A 1960 VW Beetle Restoration Project: August 2013

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

In the spray-painters world there is apparently something called "fish eyes". This is something that occurs when you spray over dust particles. Joggie found three fish eyes on the side panel. He fixed them and then tried to spray a primer coat. Unfortunately the primer did not want to take on the black and now he has to sand down the whole panel to the bare metal and start over.

FROM PILLAR TO POST:

Now that I have found two replacement doors, they could be fitted and aligned so that the replacement panels could be welded in.

Primer for spray

Final Product

THE DOORS (No...not the band)

Both doors on Oupa were unrepairable due to rust. The previous owner fitted metal sheets to the bottom of each door to seal off the rusted sections. My search started for replacement doors which I quickly realised are very hard to find for this model Beetle.

I bought one from a guy in our Beetle club who used it on a racing Beetle.

After a long and hard search I found the other one on an internet site and drove very far to collect it.

Now the doors could be fitted so that the replacement pillar panels could be welded in.

FRONT PILLAR

I bought replacement panels for the front pillars which were badly damaged by rust.

The damaged sections had to be cut away for the new sections to be welded in.

I now need to find replacement doors so that the new panels can be fitted and welded in.

Have I mentioned that the car has rust? I read a bumper sticker which read "Rust is lighter than carbon", I thought it was rather funny until you find rust of your own.

The previous owner drilled a hole in the side panel so that he can fit a Trickle Charger cable through it and then he did not need to remove the battery each time it needed charging.