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Countless hours of blood, sweat and tears went into getting the old girl back on the road
The main subject of my automotive related passions, and the centerpiece of all of my company logos is my 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle affectionately named "Blitz". Ever since I was a child, I was absolutely obsessed with VW bugs, and I finally bought my own in 2018 for a whopping $650, a special deal offered to me only after I gave the previous owner my word that the car would be restored, loved, and taken care of rather than gutted for its engine and sent for scrap like most Super Beetles. Supers are not as sought after as the "standard" bugs, and are often cannibalized for their 1600cc Dual Port engines to swap into other models. It's ironic, as this car has had six engines since I bought it, the most recent being smaller than stock - a 1500cc Single Port engine that gets over 35 MPG on road trips!
Blitz became my daily driver as soon as my father taught me how to drive a manual transmission in her. Not long after, I signed up for El Camino College where I spent several semesters restoring Blitz from the ground up. This restoration included a full strip of all the previous layers of paint, significant bodywork that included fabrication and welding, as well as a full paint job.
Blitz continued to be my daily driver right up until late 2021, where a serious crash on the freeway caused Blitz to sustain catastrophic front end damage, and nearly cost me my life as my seatbelt failed to lock, sending me into the steering wheel, dashboard, and windshield head-first at an estimated 30 MPH. I was incredibly lucky to have (literally) walked away with a concussion and a handful of other physical injuries, most of which healed in the months that followed, however some lingering conditions still remain to this day.
To make matters worse, my insurance company at the time informed me that their records showed that Blitz was not covered on my policy, leaving me to deal with the financial burden on my own. I was able to pull DMV records that proved that she actually was covered, but the company refused to honor it anyways, and would later be severely penalized for a litany of infractions involving my insurance claim. Getting lawyers involved wasn't worth the time or effort for me, so instead I ended up having to deal with the injuries, and the damages entirely on my own, despite the fact that I wasn't even the at-fault party.
Time heals all wounds, but my old Bug can't heal herself. In August of 2023, I was invited to return to El Camino College where I signed up for another semester of Auto Collision & Repair, and began the arduous task of removing the destroyed metal from Blitz's nose, and replacing it all with brand new steel. While we have Blitz apart, I'll be taking the time to do some undercarriage rust repair and undercoat, to ensure she lasts at least a few more decades. And when we're all finished, she'll be painted to match her 2016 Mexican born cousin, affectionately named "Pepper" due to her "Habanero Orange" factory paint job.
Yeah, she was in pretty bad shape
El Camino College - August / September 2023
I initially assessed the damage not long after the crash, and realized very early on that the damage to the right side quarter panel was catastrophic enough to warrant completely removing and replacing the panel entirely. In addition, the other quarter panel was folded inwards at the bumper mount, the hood and front apron was caved in, and the spare tire well buckled towards the center.
To start removing the spot welded panels, we first had to locate them. To do this, we broke out a 4" grinder with a wire wheel, and went to work on removing the multiple layers of undercoat, paint, rust and primer to uncover the spot welds beneath. After they were located and marked out, we went at them with a spot weld drill, an air powered mini belt sander, as well as a hammer and chisel.
The first step was to assess the damage and determine the best course of action
To start, we had to locate and remove dozens of spot welds. We used several methods, and ended up peeling everything off in layers
Yours truly, with trusty air powered belt sander in hand 🤙
El Camino College - September 2023
Coming into week two, I purchased a plasma cutter to use both by hand, and with my home shop's CNC table. Since a lot of the spot welds were inaccessible due to the extent of the damage, the plasma cutter made it easier to cut sections off one piece at a time. It's easy to overdo it and burn through pieces that weren't supposed to be cut, so I'll have a little bit of weld repair to do in the coming weeks!
There's tons and tons of spot welds, many of them small enough to be easy to miss. Every time I think I found them all, there's always a few more that pop up.
A pair of 1973 Super Beetles I found in a junkyard during week two. It always breaks my heart to see otherwise decent bugs end up in junkyards, especially Super Beetles, but at least they'll continue to live on in Blitz. I recovered the hood from the one on the left, and the windshield from the one on the right.
I decided to keep the severed front clip to turn into a metal art project. I'll be welding it back together on a backboard to bring to car shows, etc. to showcase not only what the car's been through, but to do a little shameless self-promotion of my abilities.
You guessed it, more spot welds!
Week three saw the removal of the last few spot welds holding the spare tire well and the last piece of the quarter panel in place. In my haste, I neglected to realize that there were several spot welds holding the spare tire well to the crossmember beneath it, which was held to the quarter panels by several jointed welds. I only realized this after delivering a dozen haymaker swings with a mini sledge and saw that the crossmember was noticeably "twizzlered". Oops!
