This is my first van and my first go at helping my dad (rich) with a restoration. I have a pink 71 beetle which was my daily driver but now only comes out in summer and rich has a 69 early. Weve had a couple other beetles in between; a cool modified orange one and a completely original steel sunroof bug we wish we could keep them all! When i say its my first go at helping dad with the resto i mean i buy the parts and then stand and pass him the tools im learning though Well here it is: i bought this a few weeks ago. At first we were pretty happy after reading a resto blog about it, it looked great being welded fully and from description was a put back together job and make it look pretty...... However after a few days of closer inspection at home we found that most of the panels need replacing or properly repaired. We found lots of parts wernt cut out with a new peice welded in but a repair skin just rivited and welded in over the top of the bad bit. This was present over both steps and wheel arches, bottom 10inches of the sliding door , middle panel and the back side panels on both sides. We were disappointed to say the least BUT we had 2 choices and we chose to stick with it and get it repaired properly so we have a solid bus at the end of it and can be assured that it IS solid and will be resilient Parts were ordered and a search for a welder began We thought where to start.... The bus is lowered so we started by raising the bus back to stock height, the rear was lowered by 2 splines and was a slight issue with one side as one wheel was on the wonk. From here we can finish the brakes too. We have stripped out the interior and i need to replace the rover seats i have for some original ones as i cant reach the pedals hahaha
Weve decided to get the welding done asap and then while everything is out of the van we can get it prepped and ready for a new paint job aswell at the same time. So today we started on the awkward bits sanding down the orange paint and finding some lovely lilac paint underneath and then found the original orange paint which was pretty cool! The paint was pretty thick so weve had to chisle some off and now my arm aches although i only did it for 2 hours and dad did most of it hehe.. We started to chisle on the middle side panel and found the rivited repair peice and ALOT of filler Chisle chisle chisle and sand paper burn later we still have loads to pick off but uncovering more original paint We picked off bits and got to the rear side panel where we found even more filler and silicone It goes all the way up to the window so im guessing its the same on the other side so lots of elbow grease and sand paper of the next few evenings after work, the street will be covered in orange dust! Still dont know what colour im going to go for.... Hmmm?? Keep changing my mind
Hey! wow thats some body work! I love the front lights and Id be looking to do this to ours at some point, did you fit them or was it the PO?
Good luck with her I found fibreglass when I started poking mine! Keep up the good work and keep her oorange
Its definately taking time picking all this off and then Sanding it down! It will be a hell of a lot lighter when its done! Found its plastered all the way up on the rear aswell .... Nearly finished the whole drivers side tonight
This week has been such nice weather and a great chance to get this crap off in the evenings! Yesterday we were using scrapers and sand paper and not really getting anywhere and scratching the metal. Today we bought a cheap heat gun for £9.99 and the filler is peeling off like an oorange! The original paint were finding underneath is soooo shiney! Its so thick and the reapir panels over panels stick out about 2-3mm now weve peeled off the filler can see the extent of welding that needs doing. Heres the rear corner All the windows came out today and more sanding to be done tomorrow and saturday its going to look sooo different when all the paint is off Saturday is also a job to get my beetle lights working ready for sundays clubs unite at the beach in brean
it is ricky i swear at the po every time i look at it,it will end up better than it is anyway wait till you see the pics of the sliding door.....
I looked at the "resto" on here and it looked "ok" in pic's just shows mate! Good luck anyway im sure you'll do it right.
The lights or the PO? I'm sure I remember seeing that on here somewhere? Wonder how they covered up their shoddy bodge work (apart from with kilos of filler)?
