Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi still removing layer upon layer of paint but some welding also took place
Apron welded in


some fender flanges also neede the welder

old beetles also suffer from metal fatigue and we needed to do some crack repairs

Dashboard finally welded in and ground down


Then we realised the PO used one piece windows and cut the doorstops off and filled the holes with putty
getting the backside off in order to replace was a real bitch



Armand

Under all the putty a 70s beetles trademark roof rust

Looking good, looks like a lot of work.

What did you do with the split window kit

I like it to see when love go's in to a project and that you can see in the work that's put in to small detail.

keep up the good work

Hi all
We got the doorstops welded in some more rust repair and finally a good coat of etch primer on the underside all the seams were sealed with polyurethane as used to glue in windshields

some rust in heater channel


the split kit is still at home I am thinking of converting it into a hatch that would fit a std beetle
Armand

Looks good bud. Just started my 76 S project aswell, so i know its alot of work

Hi cleaning a body to bare metal seems to take forever and with the second terms exams I gave ol Supe off but its holidays and he is at the grindstone, At first we wanted to do patch repairs at the rear windo but he wanted to clean underneath the vents. Without access to sand blasting we decided to remove the vent and replace with a section from another car Easier said than done though. this also gave the opportunity to do some further rust repair in the right lower corner we also managed to etch prime the engine compartment and paint under the vent.




Just look at the mess below the vents so.....







The replacement

patch welded in


Cleaned the louvers


Some etch primer


Some top coat




The engine bay




Thanks for looking

Really nice work ! What do you put on the bare metal to protect it from rust ?
Also what welder are you using.

So far the northwest weather has been kind but I have seen people use parrafin to protect the metal.
I am using a SIP mig welder with 0.6mm wire
I also use oxy acetalene on occasion
Armand

Well done Armand,
Love the dedication you put into a project, this will surely rub off on the youngster.

Keep the photos coming, will help all with their resto's.

Herman

This is a verry cool build nice to see Armand and his "impi's" in action !

Hi with Reniers hard work the past couple of days we have made more progress. Not wearing overalls and using a steel brush in a dril

He also managed a spot of arc eye during the welding in of the vent
we got the vent fitted little different from Dolfs method but his is probably the route I would take if there is no rust issues to deal with.

We put a piece of foam in there to protect from overspray



Some more bits in Primer



We would like a full bare metal (outside) body before laying high build primer



The tank also got some love


Armand

But... but now after you've welded the vents back in, isn't it going to rust underneath where you welded it, because all the paint's burnt off and you can't get to it to fix it?

Hi you are correct in that there will still be exposed areas of steel after welding but... VW only painted the bodies with all this assembled so factory paint also did not reach these areas. when we removed the panels there was no paint on the undersides of the louvres whatsoever. The factory only relied on the dipped primer which was applied to the bodies by immersion back in the day. We minimised the heat into the panels by using a wet rag after each weld thus minimising damage to the primer and paint I will be using some tectyl to seal this area after paint.
Armand

Hi Armand, yes, that's why I asked. I know this is a favourite rust spot for Beetles and I heard it said that there is a "sponge" of foam inside the C-pillar at that location too, apparently to reduce noise. It retains moisture and that's why in Cape Town almost all Beetles have holes in the C-pillars. When I looked at your repair, I thought... Hmm, that will be an inprovement until I figured that the welding will burn the paint off.

Does Dolf's method have the same draw back? I did not see how he put the interior panel back.

Maybe spraying Tectyl into the space would help? It Tectyl even available still?