With all of the spot welds removed, it was time to focus my energy on the weld repair beneath the quarter panels, in preparation for the installation of the new sheet metal. There were several spots underneath that had rotted away due to rust, so those spots had to be cut out and replaced with "new" metal, salvaged from what was left of the old hood.
Removing the left quarter revealed a significant rust hole in the heater channel. Not uncommon on these old bugs!
Cutting out the rotted out metal to to replace with a patch
A template of the patch made by placing a piece of masking paper over the hole, tracing the outline, then transferring it onto the old hood, which I will be using for donor material.
The new patch panel, tacked in place
Welding in the new patch panel
Perfect! Now I just have to grind the welds down, and repair the rest of the surrounding area.
While I'm at it, I'm redoing the electrical, and installing a softer steering wheel. When my face collided with the old wheel, it put a noticeable bend in it 🤕
I discovered that I fit quite well under the hood then the time came to adjust the hood bolts for a proper fit, but I clearly wasn't thrilled about getting bonked on the back of the head by the hood!
Week four was mostly spent fitting the new sheet metal to the rest of the body. The new front apron, spare tire well, and both quarters fit surprisingly well, however there was clearly some fitment issues on the passenger side which received the worst of the damage.
All in all, at this point I'm getting pretty excited, as she's starting to look like my old Bug again!
With the welding complete, I applied weld-through primer to the bare metal
Now that all of the weld repair is complete, we started dry fitting the new parts
Starting to look like a Super Bug again!
The new quarters actually fit good with the new spare tire well!
The side that got hit the hardest, is also the one with the biggest gap between the wheel well, and the internal flange. This was expected, but still disheartening
El Camino College - October 2023
With everything fit in place, the welding could finally begin.
Week Five is where most of the welding was completed. After careful measuring, fitting, and planning, I determined that the replacement panels were about as close as they were going to get, considering the severity of the front end damage. With that being said, the hood and fenders aligned perfectly, so there wasn't much cause for concern.
Starting off with a couple tack welds to hold the spare tire well to the quarter panel.
Welding clamps hold the quarter panel to the A Pillar flange, and a couple tack welds hold the bottom of the quarter panel in place.
Self tapping screws are used to hold the quarter panel firmly in place and flat against the car, and plug welds permanently secure the quarter to the rest of the body.
Under the hood, lap welds are used to secure both quarter panels to the spare tire well. I opted for this method instead of spot welds, as it was easier to set up, and produced an arguably stronger result.
The joint between the quarter and the cowl on the right side was pretty tight, so a simple butt weld was all that was needed to close the gap.
I accidentally cut too much of the cowl off on the left side, so I cut a piece of the old hood off and used it to make a small patch strip, and welded it in between the quarter and the cowl.
Securing the front apron to the quarter panels was very straightforward. All I had to do was run a simple lap weld down both sides.
Welding any thin sheet metal runs the risk of warping. Here, I am using one of my favorite shop tools - the Stud Welder / Slide Hammer combo to straighten the material that got warped from the heat.
Once everything was straight again, I finished off the seam and checked for straightness once again.
With most of the welding completed, I turned my attention to filling in any of the small gaps with Bondo #901 "Plastic Metal", as well as a generic 3M brand seam sealer. Afterwards, I applied undercoating on the outside of the quarter panels, and inside the hood. Previously I used rubberized undercoating for such a job, but lately I've preferred to use pickup truck bedliner.
Bondo #901 "Plastic Metal" works great as a water resistant seam sealer for metal-to-metal contact.
Filling larger gaps, such as the one between the gas tank bracket and spare tire well, were filled with 3M brand seam sealer. Some was also applied over the Bondo #901 for added weatherproofing.
Once all of the seam sealer was left to dry overnight, I prepped and sprayed several coats of aerosol bedliner to provide a clean, durable top coating. Bedliner was applied under the hood, as well as underneath the fenders.
Week Seven was spent rebuilding the front suspension with all new components, including the urethane bushings I bought four years ago and never installed!
Body filler was applied mostly to the seams between the quarter and the cowl, and a new body line was formed.
Of course, I had to bolt up the fenders to see what she looked like!
El Camino College - October / November 2023
Week Eight was very short due to most of the school attending the SEMA show in Las Vegas. I decided to pass on going this year to give me a little more time to get caught up with some gunsmith work. Since we were only in the shop on Monday of this week, I used that day to fill the holes for the side molding. I'll be using a combination of pinstripe painting and stick-on molding to replace the usual clip-in moldings.
