MY NEW/OLD 69 BUG

Hi Guys. Well I have finally got myself a bug. 69 I think and I love it. I hope I am in the right place and the pic works too.

1st question. From the plate, and looking up how to date. I think it's a 1969, March 4th day build? However it also says that if it has the extra plate with the numbers and the colour code that it's post August. Confused.

Right well I made a start Plan to start by stripping the interior 1st. Itemise all the parts. See what needs replacing, see what I can fix. So far I think everything is being replaced.😎

Thats me. Best 2 tools I have bought so far. Lay down trolley thingy and light. Nothing to drastic so far. Looks goo for an old car.

Luke,

Looks like your going to have a lot of fun, I also have a 69 and love it. what are your plans for yours? If you click on my link on my signature you can see what I have done so far.

Gahh. Oh well spoke to soon. Cleans up nice. Not a bad days work. Im hooked, this stuff is fun and people get paid to do it? Where do I sign up.

Hi Paul. When I finish stripping, it's off to the sandblasters so I can see whats its really like. I would like to restore it back to original spec. Things Ill do myself other wll be done by someone who knows what they are doing.
Id like to do a web log but dont know how, so Ill post some progress pics here if people don't mind.😊

nice bug, you don't mess about eh! 👍

looking good, well mine will be pretty standard although i am getting new wheels and lowering the front slightly

looking good

Looks good. Hope it goes quicker than my '69 rebuild. I took it off the road after dropping a valve at 140kph (before 100kph limits - lol) and decided to do a full body off the pan re-build. My girlfriend helped me strip it down and get the body off the pan, which was great.
Then I wanted to spend money on parts etc, but wasn't allowed.

Well, then we got engaged, then we got married, then we had kids, and now we have grandkids... So, if I out live her...................I can finish my car.

At least I have a 75L bug to play with on the road.

Good luck with your '69 though.

Makes you wonder what kind of wierd person would respray a powder blue car in honey brown 🤪
would have to be a 70s respray

and yep she's a 69

Hey thanks guys. Just about got it gutted. Going to build a rotisserie to host it while I try a bit if body work. Pretty happy with the light blue under the burnt orange. Hopefully it will end up that colour again. I'll post some pics tomorrow night.
Nice talking today Dave.😎

Luke

Nice going Luke, looks like you're charging in full of enthusiasm which is awesome. Keep the pics and updates coming 👍

Luke,

Great to see you are progressing, will be interesting to see how the body comes up after sandblasting although I would have thought something more gentle considering the age of the car, maybe paint stripping?

Look forward to seeing more updates

Been busy pulling apart the dub. Taking it slow as it is my 1st one. I am bagginbg and photographing every part. Insitu and after its taken out. This kind of gets me familiar with the bits and pieces. I can inspect them see whether they are keepers or replacements etc. So here are a few pics if your interested. Not much really.

Here are a few before and after pics. The door and window mechanisims would hardly work, After pulling the doors apart to see what was going on I could see why. Cleaned them up and work great now. 41 years of crud.

last one.

Jeez they look like new again! Top job.

Yeah they come up nice. Not sure where to go with parts like that. Leave them or get them cad plated. One thing I'm learning so far is that I need a bigger compressor and my little sand blast cabinet doesn't really cut it. It does the job on the small parts like above, but I want a bigger one. When I get my welder I'm not skimping.

Luke wrote:Hi Paul. When I finish stripping, it's off to the sandblasters so I can see whats its really like. I would like to restore it back to original spec. Things Ill do myself other wll be done by someone who knows what they are doing.
Id like to do a web log but dont know how, so Ill post some progress pics here if people don't mind.😊

Keep the posts and pics coming-it will encourage others to have a go at a resto

--

Hi guys. Not much happening. Have got the whole car stripped out now. Waiting for my electrician mate to hook up a 15 amp plug so I can get some welding action happening(paractice) until then I have decided to learn to panel beat. I have been reading up, buy every book, watching every video you tube I can and thought I would give it a crack.
The 1st pic you cant really see to much as it is black but it was a good size dent with a crease. The other end I couldnt see the dent from the top but the paint was cracking so I sanded off I reckon 5 cm of bog to find all sorts of dents. The under side was covered in mud and hiding them too. So I have hammered and dollied them a bit and reckon they are coming along all right. I am going to get a shrinking disk and give it a whirl to see how smooth I can get the surface. I think with some practice I could get them real smooth and no need for filler.(maybe)
Another pic of my tools. Has much to do with the car, but if you like cars you like tools and I like tools. Can't have too many.

Hi. Okay I have got the body off the pan now. Off to the blasters to finally get rid of the 70's hippie burnt orange. Looks like I'll need new heater channels and the front bulk head thing where it attaches to the pan. Fair bit of rust under there. Body came off fairly easy. Two mates helped lift it and apart from a section where it was rust welded on there were no problems. Still havent got my matge to hook up 15 amp plug. Might have to employ an electrician. Anyway thing are progressing nicely.

Dreaded rust. These are the good spots. Underneath the heater channels it is all rusted out.

A few before shots of the pan. Man there must be 41 years of crud build up there. I am going to relace the pans. They dont look too bad, but there has been some work on them before and it is in pieces now so I might as well do them. Cant wait to get this all minty and clean.

Nice work i'm on a similar path but no a full resto just the pan at this stage... you can link there below

Good progress Luke, thanks for the pics, rust seems average to me, my L bug had more I reckon but welding yourself is the way.

Yeah. Definitely worse cars out There then this one. Just enough rust to warrant new heater channels. I should be able to patch the other sections well enough. All metal though. No bog. Thinking about getting the pan powder coated. I think I'll get the body done 1st. Don't want to many parts laying around. 🙅

Getting the chassis stripped. Probably going to strip it by hand and will be getiing it powder coated. Will be replacing the pans, and slowly taking apart all the stering brakes etc. Cleaning them, recording what they are and where it came from. There is so much grime and gunk built up on all the parts, but they come up nice after a bath and brush.

Few shot of the chassis.

Out with the old pans and getting ready for the new which I picked up over the weekend. Someone has welded a big lumpy bead right over the spot welds where the pan meets the chassis. Taking forever to grind off. Being careful not to grind the lip where the pan sits.

Finished grinding out the old pans. The left was welded along the trunk and took a shit load of grinding. Added a little primer to stop the surface rust, only temporay until it is blasted off. I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but when I take the rear axle assembly off I am going to degrease the whole lot then hit it with a gurney. There is just so much crap inside of it and I am anal so I want it clean.
Trial fitting the new pans. They go in okay. A little bit of panel beating to seat the rear in. There is a gap between the pan and the lip it sits on. Ill sort that before it is tacked in.

My new welder. It's awsome.

Great looking welder set up!

I ended up hiring one for the small amount of welding I needed done in the end.

how did you get your pedals that clean? Was it just the sand blasting or did you polish them up as well?

Great build progress!

Hi mate.
Hit the pedals with wire brush on drill set up in a vice. That took all the rubbery black paint coating them off. Then used different grades of wet and dry over a file. I originally intended to plate them but now just going to powder them. The body should be back from the blasters next week then it's the chassis turn. I'll post some more progress picks. 😎

Some updates.

Man uploading pics is a drama. Anyway back from the sandblaster. Few suprises but pretty happy.

Looking awesome Luke, great thread so far 👍

Kris

Hey thanks Kris. Tried to load a heap of pics but it just won't let me put them on. The chassis is at the blasters now. Should have it back next week then I'll start to put the pans on. The body has a bit of impact damage. I'll wait for my mate who's a panel beater to give me a hand with that. We are going to have to make sure it's all aligned and straight before I go and start putting the heater channels in. There is still a heap I can do on the body. I have started to weld up all the holes drilled in the dash. Tried to post some pics of that but couldn't. Anyway progress. If i can sort the pic issue Ill keep them coming.:😎

looking good, yeah seems to be a rash of people with troubles posting pics. 😬

Welding up holes under my dash.

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Its good practice for me. I hammer and dolly all the low spots up and file it down. Chucked some primer on there for protection until I finish a heap of other work.

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fANTASTIC WORK, YOU ARE VERY TALENTED!

Lol. Thanks.This would be simple stuff to you guys. I will post up a heap of pics tomorrow how I fixed up the cig lighter hole. Kind of a step by step thing. Like I said it's good practice getting used to the mig. Working out the best settings. Planishing the welds as you go. So when I move onto bigger stuff I should be getting progressively better. I hope😂

Keep up the great work looking forward to seeing more of your progress

Hi. Here are some progress pics of fixing the cig lighter hole. It was all jagged and roughly cut, so I thought I might as well fix it. This is by no means a tutorial or how to as it is probably all wrong, but it worked the hole is nice and even, the dash is nice and flat and I wont have to use any bog.

