I spent the day today grinding back the paint and rust from the major rust affected areas of my '68 Beetle, just so I could see the damage that has been done. And I found a few more holes than I was prepared for. The images below tell the story.

There were some rust holes in the front LH and RH wheel arches (just about where the body is attached to the heater channels), that look like someone has tried to convert the rust before. Also I found some small holes in the LH and RH heater channels (about 50mm wide).

Looking at the pictures, how much of a pain will this be to repair? Also, is there a way of converting the rust in the heater channel? The heater tube that runs inside the heater channel that you see from outside the car appears not to have been affected. Please help.

It can be a real pain to repair. Rust starts from the inside, so what you cannot see is more rust than what you can see.

Lift the carpet inside where the heater channel goes behind where your feet are, at the bottom of the hinge pillar. You need to see if it is rusty on the inside too.

Oh and only way to repair properly is to cut out rusted metal and replace with new metal.

yep what he said - you (or someone) will be doing some welding...

But I have seen and repaired far worse in VWs

The problem is that there are no specialty VW panelbeaters in Perth, and all of the other panel beaters only do insurance work. Does anyone in Perth know of someone who can help, or know where there might be a VW panel beater?

Give Idlewild a ring and tell him the boys at Custom Veedub sent you

Cheers for that. BTW, Is that Idlewild Off Road?

Here's some contact details for Chris

http://www.idlewildoffroad.com/contact.htm 

Thanks guys, Will give him a call when I have some time.

Good Stuff,

My beetle needs some bodywork repair done and I havent the time/tools to do it and as Flat4Freak says no one in Perth does this sort of thing