the lip that holds on the rubber seal for the bonnet on my beatle is very badly rusted in some places and i was curious as to what i can do to fix it. welding in a new one would seem to be impossible. i have toyed with the idea of just grinding it down and gluing on the seal (yeah i know not the best option).

someone here must have fixed this problem before.

Perfectly willing to be shot down in flames for this buuuuttttt.....
from memory you can replace the seal if you really want to. I bought a new section for the panel beater to replace some on the bonnet area of my oval,
and here comes the but...
I reckon it will probably just rust there again anyway, but I will watch and try to prevent.
There is/has been/are folk who I think have glued the seal to the lid, but you need to find one who has to get the details. Just know that there is another way apart from getting a new lip put on.
Penguin

Grind it off and buy a mexican seal.... slips over the bonnet edge...

Dats it, knew there was another option somewhere, ta Matt

thanks alot. i guess i'll try and clean it up and if it is too far gone i'll just get a mexican seal.

Are you in the process of a resto? If so a piece of piss-grind away old ones and buy new bits from Dean at Intervolks.Drill 4mm holes about 150mm apart and Mig weld thru these holes and grind away excess weld to resemble original spot welds.You can also oxy weld(Braze) these. If you aren't restoring,same procedure,but need to be real careful either way about heat transfer to your paintwork. Dean could locate the ones for the front bonnet for me but none for the engine cover.I had to go for the Mexican style rubber glued to the engine cover-Clark Rubber on Main Nth Road actully have a listing with a correct part number for this rubber-about $8 from memory

Around the sides and front of the bonnet opening I ground mine off and am going to use the new style mexican seal.

Across the back I got a new "Steel clamp" for the rubber seal, and have remove the old one and given it to the panel beater to fit for me.

Aircooled.net have got both the steel clamp and the new style rubber.

Cheers
Jeremy