cybernotchback

[cybernotchback]

Hi Volks,

John La Francois here, I'm 42 years old married, and work in Alzheimer’s research.

I hope to be able to chronicle my '65 Volkswagen Notchback S. From the begining, when the car first came into my ownership, till the present, and maybe into the possible, virtual,(Cyber-), or actual future. My avatar, (thanks to John Jaranson) and topic description kind of gives the future away. But first I have to attend to the major rust damage, (heater channels, and pan). And accident damage from a PO. As soon as I can find the non digital photos, (and get them scanned) of what I started with I'll post some pics.

The Notch's production date is April 1, 1965. I optained a nice Birth Certificate from the factory and found out that the engine and chassis #'s matched what came from the factory. It was a tourist delivery car picked up in Germany. Driven a bit through Europe, (I really have to get the full story about it's European adventures). It was then converted to US spec's lights, reflectors added, and the speedo changed. And then shipped to the US by VW. I'm the third owner, I got it from the grandaughter of the original owner. This was in April of '98. I towed the car home, a 4+ hour haul from the southern tip of NJ. Then I started to look at what I had gotten myself into. The accident damage was from a Mercedes Benz that hit the front, (the granduaghter was stopped and the Benz tapped the nose). And then I realized the motor was seized. After some investigation I found mouse nests stuffed above #'s 3and 4. This over heated that side of the engine and that cuased the #3 exhaust valve head to brake off taking out the #3 piston. And the shards from all of that went into the case. The #4 piston was seized to the cylinder, and the cylinder was cracked. Needless to say that head was toast as well. The interior was trashed, and moldy. The rear passengers side fender had been replaced, (looked like some good German steel), but was left in primer so rust had it's way with it. And there is some bondo on the PS side of the rear apron as well.

Please feel free to send me any questions, comments or suggestions.


More to come.

Cheers,

JL

[cybernotchback]

The reason for wacking the roof, (not that I need a reason this will be a Volksrod afterall), well the inner "C" pillars are toast. Yes the dreaded four letter word, RUST. While removing a small bit of the remains of the headliner, I tore out the passengers side rear pop-out mount. Mount, "C" pillar metal and all. And the rest of the car is rusty to the point that a stock resto would be nearly impossible. And I got the car, ok, what was left of it for FREE.
Before/while taking the roof off I'll be adding reinforcements. All of the reinforcement that I plan is in the body itself and not in the pan. That way if I ever need to change pans again it's a direct swap. And most of it can be covered up with interior panels.

My plan is to run 1/4 in x 3-4in plates vertically standing on end and molded to fit just inside the Heater Channels. And short 1/4 in horizontal sections to tie the vertical plate to the HCs. And a 1/4 in "B" pillar roll bar hoop that then ties into the HC plates. And a diagonal brace in the door opening. A hoop to support the rear deck area, and maybe tie that into the rear subframe area. This will help to support any top that I use. And replace the rusted out deck area. An "A" pillar hoop to help support the chopped whindshield frame. And to really stiffen things up, I hope to sdd some 14 gauge plates on the insides of the front and rear quarters, that will really tie the "A", and "B" hoop into the stock sheetmetal. Probably waaaayyyy too much metal, but I don't want this thing to flex at all.

Finishing up the repalcement of the HC's will come first though. The drivers side is almost done, (I just need to finish grinding down the welds). Then it's on to the passengers side HC. Then the front apron, and DS inner fender panel, then the new pan, and a bit of pan resto.

Hope to have pics up soon.

So much work, so little time.


Cheers,

JL

[cybernotchback]

After cleaning out 5 mouse nests( [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/fingerclear.gif[/img] ) and semi gutting the interior the rust repair/rebuild could begin.

Sorry about the size of the images, (I have larger versions if you'd like to see them larger).

Here's what I started with, note how much of the floorpan is left



Here's the front and a shot of the accident damage.

[cybernotchback]

The front again from another view.




OK, rust removal, note the big section of HC missing below the "A" pillar, and into the inner front quarter.



The really scarry shot, a shot of the whole HC cut out. The only thing holding the car together is the door beam I made The door beam bolts into the stock hinge, and striker plate locations. Easy to remove and install. And strong as hell, I was able to lift the body off the chassis for HC fitment.


You can see in the background of this shot the replacement apron that I have for the car. It needs a bit of dent repair, and I will have to remove/rework the indents for the later bumper reinforcement bar.

[cybernotchback]

The replacement HC I got only went between the door, ("A", and "B")pillars. So I had to fab the front and rear sections, (the front and rear inner quarter areas). Here's the begining of the front part.



Halfway done. And comparison to the original piece.



Last one for today. Doing the final welds to the front curved part.


The clean-up, cutting and rebuilding to this point started in April '04, and this point above was June '04. I started with the rear part of the HC using 1/8" "L", I can't find any pics of that in progress though. I actually worked that out first some time in April, May'04.

June-August'04 saw the fitment of the completed HC, and the rebuild of the rear inner fender area.
More to come.

