I new the closing panels on my Bug were a bit tatty so I planned to patch them up as a quick fix for its MoT, but after a quick poke around I now realise they’re absolutely shot. What’s involved in changing them? (Luckily the heater channels are spotless). Cheers.
I assume you mean the cross panels under the rear seat through which the bakelite tubes pass through. Although it looks tricky its actually easier to fit these than patch up the ends of the heater channels. You need to drill out the spot welds, and bolt them to the floor before welding them in but it can be done with the body on the chassis. The only difficulty is getting a good lick of paint and sealer on the joins on the outside of the panels after fitting. Note you have to fit the bakelite tubes before you fit the panels otherwise you wont get them on without lifting the shell.
Hi Keith. No, I mean the panels that run along the length of the car under the heater channels. I see the repair panels come as long strips with the nuts welded in, for securing the body to the floor.
Slowboy - 7/4/2010 9:37 AM
Hi Keith. No, I mean the panels that run along the length of the car under the heater channels. I see the repair panels come as long strips with the nuts welded in, for securing the body to the floor.
Okay. There are two versions of this panel. The nasty botch one that involves welding to the edge of the heater channel, and then welding the other edge to the floorpan. This is an easy fix but always leads to the floorpan rotting as water gets trapped between the two. The proper panel is much harder to fit and can be fitted in two ways. The proper job, is to raise the shell and drill out the spot welds, and fit the new lower panel. By far the best panel is the Hooky panel shop one. I wish I had fitted one of these to my car. The second way, is to remove the captive nuts from the new closing panel, and tap it into place, and refit the original bolts through the new panel to the original. This means you only have to weld the outer edges. The only problem with this is quite often the captive bolts break away as you undo the bolts. This means you have to fit the whole panel with captive nuts as described above or fit the botch panel. In my experience I have only ever fitted complete heater channels, becuase by the time the lower part rots through, the rest is usually not far behind.