Thanks. Its taken a while but i actually do like it too. Few little repairs for the drivers door. Repair patch for rot around a blocked drain hole in bottom of door. Some pigeon poo welding. My OE VW metal donor.
Got the rest of the repairs to this door welded in and ground down this afternoon so gave everything a quick coat of filler. Small hole in the centre of the door welded up and filled. Dent roughly pulled out and filled. It all needs a little more filling then a shed load of sanding before i can chuck some paint on it and then start on the other door.
Got the rest of the door's welds ground down and a little more filler added. It looks virtually the same as it did yesterday so i didn't bother with any piccies. Decided to have a bit of a tidy up as i was getting fed up with tripping over stuff again, took stock of what parts i have and put them somewhere i can find them again. Suspension and brake parts: The discs may need replacing, though they've only covered about 2K miles. The other bits i found. Theres still quite a few bits i'm missing but i've ticked a fair bit off my list.
Most of the filler on the door is now sanded down. Can't wait to get some paint on it. Found this bracket in a bag marked dashboard but had no idea where it was supposed to attach. After asking on one of the facebook pages what i was for it turns out it attaches with a screw to here and the other end attaches to the bonnet release knob on the side of the glovebox.
Just received a couple of donor hinges in the post this morning. Will need a new pin but the part i need isn't seized solid or worn away.
Got the inside of the door painted in bonda primer today. Just need to figure out how to remove the sticky bitumen residue left over from removing the sound deadening pad that usually rots beetle doors from the inside out. Outside sanded again and ready for some bonda primer on the repairs. Sliced my finger open yet again. So glad i bought more plasters as i was running out.
Some bonda primer painted over the filler. Drilled the outer skin of the passengers door for the mirror mount. Used the rescued nut from one of my scrap drivers doors to see if the mount fits. Yep. Lower mounting point for the window winder mechanism cut from scrap door. Mine was 1/2 missing. Removed the lower hinge reinforcement plate from a donor door for the same reason. Rebuilt the engine lid lock so the barrel i have keys for is in a lock with better chrome than the pitted one that was on it.
Gonna steal one of my father inlaws wood chisels and have a scrape. The last one i removed left hardly any residue but this one is stuck like poo to a blanket. After 2 weeks soaking in a jar of bleach the grab handles are a little less yellow.
Made a start on the passengers side door. Chopped out the inner frame after taking some measurements of where holes etc are supposed to be. The rot goes about 1/2" further up than the klokkerholm panel reaches so a bit more needed chopping out. Panel is nearly the right shape, the pressings are a bit wrong in places but they are covered by the door trim panel so its not the end of the world. Donor window winder mount position marked on the new inner panel. Checked to see if the hinge reinforcement panel i scavenged off a scrap door fits in the right place. Looks OK. My scrap panel pile is getting bigger. Received a parallel punch set in the post today so knocked out one of the hinge pins on my recently aquired hinges so i can make up the final hinge i need.
Cut some of the donor repair pieces to size and welded the first bit in. This shows just how badly shaped the klokkerholm panel is which is why i decided to try and use as much VW metal as i could. The edge return the seal fits in is about 10mm out so will need flattening out and rebending.
Good old klokkerholm. I couldn't afford to use the £40 panel so one a 1/4 of the price had to do. I suppose you get what you pay for and all that.
Managed to get an hour on the bug this afternoon. Got the flange on the inner panel flattened out and rebent in the correct place and trimmed some of the other bits and bobs to fit the holes that are missing solid metal.
Window winder mech mount welded onto the new inner skin. Ground down to size: Welded on: Other corner: A solid inner panel.
Repaired a bit of rot around the door check strap mount. Welds ground down on the corners and i welded the lower hinge reinforcement back in too. Little bit of icing added.
Why chop out the rot when you can just weld right over the top? Only the bottom 30mm was rotten but they still stuck a full 150mm high panel on. Carefully chopped it off just below the welds and peeled it off. Veng panel. It was done before i bought it in 1996 so must have been one of the "repairs" done before it was painted in 1992. Ground all the remains of the panel off ready for a some new steel.
It's how things used to be done Back in the day repair panels were pressed so as to go over the top Then the joins knocked in and filled over
The existing door panel is still smooth though so i think they just addded more filler further up the door to create the curve.
