My Beetle Restoration

Now that the body is off the chassis, I can get an even better view of the rust damage and what needs to be replaced. Basically, most everything on the bottom 4-5 inches of the body will need to be replaced with donor parts or new panels. The bottom areas of the body suffered the most moisture exposure while sitting idle for 20+ years in the harsh Minnesota weather. I was told that it was sitting under a shed most of this time, but I’m guessing that snow and rain were still able to reach the underside of it. And if it spent the first 25 years in this harsh environment as well, it had probably already experienced some rust damage before it was parked for another 20 or so years.

So here is my initial assessment of what will need to be repaired:

Heater Channels: The heater channels have been destroyed by rust both inside and outside and will need to be replaced. The rear sections suffered the worst damage and have disintegrated completely. Both sides had mouse nests inside the channels. Since the replacement aftermarket heater channels available today are so different in both design and fit from the original parts, I have decided to purchase donor channels from a car of a similar age. I found donor parts on thesamba.com and they were shipped via Greyhound bus from California which is, by the way, an economical way to ship large bulky items. There is no guarantee that the donor channels will be a perfect fit, but they should be much closer than the new aftermarket parts and will have the same contours, stampings, and vents.

 

Front firewall: The front firewall is in fairly good shape. There are significant areas of rust on the bottom left and right corners where it attaches to the heater channels, but I should be able to graft in areas from new or donor parts. The areas that need to be replaced are really the only areas on the new aftermarket parts that are close to the original parts, so I may just buy a new panel and cut out the sections I need. Otherwise, the rest of the new firewall panels are significantly different than the originals and are missing the fuel valve hole, choke cable hole, and recessed stamping for the high beam switch and it would not be worth replacing the whole panel with a new one. Besides, there are many spot welds to drill out to remove the current one and just as many welds to make to install a new one.

 

A-Pillars: I know the passenger side A-pillar has rust damage because the lower door hinge would flex quite a bit as something inside the pillar was loose. I’m not really sure what condition the A-pillar is on the driver side and will not really know until I can take a good look inside of it. From the outside, it looks in pretty good shape. The correct replacement panels cost $120 each, so I will try to find a good donor panel first. Once I remove the heater channel on each side, I can see inside the pillars and get a better idea of the extent of the damage.

 

Rear Cross Members: The outside ends of the rear cross members are rusted, so I plan to only replace these areas. Aftermarket replacement panels are available and aren't too different than the originals, but I will look for donor panels because I intend to replace the ends of panels just past the heater tubes and want the tubes to match the originals. It will also be less work if I can use matching donor parts as the heater tubes will already be welded to the panels. With new panels, I have to move the tubes and weld them on.

 

Luggage Shelf: The luggage shelf is also in fairly good condition, except for rust on the very bottom left and right corners where they attach to the rear cross members and rear wheelhouses. I will look for a donor panel to cut pieces out for replacement. I did find a supplier that sells a donor clip with the entire luggage shelf with the rear cross members as well. That may be an option that will provide panel grafts for both.

 

Rear Quarter Panels: The bottoms of both rear quarter panels are heavily rust-damaged. In fact, both the inner and outer portions of the panels will need to be replaced. Since the heater channels that I am purchasing will include the rear quarter panels, I will cut sections from the donor panels to replace the damaged areas. The passenger side panel has a large dent in it that is covered with body filler. I will likely replace the panel past the point of this dent.

 

Front Apron: The front apron is in usable shape, but will need some repair. The overrider holes are mangled a bit from when the bumper was damaged. As long as there isn’t any rust damage on the underside of it, I may just weld in a patch where the overrider holes are and re-cut the holes. The spare tire tray that attaches to the bottom of the front apron will have to be replaced. I will likely use a new panel as they are close enough to modify to be like the original panels and they are inexpensive.

 

VIN Plate\Brake Fluid Reservoir Well: The VIN plate\brake fluid reservoir well has some significant rust, namely under where the reservoir is mounted and on the front mounting bracket that mounts the body to the front axle. This panel will need to be replaced. Since aftermarket parts are not available, I will need to find a donor part or try to fabricate parts, which would be very difficult to do. Brake fluid is a great paint remover, so an area like this that would normally be dry and safe from moisture, was soon bare and vulnerable to rust. Because of this, it suffered quite a bit of errosion and pitting.

