ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

I've got a 69 T1 that i managed to put into a guardrail (note....yokohama avs es100 are awesome, but they do not work miracles ). At any rate, my drivers side rear it toast, got the fender and decklid off, but i can't figure out how to get the rear apron off. I thought i could get in there and figure it out, but it doesn't seem that easy. How do i get this off...or do i? I dont have access to any sort of weldong or cutting facility, just my drill. Is it possible without some sort of cutter? Agh. Thanks a lot !

Sawzall will work

Drill out all the spot welds along the sides
hank

They are between the fender (wing) and the body, one side had 11, the other had 20, so who knows, there are also a few in the engine compartment, on the piece that raps around, you'll see JR

Sometimes it's easier to see the spotwelds if you scuff the area with a piece of sandpaper. Ideally you can drill through most of the outer layer (and little of the inner) and finish removal by coming in from the edge with a chisel, so the body won't end up looking like swiss cheese. There'll be some welds at the top where the apron joins the body along the hood opening - cut through just below the weld with snips or saw to leave a little excess in case you need it to reach the replacement part.

thanks...i managed to get it off this weekend, there were about 10 spotwelds on each side by the fenders and 2 or 3 on each side where it joined the rest of the body inside the engine compartmant. Now i have to decide how to put the new one on. A spot welder is a bit out of my price (and skill) range right now, would riviting be too sloppy or do i need to break down and let someone other than me or my mechanic touch the car? Thanks as always

VWPhile wrote:thanks...i managed to get it off this weekend, there were about 10 spotwelds on each side by the fenders and 2 or 3 on each side where it joined the rest of the body inside the engine compartmant. Now i have to decide how to put the new one on. A spot welder is a bit out of my price (and skill) range right now, would riviting be too sloppy or do i need to break down and let someone other than me or my mechanic touch the car? Thanks as always

Why not make a Baja Bug?

Pop-riveting is better than nothing. Even without a spotwelding panel a wirefeed welder can be used to plug-weld holes you drill in the new part. When I was a youth I ran around for years with a rear apron that was only held in place by virtue of being pinched between the fenders and the body - it lacked the integrity of a welded-in piece and probably would've exploded on impact, but it never fell off by itself...

You can also braze the spot welds back in.
have fun
hank

You can also bolt it back on and have a removeable rear decklid... do a google search on it and you can probably find the info... if not I will find it when I get home tonight. I think removeable is the best way to go.... sure makes dropping the engine a lot easier!

Here's how I did mine:
http://www.geocities.com/eaallred/project64Main.html

Page 4, 8, and 9 show the rear apron work.

removable apron....awesome idea! I bet that would make life a lot easier very often. I'm gonna go turbo one of hese days and that would probably be a good thing to have. I'll try it out. Paint job on the car looks very ince too, what brand/kind of paint did you use?

Been a couple years since I painted it. It was my first time doing a 'real' paint job all by myself. Always helped my dad out before.

I made one big mistake when painting it though. It was about 115 degrees outside when I painted it in a closed garage while living in Las Vegas. The garage was probably much hotter. It resulted in a lot of dry spots on the paintjob. I started color-sanding it, but that got old real quick, and I haven't finished it. I am thinking of sanding it down and repainting it. Same color, I have plenty of paint left.

Working on the motor right now.....