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How to repair an early Beetle decklid

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psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1010978
I thought I'd put up a thread whilst I repair a 66 Beetle decklid for a friend. From the number of dodgy bodge jobs smash repair places seem to do on these older panels is quite disgusting as they just fill the rotted out area with filler and in many cases don't even treat the rust so it eventually creeps thru the filler and paint.

Anyhow, so my mate can keep track of the work being done to his lid I'll make this picture book so anyone else can also see how to fix the decklid properly and keep it rust free for many decades to come 🙂

So first is all the filler removed from the rusted out area



How thick the bondo was cause they were too lazy to pull the dent


and the first side trimmed up ready for repair pieces
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

1303Steve Scirocco Rare

8,650 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#1010988
Hi

I did a journey man panelbeating course at Tafe many years ago, one of the exercises was making the bottom of a early Beetle decklid.

Steve

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1010994
1303Steve wrote:Hi

I did a journey man panelbeating course at Tafe many years ago, one of the exercises was making the bottom of a early Beetle decklid.

Steve
Making one? Cool. Oh if only I had an english wheel, sandbag and mallet plus a mechanical planisher then the wife would never get me outta the shed 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

HappyDaze Superannuated

2,887 posts · joined Jun 2009 ·

#1011002
1303Steve wrote:Hi

I did a journey man panelbeating course at Tafe many years ago, one of the exercises was making the bottom of a early Beetle decklid.

Steve
For my final [practical] exam at Ulimo Tech - not TAFE back then - it was making the back half of a VW rear guard. As I was an apprentice at a VW dealer's panel shop, it was a 'piece of cake', but some others had a lot of trouble. The biggest mistake was to put too much 'shape' into the flat area where the tail light sits.

The best way to repair the engine lid is to remove the inner frame [drill out the spot-welds]. Make a new lower outer section - not difficult, is it Steve ? 😂- and weld it in [oxy is best]. Make sure it fits neatly on the rear apron, then hammer & dolly to the correct shape.

Replace any damaged section on the inner frame, and make it fit neatly in the lid. Plug-weld through the old spot weld holes, then give it a final fit and nice tidy-up. I wish they had those flap discs back then.
I'd rather wear a Beetle out by racing it than by polishing it!

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1011047
HappyDaze wrote:
1303Steve wrote:Hi

I did a journey man panelbeating course at Tafe many years ago, one of the exercises was making the bottom of a early Beetle decklid.

Steve
For my final [practical] exam at Ulimo Tech - not TAFE back then - it was making the back half of a VW rear guard. As I was an apprentice at a VW dealer's panel shop, it was a 'piece of cake', but some others had a lot of trouble. The biggest mistake was to put too much 'shape' into the flat area where the tail light sits.

The best way to repair the engine lid is to remove the inner frame [drill out the spot-welds]. Make a new lower outer section - not difficult, is it Steve ? 😂- and weld it in [oxy is best]. Make sure it fits neatly on the rear apron, then hammer & dolly to the correct shape.

Replace any damaged section on the inner frame, and make it fit neatly in the lid. Plug-weld through the old spot weld holes, then give it a final fit and nice tidy-up. I wish they had those flap discs back then.
vw54 wrote:best of removing the inner panel as well

Gimme a chance guys.

I've left the inner panel for the time being as it's still solid in places and so adds strength so the outer skin keeps it's shape whilst welding the outer panel. I found this out when I did my first lid as it was much more of a pain to get the inner panel back in compared to doing the outer skin with the inner still attached.

There is method to the madness 🙂

Anyhoo, decided to do some more to get away from the mossie hours outside.

Now the repair patches I prefer to make from a knackered decklid as you get the same profile to weld back in instead of having to shape flat steel. It's not necessary to use up an old decklid but if you've got a cruddy one sitting around you may as well recycle it 🙂



Then welded the first 2 patches in


and dressed the welds


Unfortunately the area between the 2 repair panels shall be left until the inner strengthener is out cos the metal has pull in from the dent so the repair pieces would end up being the incorrect profile so best to do them afterwards.

So onto the other side the first of probably 4 patches welded in and dressed.


