I've just bought a 1971 beetle and after having it inspected by a panel beater he's discovered that the car is riddled with rust, and has quoted a minimum $5000 to cut out rust and respray. However, he has also told me that the car is not worth the cost of repairing it, and recommends selling it asap to try to get some of my money back.

But, i really don't want to have to sell it, as i'll have to sell it for a huge loss, plus i love it and had great restoration plans for it.

Can anyone give me any advice?
Is it worth trying to get it restored?
Will the rust come back even once it's been cut out?
Should i instead try to replace the entire panels instead of cutting the rust out?
Are there any other solutions to my problem?

Help, i'm lost!

If he is going to re-spray the whole car then I think thats cheap.
I paid more than that and had no rust!
Shop around for prices and if possible try to find some one close to you so you can drop in and check the work
and take pic's for us
Silver

Hi there and welcome.

I've no personal experience with rust removal but plenty of people on here have. Rust is pretty common on beetles and many people face the same situation as you. People spend lots of time and/or money restoring cars, doing a lot of it themselves for experience and to save money. If removed properly the rust shouldn't come back, but I believe body work is often the hardest part of restoration work.

Perhaps if you post some pictures others can advise if the rust is bad and if the car is beyond salvation.

Cheers and good luck,
Stephen

Thanks Stephen and Silver

I don't think i'll be able to post any pictures of the rust itself, since i am told that it is all underneath the current paintwork.. only 20% is actually surface-visible.
(plus the car is currently sleeping over at the panel-beaters!)
My main concern is just paying the money to have the rust removed, only to find that in a few months it has come back and i am faced with the same problem.
I'm a student, and this is my first car, so you can probably imagine my financial situation, and so having to spend them money with no results would be a hard blow!

Emma

where are you at ?

Emma,

If I were you I would join a local VW Club. Perhaps have a member come along and give you an opinion on the state of the rust. You may find thats selling your car and finding a car with good bodywork and paint ready to go, is cheaper than restoring your own one. Where abouts are you?

Cheers

Steve

I'm in Sydney.

You're probably right about selling it.. it's just such a shame because i really had my heart set on fixing it up..

This may be true but I think it would be worth getting it checked out by someone with experience who is not trying to take money off you. So the help of a VW club, as mentioned above could be quite valuable. Also, some panel beaters are more sympathetic to VWs than others. Then you can decide if it's worth fixing or better to cut your losses.

Cheers

Very true - the panel beater who looked over the car is a family friend, so i trust their judgement.. but at the same time they don't really have all that much experience with restoring cars, from what i can gather, so i'm thinking of getting some second opinions.
Does anyone know of any VW clubs in inner sydney?

there are 2 main clubs in sydney 1 being flat four veedub club ,where a lot of the members are based out the western suburbs or there is the 2nd Club vw with members all over sydney