 

Rear Apron: The rear apron is pretty banged up. The bottom of the panel is bent upward on one side and there has been some questionable body work done on it at some point. Apparently, to get the bottom corners to match the rear fenders, someone beat in the corners and then filled them in with body filler. The underside has a lot of surface rust, so I may have to replace the bottom portion of the apron with either a new or donor panel. The bottom portion of a new panel, from the weather seal down, should be fairly close to the original, but a donor panel would be preferable, but perhaps harder to find.

 

Front Wheelhouses: The front wheelhouses are in good shape except for the areas where they attach to the very front of the heater channels and also at the bottom corners of the front firewall. This area on both sides will need portions of a panel grafted in where the metal is rusted. I will use new panels for this. The rest of the front wheelhouses are fairly rust free. I do know that I have to weld one side of the horn bracket because I broke a spot weld trying to remove the horn. I also have a hole that needs to be plugged on the passenger side where a previous owner drilled through it to run a bolt to hold the bumper bracket. Apparently, the bumper mount, which is located inside the spare tire well, was stripped out and rather than repair the threads in the mount, they just drilled a hole through the mount and wheelhouse and ran a bolt through to secure the bumper bracket to the mount. I will either replace the mount or remove it, weld a nut on the back side, and re-weld it.

 

Rear Wheelhouses: Both of the rear wheelhouses need quite a bit of work. Both will need a large section of the very rear of the wheelhouses replaced. These areas include the bumper mount and there is a lot of rust damage there. Since the available aftermarket panels are similar to the original parts, I will use these to make the repairs. Both sides also have quite a bit of rust on the brackets that bolt to the shock towers on the chassis, so I would like to at least replace the brackets with donor or new parts. Also, both sides have a good deal of rust damage on the front of the wheelhouses. The available aftermarkets panels for this area also include the shock tower brackets, so these panels will take care of both issues.

 

There may be other areas that need rust repair, but these are currently my main areas of concern. There is surface rust throughout the body and I will not really know if there is significant damage until I start removing the rust. I want to get the major work done first, and will address the other areas after the structural work is completed. I’ll also have to tackle repairing and fitting the doors, front hood, and engine lid before getting to the cosmetic work.

There is also a great deal of work to be done to the chassis, such as replacing the floor pans and napoleon hat, which will need to be done alongside of the body repair. This work will be shown in a separate category named Chassis.

Well, I haven’t done anything to the car at all since the middle of March. I’ve had time to work on it, but I haven’t had the money necessary to buy all the replacement and donor panels I need for the next step. It’s also been way too hot to do any work on it. It’s been unbearably hot in Central Texas this year! Once I have the money for the parts and tolerable weather, I will get back to it again.

 

I did purchase donor heater channels from a guy in California and had them shipped via Greyhound bus to Texas. It’s a fairly inexpensive way to ship big, bulky items like this. I would, however, recommend that if you have anything shipped this way to have the person shipping it to you to thoroughly wrap and protect the item. My guy did a terrible job packaging my heater channels they got banged up more than they should have. There was also sharp metal sticking out of the packaging and a bus driver cut his hand (not seriously) unloading it at my local station. The cranky old lady that manages my station complained vigorously about the poor packaging. Being partially covered in cardboard and shrink wrap was not sufficient to protect it… and it was dangerous as well.

The heater channels I purchased included the rear quarter panels. I don’t know just what parts of the quarter panels I will use yet, but I do know that I will need the inner panels for sure. I thought I was getting a matched set of heater channels, but got a pair from two different model years. I think they are close enough to my model to fit well and only the driver side is newer. I think it is only a year or two newer as it has holes in it for the wiring harness, but the vent louvers still match. These should be much better replacements than the new ones available today.

I started drilling out spot welds on the front end of the passenger side heater channel. I first removed the paint and the body sealer covering the welds with a wire brush in my drill. I then removed the remnant of the front wheelhouse. By that time, the inexpensive spot weld bit I was using was really dull. I’m going to need to purchase a much better one before drilling any more of them. There was a little surface rust under the panel, but overall it seems in pretty good shape.

