1967 VW Variant.

Glad to know you are a regular. If there is something that puzzles you and you dont understand it just shout. Its no problem to clarify something at all with a better pic or explanation.

🤣 Yeah, let me finish the project in hand. Thats the tool that sets the rear suspension, as well as the front control arms to the right angle.

I see a lot of beetles and some type 3 fast backs lowered that look crap. What with the serious handling issues created by this modification, they cant be roadworthy. And i know from some outings that some cars had to turn back as they could not get over any speed ramps, mad stuff. Shouldn't be allowed.

I've seen dome of the suspension tools go for silly money on ebay. But when you want to set it right, its the only tool

Here you go JM, a blast from the past for you. No surprises here http://oacdp.org/tools.html

So today I seam welded the cill at the front hinge post A. And at the lock post B, where the new cill was attached to. I also tackled the short filler tapered panel at the end of the heater channel area, towards the rear of the car. This panel will be plug welded and covered by the rear wing.

Here is the tailend filler piece plug welded and nearly finished.

And here is the little filler piece between the new cill and the filler tailend.

Here is the cill at the door hinge post end welded in.

This is the end filler piece with the galvanised coating removed for welding with less dangerous fume emmisions.

And here is the B post welded to the cill and nearly all cleaned up.

Just have to tidy up the plug welds a bit further, and then its on to the rear inner bulkhead panel.

Oops, nearly forgot,

this is the guy responsible for using up loads of boards bandwidth

Kadman, yep this is me, I'm not just a myth, I'm real

🤣

I wore the cap coz the reflection off me old noggin would give me trouble with the camera pic🤣

Methinks I have awakened a sleeping VW resto dragon🤣

Cross threading a gearbox wishbone support is so easy with the fine threads, Been there, done that unfortunately, and had to buy the tap to re thread. Pain in the hole for sure. Brothers in arms on that one Jim.😉

Yeah, I think its easy enough to keep everything in line when you are replacing metal. Once you arrive at the proper sequence of cutting out and replacing, piece by piece, its easy enough to stay on track. And constant checking.

Where problems occur is when you go mad with the angle grinder and cutting discs, cutting all the rust out in one go. Which i have seen loads of projects out there that are irretrievable because of that approach.

Or when your project is so rusty that all the datums to start from are gone, and you are trying to position the first datum to commence, and all with no factory dims to guide you. Thats when you start pulling hair out.

I see a few Sun Analyzer come up for sale now and again alright. Large bit of kit. But on most of the vw's I had the terminal was removed. Although the terminal block in my own type 3 is still intact, but with some wires disconnected.

In all fairness it looks like a disaster area, and you would be tempted to run forrest run.

But when you start slicing and dicing, you can see decent metal in there somewhere. Its just to get to it and rebuilding outwards.

Once you cut out the large panel, you can see what you need to see to make an assessment of the best way to proceed.

Remember to cut out the panel that you need to weld in first for the other panels. And you cant take too many pics. You need to be able to re assemble the part you are working on as best as you can. I re assemble the parts I cut out with masking tape so that I have a correct model to refer to with a piece that is ok size wise for this.. I didn't do the front bulkhead as they were too large. This piece is an ideal piece to mock up from the cuts.

More reference points from the bumper mount holes to the edge of the body slot which wont be moved, and up to the top channel which wont be moved either.

New panel marked with reference points on the car. You wont ever have enough reference points no matter how many you have, you will always forget one. And thats ok if you can catch it on the fly, which I can. If you cant its hair pulling out time🤣

And this is what we have been aiming for. The foundation panel to build the rest on. All the rest go onto this one. Once you get this in, you have nice new metal to work on. This is the one we are looking for, after a trial fit here, and checking the bumper mounting holes with our reference points. Houston we are good to go.😉

If you look at this corner in its entirety, it looks daunting, as does the whole of the project. You need to be able to break it down into manageable pieces. Step by step gets the job done, and you dont overwhelm your self.

Thats it for today folks, check back in on the morrow

I put up a pic of meself, and whats the first thing that happens, I get insulted. Go on you gurrier🤣😉

OH yeah the bad crap is still out there. I put a new set of klokkerholm heater channels on a beetle a few years ago, and I got less than ten years out of them. And i complained to the dealer about the quality, and he said 10 years is the norm now for repro panels. The wings on the front of the variant are 100% and a hammer hops right off them, and not a bit of rust after nearly 60 years.. There are a couple of makers, Hookey, Auto craft and Alan schofields, and classic fab green panels. All great quality and good fits. But alas no Vw type 3 variants, fastbacks or notchback panels.

OOOooh, what wouldn't I give to get me hands on the proper reference datum drawings of the beetle and type 3's. Manna from heaven that would be for resto work for sure. I remember when the local Cunninghams VW closed up and changed franchises. Every single vw component from washers to crankshafts went into a large about of rubbish skips and off to the landfill. I passed by when the lads were chucking in dozens of cylinders from the first floor window. And all that was to ensure there was no sudden influx of new parts on the local market to service all the beetles in the area, which were a lot. And then all buried in the landfill. Market forces at work back then.

But that was the regular procedure for government bodies as well with old stock. When board na mona switched from bsa to bultaco to honda, they did exactly the same thing will all the parts, both new and old as well as complete running bikes. Buried in the middle of the bog in rochfort bridge and other bogs in the midlands. Part of the franchise agreement, there was to be no large stock of parts released to the public under any circumstances.Its common knowledge in the midlands.

So thats the corner piece done. And I cant grind off the reminder as I cant reach it, but I am not worried, when all is said and done it will be hidden. next job is to work my way around the ducting thats rusty and needs removal.

Any of the sections that are inaccesible but firm and just need a cleaning to remove loose rust I brush out with a wire brush, blow it out and then give it two coats of Bardhal Convert Ox, or Vactan, or Fertan. These are all convertors that convert the rust into a polymer based primer coat. When its dry and fully cured after 2 days you are left with coating that is ready for painting, some of them need the first coating with an oil based paint.

I have used the Convert ox and painted the cured coat with hammerite red oxide, and its now dried to a afirm hard coat. I find the hammerite hard to beat. When thats all ready I intend to paint all this concealed are with gravitex stone chip which seems to do the job.Of course before the stone chip I like to seam seal any welds or panel to panel faces with seam sealer brush on just to give it an extra protection on prone areas.

I cant say i have come across a long lance for injecting into cavities, but I have considered making one when I need one. At the moment all the areas where i am working are accessible to me, luckily. I totally agree , yo cant have too much protection against rust.