1965 VW Beetle Restoration - Metal Work A-Pillar 

Man your videos are literally treasure. Visualisation of the process makes a huge difference when one's going for such an endeavour! Thank you for the knowledge man!

As someone who has done VW beetle restoration, I made a template with door hinges which I bolted in place before welding the pieces back in and that made sure the door fitted, good job you learning as I did along the way!

Hate to be an armchair coach so I appoligize for doing it. Before taking anything apart put your bracing in the interior to stabilize the body and leave it in place until all work is done. Any work around doors do it with the door in place, thats what you did on the drivers side. When parts are tacked in then remove the door. Excellent frame of mind CT you are moving ahead in leaps and bounds. Cheers.

This video gives me hope. I have 6 beetles. I used to think 2 were beyond repair. This was enjoyable, thank you.

Really enjoy this rebuild series I have been scared to buy a bug with rust but watch you I believe I can do it your not rhe only one learning from your mistakes

always remember to measure twice and cut once, a next thing when you offer up the doors make sure the car is sitting on its own weight and not being jacked up that will throw the measurements off when you cut and paste...love the channel keep it up.

Great job on pushing through and adapting to the situation of the metal work! Love seeing u dig in and get it done. Can’t wait to see the Porsche get done as well. Enjoy your thanksgiving!

best vidio so far it shows when things dont co right firdt time !

Well done CT excellent recovery. Looking forward to more Videos. One can tell by the sounds from the doors closing the project sounds VW.

For all the amount of metal work you’ve done, I think you’re doing great! I’m amazed how the doors seems to close well, and that’s without even finishing the whole metal work on the back portion of the car!👌😎👍

"TEXAS", you getting some time /hands on experience but keep it real you got less than 40 hours welding...fearless keeps welding...tanks for sharing

Just like Life ! If its not working ! Fix it ! You said you took your time and look at the first door ! Thats what happens when you get old you take your time ! Thanks CT Straight Ahead ! ✌😎

I have to say CT that looking back to when I first started looking at your videos, the 1962 VW van (Rusty?),you have made SUPERB progress and your skill now is beyond what most DIY car owners possess. Well done young feller, thanks for sharing and best regards from Ireland.

Great to see again. I'd be tempted to repair the base of the original door for the better fit. Good luck with it whatever you do!

Good Job Fixing the problem!

It takes a team to do it right. We are all in this together. I have been working on a type 181 for almost eight years so close. With very little help. Go for it CT ! Learn as we all do.

I really like watching your videos. you are very persistent. is doing a great job. congratulations

😂 From Svizerland 🇨🇭 you are a welding artist, well don, i have enjoi the chassis monting becose i never see, you also well don this, thanks

Have now watched every episode up to this one. I greatly admire your steady progress. Speach is clear and concise, just at the right speed.🎉 i recently compleated my restoration of a Morris minor convertible, and I had the same problems that you are finding. It's an enormous learning curve, and it took 2 years. Did part-time courses at the local tec, to learn techniques, well worth the time spent. 🎉🎉🎉 i had to buy very thin shims to get door adjustments, correct.

love the way you have grown with time,great work

CT, what I find interesting about your channel is that it’s not an “instruction”. But rather an “adventure”. Would hardly be the same if you were an expert. You pay the rent, buy the cars, the tools and share the struggle! I look forward to many more rough rides….

I admire your patience.

Repairing the original door is another challenge. But in my opinion it would be right decision Great work man, keep it up!

Greatly admire your work and persistence. This is my favourite vehicle project on YT.

Messing up is part of the learning process. I am working on installing a fuel level sender and fuel gauge in my '59 bug and I ruined the 1st tank. I drilled the hole in the shallow part of the tank and now the sender doesn't fit. I'm not sour about it but it was all due to doing things the lazy way. Oh well. I'm already on my second tank. Waiting for the self drilling screws. Best of luck. I love these videos.

Hi My Dear Friend Very Very Good Job ❤❤❤❤❤

Wow... you live and learn. I've jacked that up ONCE. Then I got someone smarter than me to do it. Good work trying to fix your mistake.

We all have fun days like this. Watch out with rear quarter panel patch i had trouble fitting up the running boards. But we all live and learn. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Measure twice cut once. Enjoying watching your chanel Thanks.

wow, maybe this is why my 62 fought me, I had a different p side door, damn.... I feel this helps me be better prepared when I get to my 65.

Looking great brother.

Well done for your persistence, I suppose that is what real life is about. We are faced with so many challenges in life. But we need to be persistent and not to give up. Life is not easy but we need to make it work.......