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part II

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Part III




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Nice work. Project is coming along nicely.

Here are some pics of the freshly blasted chassis. Its been etch primed and is going to get one last clean before I start to put the pans in. Been fitting the pans and I'll tack them in this week. Ive lost my measurements I took for the right side so I'll be lifting the body on and off make sure its right.

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part II

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Hey Hey Luke,

Thanks for the updates.
Great to see what is involved in tearing down a Beetle, and restoring it.

The black finish on the body & pan etc, is that a result of the blasting?

Cheers.

Hi. Yep. The black is the etch primer. I'll be priming and painting the chassis when the pans go in. I don't want a shiny finish. Trying to get a smooth satin look. I'm going to do a bit of prep work on the chassis. I know you won't see it but It will be sitting there annoying me if I don't. 🤪

Hi Guys. Been awhile but still going just havent been updating the thread.

Ive been cutting out the rust and replacing it with metal. There are little and big patches everywhere. There were rust patches and pin holes under the rubber retainer around the bonnet so I decided to take it all off and fix the rust. Some requried small patches others just drilled out the rust holes and migged them back up. It need doing as the rust was basically hidden under the seal and would have only needed doing in the long run.

I also took out the luggage shelf, There are crackes under the guard area and rust behind the shelf where I couldnt get too, so taking it out and doing the rust repairs. Im starting to fabricate some metal parts, but these take time as its trial and error stuff.

Here is some damage found and it looks like someone has tried a repair on it. The metal is really thin bellow the crack at the bottom fold. Its been ground right down. So I am going to cut the crack out and aound the bottom and make a new piece. I gave the crack a weld and it looked ok but of could get in behind it. So now the luggage shel is out I can fix it up. This is going to be my first fabricated piece.

Undoing all the spot welds.


You can see the crack and down the left bottom where it has been ground thin.


Underneath where the crack goes.

great work, this is where i like to be..........
nothing better than working in the shed on ya beetle
👍

Hi guys. A few updates. Still working on the chassis and a little body work. I have the pans fully plug welded in now. Lot of work. Getting everything lined up etc. Plus had to take off the incorrect seat rail tidy up that area. Get the old accelerator plate of the old pans clean it up. Then assemble the accelerator to position the plate prior to welding. Other small details like taking off one of the jack points as it was incorrectly positioned. Re weld it. Coming along nicely. After the seat rail is on then it's ready to paint. However I will leave it as is for the time being as the next job is the heater channels and I don't want to damage the paint.

Also been sorting through the huge amount of parts. Got some stuff powder coated in a nice satin black. Lots of cleaning blasting preparing but getting there.

I plan on getting a plating kit to plate my bolts and parts. Then I can start putting a few things back together.

Been doing a heap of work lately. Lots of little jobs. Sorting all the nuts and bolts, lights etc. Seeing what I am keeping and what needs replacing. Basically I'm going to try and use most things except perishables. I think alot of the things can be fixed and with some paint come up like new.

Here is the cracked section welded back in. Bit of etch to protect it a bit. Came out alright.


Just about finished up the chassis nearly ready for paint. However I'll wait until the heaters are in as I'll need to put the body on and off, so it will probably get knocked around. Just got to source the correct seat rails. Nearly got a handle on some here. Then it's finished. So in the mean time started doing some more rust repairs. As it turns out there is small patches of rust all through the back that I can't leave.


There was rust right along the top and back of the luggage shelf. It came out to be replaced. Then I found more rust along where it was attached. The pics don't really show the extent of it however it is really thin and pitted and would only rust out in the long run. So might as well fix things the right way now. I'm getting more confident with my welding so I don't mind cutting out bad metal and replacing it. Easy if you can get to the backside and if the patch piece is a real nice fit. So I spend a bit of time doing accurate cuts. I'll post some pics up soon. Been working on the drip rail as there was some rust. When I cut out a section of the roof found it to be rotten right through to the engine compartment. There's three layers of steel. The body. Section that comes out and rolls up to hold the roof down. Took me a while to work out how it work and how I was going to fix it. So I made a real tight fitting patch piece and put it in. Welled in real easy and hardly and grinding.


New piece in.


Came up nice. Next is the piece that forms the drip rail Thingy. There was enough left to tack it back to the new section. I'll weld it fully the make a new setion and butt join it. You'll never know it was separated. Then make the roof section prime it and weld it up.

