Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

Started by 80 Vert, January 28, 2012, 08:29:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

johnp

Quote from: ranton on September 16, 2012, 08:11:25 PM
From what I have seen Johnp, verty does it all with a Wizzbang Mig welder,

Have you been using Flux Core wire johnp as I think Flux Cored is Higher Tensile then regular wire...?

then again I'm pretty new to welding and my Welds still look like Seagulls were fed laxatives and let loose....

No , I use argo sheild with non fluxed wire. Welds are fine, my migtronic is a thing of beauty when it comes to welding,  but as I say you end up with the steel being much stiffer on the weld bead. Makes it hard to slap and dolly. (yes john I am finally doing the 1303 !)

BB

I think vert just grinds the welds back so perfectly the same thickness as the steel and only has to slap a few bigger areas as his patches are such superior fits as well.

I have had to do a few weld in the middle of doors and I know just how easy and massively panels can warp and buckle :P Vert is a pro.
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

80 Vert

I just use 0.6 wire in the welder, same Migatronic as you have...............just such a great machine!
The trick I learned not long ago is that you have to be able to grind the weld flat on both sides and that way even though the mig "weld" is harder as such you can slap it flat with relative ease.

The thing that helps more than anything else is to use the panel clamps to keep the 2 panels lined up and even, no matter how slow you weld large panels always distort and I always used a hammer and dolly without much succes until I learned about dressing the weld on both sides and using a slapper.

I actually made 2 of them, one light file for thinner steel and one heavy duty one for thicker steel and weld joins.
The nose of the Ghia is 1.0mm so it takes a bit of effort to beat into shape.
Finally you are working on it, how long has it been?  ::) ;D
The little things I have learned along the way has been awesome, just takes time and patience to to a no filler repair..........something that has eluded me for years but can now do  :)
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

BB

Be nice to see some of your slapping tools etc
Im not sure how to do slapping at all really :( Is it different that hammering with a dolly etc?
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

80 Vert

They are just old files Jeremy, just cut and welded to shape.
You can also heat them up and bend them to shape.

I never really got anywhere with hammer / dolly work, just didn't work for me and since no one taught me I had to figure it out myself.
Once I watched this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdLDOkEPFgA
lots of stuff started to make sense and doing this work on the Ghia I learned heaps of little tricks just by having a go.......I mean whats the worst that can happen?
Mess up a panel which is poked already?  ;D
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

BB

The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

dubstar

I always wondered why they used old files.  Question answered...
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

80 Vert

Worked on the tyre well every night this week so far, monday I hammered out the dents on the other side and then cut a big hole in the center where the worst rust was.
Took 3 goes at if before I figured out where to shrink / stretch the patch metal to get it to go where I wanted it.

With some more work in the english wheel it started to look ok so I began welding it in place, working it with hammer / dolly as I went.
There were 2 other rusted out parts to replace also which were easy enough once the main panel was in.
Quite a few test fits in the body to make sure it was still going to fit in the hole before final welding the whole thing.
Just about there, decided to stick at it tonight and finish the damn thing, in all there's 8-10 hours work just repairing this stupid piece  :(
Welded up all the un needed drain holes and just drilled one main one at the lowest point.


Dropped the gas tank in and bolted tyre well in, had a brief look at the spare wheel cover which is next on the list this weekend....................looks like I'll be making another................this one is toast  :-[
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

Righto bit of an update from the work done yesterday, since a replacement tyre cover has been offered I just concentrated on finishing the rust repairs on the front half of the car.
Finished welding on the last lower repair piece on the right pillar and got the lower guard attachment lip ready for making the new guard bottom once the doors are back on.

The Ebay door bushing kit should be here next week which means that job will be next, repair hinges and fit the doors.
With the doors in place I can final set the front guards and bolt that door edge back on again.

Little bit of work on the other pillar also done that completely finishes that area too.
Front boot area is also done after welding up lots of pin holes and replacing a couple of smaller areas which were too big to just fill.
Other side boot floor corner welded in and completed, feels good to complete sections of the body, we are getting somewhere.

With all the structural repairs done I could cut out the X brace I put in at the start so that I can get at the dash better.
I did wonder if the whole thing would go booooiiiinnnggg when cut out but no such thing happened  8-) solid as a rock.
Dash, well can't say I've ever had a rusty dash on any VW but this one does, last job for the day I cut the rust out, will start making the patches next week.


2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

ritmo

Should just cut and paste comment here..... More good work vert.

the phantom

Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

80 Vert

Quote from: the phantom on September 23, 2012, 02:34:35 PM
what's the pan like?  a lot of work there?

