it and then apply the gel.

Great thread, was following the other thread and now this one. Fantastic to see it's in good hands and phenomenal pace! I wish I had the dedication and drive like you to finish my own resto (E30 BMW).

LollipopJimmy

I'm a daily lurker - amazing work by all involved.

On the threads it is ultimately your call Kadman, however I would love to see separate threads so I don't get confused as to what work is being done on which car

murfman53

kadman wrote: »

Just got a heads up from an observant viewer to the last vid, that the left brakelight does in fact work:D

Now that John spotted that, he can fix the one that does not work:P

At One and Sixpence................. you'll have to do better than that.

And remember, I can only do the job on a Saturday afternoon......... Double Bubble, Tax free, Cash in hand. (Luvly Jubbly).
John.

kadman

jozi wrote: »

I've had good success with bilthamber detox gel. You apply the gel and let it do it's thing, I used to cover with cling film to prevent it from drying out over a few days. Rinse off to reveal nice shiny fresh metal.

A tub of it is 20e or less and covers quite a bit. I did typically run a wire wheel over the surface rust first to lift most of it and then apply the gel.

Great thread, was following the other thread and now this one. Fantastic to see it's in good hands and phenomenal pace! I wish I had the dedication and drive like you to finish my own resto (E30 BMW).

Bilthamber has great reviews alright, but I have never used it.
For rust treatment I have used Vertan, Vactan and jenolite.

I found the jenolite has the same qualities as bilthamber. I too wire wheel off the loose rust, and then jenolite gel on the rust. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Not so much dedication, but loads and loads of time at my disposal:)

kadman

murfman53 wrote: »

At One and Sixpence................. you'll have to do better than that.

And remember, I can only do the job on a Saturday afternoon......... Double Bubble, Tax free, Cash in hand. (Luvly Jubbly).
John.

If you shape up and punch in the hours, you might get 2 bob:D

kadman

There is already a thread covering some work I have done on the Fastback,

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=112241451

Perhaps I should keep putting any more white fastback pics there.:)

thereitisgone

I think keep it all here, easier to follow if its in one post
Great work by the way

Tow

kadman wrote: »

Perhaps I should keep putting any more white fastback pics there.:)

With a few more VW repair videos you will be able to rival Mustie1: https://www.youtube.com/c/mustie1/playlists

kadman

Tow wrote: »

With a few more VW repair videos you will be able to rival Mustie1: https://www.youtube.com/c/mustie1/playlists

Yeah....he got lessons from me....:P:P:P:P:P

jozi

kadman wrote: »

Bilthamber has great reviews alright, but I have never used it.
For rust treatment I have used Vertan, Vactan and jenolite.

I found the jenolite has the same qualities as bilthamber. I too wire wheel off the loose rust, and then jenolite gel on the rust. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Not so much dedication, but loads and loads of time at my disposal:)

That sounds like it's similar. It's been years since I looked into the various options when I went with bilthamber gel.

I never liked the idea of those rust converters which leave the converted rust on the panel. To me it seems like there's potential for it not to penetrate enough and leave rust. I like how the rust dissolves and washed away with bilthamber.

kadman

jozi wrote: »

That sounds like it's similar. It's been years since I looked into the various options when I went with bilthamber gel.

I never liked the idea of those rust converters which leave the converted rust on the panel. To me it seems like there's potential for it not to penetrate enough and leave rust. I like how the rust dissolves and washed away with bilthamber.

I agree, the only way to deal with rust, is chemically remove it down to shiny metal. Or cut it out and replace with shiny new metal.:)

kadman

Is bilthamber available nation wide?

I must get some, and compare it to Jenolite

kadman

I spent the day on repairing the door of my white fastback. It was rotten on the bottom
part of the door, both the door skin and door frame bottom.
Beetle door bottoms are readily available, but type 3 are not.

Only hope is a good door which is also rare, or a bottom cut from a good door.
Or make your own door bottom, which is what I did, and welded it on, when
I was doing repairs on the fly, and it did not work well. The door corner ws flicking out.

So I had to make vertical door pattern templates, and bottom templates from the good passenger door.
So I had something to work to. I was then able to discover that I had to take a 15mm wedge cut out
of the bottom face of the new panel I made, and reweld it to suit.

Here are the template pictures,





Here you can see the bottom flicked out



And existing weld that has to be cut, spaced and rewelded,



And the cut



Moved in and rewelded



Here is when it was tacked, and you can see how far in the bottom left hand edge is.
This is why a wedge needs to be cut, to allow this edge go back towards the door panel



Here is the door bottom marked for the cut,



Cut done



Bottom now repositioned , welded and ground,



Just have to infil corners ect.
Glad this is done.

jozi

kadman wrote: »

Is bilthamber available nation wide?

I must get some, and compare it to Jenolite

I see it available from some detailing shops but I can't recommend any from personal experience. Opieoils do it, I've ordered from the bolt hamber sure to but that's many years ago.

kadman

jozi wrote: »

I see it available from some detailing shops but I can't recommend any from personal experience. Opieoils do it, I've ordered from the bolt hamber sure to but that's many years ago.

This is jenolite after 3 minutes 1/2 spoonful and tooth brush.

