I'm sure you will sort it mate it's all a learning curve , I like doing my beetle and wished I had kept it in the end but sold it for the cash to do the mk1 then I sold that to do the camper lol wish I had all 3 lol
One of my mates has a 1978 chrome bumpered 5 door mk1 auto with a webasto ragtop sat in his garage. It only needs sills and rear arches and a carb rebuild. I've been trying to buy it off him for years and he won't sell.
Channel seems to meet up with the inner rear 1/4 OK now after a load of swearing and hammering. Front bulkhead needs a little tweaking to get it to fit tight to the channel. Remains of A pillar bottom sits where it should too which is good. Just need to grind the paint off and i'll get the bugger welded in.
Started welding the channel in today and ran out of welding wire. This could be fun. New panel doesn't cover all the rot i had to cut out. I wonder if anyone other than kackerholm, sorry Klokkerholm make rear 1/4 repair panels.
u can buy a repro quarter for £78 at hertigage it for up to 64 but u can cut as much as ye need and use the rest for patching owen nw http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_spares_Quarter-repair-rear-XL-8-64-right_act_shop.product_pID_58753_lang_EN_country_GB.htm?crumbStartPage=2&crumbStartRow=20 a BRILLANT PANEL
Thats way more than i can afford to be honest so i'm gonna weld a 10mm strip of steel along the edge instead.
I offered up the rear 1/4 panel and its another great (not) fitting Klokkerholm panel. The flange along the bottom that attaches to the heater channel is the wrong width so i had to rebend it so the rear 1/4 didn't flare out like a bell. The rear end of the panel that wraps around the inner wing is bent at the wrong angle so that'll need rebending too and the wing mounting panel is nowhere near the shape its supposed to be. I might as well have started from a sheet of flat steel and made my own instead of using this piece of scrap.
Been a chopping today. Think that captive nut will need replacing? This is actually better than i was expecting! Autocraft panel trial fitted. Seems to fit pretty well.
New wire arrived this morning so finished off welding the heater channel in and seam sealing it. Unfolded the A pillar seam and cut out the rotten edge of the front 1/4 panel.
Sweet crap on a stick, you're still welding giant metal patches to it. This restoration amazes me. You will have the only beetle in the world consisting of less than 7% actual Volkswagen parts.
Bit made up to replace the flange on the remaining part of the klokkerholm panel. The first card template made for the rear crossmember repair:
Got the A pillar welded in today. Needs the welds grinding down and the edge tweaking to straighten it up a little. Edge of B pillar repaired too.
u need to check the setting on your welder adjust the power setting ,wire speed or some thing , coming on , owen nw
I made the gap between top of the repair panel and A pillar too small but only realised after i'd welded it to the heater channel so had to whack the power up another notch to compensate. Normally i'd be using intergrips but couldn't get to the back of the panel to retrieve the bar. The welds have fully penterated the panel (and it looks the same on the other side of the weld) but for some reason looks really nasty on the outside.
Cut a bit more rot out today. Gave the A pillar a grinding and a skim of filler: Rear 1/4 fits fairly well now considering its a Klokkerholm panel.
