Has anyone ever heard of taking a sedan body and welding the upper convertible body parts on and then adding the convertible supports??I know this seems ridiculous but when I finally got the guts to lift off my 66 vert and tackle the rust I found not only the typical culprits but many stress cracks and prior accident fixes that were less than good. The person doing the welding seems to think that would be an easier job than attacking the rust and stress fractures, which would actually be replacing the whole body parts,not just the pan and heater channels. Thanks for any help or info anyone has.

Has the guy who suggested this ever restored a beetle cabrio?

There are a lot of strengthening parts to the cabrio, for example in the front where the hood hinges are, the front footwell sides are double skinned, the lower corners of the door openings have corner 'web' strengtheners, there is a bar across under the back seat - and of course the heater channel strengtheners. Don't let the guy tell you that you don't need any of these parts - they are there for a reason. If VW could have made the car cheaper by leaving parts off then they would have!

It would be possible to transfer all of those parts to a sedan, but that in itself is a lot of work. It may be cheaper and easier to find yourself another one that is a little more solid.

---

I have a nice 66 conv for sale!!!! 😃

Regards,

Guido

---

Thanks for the comments so far. My welder is not trying to take the easy way out-he just wants to weld solid metal to solid metal.The extra brace across the back seat is a very easy fix,the double skinned metal in the front is quite as obvious. Any known literature by VW on the extra strength?? I wouldn't mind finding a vert near Calif-but Belgium is a bit too far. I could imagine the shipping!!

Hello Newcomer,

To use convertible parts to transform your sedan into a covertible is something that a sensible person never would do!
You are only fooling yourself when you do this!!! :shock:
To start it is going to take a lot of more time than a pan off restoration and besides it is going to cost you much more!!!
Just buy another convertible that is not that far gone!!!

Suggestion: buy another! (Guido's (Etzhold) one!)
When you ask me you will not reach the restoration price of your old conv!!!
EVEN WITH SHIPPING INCLUIDED
And most important you can sell your uncutted sedan and old convertible.

I know somebody who's going to make money!!! :oops:

:twisted: ET

---

If there is so much damage to the car that welding vert parts to a sedan looks to be a better option then I'd say you should look for a more solid starting car. Especially when you are located in California, there must be a few solid verts near you.

I cannot imagine how bad it must be for you to think this though, can you post some photo's? Specifically which areas have the damage?

Throwing your car away and starting with another would obviously not be an easy decision to make, but maybe with some of the parts from your current car it would open it up to you buying a less complete shell to use?

---

I know this isn't near you, but if you bought a project like this:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=147606 

I'm sure it would work out a lot cheaper than welding vert parts to a sedan... Use the best parts from each car, sell the other parts.

---

If it wasn't a'66 cabrio that's being discussed here, I'm sur everyone would have a diferent opinion? :?

Due to their rarety, it seems to fairly common practise to 'sacrifice' a split window saloon to save an early 50s cabriolet and keep the correct lower panels. :shock:



If you owned a 'project' like this, wouldn't it be far better to find a saloon with solid heater chanels etc. but with a crushed or missing roof to use as a donor or, would you spend far longer trying to find the correct NOS 1950 panels? :roll:

(I know, just ask Giudo, he probably has all the panels!! :wink: )

six-o-one

---

I would trade my 66conv for that car thats for sure !
And I would use a Perfect ragtop split as donor car !! :twisted:
Thats the way I would do that and sell all my NOS panels !
:lol: :lol:
Guido

---

Guido, you joker,
you don't even have a split window rag top,
so you have to use your NOS panels!!!
Hehehe :!: :!: :!:

:twisted: ET

---

I'm doing something similar with a `63 Cabrio. I'm fitting the nose from a `65 standard Beetle saloon and swapping the four strengthening panels and screen surround over. Believe me, this is ten times easier than repairing what I had to start with - old, badly repaired, severe accident damage - including a gas weld right through one heater channel and up the back of the dash and a brazed on front quarter panel - before I would have even started on the rust repair.

I wouldn't consider it for the rest of the body though. The B-pillars and quarters are really totally different internally than the hard top, but as with my car, once you have a new nose and a new floorpan, you already fixed three quarters of the rust, without even welding anything.[/i]

---