Ok so the clip was cut out and I stepped the edge, I did something similar to Dasdubber (thanks for the tip!) to figure out where I would need to cut.
Jon
now the leap of faith.... I sat there with my angle grinder for a few minutes... after measuring it about 50 billion times. And i just did it. Damn it is a big hole!
Jon
Slowly plug welding it in to place, did one about every inch, so there was a lot!
Jon
done! well, almost. There are only a few more welds to do
[Edited on 29-5-2005 by Che Castro]
Jon
Fantastic Jon.🙂
"Tell him 'We've already got one'"
Awesome Jon!
So you did end up chopping up your roof afterall :thumb
Nice, you got cutting and welding down pat now.
'We teach best what we most need to learn'
VW no more... sigh.... well, at least it's a cousin
Saw this on the weekend and it is going to be one amazing car when it is finished.
Cant believe what a perfectionist Jon has turned into!
and yes - it is scary how big that hole actually is!
It is also amazing how rigid and strong the Golde roof clips are. There is no give what so ever in that thing!
[Edited on 30-5-2005 by Bizarre]
Futue te ipsum!!!
Once again great work John - I know the leap of faith you took when making that first cut! It took me quite a while to ensure the roof panels were "straight" around the ragtop section as the welding (despite going very slowly and cooling as I went) distorted it slightly. Its cool being able to work on the car whilst standing inside hey!
Especially front edge in front of the lip.....but with time and patience anything can be achieved as you are finding out. And it is very satisfying doing this type of major work yourself - and the more you do the better you get. Especially things like painting two pack (by the way my old 63 was anthracite!).....wait till you dabble in metallics with pearl - now that is fun (ie. tricky).
Keep it up - and more pics - people get restless round here when you make them wait too long for updates 😉
Hehe, ruckus to be honest I wasn't prepared to cut a hole for a Britax. It just isn't as nice as a Golde, general fit and detailing. As well as the black plastic handle and hardware as well as the headliner would look out of place in my near stock 50's interior! 😀 The stiffness of a Golde really impressed me (as well as Barry!) I can support my own weight on the back edge of it (although I am lightweight 🙂 )
Yep having the hole there makes working on it so much more easy. Also having so much light into it makes it easier to see stuff without having a torch 🙂 Actually the front lip was a good fit, where I had trouble was the rear corners. although I cut out further past the holes where the rear of the ragtop is fixed into the roof metal. The fitment wasn't quite so perfect so it'll need some work. I have actually thought about going to the late model VW colour "anthracite" which is a metallic similar to your Porsche cups (those pictures make the colour very tempting!), but I have already ordered my old school Anthracite.
[Edited on 2-6-2005 by Che Castro]
Jon
I added a brace like they had from the factory. The detail isn't quite the same, as the factory ones were spot welded to the lip of the inner curved bit. From looking at it underneath I didn't realise how many plug welds there were, I counted 140! Next time I will buy a holepunch, it took about 2 hours to drill all the holes for the plug welds!
Jon
Ok so over the last month I have stripped all the fenders and found that except for one, they were all full of bog and had all been smacked into. The worst one was definitely the front left one. It had taken a big smack and ripped through the actual sheet metal! The steel around the bolt holes had collapsed as well. There was a hairline tear right through the metal around the outer lip which I welded up and ground down - which you can see here
Jon
There was a big dent just next to the headlight, and I was trying to smack it out for hours on end, to no avail - the dent would just move around rather than go flat. My TAFE teacher told me the metal was actually stretched and we needed to shrink it with the oxy 🙂 After about 3 or 4 shrinks in different areas and it went away! After few weeks of slapping, hammering and file finishing this is what I have now. I should have taken a before pic 🙂 It just needs some lead over the welds - hope not to use any bog, but we'll see :p
Jon
Doing a big cleanout this weekend so I pushed the damn thing out of the garage to see it in the sun for some encouragement. Sigh. Slowly getting there...
Jon
Nother pic. I am really liking phone dials now 🙂 Although they will have to be sold sometime in the future. That's it for now. Body is due for sandblasting in a few weeks 😀
cya
Jon
Che Castro wrote:Nother pic. I am really liking phone dials now 🙂
yeah right mate.!!!
Wait till ya have the twists on and tell what ya think!!
Futue te ipsum!!!
I have rubbed back and resprayed two of the wheels in the stock Porsche arctic silver.
[Edited on 16-6-2005 by Che Castro]
Jon
Also did the ragtop bows and stuff in Porsche arctic silver
Jon
oh no not another Twists monster! im so jealous... 😀
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One man's junk...
Go Jon. How satisfying that must be to knock something back into shape.
Congrats mate. U know were all jealous! lol
Where abouts did u source ur information and stuff on the rag top conversion? just wondering?
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!
I have looked at how a few others have done it, like alan (dasdubber) and other people on the net. The heater channel was probably a bit more difficult in setting out, as if it was slightly out the door might not close properly!
Jon
Keep going che castro,the hard work will pay of in the end.Have you decided on what doing for the fire wall engine bay?JVLRacing😉
[Edited on 18/6/2005 by jvl054]
Haven't really decided. I have seen that stick on carbon fibre stuff, but it looks crap compared to the real thing. I might just go with some stainless panels and keep it simple.
Jon
Great job Jon. I have done a couple of heater channels over the years and its a big job.
Hey Jon get some Laminex for your firewall, heaps of patterns heat proof and easy cleaned. Mitchell
23 windows ...8 too many!
Wow, I've ust started reading this thread - cant believe the shine of the 2pak deck lid is straight off the gun! -and all that panel work you're doing! That's a monster effort and it's paid off - keep it up Che!
...and Robert's ya father's brother...
Ok its been sandblasted and etch primed. woo hoo! it was quite an eye opener seeing it all one colour 🙂
In the second bit you can sorta see the massive cleanup I have done in my garage. Spent the last few weekends making benchesnn[ Edited on 5-7-2005 by Che Castro ]
Jon
although with anything good comes some bad news... more rust! The wheel arches should be easy to fix as they are basically flat and are covered by the fender and fender beading anyway.nn[ Edited on 5-7-2005 by Che Castro ]
Jon
now probably the harder one to fix. Good thing I still have the rest of the roof clip in the backyard 🙂
Jon
