FYI the 60 and earlier doors because they dont have recessed area for the handle had more space putting that recess in there made the tolerances so tight there was no room for error....
G'day Mike, Kevin here from Australia. You certainly did well in not damaging the outside of the doors when welding. You certainly need patience when working on a vw I've been working on my 63 bug for two days now modifying parts to fit but in the rnd it just makes your ride that little bit more special. See ya on the next one mike . ✌ Peace
when i saw the title is was like "nightmare? how bad can it be but this really was bad! i feel lucky for you that the outside paint was not damaged a least.
About corecting the indents. Put a hole of the right size through a piece of hot rolled. Put that on the outside feed a screw through it from the inside and tightening that up with a nut. The skew will flatten out the indent. A thick washer could also work.
In retrospect, you could have heated the aftermarket doors and eliminated the dimples in the doors before priming and painting. For you Mike, “a lesson too late for the learning “ as Charlie Pride once sang in one of his songs. But this dilemma will help others who follow your pioneering efforts. 😀
For what it’s worth, this episode is one of the most valuable you’ve ever done b/c it illustrates the real world challenges to be faced in bringing these old soldiers back to life!
I’m only 14 seconds into the video and had to comment. That paint finish 😮 if you ever fancy a working holiday to the UK to trace your heritage and play with some RHD VW’s, you’d be most welcome, Mike!
You need the patience of Job...😉. Great job regardless; coming along beautifully. I notice they modified the latch hole in the right door to be closer to the holes. That hole doesn’t look factory at the bottom portion. I can see CT terrified after watching this....🤣😂
Lesson learned.....always mock-up before you paint. Dry fit & make sure everything is going to work. Sorry for your trouble. A wise man learns from others mistakes.
It truly was a good thing that you saved the old parts. When the truck is complete, would you please show the pile of rusted parts you removed over the course of a year?
The second you showed those old doors, I thought... I'd just cut the handle and latch mounts out and weld them into the other door... Then I thought... Nope, he's already painted them... UGH... What a crap situation to be in. Came out good though... I probably would have hung a cloud of 4 letter words in the air, that's for sure.
Hey Mike, That`s the way we Oldys doing the job, do things not fit we make it fits. but the hours are flying away with the wind. But never the less we solve these problems with patience and knowledge, Great work Man. see you at the next video. regards Hubertus.
Put a bolt with heavy washer in from the outside. A nut on the inside. Tighti En the bolt, the nut will suck the divot in, make it shallower. It is controllable.
Your frustration came through loud and clear. I kept wondering what I would do in the same situation as far as those dimples for the mechanism fasteners. I really like the slide hammer idea, but in conjunction with it, I wonder if a counterweight piece of steel resistance on the outside would have helped. Still would’ve had the other problems I guess. After enough wasted time and effort you just want to cut out the offending area and splice in the new.
You can try and out a bolt through each hole and put a metal plate with a wood spacer on the outside the put a nut on the bolt and slowly crank it tight to flatten out or pull the countersunk hole back into spec.
Build the holes back up with weld and redrill. Better yet cut the whole section out as a rectangle and reweld it inboard. It will be easy to fix the holes while out too
I thought about that but i would have needed to flatten the metal first. then weld up the hole drill them in the proper place (cant be off at all) and make the "perfect" divots. Process would have been near impossible.
I finished watching the video and using the old part welded in was the best fix. Lucky the old parts were still good. For folks who do this with partial assembly doors like this would have to make a template from the latch and drill up a blank to weld in. Maybe the supplier could send a template with the doors?
Wow amazing persistance. Do you have a swear jar?? Its ok you can show us hehe. Suspecting that swearing activates the super Mike problem solver welding algorithm.
if you can find hard enough nuts and bolts you can use a washer on each side and basically squash those flat? I used to do that when I had those kind of flared openings. you may have to drill it out so that when you are squishing it does not bind up.
Mike, I read about hot rodders and it seemed NORMAL to take the car apart 2 or 3 times. It was insane when I read about the hot rods, whcih like you said are 6 figure builds or can take years of man hours....
Had the same nightmare with the red bus, i never trial fitted the handles before paint 😭big mistake there, had to do the same as yours🤦♂️🤷🏽♂️ I put it down to the skin not going right
Too deep formed latch holes. A dremel grind stone bit slipped thru from the inside then the dremel on the outside and pull lightly. Could also use a stack of dremel cut off disks on an arbor to come thru the inside again. Tool motor on the outside. Shave them right down .
yea that is one of the ideas I had but Then I needed to move the holes too which would require welding the old ones up. No room for the extra welds on the inside So I had to scrap that idea. could grind the inside.
Now I know why the F in Mike fn garage stands for 🤣 I do t think I've ever heard you drop the f bomb before. Completely justified though - frustrating, keep it up you're doing well
Klassic Fab make the 61-63 door skin with the recessed handle but the door frames are 50-63 and 63-67. Looks like they need to make a 61-63 door frame as well. Nightmare for sure.
I was thinking the only way to get the latch to fit would be to cut that section out of the old doors and weld them in. Wow, so much work... wandering if full assembly and fitment before painting would have saved much time? Getting there, hope nothing else causes this kind of rework.
Probably not I would need to put all the rubber in too and then remove it all. Lots of time there. Some high end shops do that but Like I say those budges are unlimited.
I don't understand how people can sell this junk doors and sleep at night. 🤬 I have nearly the same problem with beetle parts. If your are lucky you get not the most worse junk, but you never now. 😞
You either have a lot more patience than I do or you edited out the cuss words and the throwing of tools while working on the door handles. Either way congrats on figuring it out.
Use a stainless steel bolt on the inside with a strong flat washer on the outside and a nut to tighten the heck out of the depressed shoulders in the door. This should help?
metal on those doors is too stiff for that stripped the screws before that metal bent. The Classic Fab metal is really stiff stuff. great for strength but
Hey Mike ! aftermarket parts do not fit worth a SH!@#@##$$$%T , But like My uncle Joe told Me = If you are going to keep it running -MAKE IT FIT. My laptop has been taking 30-40 minutes to get to RU-vid . Thats why I have been not commenting.
i refit locks / catches etc and cet the gaps as good as i can been caught like that too many times assuming afrter market parts fit or are the same as original its a pain when you find problems like that i buy new old stock when ever i can worth the price
@@Mikefngarage yea its crazy what people think old crappy rusted parts are worth i shake my head at people here in aust at swap meets wanting a thousand dollars a guard or door maybe the repro doors were coppied from a set of later model doors that had the lock holes slighty different position i've found that in some repro parts
Have not watched the entire thing. What was your rationale for not fitting these up to be correct and working with latches and handles in pre-fit prior to paint?
