I've just started stripping down my beetle and i've come across some largish areas of rust and was wondering;

whats the best solution? ie; cut and weld, swap panel, etc

Are they common areas? have other people had experience with them? what did they do to fix it?

note: the body isn't off yet (I'm expecting more to come... )
Cheers,





front door hinge





This section has alot of fill under the paint from earlier damage. Not something I'm looking forward to striipping.

strip the car and have it blasted to see what your up against

start looking for another body to use if its bad it could be cheaper

ur local friendly vw parts dealer will have the rust repair panels you need.

Cut it out, slap it back in No time like the present to start learning to mig weld if ur not familiar already. strip her down and take photos to show the parts dealership and they should present you wth the appropriate replacement panels.

A-pillars are typical to corrode, as are the inner wheel wells at the front, and the lower wheel wells at the back. heater channels too, later models had death foam in the channels at either side of the rear window going up with roof, these would hold moisture and in turn, be a rust-prone area. under the windscreen and in the spare wheel area.... Just to name a few!

Both my a-pillars had cancer, as did the front wheel well, and the passenger heater channel was rediculous. Shes as solid as anything now. More solid then beautiful though (like an 'ugly' healthy chick)... From the outside it looks fine, but the sills underneith i had to weld in sheet metal and work it out as i went along, as the heater channels underneith had a distinct pattern i couldn't personally replicate. You'd have to jack up the car to see it. Its a baja though... i'm sure the dints and stone chips to come will make it 'blend in'.

don't get discouraged, just because it has some rust, doesn't mean you need to find another body.

As silver said it can often be cheaper to get another body if there is too much rust, but finding another body in good condition can be difficult also!

If you don't want to strip the whole car, then check the most common areas that will rust. (Search the forum, there are plenty of threads on this)

FYI most people tend to just repair what rust they have rather than replace the whole body.

To repair the rust, there are plenty of repair sections available, and whole panels, but you can always hand form the repair panels yourself. Depends on the damage, but generally the original panels are best to keep if you can.

Cheers for the comments and advice guys, muchas grathias

I've stripped the inside and found some small patches of rust on the floor pan but not as much as I expected, which is nice. We'll see what else I find when the body comes off this weekend or the next. Hopefully the body is in good condition but I won't know that untill I sand blast it or use paint stripper...

As far as panels go, in sydney, who would be the best/cheapest (I realise thats a vague question considering brazilian and american parts, but in general);

vintage veedub?
volksbahn?
any others?

once again thanks for all your info.

I'm keeping a running log of my progress on here at:

http://aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=85098