Hi Folks ,
Im Jon and I own a small VW Restoration company in Wiltshire - 65 Deluxe .
Ive been lurking on here for years and own a couple of fairly early cars .

I am a good friend of the owner of this particular car which many of you in the UK will know from days gone by.

Having had a few false starts over the years he has now decided to get things moving and as I want to restore my 52 I thought this was a good thing to practice on 😉
Joking aside I am very much looking forward to working on such an early car.

So here it is in the little garage where it has been hidden away for years



once out I could get a glimpse inside



Early pressings below the windows and unbelievably the original headliner



Ready to head off to the workshop



with the wings removed some of the old repairs can be seen



The front and rear have been involved in accidents over the years - some ongoing repairs are visible in the spare wheel well



Most of the running repairs have been done by bolting sheets of aluminium to hold things in place - They look to be parts of an old sign - you can see clearly the white residue left by the aluminium sheet when removed



The rear has also been in an accident on the drivers side , the back has also suffered from collapsing as there are no inner wing body mounts to the floor pan - This has caused nearly all the spot welds to come apart and the body dropped



More will follow shortly - work has begun and lots of pictures will follow soon !

cheers Jon

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Hi Jon,

Glad you've decided to share this, looking forward to following this build! :thumbup:

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Hi Rob ,

I will keep posting up as work progresses , Im looking to do a couple of days a week so it should move on at a reasonable pace .
I think we have most of the bits and those we dont have are in the process of being made .

Im worried there may be too many pictures as we go along , but hopefully it can become a bit of a reference for others .
I keep finding little bits that are different from even slightly later cars and will no doubt be asking for help along the way .

best wishes

Jon

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Do you have the engine lid? I don't see it in the pics.



As you're posting them on photobucket, that shouldn't be a problem :wink:



There are a few '47 owners on here, hopefully they can help with any details you need to know.

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Hi,

As some people may be aware, I'm currently restoring a November '47 export. It's had around 1,000 hours of Steve Hook's time on the body & floorpan so it's a major project. It's currently in the paintshop but I hope to get it back for reassembly before the end of the year.

If you have any questions, I can be contacted on [email protected]. I'll help if I can.

Good luck with it!

Charles Oldroyd

Fascinating, just how many of these early built cars are there? Another seems to turn up now and then.

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Hi Rob

[quote=pre67vw]Do you have the engine lid? I don't see it in the pics.

We have the original from the car ;-)

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Thanks Charles , I will no doubt be in touch .
1000 hours is a huge commitment , fair play !! As a result I think we may need to change the thread title to "47 beetle minor blow over"
:-)

best wishes
Jon

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So , a little work can begin .

First thing to do was to cover the original headliner - This is in good condition and the owner is particularly keen that we keep it if at all possible - Simple job , Hard board cut to size and then gaffer tape used to keep it tight to the roof .



One of the most important part of the build was always going to be getting the body straight again . This is made worse by the fact the car has been in both a front and rear impact in its life , During one of these the spot welds at the back have come undone so during its 30 ish years of storage and possibly before hand the back of the vehicle had dropped ( no inner wing body mounts on the back ) In the process the window and roof section have been pulled backwards .

We arranged for someone with a porta power to come and attack it and he advised that access would be required to the torsion tube so there was something to push against .

There was a fair bit of damage in the back corner above the torsion tube




I was able to get an air saw in to cut some of the damage out



This then allowed the middle section to be lifted out as all the spot welds had already come apart.
This would give good access to the torsion tube



Soon after work began putting it all straight and as it happened the work was all done with the most basic of tools - however I was glad the owner was not present when this one came out to play - I jest you not .....




By the time we had finished - The gaps at the front of the doors are good - I used a pair of NOS 50 or 51 doors ( cant remember which ) - we have the originals to the car and these will be rebuilt , just wanted to get the gaps correct with a pair of un molested doors



Back of the door has good gaps and the swage line is good


Clearance around the door - it even opens and shuts !!!!


Drivers side gaps good and swage line also good


Front end of door also has good gaps

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Wow. Lots to do on this one. I wonder if this car belongs to the gent that I was chatting to at Hessisch? He was from the West Country.
Thanks for posting, look forward to the updates.

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That may well be the case ;-)

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The back has also taken a hit in the past so that needed pulling out
I welded a piece of steel on the dent and pulled away - popping it out to some where near



Much closer to the line of a wing




roughly in line with the deck lid



I could then brace the vehicle up


lots of support


multi angles to give some strength





once braced I started to look at some bits to be sorted - starting with the inner wings



both have impact damage so will be removed to allow repairs to be done

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Good work looking forward to seeing the progress, thanks for sharing 😎

X2 it's great to watch the progress.

Mike :beer:

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This will prove interesting to follow.:beer:

I've a '47 (I think it is, as the tunnel ID plate is absent, and boot ID plate very difficult to read - but it has 3 window ribs, small tank and flat floor etc??). BUT it as certain features inside that bare similarity to that of the restored VW38.

https://forums.pre67vw.com/yaf_postst17904p4_VW38-progress.aspx 

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Time for some proper work to begin - my favourite part of any build , good old fashioned metal work :-)

The front as I have already said has had a bump or 2 , so it was decided to cut out the worst bits and make a decision where we would go from there . Care was taken to leave the tank surrounds and the front panel as complete as possible



The removed section - this will be kept for reference for future fabrication



Drivers side also removed , you can get an idea from this picture how bad the front panel is as well



The inner wing on this side was in a very bad way - this had split in a number of places - again will be kept for reference



Where the tank support meats the front panel on passenger side - there is a fracture on the upright on this section


The tank support panel on the drivers side


Cleaning up a bit shows the corrosion and damage to drivers side join


The same on passenger side - One of many stress fractures


Having cleaned the are up I repaired the fracture in the upright section then dressed weld


The same repair viewed from the other side

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A little more

The point of no return - Front panel removed carefully


Its a little bent and twisted to say the least - but it will go again


I have a book for every build with very accurate dimensions to give reference when it goes back together


Reference photo for position of spot welds


Again reference for position of spot welds


The small split in the passenger side tank mount repaired


A new section was made to replace the bit still on the front panel - this was fitted and cleaned up - checking measurements


Giving an exact replacement


Ready to accept the front panel when thats ready


The same process on the drivers side begins


I did warn that there would be plenty of pictures so hope you all dont mind .

Thanks for looking

Jon

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My first post on this site: KEEP THEM COMING!:d

Hi Klu - Im going to take that as a compliment - keep chipping in , the interest from others makes it worth while posting these after a long day in the workshop .

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A little more for those that are not fed up with pictures already

Getting the measurements right before welding



Welded and cleaned up



I decided to try and sort the front panel out before we move on with anything else .
First job wa to remove the original Vin Tag



Rough removal of the bottom section



Separating the spot welds to give the basic panel



Almost every point where the panel bends there is a stress fracture - This one is the worst and a result of the impact years ago



The bottom of the panel has lost nearly all of its definition and has a few extra creases



Split at the top and also a few contours that should not be there



The original supports are removed to allow me to get metal sorted - These are actually in very good condition and will be reused , although we do have replacements .



All gone and the challenge of getting it straight can begin



More soon folks

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