 

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve done anything on my car. I haven’t given up or lost interest, but still have the same issue of not having the sufficient funds to purchase the replacements panels needed to start the extensive rust repair. I would prefer to have most, if not all, of the pieces that I know I’m going to replace to be able to fit and align them together and to make sure everything is going to work. With so few reference points remaining, it’s going to be tough enough to get each panel in its proper place and having the adjacent parts should help quite a bit. Even with all original parts, it would still be difficult to get everything aligned properly and since I’ll be using a combination of donor parts and aftermarket repair panels, it’s going to be even more difficult for them to be properly aligned and fitting, structurally sound, and not looking Frankenstein-ed together like they will actually be.

Outside of structural and cosmetic concerns, my main concern is that the doors will work and fit well. My goal is for them to fit as well as they did when they were new. This will require the following:

     1) The ‘A’ and ‘B’ columns are equidistant. The measurements between the two columns on each side need to have the same measurements at the top and at the bottom, and the gaps between them and the door need to be even all the way up and down.

     2) The ‘A’ and ‘B’ columns are parallel vertically. By this, I mean their positions along the body of the car and not having one column tilting more towards the inside or outside of the car than the other. This will make sure that the door lays flat against the frame around it.

     3) The ‘A’ columns are structurally sound and do not flex or move. In order to be able to support the doors via the hinges and to maintain their alignment, the ‘A’ columns will need to be rock solid. I know that the lower portion of my passenger side column will need to be replaced. The bottom hinge was frozen and that area would give way when trying to open the door. Deciding just when to replace this is going to be difficult. On one hand, replacing it first will ensure that I have a more stable hinge mount to position and align the door and heater channel, but on the other hand it may just not make any difference. So many pieces have to be replaced and there will be a lot checking and rechecking as I go. Planning ahead will be critical to all of this working out, but even then, I’m sure there will be surprises and things I may not have expected that I will have to deal with.

     4) The hinges are working freely, but without excessive play. The play will make them droop and if drooping enough, the bottoms will rub on the heater channels. This will also make it impossible to align them properly and have the gaps around the doors and frames be even. This is probably something I need to address first since my hinges are worn.

     5) The positions of each heater channel are a) parallel to the bottom of its corresponding door and b) providing the proper clearance from the bottom of the door to prevent rubbing.

     6) Last, but not least, the gaps between the door and frame are correct — not too narrow or too wide.

I’m anxious to get started and to move from the planning/guessing stage to the doing stage. At this point, making mistakes is still progress.

I just purchased a couple of key replacement parts for my Beetle. I purchased a donor front firewall and a donor Napoleon Hat (sometimes called a front chassis support panel). Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, there are people in California that cut up perfectly good cars for parts. In my case, it’s a good thing as it makes it possible to replace some hard-to-find parts and panels that either 3rd party suppliers don’t supply at all or the parts they do supply are for newer models that neither look the same nor fit the same as the originals. As far as I can tell with an initial inspection, these two parts are very close to the original parts on my car. The front firewall is labeled as being from a 1966 model which appears to be correct. It doesn’t have the holes in it for the choke cable or fuel tap lever, but has the stampings in it where the holes used to be punched out. I can just drill these out to the proper size and it should match the original panel. All the other stampings and dimensions appear to be the same as the original. The Napoleon hat appears to be a very close match to the original as well and a trial fit to the donor front firewall showed a very close fit. I won’t know for sure just how close a match they are until the extraneous pieces and panel remnants are removed and I can put them up next to the originals and also until I can take some comparative measurements.

Note: These donor parts do cost a little more than the currently available replacement panels, but are, in my opinion, superior in design, fit, and quality. A new Napoleon hat is available for around $30 and the donor part cost me $75. Likewise, a new front firewall is available for around $50 and the donor part was $100. I think the extra cost will be easily justified once they are in place. These two parts are important to the mating of the body and chassis and will provide a good reference point for the heater channels on the front end of the car. Currently, these parts on my car are rusted away on their outer ends and provide no reference points with panels mating to them like the heater channels.

Along with the front firewall and Napoleon hat, I purchased a pedal cluster, 1 horn (he threw in an extra), 3 back seat bolts with washers, and 7 long 17mm bolts. All of the items together cost me $200 including shipping via Greyhound Package Express. As you can see, protective packaging is not my supplier’s forté. However, providing hard-to-find original parts with very little rust is. He wrapped the firewall and Napoleon hat together with stretch wrap as well as wrapping the horns together. They were all placed in a floor jack box with the pedal cluster and the bag of bolts. They seemed to make the journey here with little or no damage. Thanks Mike!

