Hi, guys, Advice is once again required in restoring my 67 Beetle, New Floor pans installed and look great, Now I want to install new Heater Tubes in the body.
I realise the door gaps have to be equal and the bolt holes have to line up. Any tips on doing this major reconstruction.
Damm those previous owners who allowed my beetle to suffer from the effects of rust. German engineering is Superior.

Make sure that the door gaps are equal and check that the bolt holes line up. :P

Only joshing. I don't have a clue, I'm just bumping the thread before it falls off the page, in the hope that someone will be able to help you out soon. :thumb

i to am eagerly awating a reply to your question as i am doing the same thing as well as lower door pillars:beer:beer:beer

I got to do same as u topless.

a friend and i did them on my old 69 back in uk about 7 years ago. Think it was more luck than anything else.
We had it jacked up on a trolly jack and a couple of axle stands in the back yard. was off the chassis. We just got new ones, measured up and cut away.
Even dropped the body once with one channel missing !!!! but alas all was good in the end. Door gaps were spot on too.
Needles to say next time will do it with little more care.....
Wouldn't recommend the way we did it !!!
But haye from never doing anybefore to managing to do those !!!
Would have been easier to have done it on the chassis to line up the bolt holes rather than take a chance.
Always end up finding more to replace than ya think !!!!

You could tack the new channel in place with the body bolted on the pan as a jig, and then remove the pan again to fully weld it.

yep that would be very helpfull

I've done this job once and like Pete said leave the body on the pan to ensure that the pan bolts line up. Found that the welding up bit was the easiest part. Hardest bit was removing what was left of the old channel.
Drill out spot welds in the front inner arch and grind down a few welds along the bottom of the side panels (see them when the running board is removed. Be careful when cutting the sill from the A & B pillar point. Cut it well into the sill , not the pillar. When I did mine you could buy short pieces of pillar to repair this if you cut it too short or it was rusted at the bottom (common)
The front and rear bulk heads are tricky too. You need to cut at the channel and grind away the remnants from the bulkheads to ensure a flat surface to weld the new one too.
You will be ready for a beer by the time the old channel is out and area cleaned up.
After that, if you can measure and weld it's pretty straight forward.
There was a good Popular Classics Book (English) that covered this in detail on a 63 Beetle Convertable. Same job for both Hard Top and Convert.
Oh and one last thing make sure you get the right heater channel for your model.
:thumb