-

This is it after 10 minutes and wipe off with scotchbrite pad.

kadman

After 12 hours with the jenolite, we have this,



And a drop of water and scotchbrite, and we have this now,



Not too bad, but any pin craters will have to be properly cleaned,

possibly a wire fine brush, but I can experiment with that when we get that far.

Media blasting the panels would do it, but I would still have the same hurdle with

the roof, as I wont be entirely stripping the shell.

Small problem, that will be solved fear not:)

welder

jozi wrote: »

I see it available from some detailing shops but I can't recommend any from personal experience. Opieoils do it, I've ordered from the bolt hamber sure to but that's many years ago.

Reflect have a limited range of it, have bought from them often and find them great to deal with.

https://www.reflectautocare.ie/index.php?route=product/search&search=bilt

Tow and restore have more on their website but I've never used them.

Bought BH UB from Opieoils recently and it arrived to ParcelMotel very quickly. Went for the brush on this time and it goes further than the aerosol !

No connection to any of the above apart from a satisfied customer of 2 of them !

kadman

This is the corner of the white fastback door that I am working on today.



And the bottom corner,



And the cardboard template for the corner



And these are the tools for hammer forming the little infil piece,



Test fit for infill piece



Welded in and ground down,





Now onto the next corner, and all the other little bits and bobs on this door.

kadman

To the hinge area of the same door now.

Here you can see a large repair thats needed.



Here you can see in better details the large amount of filler thats been
shoved in here.



Look carefully here and you can see a ball of masking tape shoved into the
hole to support the filler.Horrible repair



Same procedure for this type of repair. Cardboard template to get a rough size
of the repair metal needed.



Rough shape of the required piece needed.



And piece formed, just needs welding in. This will be a 2 piece repair here.



Hammer formed inner piece.



Complete repair will be posted tomorrow.



Thanks for checking in.

JabbaTheHut

That's some metalwork, Kadman. Fair play to you. I hate rust repair. It's really time consuming and requires a good deal of patience, something I lack quiet regularly.

kadman

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

That's some metalwork, Kadman. Fair play to you. I hate rust repair. It's really time consuming and requires a good deal of patience, something I lack quiet regularly.

Small bits are very awkward alright. But it has to be done, as good doors are hard to get for these type 3's. So some sort of repair is needed.

This door in particular is in a rough state, and its been well patched up with filler and masking tape. And this probably takes longer than a fabbing a bit of metal.

It will be strong and respectable looking when I am done, and thats as much as i can get from this door.

The 67 Squareback door is in great order in comparison to the white one. They need a small bit of work, but nothing like whats going on here.

But I'll keep tipping away, until the jobs done.:)

kadman

I managed to find a good source for car body resto products.

And he seems to stock a all the Eastwood products as seen on youtube.

I bought a gallon of top industrial standard stripper for the variant. This might be an option
instead of 100 euro a panel to media blast it.Probably take a few gallon too.

So I will check that out over the next couple of weeks, and see how that fairs out.

kadman

Moving on with the white fastback door repair before I get stuck in to the 67 Variant.

More nasty filler, where there should have been metal,here is a lorry load of it



Second filler piece



Filler piece tacked in.

kadman

Nearly finished at the hinge now,







Off to find another thing to fix on this door:)

LollipopJimmy

Some great work being done here. So many others would have gone and fit shoddy pattern parts but great to see this level of work and the car will be all the better for it. I tip my hat sir

Silent Running

kadman wrote: »

Nearly finished at the hinge now,



Off to find another thing to fix on this door:)

That must be very satisfying work. With plenty of time to do it, it must bring loads of pleasure looking at the finished piece.

davycha

There is an enormous amount of skill and patience required for that level of sheet metal work repair.
which you seem to have in abundance .

well done it looks great .

kadman

The next patch was for the courtesy light indent,



And the rusted part cut out,



Infil part fabbed up with the indent to turn off the light when the door
is closed, now in place.



Now welded in and most of the grinding done. I will have to use
the dremel to get in close at the door skin edge.



You can just make out the dome of the courtesy light raised indent.

Nforce

Really interesting thread this, thanks for posting it and updating it as you progress. I, like many other's have mentioned, had/renovated a few air cooled Beetles back in the day. The quality of the steel used in VW's of that era was much better than modern vehicles, I found. Will you be painting the cars /panels yourself too?

kadman

When i get that far, I will make a decision. Could do, but a proper spray booth does a great job.

My spray booth is my garden.:D

kadman

Still working on this door of the white fastback.

The 67 Variant by comparison has nearly perfect doors, 2 of them.

White fastback door corner, marked out for cutting,



There is more filler in this door than glass,



Lots of the crap cut out,



Piece welded in , now I just have to form the curved part below the 90 degree angle,



I would not be doing anything with this door, but I dont have a spare. This one really is way beyond fixing
its more rust in it than is worth the bother to be honest. But I need some type of door until I source one from UK or US.

kadman

So onwards and upwards in my search for rust.

Carrying on with the white fastback door, more rust to deal with




The only way to deal with this is cut it out. You cant fill this, as was done previously.
Thats why its as bad as it is.Angle grinder and cutting disc. And in the sharp right angles to the door skin
use a small drill.






Rust removed, and repair piece fabbed up



Welded in and ready for grinding,




Ground down and ready for primer,





Off on another part of me quest to bust rust

Hotblack Desiato

Fantastic work.