Once those are done it's time to remove the inner panel. Until then 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

DubbyDo Officially Full-On Dubber

276 posts · joined Jan 2012 ·

#1011051
More naked steel porn👍👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1011964
Been busy working on me Oval and inability to do much due to chronic back pain.

Anyhoo, the un-dented side is all solid steel again and the second pic shows where the spot welds are so I can use my spot weld drill, brad drill in USA, to seperate the skins.





Apologies for the second pic being a tad blurry. Inner panel all removed now and the rust treatment is drying so few more pics tomoro plus the large dent came out pretty easy with a bit of dolly n hammer work 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012012
Inner panel cleaned up and zinc primered ready for repairs.




madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012057
And the lengthy process of welding in repair pieces to the inner panel so as not to loose the profile and dimensions of the original as the remenants keep the joining lip where it should be 🙂

madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

bugmaniaar Officially Full-On Dubber

295 posts · joined Jun 2011 ·

#1012090
I love the smell of welding in the morning.......smells like old Volkswagens..

Looking good.

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012103
Cheers guys. Inner panel all welded and just needs dressing now.





Coupla patches left on the outer skin and then clean up, zinc prime and pop back together again 🙂

Might do a Semaphore refurb thread next cos got a broken and slightly rusty pair on fleabay last week 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012191
And to nearly finish things off we have the inner panel dressed and zinc primered



Then the inside of the outer skin cleaned up and zinc primered





It's all plug welded back together now but lighting weren't great so will post the end result up tomoro 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012374
I thought I'd also show a DIY method to remove dents in the bodywork that you can get to from behind.

First you make a porcupine



The tags are 1mm thick steel with an 8mm hole drilled in one end and tack welded to the lowest part of the dent to be pulled. I then attach my slide hammer with the chain attachment and bolt thru the chain and tag. Make sure the chain is pointing in the direction the dent needs to be pulled and do the bolt n nut up. Then you just use the slide hammer in the direction the dent needs pulling to pull the dent out. Much cheaper than the professional dent pullers with the spot welded pins and can be pretty precise depending on the size of your tag.

And unlike many bodyshops here's how to properly fill unwanted holes in the bodywork.



After dressing only a skim of filler required and shouldn't crack off like a filler filled hole would eventually. 😀

Just got the hinge panel to repair and find a hinge to weld on and then all done and will pop the finished article up 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012377
Oh and here's my Oval W lid that I did many months ago.









I never did take a picture of how bad the bottom of the lid was but the inner panel was only held on by the T handle and the entire lower edge had returned to nature.
The top 2 photos are what the supposedly 'good' secondhand lid I used to repair the W left me with. $100 my arse 🙅
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

beetle_nut Wolfsburg Wizard

465 posts · joined Jan 2012 ·

#1012443
Nice work mate.my w lid is worse same rust but its bent and dented bad aswell...will take me longer to fix it than the whole car hahahaa..

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012481
beetle_nut wrote:Nice work mate.my w lid is worse same rust but its bent and dented bad aswell...will take me longer to fix it than the whole car hahahaa..
Cheers dude 🙂

My W was quite dented as well as very rusty. I had to replace the entire hinge panel as that had rotted out too. As for dents, well all the areas you see without paint are where I've had to panel beat it back into shape. Still needs a little more finessing but will only need a light skim of filler when done 🙂

Good luck with yours unless you want to drop it round and I'll take a crack at it?
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

beetle_nut Wolfsburg Wizard

465 posts · joined Jan 2012 ·

#1012744
Thanks mate.il finish it thats what learning is all about haha.it will take me longer to sort it than the whole car hahahaa...

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1012760
beetle_nut wrote:Thanks mate.il finish it thats what learning is all about haha.it will take me longer to sort it than the whole car hahahaa...
Nowt wrong with a bit of self learning. Tis how I've learnt most of the things I know 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

adlbeetle66 Under the car.........again!

1,476 posts · joined Aug 2014 ·

#1013028
Thanks Mike! 😁👍

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 ·

#1013067
adlbeetle66 wrote:Thanks Mike! 😁👍
No worries 🙂
madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