 

I’ve recently become very motivated to get started working on the restoration again, even if it is just little things here and there. I did some website work for one of the absolute best, if not the absolute best, classic VW restoration shops in the country and after looking at many years’ worth of their fantastic, top-notch work, it reminded me that I need to make progress, no matter how little it may be — every day, week, month, and year. I may not have the funds to buy all the replacement panels I need right away, but I can do something productive on it on a regular basis until I can. I’ve made a commitment to myself to get going and keep going.

 

A while ago, I started looking for a replacement for my VIN plate\brake fluid reservoir well and found a 1958 donor front clip that included one on thesamba.com. The seller agreed to cut out and sell me just the area that was attached to the panel for $90, including shipping. It is a little banged up, but nothing that can’t be straightened out. There is also a bit of surface rust, but it is in much better condition than the one on my car.

The first 4 pictures are of the panel still attached to the donor clip and the remaining 5 are of the donor cut-out that I purchased.

 

Finally back working on the car! I decided to tackle removing the quarter panels and other pieces still remaining on the donor heater channels that I purchased. Even though the quarter panels that came with the heater channels are in fairly good shape, I decided that it would be better to just remove them and just use the heater channels by themselves. I think it will be too hard to try to cut and splice the channels, and whatever part of the quarter panels I decide to use, into the body all at the same time. I do intend to use the lower part of the inner quarter panels from the donors as the inner panels on my body are severely rusted. I intend to use reproduction repair panels for the outer quarter panels as the ones on the donors both have issues. I started with the passenger side channel.

Even drilling very carefully on the spot welds, I still managed to drill through into the heater channel a couple of times. Oh well, I guess I’ll get a little more welding practice! It’s amazing how well the spot welds hold and just a small area missed can keep the whole area from breaking free. I took my time to do as little damage as possible to the heater channels when removing all the stuff I didn’t want and at the same time, trying to have as much usable area on the removed panels just in case I need something from them later on. Sometimes, though, areas on the panel being removed just have to be sacrificed to be able to get them apart.

 

First, I removed the outer quarter panel. I don’t intend to use this panel, but tried to do as little damage as possible so that it is useable either by me or someone else in the future. With the door jamb welded, it is difficult to get in the tight corners and cut it away. I ended up drilling or cutting away more that I wanted, but the main focus is saving the heater channel.

 

Since the carpet strip on the door threshold is dented, scratched, and bent, I decided to remove it. Replacements are readily available and less than $10 for quality replicas. It was kind of a pain to remove, however, with just over 30 spot welds to drill out and ground down afterwards. I think it will be worth the effort of replacing it though as this is very visible when the door is open

 

Next, I removed the inner quarter panel. There are several areas that are just difficult to access to cut, grind, and free the panel and not damage or mar it. Also, it’s often hard to tell just where the welds are and just what is preventing the panel from breaking free. This panel is in excellent condition and I will use the bottom of it to replace the completely rusted out panel on the car.

 

I then removed the remnants of the rear cross member from the rear of the channel. There were two thick layers of metal (the cross member & the reinforcing plate) with a lot of spot welds. The cross member actually fits under the bottom plate of the heater channel and is seam welded all the way across. I cut it just past the seam weld losing very little of the bottom plate. Removing this gives me the first view inside the heater channel. Not too bad for panel that is around 50 years old! I'm considering removing the bottom plate so that I can remove the dents and treat the rust inside. It's a lot of spot welds to drill out to remove it and a lot of welding to reassemble it, but it's really the only way to stop the rust, preserve the good metal, and get it looking its best.

 

Next up was the remainder of the A pillar. Again, I cut just past the welds to remove the panel piece and then ground the welds down.

 

Since my car didn’t have carpet retaining strips over the heater vent louvers, I removed it. I want to keep it as close to what it originally had as possible.

 

Last, I removed the remaining section of the front firewall. This piece is heavily welded both with seam welds and spot welds. Luckily, I don’t need to keep any of it and could cut and grind it aggressively. One down and one to go!

