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

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

Best of removing the inner panel as well

Quote:

Originally posted by HappyDaze Quote: Originally posted by 1303Steve 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 itSteve ? - 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.

More naked steel porn

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

Inner panel cleaned up and zinc primered ready for repairs.

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

nice work

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

Looking good.

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

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

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

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

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..

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...

Thanks Mike!

Quote:

Originally posted by adlbeetle66 Thanks Mike!