Upper Front Inner Wing Repair

Before I fit the wing, I want to make some sort of panel to bring the inner wing and door pillar up to the wing.

I am not sure how this would have been originally, but as the wings and the top 6 inches of the inner wing were replaced by someone previously, I must assume this was just left.

At the same time, I may close up the petrol tank filler hole and breather pipe as the car came with a tank that is filled from lifting the bonnet.

Door Pillar to wing panel repair

The panel fitted between the door pillar and the wing is prone to rot at the bottom.  I haven't managed to find a replacement that I can buy, so decided to make it myself.

He is a close up of the rust.  Making a repair here is pretty tricky.  I started by making a template in cardboard and then shaping the metal slowly.

This repair took me at least 4 hours to make, but in am pretty pleased with the result, and it fits really well.

Front Inner Wing Repairs continued

I made the panel in the photo and welded it in place whilst the other panel was in place so that they would meet in the middle.  This panel is not an easy one to make as there is a curve to it.  I ended up making it in two bits to make it easier to fit.

Here is the front edge panel now tacked in place.  Both panels have been deliberately left oversize so that they can be cut back together for a neat finish.
















And here is the finished job with the welds ground back and some zinc sprayed on.

















I noticed from some on line sources that the ends of the outer sill should have a plate in place to close it off, so I cut one to fit prior to welding the door pillar bottom in place.

Front Inner Wing repairs

OK, so I have carefully removed the various patches over rust, most of which are close to the door pillar.  The bottom of the door pillar has had quite a few little rubbish patches welded all over the place.  However I found you can get a great little repair panel for this as shown below and it is not super expensive.

To replace the bottom of the door pillar outer, it seemed easier to remove the wing to door pillar closure panel by carefully drilling out the spot welds.  This panel has some rot on the bottom, so I will need to fabricate a repair section for this as well.

Here is the finished area with all of the patches removed.  From here I have trimmed out all of the rust areas and trimmed the bottom of the pillar on the outside to fit the repair panel in.

A lot of head scratching to decide the best way to get a good tight fit and keep as much original as possible.  Not a job to rush here as the joints need to be as tight as possible.

However, not going to weld this on yet as there is a repair to complete on the inner skin.










Here I am making a repair panel in one length for the corner here.  I have used a joddler to get a flush finish n the outside, and this will put the repair overlap on the inside.

I have not cut the outside of the panel to size yet as I need to make a repair panel(s) for the inner wheel arch to meet this panel.

The panel in place including the door pillar bottom clamped.

I am not a metal fabricator, but I am very happy with how this is working out.  All of the work on this has only really taken about 6hrs so far.

Workshop Move and front inner wing rework

Got tired of working in cramp conditions, so the wife finally agreed to let me build a new workshop as I have been working in a small garage with the floor pan rolled in under the body being held up by scaffolding.

It took a couple of weeks to build, but here is a shot of the inside.  I took the opportunity to make a rolling frame to bolt underneath as well.

As you can see from the photo above, I have removed one of the front wings.  These were fitted by someone brand new, but there was a lot of bad welding with plates tacked over rust.

Its time to get cutting all the rubbish away and fit new.

RHD Dashboard Conversion Part 3

What to do with that large hole where the Gauges used to be.

I suppose a glove box would be nice.  So as I have an old beetle that will never see the road again, I thought maybe I could graft its glove box in.

Unfortunately, the Beetle glove box is about 25mm too deep, so not wanting to be beaten, I decided to section the glove box door and frame and weld them back together to fit.

Here is the slimmed down beetle glove box clamped in place.

 Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the glove box door as I cut it down to size.  This is a little tricky but does butt weld together very nicely.

Then I used the dash top section from the RH side to fill the top hole.

Not the best photo, but you can see that we now have a glove box.

RHD Dashboard Conversion Part 2

With the Steering wheel in place, I trial fitted the gauge panel in place.  The brow of the panel has to be removed and  the angle reversed to fit the opposite side, but is a good fit.

Next job to make and fit small plates to fill all of the holes.  At this point I thought, maybe making an all metal dash wasn't the best idea.

However, with a huge amount of patience it is possible to get an all metal dash.  Hopefully with a little smoothing a primer....

Getting there.  Next job to make a glove box from a RHD Beetle.