Priming =)

After several hours of sanding and filling, the car was ready for priming. 2K primer was sprayed on the car out in the driveway a windless sunday evening.

A whole new appearance - and this was only the beginning... =)

Prepping for primer...

The summer of '09 was rather sh*t as the weather goes, but I managed to squeeze in some evenings filling, sanding and prepping for primer.

Let the sun shine in

A few years back I bought a rusty ragtop beetle. The car was a "gonner", but the ragtop was complete and salvageable. The ragtop was placed in the sechs volt barn, and the car recycled.
One sunny afternoon in August, I left work early and headed for the sechs volt barn. I thought; "I could start filling, grinding and priming for paint....but I would never be satisfied with the car if I didn't end up with a large hole in the roof..."

I had discussed the topic with Knechten the week before, and he showed me a "how to - welding in a ragtop" article in Volksworld....

The decision was made - no leaving of the premises before the ragtop was in. It took 10 hours from start to finish....didn't find my bed until 0330 that evening/morning...


The ragtop is an original "Golde" sunroof.

After the recipe from Volksworld, the ragtop clip was cut just outside the pressings, this will make the ragtop hide the welding seams when finished.

I measured once, twice, thrice....and then measured again....lost complete count of how many times I checked my measurements....

As when it came to mating the angle grinder to the car...don't think I have ever been that nervous....I cut the hole a little to small on purpose, and repeated the procedure until the car matched the ragtop clip perfectly, with about half a cm overlap.

Let the sun shine in part II

Used a special kind of wrench, I lowered the outer sheet metal on the roof 1 mm, so that the ragtop would flush smoothly with the roof of the car.



Again, measuring all was right, it was time to do some welding. I clamped the ragtop onto the roof, and fired up the MIG.

Nearly finished welding, I was quite happy with the result… =)

Welding of rust completed

Last but not least, the door hinges and the seam below the A-pillar on the drivers side of the car needed some serious work. I had avoided the place ever since I started to weld on the car.. I was fortunate enough to get help from a professional; Solberg Sr. took a day off and made the area nice and rock solid again =)

One night, I gathered some of the rusty sheetmetal which had been cut from the car...it was quite a few pieces....and in addition there was the front fenders, the pan halves...++
Very happy to have reached this milestone =)

Rear fenders

The original rear fenders have been missing since the war, so suitable replacements had to be made. Some old replacement parts I bought on the Norwegian vw-forum two years ago, was brought in from the barn an fitted to the car.

The mounting pieces for the rear lights were purchased form wolfparts. These are excellent quality, and were a perfect fit.

Now we are getting somewhere =)

A good day's work at the garage!

The rear valance is original, but rather bent, battered and rusty... Faithful reproductions are available, but too expensive for me.

Earlier this summer, I had purchased one of the standard reproduction valances for pre-67 cars. After having cut and drilled out the original one, I cut out the "best of both worlds" from the two valances

After some trialfitting and measuring, the new piece was spotwelded together.

The holes for the twin-post -55 exhaust had to be handled of course, so they were welded shut as well.

Last night, I did some surgery on the drivers side of the spare wheel well, it was kind of bent and battered and war-weary...

Thanks to Oval57, who went to his storage and once again gave me a most useful replacement part, the plastic surgery was quite straightforward. Countdown to "end of welding" can soon begin.... =)

Last part of the heater channels completed! What to to now, hardly any rust left on the car.....?! =)

Managed to get a good start on the right heater channel this week. Lots of adjustments when one is putting it together with many individual parts....the next time, I might go for a complete channel...!

Not many updates lately - but I haven't been lazy...working with other parts and bits for the '50.

The other week, as the other sechs volt cars were about to emerge from the barn, we had to move the Ghia. We found out the hard way that a Ghia is a bit heavier than a beetle. We had to mount the front suspension and four wheels to move it!. Now it resides a bit more out of the way - and it looks very good with rubber on. Can't wait to start to restore it! =)

Finally done with the left heater channel :-)

The rear quarter panel shows the typical vw-sign of wear and tear....so it had to go as well. I did not manage to finish it all up tonight, but the new part seems to align up quite nice. Some small adjustments next time, and then the lower part of the channel will be up next! =)

The heater channel has been bugging me for quite some time now, and today was the time to start sorting it out. Oval57 had recently brought me an excellent piece from one of his vw-journeys, and this was carefully welded in place. I felt a bit sweaty when cutting out the rotted old metal, but the reinforcements held....and the door gap still has the same measurements as before =)

Tonight there were some parts to pick up, so I only managed to finish up the welds on the channel from last time. Next up is butchering the rusted parts of the channels, so I also reinforced the body with some steel bars.

With very good help from Fürsten, I managed to get a good start on the rear left heater channel/inner fender tonight. It's funny how you always have to cut out more metal than you anticipated in the first place.... The end result looked quite good, I have to say. Still some more to finish it up, but it kept me smiling all the way home :-)

One of the last evenings before new years eve, I spent an fruitful afternoon in the 6v garage toghether with Oval57. After welding the rear bumber mounts, we separated the chassis and body, mounted the body in oval57's "body-roll" and tipped the -50 upside down. The welding will now be much easier....and a good thing that is, because the lower side of the heater channels looks a little "moth-eaten".....