Body work - drivers side wing replacement

Previously we have tried to set the size of the door opening correctly but up until now thing have only been tacked in place. With the drivers wing becoming fixed today, it would mean the door post can be fixed in place for good.


As can be seen here (sorry about the contrast, it was a sunny day) the bottom of the wing and the top gutter has been destroyed by rust.


A previous repair (not by me!) was the bottom of the spare wheel bay was replaced and riveted in place. It did not take long to remove.

With the old panel cut off, the remaining parts of it were grinded out.


Cutting the door post for realignment.



Welding the door post in place.


The new panel in place. It was not simple to fit but after much fiddling it was ok.








All the welding needs tidying up but the panel is in place and I have another shopping list of parts to replace!

Body work - cross panel replacement

Today we raised the car a couple of feet off the ground to give better access.


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.

Body work - abover the heater channels

Each time we do the welding, I clear out the garage so we have space to work.

First the rear panel was put in place. Previous to this we cut out and fitted the panel. We even cut down the panel to make it fit in the way we wanted it to.


Some of the off cuts from the panel where used to fill odd gaps.


The finished panel, ready for grinding down.


Then it was on to the other side. The same panel needed to be replaced.


Passenger side panel clamped in place.

More work on this corner required. Malcolm said he would finish it off later by making a strengthener for the seat belt mount on the inside.


Both lower door posts are being replaced, with the hinge bracket. Further parts are also looking very likely and so the following section is cut away for access to the door post from behind.



Cutting the new door post to size.


Removing the old door post.



The fitting of the door post.






With the passenger side done (tacked in) we moved on to the drivers side.

Yet again, after all the work done in this day, I was left with a list of parts to buy.