Ummmm yeahhhh, you think the body is bad............ ;D
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

the phantom

at least you can get replacement panels for pans  ;D
Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

BB

Vert probably won't be happy with the crapty replacement ones (if they are) and make his own out of thicker better steel 8)
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

80 Vert

Nup already have replacement pan halves, bought them when I bought the car.
Made in Colombia of all places, nice and thick just like factory  8)
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

watercooled

You must be pleased to have the pans vert,the replacement T1 floors are rubbish,I had to reinforce one with flat bar it was so thin.
By the way top work.
1974 Porsche 914 with 2.2T 911 6cyl,
Audi a6 allroad 2007 3.0TDI stage 1 reflash ,
89 Corrado 2.0 16v, Stilauto RX 17in wheels,ABF on k/jet ,resto underway maybe up for sale ?,
2002 T4 transporter 2.5 TDI.

80 Vert

Yeah I think fixing the floors will be the easy part.............he says full of confidence  :-X >:D

The door hinge rebuild done I could now fit the door to see where it would sit and look at making the front lower guard piece.
Bolted the door on and although it sat at the right height I felt something wasn't quite right as the door gap at the front was quite a lot bigger than at the B post.
Maybe they are like this factory (almost certain they are,no adjustment for this) but that's just not going to cut it here so I ended up taking the door off and massaging the metal in a little where the hinges bolt on.
I now have 5mm at the A post and 4mm at the B post, can almost live with that but may try and get it better.  ;D
Door lines up pretty nice and ghost line on the 1/4 I replaced seems good as well which is a relief!


Happy with the fit of the door meant it was ready for its missing guard piece to be made this weekend so I moved on to making the missing bits for the dash instead.
Used a contour gauge on the left side to determine what curve it should have then used the shrinker to replicate that on the patch panel.
Quite a few interesting angles and curves on these cars, certainly don't see that anymore these days let alone a metal dash.
Both pieces made, welded them and ground up the holes are gone.......... :P


Filled some more random pin holes I found in the pillar and where it meets the roof finishing that for now.
That brings us up to yesterday..........I try not to set goals / achievements with this car so that I'm not disappointed if I don't meet them  :( but in the back of my mind I thought it nice to finish the whole right side of the body.................can it be done?

Started off with attaching a straight edge to the bottom of the sill to be able to judge where the lower guard should sit.
Pretty quickly I had that section roughed out and sitting there.
But...........that was the easy part............

Next comes all the tricky stuff like forming the wheel arch, folded edges etc.
Hardest part was where the panel folds a full 180 at the A post, ended up clamping it flat to the bench to be able to hammer it over without distorting the rest of it.
Took a little while to work out the best way to do this but it will make the other side a lot easier.
Welded it on late afternoon............yes it took the most of the day to make  :-X
Right hand side is D.O.N.E!!!

Few hours left in the day I began looking at the mess on the left front guard,  Lars's panel from Norway turning up during the week I cut out a big section which was to be replaced.
The donor section isn't quite the same profile but certainly close enough for me to modify and a whole lot easier than making it from scratch.

With a big hole cut I filled the antenna hole some hack cut in there and repaired / metal finished the top of the guard as well as repaired below the cut out metal.
Next week I can start looking at shaping up the new piece to go in there, will have to hang that door for that as well (which is full of filler too by the looks)

2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

RevHappy

Top Effort man. i wish i had the skills you have. have you teached yourself everything off videos?
CURRENT: Mk2 Golf - 1.8t, Coil overs, Passat leather, 16x8, Daily Driven

GONE: Mk2 Jetta - Big Bumpers, Big Windows, Lowered, 15X6 Alloys, and MK1 Suzuki Cultus Gti G13b rally cams, bilstein shocks and springs, momo 14X7 alloys

80 Vert

Just years of having a go at things, learn by doing.
You'll be amazed what you can learn from youtube.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

Looks like this project has taken another turn, ground all the layers of paint and bog off the door and in some places it was 1/2 inch thick.
Funny thing was when you hold a straight edge against the good door its pretty flat where as the bad door has a huge bulge in the middle so now that all the bog is gone its back to being quite flat again.
To sum up 3/4 of the poo did not need to be there!!! Guy must have been blind.

I've started removing the skin from the frame as the bottom of the frame is pretty rusty as is the lower skin plus more drilled holes than you can poke a stick at.
Its a lot of work to repair a door but this way I'll be able to repair the frame nicely and replace the lower part of the skin as well, repairing the top of the skin around the razor edge will be a lot easier too with the skin off.

Once that is done I'll figure out how to correct the tight gaps and try to match them to the other side, for me gaps and panel fit are pretty important so I want them right.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration