I didn't have a welder, I knew I would need one. I decided on a 115v Hobart Handler and it's worked pretty well so far, and luckily, I took a welding class, so I wasn't completely inept. Plug welding looked like the way to go for this. To make sure that I put the plugs in the correct place, I marked where the lip of the tunnel was with marker on the bottom of the pan while it was in place on the rest of the chassis. I drilled holes every 1 inch to 2 inches around the edge of the pan with a step drill bit, making them about 3/16" at the biggest.
The heater vent under the rear seat was attached to the floor on the drivers side and missing on the other side. After some research, I found out that my beetle was one of few that had these. VW had these for a year and a half. Being built in September of '62, it was just three months before they would discontinue this type of vent for the round type, very cool. I was lucky enough to find a replacement vent for the passenger side on the Samba classifieds. I'm starting to realize how rare that find was, as I have not seen any others anywhere since.
I cleaned up the the heater vent on the drivers side removed all the rust and added a sheet metal bracket that I made to the back of it for reinforcement. I did this to the other side too, once I got it in the mail.
I removed the seat belt bracket from the old pan, marked, cut and welded it onto the new pan. I also did this with the battery bolt. I also welded a new battery strap bracket and jack bracket on to the new pan. I was ready to weld it onto the chassis.
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| Ready to weld it in. |
The welds were messy at first, but I got the hang of it eventually, cleaned them off with the grinder and was ready for disassembly and sandblasting.