I hate it when I try to put the horse before the cart, drives me nuts, and all because I was thinking 4 steps ahead before making sure what I was doing was right. But that's how you learn, by making your own mistakes the having to fix them. Nice job in the end you got where it was supposed to be, and that's all that counts!!

I like it when somebody is willing to show the mistakes right in the video because that's exactly what I'd be up against if it were me. Would have been so easy to cut to a polished repair and keep moving like crap like that don't happen.

I would have dropped at least one screw into the a-pillar! Use pieces of the donor door to patch up the bottom of the original door and keep that awesome patina! Great watching as always! Keep up the good work and attitude!

Congrats for sharing with us candid learning process. If I were there, I’d suggest: keep a welded bar holding body wide near B column; use the jack to hold/lift the door to screw/adjust; use vise grips holding new insert to car, chek exact position several times and cut simultaneously new and old part in a single cut. Remove excess and weld definitive and precisely at the single cut. Advising is easy…make it happen is for the heroes! Best regards from Brazil.

This is fantastic, sir! You are turning into an expert right before our very eyes. You are taking the time to measure and are doing excellent work. The content of your videos has improved EXPONENTIALLY since you started really getting into it. You have a great attitude that will prove invaluable and you’ll gain the confidence to tackle more and more complex projects. Re the alignment of the passenger door; remember you are still missing the metal panel inside the wheel well that will reinforce the area.

Keep going CT you got this !!

Thanks for your video, as I have seen other sites that are perfect, not realistic, would rather watch the mistakes, the process, and still getting job done we all. make mistakes.

It’s looking good 😊👍

friend now if this side gave you a lot of work, I think it is better to repair the lower part of that door, and so this project continues with most of its original parts, dude, you have already come a long way with this project and you are excellently very advance, have a little faith in how you are doing it, and don't let rust win you over. big hug from the southeast of Mexico. Blessings.

Parabens Muito bom, gosto muito de acompanhar a Restauraçao do Fusca (Beetle).👏👏

Le está quedando biensísimo su RECONSTRUCCIÓN DE SU AÑORADO "VOCHO" SE NOTA QUE LO ESTÁ HACIENDO CON EMPEÑO, MUCHO SACRIFICIO Y SOBRE TODO CON AMOR ¡BUENA SUERTE

Good video! Good on you for showing your journey on this - "metal is clay" add to that "measure twice, cut once" ;-) Keep your original doors and fix them up - you have the skills, you can do it 🤜

Mate. You are inspiring me to start my 57 build … love your patience and how you recovered ..

The best part of doing restoration is learning how to do it. It’s difficult. That’s why we do it To conquer the challenges. Well done CT !

Awesome Video CT

Great work just keep moving forward you will get there eventually

Hi Ct, As always you know how to fix the metal parts of a rusty car. Wish you lots of success with the rest of the 1965 VW Beetle

Good job and good video.

nothing better then a nice new paint job on a old Beetle to look sweet , new paint

Finally you got a good results

Tenho um VW 74. Gostaria de ter sua coragem de colocar a mão na massa como o senhor. Admiro sua persistência para fazer este trabalho só e ainda nos proporcionar este aprendizado e divertimento. Parabéns e obrigado.

Nice job I see that this side was a bit more difficult take your time buddy it will come out good 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Nagyon jó vagy barátom!

ct when you do those repairs use part of the old pillar to sleeve inside trim the edges till it slides inside then tack weld it to hold it it will make it a stronger repair rather than butt weld as they tend to crack in areas like that under stress because you had nothing attached to the heater channel it allowed it to move up on you first attempt

Way to persevere! Maybe trying to fix the rusted-out original door is worth pondering? I don't know, just a thought.

Mistakes are when you actually learn something, I always get worried when stuff goes to well..live real.

My vote is repair the OG door and keep most of the patina, they sell lower outer door skin and the inner structural piece as well.

Wow! I appreciate to watch your efforts. 😅😊

Excelentes videos ,pero ojalá hubiera más avance ,,saludos desde Monterrey,México , excelente trabajo

I did exactly the same thing and forgot to put the door on but luckily it fit

Congrats: All the sh't happens - und CT is staying in rather fine mood. My own patience would not be enough for such incidents 😭... Keep welding and have a good success and make the whole project perfect sooner or later

The old saying, "measure twice and cut once" comes to mind.