I'll post the rest up soon.
Few of the other parts that i have fixed up instead of replacing. Making the little curved section and welding this in the headlight was a little difficult but came up nice. I'm going to cad plate these.

Opps. This was suppose to go in my 69 thread. Don't know how to move it there. Sorry. 🤪

Sorted nice work btw

Thanks Barls😎

Hi. Been doing a heap of little time consuming jobs. Plug welding stuff back in after being repair and grinding. Starting to not like the grinding. Doing some rust repairs as well. Few more in the back and ready to put the luggage shelf back in. Every where I turn though I find a crack, or small pockets of rust so they come out. I wouldnt have found alot of it without taking the luggage shelf out let alone fix it.


Luggage shelf trial fit


See how there is a large gap between the shelf and the inside of the wheel well. This was like it on the old one too. Is it suppose to be like this?

Some stuff back from the powder coater. Most of it came up excellent. Some not so excellent and I will get them redone. The control assembly under the steering wheel looks crap and as it is visible needs to be redone.

Im starting to put things back together so I don't lose stuff. It's starting to get a little all over the joint. I like the cad plated stuff. Looks awesome on the fresh black.

Hi guys still going. Still doing rust repairs. I'll post some pics soon.
A few people are interested in what it's costing to do a full body off repair. I'll go through what I have spent so far.
Body and pan sandblasted$1500
Various parts sandblasted and powder coated mainly chassis parts. $282
rear quarter panel sheet metal $153
Floor pans x 2 $277
Heater channel x2 $393
Luggage shelf $240
Tie rod ends and steering damper $117
Body bolt kit $22
Fender bolt kits$27.80
Brake master cylinder $59.95
Front beam bolts$10
Wiper control arm kits$31.90
Handbrake rebuild kit $17.95
Steering box coupler $14.95
8mm panel nut inserts $6
Handbrake lever handle cover $7.95
Total so far $3152
then there's the tools, welder etc but I won't Include them.

So basically ive been replacing items that are not really repairable. Ive done all the body work myself so far. Hopefully I'll be painting the chassis and reassembly before the end of the year so all new seals etc for the front beam and suspension. Then there's the painting( not by me) engine, interior etc. Going to be fun. Probably shouldn't be keeping a track of expenses. 🤪

Dont worry about the expenses,all been there, Cheaper than these new cars(falcon or holden) and it will not depreciate like they do, and..........you can do the work yourself. More fun wtih these thats how i see it.
all looking good, keep up the good work.👍

Have been a bit quite on the body work. Been helping some friends renovate which is taking all my spare time. Have done some more rust repairs though. This section is 600mm long and about 60mm wide. Took ages to weld, grind, planish, weld. Etc. There is a little more to do along there but the sheet metal was on 600 long. This section was pretty bad. The pics don't really show the pitting and all the rust holes. The other holes are from the spot welds. I'll be spot welding the luggage section back in, should be quicker and no grinding. The inside section is not finished as well as the outside section as it will be covered by the luggage shelf. The other section will be seamless. Prob won't see it either but just incase.

New section going in. Tacked in first the did some small runs around. Grind. Hit with hammer and dolly, then moved on.

Getting there.

Nice work..I need to do the same thing to my wifes 70 beetle. Did you get the luggage panel from George @ Classic Vee Dub by any chance?..I rang to order one as he sold the 2 that he had in one week!..lol Seems to be a popular place to rust. The replacement panel makes it soo much easier thou..good luck with the repairs and Im keen to see your progress..regards Jason.

Hi Snitz, thanks. The shelf came from Mick Motors. It seems to fit ok. If the old shelf didn't have rust along and down the roll where it meets the section I replaced, I could have got away with repairing it. I couldn't see any easy way of doing it and there were other issues with rust, cracks etc in and around the engine compartment and wheel arches that were only exposed after sand blasting that couldn't be accessed without it's removal. There was still alot of rust, dirt and crap that I couldn't get at even with blasting, so out it came. Ive gone all the way stripping the car back so I couldn't bodge up one section, might as well do it right.
I'm not sure if it is a common area to rust or not, but if it is, I don't know how other people fix the area when the do their restos without removal. Its a big job. I suppose you could just pumped a heap of rust kill stuff in there and it all gets covered up, but not for me. Cut out the old rusty stuff replace with fresh new metal. The pics don't show up how rusty it was down there. The metal was gone.

Wow, that is going to look amazing once you're finished!

Thanks mate. Long way to go. Got some stuff on order. Just received the radio section repair panel. Might weld it in tomorrow.