 

After getting it all apart, I think that this heater channel was cut from a 1967 bug or at least one that had seat belts from a 1967. It had a clip mounted on it that was used to hold back the sheath that covered the bottom part of the 1967 seat belt mechanism. Overall, I’m very pleased with the condition of this heater channel. I think this will be the closest available replacement part and at $100, it’s hard to beat the price as well. The closest quality replacement costs around $300 plus another $120 shipping for each heater channel!

The driver's side donor heater channel came apart pretty much the same way. I'm not sure this heater channel came from the same car as the other, but they were supposed to be a pair from the same body. The paint colors were different except for similar small areas with the same green paint. This side also had the running board bolt holes welded and ground flat to the surface and the molding clip holes on the quarter panel were welded as well. The passenger side did not. I think it's from a 1964-1967 model as it had a drain line in the quarter panel for a metal sunroof. Overall, this heater channel had more rust and rust damage and isn't in as good condition as the passenger side heater channel. Just as the other channel, I think the bottom plate will need to be removed to treat the rust and do other repairs. I still think it will be fine once done and well worth the $100 I paid for it.

 

I decided to remove the extraneous pieces from my donor VIN plate/ brake fluid reservoir compartment. When it was cut out, there were pieces of the panel it was attached to that need to be removed before it can be welded on. That will be quite a while from now, but still needs to be done.

First, I used a rotary wire brush in my drill and went over the spot welds to make then easier to see. Amazing how many spot welds there was on this small compartment that had to be drilled out to get the old panel pieces off. A quick count yielded around 44 welds. I didn't track the time, but I'm guessing it took at least 2 hours to do them all.

 

The resulting replacement panel is in pretty good shape. It's a little bent up and is rusted through on the back part of the panel, just behind where the brake fluid reservoir sits. I'll find out later on just how far that extends when I clean it up for patching. Hopefully, it's just a small area.

 

One less thing to do!

 

Since the Napoleon Hat on my car isn't worth saving or repairing, I decided to find a donor part. I contacted the guy that I purchsed my donor heater channels from an he said he had a chassis that he would be willing to cut up and remove the Napoleon Hat for me. He did a good job cutting through the tunnel on the floor pan side and left about an inch of the tunnel from the flange where they are welded together. However, on the frame head side, he cut most of the flange away on half of it. I'm sure it was more difficult cutting through with tunnel on that side with the frame head bottom plate in the way. I don't think it will be much of an issue just cutting that section of the flange out and welding in a patch. My intention is to do just that.

 

As far as drilling out the spot welds and removing the tunnel and bottom plate of the frame head, it was very difficult. On the tunnel flange, the spot welds were hard to find in some areas. The flange and tunnel are of thick metal and the welds didn't make much of an indentation into the metal, but the welds penetrated all the way through the metal and held fast. Also, with the metal being so thick, it was difficult to pull the pieces apart or get them to move at all until all of the welds were cut or ground through. I had to cut and remove pieces of the tunnel to make it easier. Still, it was a difficult task. Several welds on the bottom of the Napoleon Hat where it was welded to the bottom plate of the frame head were so close together that the weld penetration formed one large weld. It was difficult to get the weld separated without taking a big chunk of the bottom flange out with it.

 

I'm not overly happy with this panel, to be honest. I think it is better than using a new reproduction panel as they don't fit well at all and have to be cut up and re-shaped, especially where it fits around the tunnel. But on the outer ends of the panel, someone drilled quite a few extra holes on both ends. I'm not quite sure why the extra holes were drilled through them or what that accomplished. They can be patched and filled, but there is also quite a bit of rust on the inside of them. I'll have to clean the whole panel up and see just how deep the rusts goes and if the structural integrity is compromised. It may be worth buying a new panel and chopping off the ends and grafting them on my donor panel. The shape and fit are still quite a bit different on the new panels, but I will try to repair the donor panel first and keep as much of the original metal as possible.

 

Next up for disassembly is my donor front firewall. I bought this from the same person that sold me the Napoleon hat. It's newer than my car and came from a 1966 model, but the only real differences from my current one is that it doesn't have holes for the fuel reserve valve lever and the choke cable (and isn't rusted away at the bottom!). The stampings for the panel are the same, but the holes are just not punched out. This panel is in really good shape with almost no rust and was a great purchase at $100.