Mate I told you when you did other side use your trolly jack to hold your door up instead of struggling to hold door and try to fit a screw its not hard work smart not hard you will get it and try practicing on your bench to tack two peices of metal play with setting wire speed and heat you will get there great video 👍👍

This one was a doozy. Keep up the good work!! 👍

Excellent Job! CJ

That was a tough one to deal with!

In my opinion, it would be nice to have the original passenger door in place. It is a hard task to save it, but the original rusted paint would give it an excellent look and feel, and this door is the original. Every beetle likes its original parts. :) And after the restoration of the body there would not have to paint.

So long as you are learning good luck

i love these metal work !

Many people like to talk about the 1967 as a one year car, but nearly every year of Beetle was a one year car. VW made incremental improvements of the Beetle every year, some years the differences are obvious like the 1967 some years are more subtle, then you have the half year improvements, where they added a feature for 1965 near the end of the 1964 model run. So, that door could be a 65, or not depending whether VW was introducing an improvement.

Great job 👍👍👍👍

I'm watching this for the first time!!

Keep on keeping on son learning by mistakes...

Why don't you cut the good part off the new door and stitch it to the bottom of the original door like a repair panel? You would have the same good fit and most of the patina that way.

You need to remove those welds at the bottom of the post and move it to the back of the car, that way it will lift the back of the door...

Amazing work! I could only wish that I could do such an awesome job! 👍👍🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🤘🏻🤘🏻 Thanks for showing your mistakes as well and not editing them out.

Maybe replce the botten of the door from the new one

I would save the door. It wouldn't take to much and with how well you are doing it will not be really tough for you.

Somebody's having a bad day....somedays ya just gotta take a break and have a few 🍻

Good job 😉

Que legal amigo parabens adorei o trabalho. tenho um fuscao 79 prescisando de uma boa reforma no assoalho e na porta,.sucesso

One thing I absolutely hate is aligning doors! It's so frustrating.

37:43 Yeah. Try thread rolling, pal. (Kidding. Loving the videos. Keep it up!)

At that point another new part would have been the best. Putting the whole door, shimming it and tack pointing the part, somehow, somewhere. You could even brace the new part to whatever accesible and weldable section of the body. But as you said, it's a learning process. Hard to be in your shoes.

Ola amigo funileiro ja sofri muito tambem trocando pé de coluna parabens pelo canal sucesso um forte abraço aqui do Brazil

If it was me I’d stick with the original door and repair it the best you can. That patina is amazing and it looks so much better. You can’t recreate that.

Sometimes it just does not go easy.

Hey mate. It really looks like the best thing to do would be to just cut the bottom 6 inches off both doors and swap them over. Then all you'd have to do would be to blend the paint on the bottom bit so it wasn't red. It would be so great to keep the matching patina of the old door, wouldn't it? By the way I'm loving your vids - the way you face a mistake with a sigh and a laugh, then just carry on is really great. Many weaker men (like me) would've kicked the welder across the garage and gone for a pint. Well done mate, keep it up, we're all with you.

You should of removed the brace and placed it higher between the middle pillar and the door pillar otherwise your geometry 📐 will be out. (So you’ve gathered) 😂 Also whenever you are replacing a rusty part. Place the new panel over the top using vice grips or clamps then cut once. You’ll then have the perfect cut for the replacement panel. The door pillar is a structural area so you should use a piece of the old panel behind the new and old to bond them together thus making that area stronger. I hope you listen to everybody’s advice and continue to make this build great 👍🏻

Goog job my youth

CT...you should really finish welding in fully all the other bits that you have tacked in before moving along to the other side..there can't be much strength in that shell to be fair...Slow down a bit but keep going mate..👍

Hi CT, greatings from 🇵🇹 Portugal. Fix the botom of the original door abd will be fine...kip the god job. Saúde

They do sell replacement panels for the bottom of the doors. Like the whole section, so maybe it's worth a shot to try and fix them.

Show , que serviço top. 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

Years ago I had a boss that told me "If you're not making mistakes, you're not working hard enough!" Darned if he wasn't right. LOL

By putting the jack under where you were cutting out the rusted pieces you lost 1/2” or more under the pillar

Use the original door . Take what you need from the replacement to repair or buy patch panels for it . One day at a time ! ✌️

I always took metal off from the new parts rather than the original metal, unless it's rotten of course. Too late now but a useful tip I used was to prop the door ends under a jack stand to help stabilise it while I located the bolts. No clue why you cut so much of the wheel well away.

Every mistake can be thought of as a learning experience... especially if all it takes is bit more work to remedy. It's too bad about that door though, but I have a feeling you'll find a way to get the original to work.