|
|
|
The Body Off the Pan!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Ah, back in the garage and sticking his tongue out for the camera!
As soon as Schnitzel was home, I removed his windows, unfortunately breaking his windshield in the process. I took off the cheap aftermarket rusted bumpers, removed the wiring harness and all other miscellaneous parts.
At the body shop, Schnitzel's rear shock mounts were replaced, his body straightened in the rear, bad patch jobs on the rear fenders were redone, rear bumper mounts patched, missing tabs for the firewall welded on, a crack in the metal at the tip of the hood fixed and a smashed spot on the front passenger fender repaired.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| This is the repaired shock mount arear in the rear, passenger and driver sides. Both spots had minor rust in them that had to be caught now.The only other rust was located in the rear bumper mounts. |
|
|
| Here are some of the pieces of metal that were removed at the body shop from the backsides of the rear fenders. These had been used strangely to repair holes from extra lights and damaged areas. All four fenders are original but had turnsignals and larger rear lights mounted at one time on them. |
|
|
| Inside the doors you can see many pads put in place by the factory for cushioning various components. All of the pads are made from scraps of seat vinyl, headliner fabric, and carpet samples or seat / headliner padding. The door sound deaden pieces were two black tar pads mounted in each door and each quarter panel. They had long since fallen down to the bottom of each door and panel. You can see all the old dried glue in the doors, it is the brown stuff. It comes off very easily with a wire brush or sand paper.
All of the pads will be replaced with new ones, the old ones I am keeping out as they are nice samples of original carpet and materials. See the small white squares aroune the edge of the driver door? The are pieces of white fabric tape on each of the door panel clip holes. No rubber seals here, just a piece of ancient tape. Can anyone tell me when they started using the rubber seals? I couldn't find it in my copy of progressive refinements.
See the gray vertical bar on the passenger door for the armrest? This bar is the same color as the gas tank, dash support bar, heater tube covers and inside of the glove box under the flocking. It is L29.
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
When the tarboard firewall insulation is removed there are several vertical pads mounted underneath. These are very fragile being so old and will be replace with new ones. I removed the old ones carefully for a pattern to cut the new ones for exactly. They came off very easily as the glue is so old and dried. |
|
| March 27-28, 2004, was sunny enough and almost 60 degrees so Schnitzel got pushed out into the sun for glue removal. The glue was a nightmare in him, it had all turned to a fine dust sticking on everything under the headliner and carpet. Removing it had to be done outdoors to avoid a mess! First a wire brush knocked almost all of it off, then I scraped a lot of it off with a razor blade where contact cement had been used to fasten the replacement headliner and carpet. Finally I sanded the remains completely off. I also used Goof-Off around the windows where a ton of glue had been used on the replacement headliner sometime in the 70s or so. All in all it went easily, just a lot of dust. You need a mask for this part. |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| Here is a shot of the passenger side after I removed the glue and the driver's side before I removed the dried glue, you can see it all over from the headliner and in the quarter panel from the sound absorber. I just finished up the glue removal before we removed the body from the pan. Also, note there are no holes drilled for pop-out windows, ending the popular myth that all Beetles are drilled for them from the factory. One extra note here: there were no door panel clip seals installed in Schnitzel, instead small pieces of white fabric tape had been used everywhere, is this original? |
|
|
 |
|
| The final parts were removed in April, the doors were a problem as someone had removed the driver's side previously and ruined the heads of the screws. We had to drill two of them out carefully. Also the tool to remove the good screws is a phillips impact screw driver. It is whacked on the end hard with a large hammer, inside is a spring and the phillips head is forced to turn the screw.
Caution: never talk while removing your doors in this manner. I used husband power here to remove them, as I didn't have enough power in me. He was talking to me, turned to look at me when I answered and POW a big dent on the inside of my door. Oops, oh well, better now than after painting.
The hood was easily removed with a few bolts, and the fenders with bolts as well. I have almost all of my original fender bolts, Kamax 5D bolts. These are unusual since the head is 14mm with a 8mm thread, the standard has since been set at 13mm with an 8mm thread and so these bolts are no longer available.
I had soaked all the body bolts since November with Gibbs Penetrating Oil. This is amazing stuff, not a single bolt soaked with it on the Beetle gave any trouble. I crawled under the car and removed all the body bolts with a rachet or a breaker bar easily.Then I reinstalled the junk bumper brackets and we used these as the lifting points for the body removal. The body is quite light with everything removed.
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| The body was lifted up with jack stands to support it, just high enough to clear the front beam and transmission, then the pan was pulled out sideways on jacks and the body lowered back down to about 8 inches off the floor. The body now rests on a large ugly piece of wood, about 6 feet long and 8 inches square (not the one in the picture). |
|
|
 |
|
Now I am focusing on the pan and its components, the body will sit while the pan is restored. Every usable bolt has been degreased, stripped of remaining paint, soaked in POR-15 Metal Ready to remove any rust and etch the metal, then cleaned with water and painted satin black and put in a labeled zip lock bag. Bolts that cannot be reused, such as some of the body bolts were purchased from Wolfsburg West.
All new German brake parts and Boge shocks were purchased also, my Beetle uses the wheel cylinders and smaller brake shoes that were used from 1954 until 1957 (including very early 1958 model Beetles). Both front drums are original and dated August 9th, 1957 but the right one has ball bearings and the left one roller bearings. The rear drums are also original and both dated July 15th 1957.
The right steering knuckle was damaged and I had to buy a remanufactured one, and the left lower torsion bar had to be replaced due to a bad shock stud that snapped off. I have also purchased all new brake lines, rubber and metal. The original hardware was cleaned in the same manner as the bolts and painted satin black.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Page 1 |
|
Page 2 |
|
Page 3 |
|
Page 6 |
|
Page 7 |
|
Page 8 |
|
Page 9 |
|
Page 10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|