Body Work photos
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These are photos of Dave's 1977 Beetle, a true WORK
in Progress!. Dave isn't complaining, "TAZ" has 386,000 miles
and is still going. Note that most of these photos have
multicolored paint on the holes or dents to prevent or slow down
rusting.
Dave's driving habits are somewhat on the Offense
instead of Defense. Or in other words, Aggressive. He will
drive where angels fear to tread! Based in the original
Kommanderswagen, Dave believes that you can drive anywhere, at
anytime, and in any weather! He loves ICE storms and parking
lots!
Click on the picture to see a blowup of the
picture.
This is hole is caused by the factory sprayed in foam to block engine
fumes and noise deadening. Can be cut out or leaded, Grafting a
new piece in is an option. REMEMBER:
The wiring harness is located on the inside roughly
at fender height on 1966 and up! The paint that peeled off on
the fender welting happens because of little or no preparation of the
surface. If you paint the fender welting in place then it will
crack the first time you take the fender off.
Window sill rust is not uncommon and is what happens when you prepare
the surface poorly or improperly and then paint over it. Another cause
is bad window scrapers.
Body filler. Body filler or body putty should never be applied
this thick. A very thin layer of body filler is fine to take out
imperfections. If you need more than a thin layer, buy a new
door or fender. A fender is not that expensive to buy, usually under
$100 and is already primered.
As you can see, this is from dirt roads with loose gravel.
Usually sanding will take these out but can also use very thin body
filler or just buy a new fender.
With
this fender having been damaged in such a way, just replace it!
That's unless you enjoy pain.
Notice just under the gas door flap, the damage there occurred by
"threading the needle" between two wooden crates and got too close on
one side. The crate on the passenger side rotated and pushed the
fender into the body. This is a serious bodywork problem.
Aside from cutting and grafting, a jig will be attempted first to pull
the whole panel out to reshape it. Body filler is NO option for
this. It will only crack due to the curve of the body and fuel
spillage.
You will notice the crack or spilt in the fender. Don't even try
fixing this just replace it. It could be Migged shut but you
would have to grind and sand for about a day to get it right, so just
replace the flaming thing.
On this fender, Dave actually bent it back out semi-straight, but will
still need to replace it. The damage was MUCH worse than this,
as it was folded up inside the fender well. He did a really good
job on it for the tools and experience that he had at the time in
1985. This is what he got for his good deeds of teaching someone
to drive! Just food for thought.
This picture is worth a million words. The bumper has been
re-hung about 5 times in the past 20 years but has served him well by
saving the engine 6 or 7 times. So you can take your "CAL" look and
stick it .... somewhere, I don't care where. VW and the US
government (DOT) require bumpers for just such problems!!!!!
this is just a side look of Dave's Beetle, "TAZ", sitting quietly,
waiting for us to install the new steering parts that are damaged (we
will add that later to Front Axle)
