I have been struggling on with that double smile bulkhead panel, but it has been fighting me every step of the way. So in the interest of my own sanity I have turned my attention to something else. The front valance will do just fine...
I had to cut away some patchwork crap on the drivers side to free the valance from the quarter panel:
Located and drilled out the spot welds on both edges:
Then I had to grind back the small welds at the top edges and also on the guide tube:
Following that I started drilling out the spot welds along the bottom edge inside the spare wheel well:
After a bit of faffing the valance came off without too much drama:
Wasn't sure if the valance was salvageable at this point as there were a few 'Oouch!' areas:
Figured that it couldn't hurt to have a go at straightening it out a bit. If it appears to be too far gone after clean up I could always get a new Autocraft valance, which is a very accurate reproduction indeed. Anyway, I started sand blasting a few areas, knocked out a few dents and carefully removed the crusty weather strip. As a test of my panel beating skills I had a go at reshaping the nasty bit of damage at the bottom of the 'finger' as seen above. Really took my time and progressive reversed the damage. I have to say that reading 'The Key to Metal Bumping' (by Frank T. Sargent) has equipped me with some good procedural strategies for tackling damaged areas like this. It is well worth a read, especially if, like me, you have no previous training in panel beating. I was pleased as punch with my result:
I then roughly got the bottom edge back into shape using cheapo repro panel I have laying around as a guide:
There are obviously some repairs that need to be made where the steel has rusted through in areas, but I am confident that I will be able to save this panel and proudly retain yet more original steel:
Spotted a genuine VW NOS front quarter panel up for sale on eBay recently for a reasonable price (in fact it was the same amount as I had paid for the Mexi panel), so I threw a bid in and snapped it up:
The fuel tank support indicates that it is suited to an earlier car than mine (can be easily changed though), but the eagle-eyed amongst you will note that the stampings on the front edge are from a later car. I understand that this is something that VW would do to cater for all the incremental differences and thus this standard replacement panel was intended to cover a wide range of model years.
There were a few things about this panel that made it more suited to my resto than the Mexi, but before I go into detail I will give you a visual a side-by-side comparison:
Firstly, the inner arch on the German NOS panel is completely smooth a doesn't have all the lumps and bumps that can be seen on the Mexi. Also, It doesn't have the later petrol filler cap integrated into the panel and the wing mounting captive nuts are the square 'recessed' type, both aspects are correct for my car. Although the front pressings are generic, the panel does feature a suitable mount point for a blade bumper:
More minor quality details include the correct jack mount and weather sealing strip already spot welded into place:
There are a few adaptions I will need to make in order to fit it to my '65, but overall it will be far less work than the Mexi panel and will produce a cleaner more accurate result.
Fortunately, I believe that the passenger side panel that I recently acquired can be adapted to closely match the German NOS panel. The extra Mexi pressings are not as prevalent on this side and I should be able to delete them without too much hassle. I will obviously need to change the wing mounting studs, add a blade bumper mount and plug few holes, but no significant cosmetic surgery required.
I find it remarkable that these original unused NOS panels still occasionally turn up for sale. I asked the seller what the story was behind it, this was his response:
"Just bought garage buildings we've been leasing for passed four years, junk in loft space basically been feeding it through eBay passed few weeks....story on that part you bought guy who owned garage now 87 rebuilt an old beetle for a customer long time ago"
So, there we have it. This panel was stowed away in a mechanics loft space up in Bradford, for what I assume must have been several decades. Apart from the expected surface rust it is completely straight and there is not even a minor dent anywhere on the panel. A good purchase indeed.
