Restoration of a split window VW Beetle

Technical Forums

D.I.Y Projects

beetle

Tags: #<Tag:0x000000093192b0>

madhouse12 (madhouse12) 2011-03-16 02:35:29 +0500 #421

Mashallah the splitty is coming back together real nice.

hassanazeem (hassanazeem) 2011-03-16 03:33:58 +0500 #422

That panel beater of yours has got quite a hand... very impressive!! Two thumbs up for the craftsman...

reezvaan (reezvaan) 2011-03-16 08:40:59 +0500 #423

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

Xulfiqar (Xulfiqar) 2011-03-16 08:57:41 +0500 #424

reezvaan;2682641:

Now then, nice glossy shiny finish after all the grinding and filing. Muntazir is coming strong.

B/w I am little confused about the right fender. It clearly has come from some other car as it doesn't have that indicator light opening as on the left one which is the original style for a split window beetle.

But then at the same time if it came off a pre-67 it has to has the horn grill opening right where the indicator opening is on the left original fender as pre-67 fenders have had horn grill opening in their bottoms (if I am not wrong) and this right one on the car doesn't have a horn grill opening. Please share the history of this right fender currently on the car (I hope Dr. Asad has something to do with it )

Edges of the Headlight Assembly Receiving Bowls on both the fenders are the key areas to be focused upon in order to get the alignment of the headlights right as well as the overall finish of the fenders, thus it has to be made sure that the bowl linnings are in tact and have never received a hammering/repair etc. else the fenders would eventually need to be replaced (Left bowl seems to have received some repair). So better double check these now for certain before heading onto a paint job.

From what I could gather from the pictures, the front apron needs some more work on it in order to be perfect (I may be wrong though since the shots are not focused on the apron itself). The points of the front apron where the fenders come in alignment and contact with the fenders are crucial to a perfect finish of the NOSE so these will have to be double checked as well to yield a "perfect finish".

P.S: It seems extremely odd commenting like this especially when you have Dr. Asad around you to explain all these tiny lil but important bits, but then I had to share what I thought should be shared.

This beetle has semaphores (that flip up from the B pillar) - hence no flashing lense indicators - the hole you see on the left fender is for the horn grille. The front apron is in pretty shape, it looks odd because the fenders are not bolted to the car with their rubber gaskets.

I paid this car a visit yesterday, and the work is really amazing, its being done how it should be done - Had quite a chat with Muntazir on straightening and hammering techniques. He shares pretty much the same ideas that I originally had in mind.

Finding his shop was an accident, I stopped over to look at a dead 1999 GDI Galant standing at a shop called AutoBenz to ask if it were for sale as I have quite some stuff lying around for that model including a 6A13 (dizzy type SOHC) V6 mill and a bone standard SOHC 4G63 mill. It can become a real nice daily for the house.

And right opposite the dead Galant was this shop, btw - there was an oval parked nearby too beside the earthmoving machinery, being worked on

reezvaan (reezvaan) 2011-03-16 10:03:13 +0500 #425

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

wasay_ahmed (wasay_ahmed) 2011-03-16 14:16:04 +0500 #426

nice restoration

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-16 17:36:41 +0500 #427

@Reezvan
thanks for the detailed post. Like Xulfiqar has mentioned, the hole on the left fender is for the horn and thr right fender has no hole but just a dummy horn grill.

If you look closely at the picture you posted, the bonnet has a lot of dents. When I got the car, the deck lid and roof were in bad shape. The roof had literally caved in.

The pics I posted are not of a finished product. Bonnet will tak eanother 3-4 days alone to finish, fenders will take a day or two each to finish. Roof though looks done but is far from that....declk lid had been dented by a different denter and is now in primer ready to take the first coat of paint....but I am having it stripped to bare metal and refinished by Muntazir......the biggest challenge is to keep Muntazir motivated as his mind is all the time wandering .... he has 5 projects waiting for him to finish work on my VW.

reezvaan (reezvaan) 2011-03-16 19:50:55 +0500 #428

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

shahzebulhaq (shahzebulhaq) 2011-03-17 18:45:48 +0500 #429

WOW!
My wish to see the split physically became a reality today and I was nothing short of being amazed on the work that brought a 60 year + old car to the condition that it stood proudly at..

Beetle friends!
Left to right - Dr Asad Ishaq, Muntazir ‘Denter ustad’, Amin Ul Haq and me.

Later we went to Mohsin bhai’s place and it was an absolute treat meeting this gem of a person..

Hats off and a salute to your restoration benchmark Mohsin bhai!

reezvaan (reezvaan) 2011-03-17 19:20:58 +0500 #430

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-17 23:25:05 +0500 #431

@ Shazeb
Thank you, I am utterly flattered. It was a pleasure to have met you as well and I get my inspiratin from people like you and other Vdubbers which keeps me going

Xulfiqar (Xulfiqar) 2011-03-18 08:07:38 +0500 #432

too bad - I could not meet Mr Ikram.. my sighting of this car was purely an accident

safeershah (safeershah) 2011-03-18 16:41:14 +0500 #433

mohsin , mashallah good progress, now some mechnical side please:)

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-18 18:26:11 +0500 #434

later,,,,total focus on body at the moment....engine is almost ready as well

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-18 19:00:35 +0500 #435

progress - 18 March

deck lid which had been finished by another denter before Muntazir started work on the car has now been restripped of fillers and paint to get the similar attention as the rest of the body did.

som pics....body is nearing our goal of as close to mirror finish as possible.

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-20 15:21:19 +0500 #436

pics taken in the morning of 19th March

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-20 15:31:52 +0500 #437

morning of 19th March continued.......

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-20 15:39:34 +0500 #438

First two pics - 8.30 pm 18th March. Remaining pics 9 pm 19th March

First pic shows Muntazir on left and Zahoor on the right who will be painting the car

Second picture shows Muntazir proudly stands next to his subject

reezvaan (reezvaan) 2011-03-20 15:40:13 +0500 #439

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

mohsinikram (mohsinikram) 2011-03-20 15:49:32 +0500 #440

9 pm 19th March