The first thing we did was to correct the drivers door space.
Malcolm has the ram that operates much like a normal jack. It helped maintain the distance for welding in place.
Unfortunately, this side of the car, the door had always rubbed a little when closing. After it was tacked into place, we found it needed more height. Malcolm raised the door space, placed a filler bit of metal into the door frame and then welded the hell out of it.
Once the door was ok, we moved on to behind the passenger side front section.
Both sides of the front where removed to fit the cross panel in.
I had purchased the complete panel with the intention of cutting it down. This is what was taken off.
Cutting the rusty cross member out.
It took most of the morning to get the new cross member in. It did not line up very well. It makes you wonder who designs these new panels, are they aware that they're for a beetle?
Finally, the cross member gets slotted into place!
I spoke too soon. Just need to take a little more off.
Now it fits, time to weld.
The top edge that meets the old panel did not match up at all. But after much persuasion it did!
Now we could fit the new outer panel.
It fitted really well.
Some minor adjustments...
And it was welded into place.
The cross member was poorly welded in the factory. After banging with a hammer, the second skin began to peel away! More welding required.
We expected to get more done in the day but the cross member held us up loads.
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