The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[JTR70]

So glad you don't have to do anything over again in there Phil. Its a tough corner to work in once all the panels are in place. Another interesting detail I've noticed looking at my buddies car and now your photos is that from A to B,C the factory began mounting the lip of the rocker drain tray on top of the inner door well tray. 356 and 356A have the rocker tray mounted under the lip. Which I think is better from a drainage standpoint. details, details...
Justin

[Phil Planck]

A lesson learned about that drain tray lip: do not weld it in until you are absolutely sure that the rocker/door bottom gap is where you want it. I did not do this and had to grind/drill out all of those plug welds because the gap was way off(too large). Once that tray is welded to the inner structure you cannot move the rocker up and down.

[Phil Planck]

January & February is when I get the most time in on Foam Car. This year hopefully will be no exception. Passenger side in pretty good shape, so want to finish up drivers side before the last area(front end outer metal) starts. I have had the drivers closing panel laying around in various states of fitment for I bet 10 years. Even the tell panel(as the Stoddard catalog calls it was not welded in along the top. So, the tell panel was butt welded and a few pin holes in the plug welds repaired. The bracket that holds the rubber door buffer was cleaned up and holes drilled to plug weld it to the closing panel.




A section at the top of the old remaining good closing panel was rusty at the edge, so that was cut out and a patch fabbed and welded in.








The closing panel has been final fit and I have begun welding it in place. Several door install and removals were done to make sure the outer edge was just inboard of the door. Many plug welds, and the long butt weld along the top yet to be finished. I think I am around hour 1230 or so. Will get the exact number when I finish the welding, hopefully tomorrow.

[JTR70]

Only a two month window to really concentrate on it huh? That can fly by in a hurry with little to show for the effort. Ask me how I know... So you are officially on the left front fender area now? I meant to ask you a while back; how did your right side front fender repair turn out after all the shrinking and message you did on it? Where you satisfied with the end result? Thanks for sharing your progress Phil! Keep after it! Justin

[Phil Planck]

Justin
The complete story is on thesamba, as my mentor, Bruce Baker was very active there at the time:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=539505&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=foamcar&start=0

If you know of an easy way to move that thread here let me know.

Here is that fender as it sits today. I will probably go over the long butt weld with a shrinking disc sometime.





Another shot with the door on.

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil! Hard to tell with the metal surface texture but the overall shape and contour looks right. Yes, that shrinking disc will do a beautiful job on your weld joint. Thanks again for recommending that tool! The link you shared works just fine. I transferred my past build posts by doing a ton of cutting and pasting. It was worth the effort for me but I am sure your time would be better spent working on your car but if your up for it would be great to have it here as well! Thanks again for the update. Justin

[MMW]

I also enjoy watching & reading about your progress. Just because I don't chime in I am always lurking. That goes for anyone's projects. That fender sure has come a long way as well as the rest of the car.

[Phil Planck]

Those pictures make the passenger fender look pretty rough, although it is actually quite smooth. Part of this I think is from the method Fay Butler used to fabricate this fender. He used a huge Yoder hammer machine that left many minor surface irregularities. Don't know how he removes these, but I have been occasionally just using the old hammer of dolly technique to smooth it our.

I am at hour 1234 and have finished welding in the outer closing panel on the drivers side. Wish I had done this 10 years ago when I was more agile. But this should be the last of working inside a wheel opening. I have rough smoothed the welds and will probably go over them with a small sanding disc. Next up is the drivers rocker panel fitment.

Here is the inside of the closing panel rust protected:



Here is the closing panel finally welded in.


I still need to plug weld the door buffer bracket to the back side of the closing panel(8 welds). And of course eventually weld the front flange of the rocker assembly to the closing panel.

[Phil Planck]

Mic
For your lurking pleasure, here are some tips for installing the closing panel. First, getting it just in the right spot with just 2 hands can be a challenge. I had a hard time getting the top butt joint just right, and actually did not have an even gap when I started welding it in. Several areas were too tight to get good penetration, at least with my mig welding skills, so I used a Dremel with their thin cutoff discs to open them up after the panel was partially installed.(this was a Bruce Baker suggestion) I used 2 clamps to hold the panel in place. One is a long Vise Grip with the swivels that can reach in with the back of the fender removed. The other was a smaller clamp to squeeze the bottom longitudinal flange against the panel. The plug weld holes had weld thru zinc primer in them, but I have not had luck getting good welds on any kind of coating. Up until this panel, I have been using Q tips soaked in acetone to swirl in the plug holes to remove the primer. I picked up a tip on a metal working forum which is much faster and safer. You modify a drill bit the size of the plug hole to look like this:




Used with a cordless drill they clean out very fast. The safety part is that if you use your welding gloves and get acetone on them, the welding sparks will ignite your gloves( happened to me).

The last tip is for when you cannot clamp the metal near the plug weld and it is not tight with the under panel. Bruce told me about this years ago when I was installing the floor pans. Use TEC screws(self drilling/tapping) in every other plug hole. This pulls the panels tight together, and when the open holes are plugged, remove the TEC screws and plug the other holes. The small hole left by the screw is easy to fill. I had to do this on the upper portion of the panel, as you cannot clamp that area.

[JTR70]

Total hours accrued is 1,234! A true labor of love Phil! I believe that would equal right around 100K so far in going rate shop time? Give or take but probably would fall on the give side. Nice work on those splash pans! Its obviously too late now but I think punching your plug weld holes for your diagonal re-inforcement bracket (speaker boss to splash pan) attachment point would have been easier to weld and dress from the splash pan side versus welding from the recessed and shouldered bracket side. Same difference of course just thinking more along the lines of ease. Keep going, Looking forward to seeing that rocker panel installed! Justin

[Phil Planck]

When you are 70 years old and still doing this you will understand why it is easier to weld in the recess sitting on a soft adjustable stool with rollers than crawling under the wheel opening and sitting on the floor. Plus, holes were partially drilled out in the bracket from removal of the closing panel.

[gkw]

Nice work Phil, I agree with you with age as being a game changer.
At 70 I do a lot of things different too.
Great posts. Gordon

[Phil Planck]

Got the buffer bracket welded to the closing panel and made the 2 slotted holes for the buffer.


Next on to the rocker panel. This had to be fitted about 5 times to get it where it is. Lots of work to make it right. Front flange does not reach closing panel:




fender contours at front and rear will have to be reworked:





But the hinge pin access hole lines up nicely:





This is how it looks after the 5 fit-remove-trim-fits:

[JTR70]

I hear you Phil, my suggestion came from the spoiled position of having a car on the hoist. The hot rod '58 I'm also working is close to the ground too and I have to say its tough getting up and down repeatedly. Anyway those plug welds of yours are so tiny in that bracket you could almost leave them alone.. Its looking good; the wired edge being off is of course expected, Tom Perazzo is currently dealing with that as well. At least the hinge pin hole lined up. Are you mounting your door next to establish lower gap and body elevation? Nice to see you making progress again! Justin

[Phil Planck]

Justin
More fitting of rocker required before I mount the door. If it is like the passenger side, the lower front corner of the rocker will have to be reworked before I can close the door as it will be too far rearward and hit the bottom edge of the door. But yes, door will be mounted to establish the bottom gap before the front shelf is welded in place. Once that shelf is welded you cannot adjust the gap.