 

The key words of removing the the old panel pieces from the front firewall are Spot Welds! On the sides where it was attached to the wheel wells, most of the welds are spaced about 1/4 inch apart. On the top where it was attached to the trunk, they are spaced about 3/4 inch apart. I took a wire wheel and ground off the paint, carpet glue, and seam sealant so that I can better see the welds. On the sides where the welds are 1/4 inch apart, I decided to just cut the panel off and leave the strip of welds on the panel. This way I can just ground the strip down to the panel itself. On the other welds that were spaced further apart, I drilled them out with a spot weld cutter. On the top of the panel, I just drilled the welds out with the spot weld cutter as well. There were about 40 welds on the top piece and the sides each had more than that just in the areas where I just cut the panel off.

On another note, there was one thing that made it difficult to access the areas of the panel joints that were in the interior of the body - the seam sealant. It was anywhere from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch thick, especially in the corners. It was 50 years old and hard as a rock. I took my time and carefully scraped it off little by little, trying not to scratch and mar the panel. The metal under the sealant was as pristine as the day it was applied. It really did its job.

 

Lastly, I removed the pieces of the heater channel from the bottom corners. On the tops where they are rounded, they were spot welded. In earlier years, this connection was seam welded. My donor heater channels were both seam welded, but they were both older than the 1966 front firewall. The other joints on the bottoms and sides were joined with spot welds that were practically on top of each other, so I just cut through the heater channel pieces and left the strip of spot welds to be ground down to the firewall panel.

 

Again, really happy with this panel, but not looking forward to removing the one currently on the car as I know how difficult this will be. Since I don't have to save any of it, I may just cut it off where the spot welds are right next to each other and grind off what's left. I prefer grinding to cutting out spot welds!

 

Ten years ago, I purchased two donor heater channels that included the quarter panels. I paid $100 each for them, which is way less than the only acceptable new channels from KlassicFab that are now $500 each with shipping. These will have the bottom plates replaced, which will add another $150 for the Autocraft panels that are almost exactly like the originals. It's a big job to do this, but I want to make sure that they are solid internally and to rust treat and protect them inside and out. Rather than trying to preserve the bottom plates and re-use them, I am going to sacrifice them to make sure that the other parts of the channels are intact. There are many spot welds on the channels, and it would be almost impossible to remove the bottom plates without damaging the plates and/or the channels. There are also quite a few repair that need to be done on both of the channels as well.

I started on the passenger side heater channel first. It is in the best condition of the two. I first went through and welded up any holes or deep cuts from the spot weld cutters I used when I was removing the remnants of other panels. I then started removing the bottom plate. This is not an easy job. There are around 100 spot welds on each side of the bottom plate. I found that the best way to remove the plate was to grind down into the spot welds, cut the bottom plate on each side about 3/4" from the edge, and then peel off the strip that was left of the plate. This took many hours to do both sides. I took my time and tried to be very careful not to damage the metal underneath the strips. Once all of the plate had been removed, I then ground off the pieces remaining of the spot welds and cleaned up the flanges on both sides. I was pleased to discover that there wasn't a lot of rust on the inside of the channel.

I discovered one weird thing that inner side part of the front end cap where the threaded plate is mounted - this side is not attached to the body of the channel. It is on the outer side, but not on this side. The bottom plate, however, is welded to this part of the end cap. I'm not sure why it is designed this way. Perhaps it is to give it some flexibility to this area when attaching to the bottom of the front firewall.

Also, I was a bit careless and cut into a sharp bend of the channel when removing the bottom plate. More welding practice.

After the plate was completely removed, I was left with a pile of rusty and twisted metal. Overall, it was worth the effort to remove the bottom plate on this channel as it was very rusted and dented.

Continuing on with the passenger side heater channel, I decided to repair the flanges on the front and rear ends where they had been cut by the person who cut them off of the donor car. I did the rear flange first. This is where the heater channel is attached to the rear cross members. I used 20-gauge stock which matches the original metal. I used a piece of a flat copper bar which not only holds the repair piece flat and in place, but allows me to weld with a little more heat and get better penetration without blowing through the metal.

Next, I patched in a piece on the front flange of the end cap. Here, the flange is actually the end cap and the flange on the flare of the end of the body of the channel. But since I wasn't going to remove the end cap for any reason, I just welded in a single thickness of metal that was equivalent to the two pieces combined.

On the bottom plate for the passenger side channel, I added a piece of metal to flare out the inner side of the front edge. Both heater channels had this flare on the inner sides and I am matching what they had originally. This area is seam-welded to front firewall. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but test fitting the channels to the front firewall indicated that this would help to have more metal to seam weld this weld joint. I made the piece oversized and I will trim it later after the bottom plates are welded on and then when fitting the panels.

Now on to the driver side heater channel. I removed the bottom plate and again, it took several hours to grind out the spot welds and peel off the plate. This side has way more rust and quite a bit of rust damage on the front end. I will have to make and replace a few areas and will need to remove the front end cap and rebuild it. I welded up any scars from the spot weld cutter when I removed the remnants of the panels when I first got the channels, and also welded up any carpet nail holes. This channel also had many unneeded holes in it, and I filled them as well.

I removed the end cap and it is in very bad condition. I sandblasted it just so I could tell just how bad the rust damage is. I will definitely need to cut out a section of it where the threaded plate and its cage are attached, as well as replacing the cage and the threaded plate.

So I cut out a section of the worst damage and fabricated a new section. The original section was 18-gauge, but I used a piece of 14-gauge material just to make it a bit stronger. I also filled in the holes I made with the drill bits when removing it from the body of the channel.

I also welded on a piece where the flange had been cut off when the channel was removed from the donor car. I will trim it once I weld it back on to the channel body.

I did the same and repaired the front flange on the channel body.

And I repaired the flange on the rear end of the body as well.

Since I couldn't find anyone in the US that was selling a replacement threaded plate cage, I decided to make one myself. I cut off the original one and flattened it out to help determine what pattern I would need to replicate it. I made a wood form or buck to help shape it, and it did help a little. I made the cage out of 20-gauge metal and it was a little too thick to bend over the form. I basically used pliers and a small hammer and was able to get it fairly close to the original. I made it the same dimensions as the original, but the replacement threaded plate was a little wider than the original plate. I had to take a little metal off of the ends of the plate and then it fit. It doesn't have the same amount of side-to-side play in it that the original one did and hopefully that will not be a problem. I will have to remember that when fitting the channels to the body. I sprayed the mating pieces with weld-through primer and welded the cage onto the end cap.

Next, I decided to tackle the rust damage on the channel body. There were a few areas on the front where the bottom plate is attached that had small holes, but there was good metal around it and the flange where the bottom plate is attached was undamaged. In those areas, I welded up the holes and any pits around them. However, on the inner side of the front section, there was whole area of the bottom plate flange was eaten through with rust as was an area 1/2" above it. This area had many different contours and shapes, and I decided it make it in three sections to simplify the process. It took some time, but I did get it done.

Now I can put the end cap back on. I sprayed the mating surfaces with weld-through primer and welded it back on. It has been a lot of work repairing the rust damage on the driver side channel, but it was definitely better than spending $500 for a suitable replacement.

This leaves one last difficult repair task on the driver side channel. Whoever had the car that this channel was removed from at some point welded up the holes and captive nut for the running board bolts. I was able to locate the centers of the nuts and drill out and tap all four of them. If I could have accessed them from the inside of the channel, it would have made this an easier task. But the heater pipe is in front of three of the four nuts and I was not going to remove the pipe just for that. That would be much more work than drilling and taping the nuts from the outside, or even rewelding the holes and re-tapping them again if the first attempts were unsuccessful.

And before I can prepare the driver side bottom plate for welding, I need to add a piece on the inner side of the plate like I did on the passenger side plate to widen it to match where it will attach to the front firewall.

Finally I can prepare the bottom plates for welding. First, I punched and drilled holes for spot welds. Then I sprayed the areas to be welded with U-POL Weld #2 Zinc Weld Through Primer, and sprayed the areas on the inside of the bottom plates with Eastwood Matte Black Rust Encapsulator. I did the same thing with the heater channel bodies and sprayed U-POL Weld #2 Zinc Weld Through Primer on the areas to be welded, and sprayed the areas inside of the heater channel bodies with Eastwood Matte Black Rust Encapsulator.

Time to weld the bottom plates on. I started with the driver side heater channel. There were 140 spot welds on this channel and one seam weld on the outside of the front section where it is too narrow do spot welds. Also, on the rear inside corner of the bottom plates, there is no spot weld and there is a gap between the bottom plate and the channel body where the rear crossmember fits into it.