El Camino College - November / December 2023
The antenna had been unused for quite some time. It never sealed correctly, causing water to enter and rot the car from within. I decided to weld the opening shut - later on I'll be integrating an antenna off of a later model Beetle (2012-2019)
The light brown streaks were caused by a paint-safe rust removal and preventative solution. Once the bodywork and metal treatment was completed, a heavy coat of primer was applied.
After all this time, I finally put Blitz and Pepper side by side to see what that Habanero Orange paint was going to look like!
Weeks 9 - 12 were spent finishing up the rest of the bodywork. Sanding down the primer revealed some trouble spots that had to be addressed, and it seemed that every time I did a walkaround, I'd find more spots needing extra treatment. While I was hoping that I would be able to paint my Bug by the end of the semester, it began to look less likely, as the paint I ordered was delayed in transit for over two weeks. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I started to overlook many of the small imperfections in my rush to get the car painted. Instead, old Blitz gets to come home with me so I can finish the repair work there.
During this time, I also got her running again for the first time in two years. With a little encouragement, she fired right up as if she had only been sitting since the day before!
GHG Home Shop - December 2023
Speaking of overlooked imperfections - the used hood I recovered from the junkyard needed more work than I anticipated. It was very wavy, and had several "oil can" spots that needed to be heat-shrunk. In hindsight, I'm glad I took took the extra time to repair this instead of rushing through it. It definitely would have annoyed me!
Blitz came back home in mid December after the semester ended. Thankfully, years of wrenching on my own cars allowed me to build up a sizeable arsenal of tools and resources to do most of the remainder of the work on my own, minus access to a spray booth.
There's not much left that needs to be done. Amongst other things, I'll be locating and drilling the holes for the hood handle and some custom badges, stripping the interior to prep for paint, and replacing the rear apron with a straighter one, and modify it to be removeable to aid in engine maintenance and removal.
GHG Home Shop - January - April 2024
With a majority of the bodywork on the front half of the car completed, I turned my attention to the rear half of the car that had some damage from the earlier years I've owned it. This included prior accident damage on the rear right quarter panel, as well as a pair of access holes that were crudely made during a time when this car had dual carburetors, and the access windows were made to provide access to the mixture screws. To repair these holes, trace outlines were made on cardstock and transfered to sheet steel, where they were cut out with a plasma cutter and welded into the openings.
In addition, the original rear apron was removed due to extensive damage requiring an excessive amount of body filler, and would be later replaced by a bolt-on apron to simplify engine removal and replacement as needed.
Removing the rear apron and replacing it with a bolt-on alternative made the removal and replacement of the engine a 5 minute ordeal, rather than a 20 minute one as I would no longer need to jack the car up and place it on stands, nor would I need to use a car lift.
The rear apron also needed a bit of repair work. I got it at a discount due to a bit of a dent in the lower section. A quick 30 minutes with a stud welder and puller got 90% of the dent out, with the remaining 10% smoothed over with a thin coat of body filler.
After a couple more days of spot repair, primer, sanding, and deep cleaning we were finally ready for paint.
Paint Day - April 2024
Three coats of pre-mixed LB2Y "Habanero Orange" we purchased from R&E Paint Supply
Followed by three coats of clear coat. Looking good!
After spraying, we left her overnight in the spray booth for the paint & clear coat to cure. She looks even better out in the sun!
Time to come home!
GHG Home Shop - May 2024
With the painting finished, I turned my attention to some of the final assembly, which included running a basic electrical system for the ignition coil, charging system, lights, and electric fuel pump. We were able to get most of the work done at midnight, just before we were due to attend the first annual Los Angeles Auto Draft at El Camino College, a car show put on for current and former auto body students to show off their work to prospective employers.
On May 8th, 2024, I drove my Beetle for the first time since the crash. It was a very emotional day for everyone involved - all of our hard work, the blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off!
(I still need to make a proper license plate bracket!)
New Beginnings - July 2024
Not long after the restoration work was complete, we packed up from sunny SoCal with our sights set on Rosenberg, Texas, driving my 2016 Beetle while towing my 1973.
We remained in California far longer than we should have, and it ended up costing us greatly as we had to spend the next several months picking up the shattered remnants of my now defunct gunsmithing business, with the intent of re-establishing as a designer and manufacturer in Texas.
We ended up moving into a larger shop than we were expecting, which allowed us to purchase bigger and better machinery.
Now the bugs live happily alongside the machinery in an insulated, climate controlled shop that remains 70 degrees throughout the year!
Home At Last - July 2024 +
The Bug is still very much an integral part of my family. We frequently attend all of the local car shows, and go on road trips with other local classic car enthusiasts.
She even became the figurehead for my "Twin Cities 'Dub Club", a car club centered around the "Twin Cities" (Richmond / Rosenberg) area outside of Houston! We're open to VW's of all makes and models, but the club is geared towards classic aircooled VW's.
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