A quick update on the previous couple of weeks of sporadic garage work. First up, I chiselled off the bonnet seal retaining strip from the scuttle panel. It had become pretty ratty in places with evidence of rust creeping out from underneath:
Came off pretty easy. Just took my time and avoided putting any unnessarsary stress on the scuttle panel when prying it up:
Next was to cut out this little area that had rusted all the way through:
I could have made my own patch easy enough, but figured that I would instead use the corresponding section from the donor scuttle that I had. Feels good to know that a bit more German steel (albeit a small amount) is getting grafted back into the car:
Welded, ground back and blended to an invisible finish:
My next mission was to patch up a total of 12 drill holes of various diameters that peppered the front-under-bonnet panel (not sure if this section has a technical name, but you'll get what I mean):
I am guessing that these holes would have been drilled by previous owners in order to mount radio units, car alarm systems etc. Some were small and discreet, while others were significantly larger and punched through the thin steel in such a way that they looked like mini volcanos:
For these unsightly blemishes a gentle bit of hammer & dolly work was required to make the areas flat and smooth out any depressions and denting in the local area:
Filling the holes was a simple case of backing them with copper and progressively filling with the mig welder before grinding back to a smooth finish on both sides. Just a bit of time and patience was all that was needed:
Last ones:
Holes no more:
Since I first got the car there was always a distracting scab of bubbling paint creeping out from underneath the windscreen rubber. Inevitably, that bubbling later became exposed rust as the paint flaked away and finally an ever expanding hole! Annoyingly it was always directly in my eye-line when driving the car and was a stark visual reminder that my pride and joy was slowly rotting away before me. Repairing this offending section would be a symbolic victory against the rust fairies and their psychological taunts of the past!
The divers side corner looked bad from the top side:
...and was not much prettier underneath:
It would require more than just the mating flanges replacing. My conclusion was that the entire demister section also needed replacing due to the amount of terminal corrosion that had taken hold. I debating with myself endlessly about the best cut lines before finally marking up the area up with masking tape and setting about the task. I have not seen this particular operation done before in other restorations, so it was a 'character building' step into the unknown for me and a real test of my developing skills:
I used the small Dremmel cutting discs to carefully and accurately cut of the section. An angle grinder would have been too aggressive and I felt it could have easily led to errors. So slowly I proceeded. Thankfully my educated guesswork paid off and I was able to lift out the rotten section, complete with integrated demister pipe, in one piece:
On the donor scuttle panel I rough cut the relevant section out so that I could prep it and later trim it down to an accurate fit:
After a session in the shot blast cabinet I had fresh unblemished steel. I was heartened to see just what great condition this section is in:
The only repair I needed to make was a angle grinder gash on the inlet pipe. I guess that the seller who originally chopped out the scuttle from the donor vehicle must have been cutting with haste and this part was a minor casualty. Nothing too serious though:
I filed the protrusions around the cut nice and flat. I then cleaned up a thin piece of copper and added a curve roughly the same as the contour of the pipe. I then inserted the copper backer and clamped it in place with mole grips:
I could then weld up the gap:
After dressing the weld and a quick blow-over in the shot blast cabinet it was looking like new again:
I spent some time carefully trimming up the repair section and repeatedly trial fitted. However, I was starting to feel a little frustrated at this point as I couldn't get the damn thing to line up right on both sides - so I have decided to split the section by drilling out the spot welds:
This allowed me to get a far better alignment on both sides of the dash rather than compromising. Before welding anything permanently into place I took the opportunity to shot blast the soon-to-be inaccessible areas, such as inside the window frame and the top of the door mounting reinforcement panel. Cleaning all this was actually a real pig of a job as it was tough to get the bulky shot blast gun into some of the areas with tricky angles. It was slow going and all I could do was my best, but it is certainly better than just leaving it:
I then added few coats of zinc primer to hopefully prevent any rust re-emerging:
Starting with the inside section I got the best alignment I could paying particular attention to the contours of the dash.
I really took my time with the welding and started at the outlet end which I determined to be the end that was most critical to get right;
As I moved along the tapering flange section I was able to manipulate the steel slightly and adjust the fit. The occasional vertical slit was added as required to allow the shape to be altered more easily:
All welded and smoothed out and holes filled:
On to the front panel section and I once again started welding at the outlet / corner area before moving towards the centre to complete the weld:
Once the front was welded and smoothed I was just a case of closing the gap between the two sections and plug welding them together. I'm satisfied with the end result as there is virtually no indication of any work having been done;
Couldn't resist a before and after comparison;
