'70 Notch

[shaunl]

Spent the evening cutting, fitting, cutting, fitting, measuring, cutting fitting. It's ready to weld in.

[shaunl]

PROGRESS

Seam welded on the bottom, the reinforcement bar is all drilled for 'spot' welding. I'm going to remove the rest of the funky green primer, etch it with metal prep and probably scuff it up a bit then hit it with more Por 15.





Feels really good to get back to work on the car.

[Warhorse]

Wow! I'm impressed, especially since you say this is your first project? I wish I had you talent!

[shaunl]

Thanks man. First project, yes... but also my first Volkswagen.

I needed donor inner front fenders on both sides, but the front apron that came along with
that metal is beyond my repair capabilities....

But look what arrived yesterday, a nice rust free, straight, front apron from ISP West.



Words can't describe how pumped I am to get this car back together.

[Festlund]

Will def. follow this one, nice project! Good thing you'r saving it too, it deserves a better life and it looks like your giving it just that!

Keep it up!

[4 N Rust]

NICE job. Cant waite to see your Notch on the road.. Ive got a 64 in the back of my garage. Dont worrie what the others say on the SAMBA.

[shaunl]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm not too concerned about the Samba crowd. Little too stock oriented over there for my taste.

I finished welding the underside of the passenger floor pan, going to work on the top side tonight and see if I can bolt up my rocker assemblies and make sure they are straight... brace them, then work on getting them onto the body. Fun times ahead!

[teammonster]

So far I like what you've done. Nice work really want to see more when you get further in the project keep us posted.

[shaunl]

I started cutting out the right front inner fender/A pillar on Saturday. There is not much left of the poor thing right now. I still have to trim down the donor rocker panel/A pillar/inner fender... so in preparation for that I started cleaning it up. Imagine my delight when my wire wheel sunk 1/4" into the rocker and spewed bondo dust EVERYWHERE. Somebody did a SLOPPY repair on a section of the rocker about 16" in length. It's a damn good thing I had already picked up rocker skins.

I didn't bother with pics cause I was pissed.

[chan marshall]

subscribed

[shaunl]

Right, so I did some chopping lately.





As you can see in the lower right I will have to do some fabbing. No biggie.

I've got the passenger side rocker assembly trimmed to within about 1" of where I need it and got it bolted onto the floor pan to make sure it's straight. I ran out of time tonight, but I'll be bracing it to ensure it stays straight after I take it off the pan.







and a shot of the speed holes... the only bad part on the rocker assembly.

[FreshToTheGame]

Woow awesome job honestly i just claped at my computer screan lol keap it up man

[VolksAddict]

Great work

[mac dre]

Soo rad!

That's awesome your saving such a rusty example.


GL!

[shaunl]

Thanks for the encouragement gents.

Got the other rocker/A pillar in place and have decided to mate the two donor sections to the Notch body at the same time. Should make things a bit more difficult, however everything will be easier to check for alignment and fitment.



The front apron is a mess, however the apron in the background is as straight as they come. Will be chopping out the old one and straightening everything out once I finish welding the front section in place. It's just tacked right now.



I'll do away with the tie down straps in favour of some bracing asap.

[RafCarre12]

Holy crap!

You have no idea how much credit you get just for taking on such a project!

[uncle waldo]

Wow is all I can say!!! I just perused the saga of your project and I must say I am impressed. There's some major dedication happening in your garage.

I'm rebuilding my car, a '68 sedan and was whining about the minor rust damage (2 quarter sized holes in the front wheel wells) it had accumulated over the years. I'll never snivel again...

Looking forward to watching your ride progress... a big thumbs up

[boosted corrado_91]

awesome work so far i cant wait to see it done

[shaunl]

Thanks for the encouragement. Going hard at it lately.

Today I tore out that nasty front apron to find it had been riveted and welded on in a ****ty fashion. The good news is that it's gone... bad news is that the left front inner fender isn't perfectly straight. I beat on it today and got it close. I'll take a hammer and dolly to it to take care of the rest.

I also nabbed a right front fender recently... I've shaved the fuel fill and took some time to 'massage' the fuel door into a patch, with just a bit of trimming it will be ready to tack in place.

[shaunl]

and.....

I found an early Notch to nab some parts off.











Those are Type 3 fenders inside the Beetle.

[shaunl]

Happy to say my metal 'massaging' skills are improving. A while back I cut off the bottom of the rear apron due to the kink on the right side.



Today I thought I'd give it a few whacks with the hammer and dolly (an hour of hammer time) and it's now back on the car. Welded up a few pinholes in it as well.

[uncle waldo]

Everytime I check in on your progress, I'm more impressed and amazed. You're not rebuilding a car, you're essentially building one from scratch! The hard way... piece by piece.

Whenever I become fed-up with my project, I check the status of yours...

[shaunl]

Thanks dude!

Today I got these lovely fenders cleaned up thanks to a friend. I just sandblasted the most difficult areas, I'll strip them down the rest of the way with the grinder and wire wheel. The yellow fender is just loaded with undercoat...(blah) while the other one just has primer and paint from the factory.

(before)

No, I'm not going with the tribal theme.

progress on the front apron removal


and the rear apron welded back in place, few little areas to tweak, but it's pretty close.

[4 N Rust]

WOW. I always Look to see where you are on this Project.. Great Job...Make me want to start Mine... Need to Clear a spot in the garage...

[spdfrek]

I love notches and its awesome you are saving one that I would have said was way too far gone.

[shaunl]

Thanks again guys!

You should have seen the grin on my face today.







and the reason this thing needs to be on bags....


I am pretty damn happy with how everything lined up on the front end. It couldn't have gone smoother.

[STDClayton]

I don't venture into the aircooled section too often, but am very glad I did. I'm looking very forward to seeing your end result!

[shaunl]

As am I.

My original goal was to have it ready for next summer... I can't really see that happening now, but I will try my best. I'm trying to plan ahead and have started figuring out the air ride... I am fairly certain one of these will go under the front end.

[shaunl]

Tires and air ride not included, some tubbing may be required.





I'm going to finish off the welding of the gas door next time I'm out, grind it and it will be ready for leading.

[RafCarre12]

You may want to roll those fenders while you have clear access to everything.

I think you may also need to think about tire sizing that will get you some stretch in order to clear everything, specially with the air ride.

[shaunl]

Yes, I will definitely be rolling the fenders once the front end is in place. I spoke with Matt at Punch Drunk Customs and he figures 175 50R16s will not rub and will not require tubbing. I'll really have to wait to see what it all looks like with the beam under it.

[shaunl]

The headlight bucket was toast on this fender, so I cut it out, rebuilt the inner flange, cut the donor bucket out of an early T3 fender and now it's ready to go in place once I do a bit more grinding.



and an overall shot of my backwards pile

[RafCarre12]

If I had the buckets all cut out, I'd be so tempted to do some kind of custom lighting (HID or similar).

[shaunl]

Hmmmm, well I hadn't given that any thought at all. I'm trying to keep the exterior looking very original looking. Did you have any specific suggestions? Link to an hid conversion?

[chemicalbro13]

or get some projectors and retrofit them in their well you have it out