Next, I welded on the passenger side bottom plate. There were 139 spot welds and one seam weld on this one. Now that both bottom plates are welded on, I have many hours of grinding ahead.

I first ground down the welds on the passenger side heater channel bottom plate.

Then I ground down the welds on the driver side heater channel bottom plate.

Next, I sprayed some primer on the bottom plates and on the heater channel bodies where the bottom plates were welded on. My main concern is to fend off flash rust until they are welded onto the body of the car. The other areas that weren't sprayed have been treated with Ospho.

One of the many things on these donor heater channels that were destroyed by the person that sold me the parts were the receivers for the defrost hoses. They were likely rusted and useless, but it would have been nice to have the reference pieces to go by. When he removed them from the donor car, he cut the receivers almost flush to the heater channel. The original hose receivers were around 36mm on the internal diameter and the hose fit inside of it. The hoses sold now for this year range are 32mm on the internal diameter, so I needed to use pieces of pipe that were 32mm (1-1/4") on the outside diameter so that the hose will fit over them. This is quite a bit smaller than the heater pipe openings on the channels, so I had to cut relief cuts on the ends to be welded and then bend each segment out to flare it to match these openings. I then welded them all the way around the piece, and also welded up the cuts I made in them. I ground down the welds and then sprayed some primer in the welded areas. By the way, the defrost vents that connect to the defrost hoses on the top side also fit inside these new size hoses. The original size hoses that were much larger were placed over the vent connectors and then the crimped flat on the sides to compensate for the size difference.

I still have the carpet clamping strips that need to be added to the heater channels, but I really need to wait until the channels are being fitted on the body to make sure that they are in the proper position. I need to know just where the A-pillars and B-pillars are going to be placed on the channels to make sure that the gaps on each side of the clamping strips will leave sufficient space for the carpet and upholstery. I may mark the proper positions for the clamping strips when fitting the channels, and then weld them on before the channels are attached to the body.

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I decided to separate the inner panel from outer panel so that I could better assess the rust damage and simplify the replacement of any needed metal. There was quite a bit of rust on the bottom portions of both of these panels.

I sandblasted the interior of both panels as well as the areas where they will be welded back together once the repairs are completed. The rust on the inner panel was mainly surface rust and there were no areas that needed to be replaced, and the pitting wasn't too deep. The bottom corners of the outer panel were both rust-damaged and distorted by all the welding done when being welded to the heater channels. It's just going to be easier and more feasible to cut out and replace those areas. I will also use patches that are of a little thicker metal to make them last longer and have more strength.

I made patches that covered most of the bottom corners of the outer panel. I welded them on and ground down the welds.

I also welded in a patch to the passenger side flange on the inner panel. This flange was cut through when the firewall was cut from the donor car. I ground down the welds and trimmed it to the correct shape.

Since this firewall was originally for a 1966 Beetle, it had a hole on the upper left side of the outer panel so that a segment of the wiring harness could pass through it. The 1960 model harness doesn't route through the firewall, so I welded in a patch to close it up. I also filled in several unneeded screw holes and carpet nail holes on this panel.

I prepared the inner and outer panels for welding by spraying the weld areas with U-POL Weld #2 Zinc Weld Through Primer, and the interior areas with Eastwood Matte Black Rust Encapsulator.

After the panels were welded together and the welds ground down, I sprayed the outer areas with primer to protect the firewall until I get ready to fit and install it.

The outside corners on both rear cross members are rusted away, so I purchased new rear cross members from Wolfsburg West. These are very close to the original cross members on the car. The only thing that I wanted to change on them is to add a support plate over the holes where the bolts go through to the cross braces on the chassis. The originals had a plate like this, and it should be a fairly easy modification.

I cut out four pieces of 18-gauge steel to match the size of the original and bent them to match as well. I also dog-eared the tops of the pieces to remove the sharp edges. I drilled out two spot weld holes on each piece just in front and behind of the existing bolt hole. I then sprayed the areas between the plates with U-POL Weld #2 Zinc Weld Through Primer. Once centered, I welded the plates on and then ground down the welds.

I then cut out holes in the new plates and sprayed the weld areas with primer. The new cross member should now be ready for the fitting process.