I was able to pick up an interior mud flab from a fellow Samba member and received it yesterday. Didn’t waste anytime trimming it down and welding it in. Hopefully, will finish the welding and grinding it down tonight so I can move forward with putting the outside skin back on.
Progress
I’ve really made some good progress in the past 2 or 3 weeks.
1. Finished welding in and primering the repair sections on either side of the engine hatch
2. Trimmed the area for the replacement of the skin around the battery tray area
3. Trimmed the replacement skin around the battery tray area
4. Undercoated, primered and hole punched the valance below the engine hatch.
I actually started to weld in the valence but thought that I might should reinstall the engine hatch to make sure the lower gap is consistent around the edges. Sanded down the rear of the engine hatch to start prepping it. Might as well get it ready for some paint and to rehang it.
So the search for my hinges began. And after two days of searching…I finally found them. Stripped all the paint off last night and began to primer. Hopefully will finish that up this evening.
Went through some paint decisions…it’s hard to find an auto paint shop that is open on Saturday. But found one locally that is and sells the Glasurit product line. For VW restorers, the Glasurit is the original manufacturer or the closest thing to the original. HOWEVER, I called this morning to get a quote for a quart and a gallon of L90D(PastellWeiss) and it was $150.00 for a quart and $500.00 for a gallon. Whew. Definitely won’t be going that route. I ant my Bus to look good, but it’s certainly not a show vehicle.
So, do a little more research and find that PPG also has the L90D paint chip and found a local PPG distributor. Only Bad – they aren’t open on Saturday’s and only open 9-5 M-F. But, at least I have found a distributor.
Hopefully, will be able to go by there tomorrow to pickup enough pain to do the engine compartment, the hinges, and some areas around the engine hatch.
And the Battery tray is IN!
Finally got to the place where I could put the battery tray in. I first used a air punch and placed holes around the lip about every two inches. Taped up the area where I would be welding, primered it up and undercoated the bottom of it with 3M Rubberized Undercoating.
It did take a little persuasion to get it in to place, but I actually had it in place within 30 minutes or so. Had to use a few screwdrivers to shoehorn it in to place. Went on and tack welded it in place and now I need to go around and put in a few strategicly placed welds for a more permanent hold.
Next will be to pick some seam sealer, fill the seams and start to replace the outside skin I had to remove to get the tray in place.
Below are a few pics: