The 1978 VW Beetle Cabrio


Disassembly begins
Restoration of the Chassis
Restoration of Suspension Components
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 1
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 2
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 3
Prepping the Body for Paint before mounting to the Chassis
Prepping for Paint
Assembly after Painting
Interior

Major Rust Repair of the Body

I started on the body to cut out some of the parts which will be replaced with new sheet metal sections.

New front piece installed with the left and right bumper support section

Attacking the rear part of the wheel well, which looked like an easy task.

Not so... more under the skin

View from the inside. I made some new pieces and fit them in.

I started to weld them back in.

More stuff to fabricate

The skin, finally

All welded in and cleaned up. The next piece is the brace of the strut tower.

Here is the left side, the front section and the strut tower support is already done.

On the left side behind the strut tower there is some rust.

Once the outside skin is gone, it looks not that good any more.

More crunchy stuff.

I needed to make some cuts.

I just removed that section.

It is getting thin.

At this point I decided to replace the complete reinforcement rail on the left side, since I repaired that piece (I'm shocked) 15 years ago. This way I will have a nice strong base.
Since I'm waiting for the pieces to come in, I moved to the right rear corner.

It didn't look that bad, however, as more you dig in as more you find.

And before you know it the hole get's bigger.

I'm Trying to find the good material to weld on to.

Fabricating some new pieces.

And weld them in. No comments needed.

Finishing up the outside.

Finishing up that bottom corner

One more hole to fix from the outside. The bottom piece is welded in.

The last outside piece welded and cleaned up.

What looked as surface rust, turned out to be also bad. Another piece to make.

I made a template from brown paper bags. Fitting the piece.

This was the last piece of the rear right section.

Looks like I got the easy part done. Now moving to the left side.

The support rail need to go, I patched it up 15 years ago.

I removed the rail, but WTF is that ?? More rust

I found that the Heating channel is also bad, as well the plate between the rail and the channel.

Now I need a new heater channel, and the plate that goes between. Also some more pieces to fabricate.

Disassembly begins
Restoration of the Chassis
Restoration of Suspension Components
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 1
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 2
Major Rust Repair of the Body - page 3
Prepping the Body for Paint before mounting to the Chassis
Prepping for Paint
Assembly after Painting
Interior