[cybernotchback]

Here's a bit of work from June-August'04. Fitment of the HC, and the rebuild of the inner and outer rear fender well/quarter panel.


Fabing this was a bitch. Both sides of the car are rusted out in this area, so I didn't have any reference to go off of.



Inside shot. The quarter is double walled, (inner and outer are welded to each other at the top just under the stock quarter window), and at the bottom where it meets the HC is flared out to meet the HC on it's inner and outer edge. Made the filler peices, and it's all welded up now (August '04). And at the bottom of the shot, is the HC rear section that I fabed from 1/8" "L" to make a box section. This will be where the "B" pillar hoop is anchored, so I wanted this to be extra strong. I used 2" exhaust tubing to fab the rear section of the heat duct.


All this work on getting the quarter metal to look stock, and I'll probably have to cover this up anyway with a reinforcement panel, or a window channel panel. I want the rear quarter windows to raise and lower.

[cybernotchback]

And, last ones for now. Some shots of the replacement chassis. Not perfect, but a lot cleaner, and more solid than the original.

A detail of the rusty section behind the driver, under the rear seat bottom. I have a replacement pan 1/4 section for a Ghia. Came from Tabco. It's a damn near perfect stamping. Only issue is in the corner where the side wall kicks up.


An overall shot of the whole chassis. It's off a '68, (Swing, FI, and weird dual master cylinder with the extra brake warning light sensor). But not sure which model as the chassis # has been hacked out.


Work on the car ended in August '04. The remodel/rebuild of our house began Oct 4/04. We moved back in April 9/05. Still doing finish/detail work on the house. But I'm itching to get back to the Notch.

More later..

JL

[cybernotchback]

Took a mental health day. The light sucked, but I managed to do a little grinding, and welding on the Notch. Felt great to be back in the garage, (haven't touched the car since August )

[cybernotchback]

It's offically Tuesday so I can post this. I did a bit more grinding on the drivers side heater channel on the Notch after work on Monday. It's slow going, but I'm making progress.

[cybernotchback]

Sunday, (8/7/05) I worked on the Notch I (insert Mr 4" angle grinder smilie here), and with a little help from Mr cut out the entire passenger side heater channel From the front inner wheel well all the way to the rear firewall at the base of the rear seat bottom. Yes, I'm not even finished grinding down the welds on the drivers side, and I started cutting again

Then Monday, I fitted up the replacement HC that I got form the DDB, and trimmed things to fit. I'll need to extend the HC that I have both to the front and rear, (just like I did on the drivers side). But hey it's a good starting point.

Here's some pics.

Sorry for the crappy pics of the HC, (damn shutter lag)

Another angle of the HC, and this was the GOOD HC

[cybernotchback]

A few more,

Shot of the bottom of the "A" pillar area, well where it used to be anway.


You can see the cut I made to the inner front fender well. The red and black that you see in the bottom left-ish of the picture are the hearing protectors sitting INSIDE of the car on what remains of the floor.


Here you can see where I sliced the HC at the "B" pillar. And this gives an idea of what still needs to be removed and rebuilt in the rear fender well.

[cybernotchback]

Last one for today,

Just an overall shot. I really need to clean up the garage

[cybernotchback]

Saturday (8-13-05) I took to some of the rust on the rear inner quarter panel on the Notch with Mr 4" angle grinder with the cut off wheels.

An overall shot of some of what I cut out. I still need to do some trimming with my Dremel, but I got most of the swiss cheese metal that was there. The rest of the rust I'll wire brush, and then treat with Rust Mort. then coat with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. Or maybe Master Series


Cut this out near the back of the quarter window to get to some rust behind it. Found another mouse nest


Some bits I removed from the wheel arch in front of the wheel.

[cybernotchback]

Sunday I did a bit of fabing, and welding

This is the new and old piece in the rear corner of the (passengers side) body that sits on the pan.



And the new and old bit of verticle metal, (just above the piece shown above in this post), that forms the kick-up behind the seat back.

[cybernotchback]

Last ones for today, still Sunday.

This shows the placement of that corner piece that I fabed earlier in the day. This still need to be welded in, but the verticle piece is done, (not shown welded in yet).

[cybernotchback]

Did a little welding to the Notch last night. Finished welding in the corner piece I made on Sunday. And a little filler piece above it.

A bit more filling in, and I can start fabing the extensions for the heater channels. The passengers side rebuild is going a lot faster then the drivers side, even though I need to replace more metal. Progress



Just a random shot of how the HC fits the remains of the bottom of the "B" pillar, and what still needs to be filled in.

[cybernotchback]

A shot of the front of the HC and and front quarter, (bottom of "A" pillar) and what I need to fill in. I need to rebuild part of the HC, (where it bolts down to the pan and a bit of the front and inside edges, just below and around the heater floor vents).


A shot of the HC and the "A" pillar showing a bit of the heat pipe going up to the dash and to the defroster. I have to rebuild the bottom part of this as well. I want the heat/defrost to be fully functional.

[cybernotchback]

Thursday night, (8/18/05) I made a small patch panel for the Notch. Twice The first time I didn't have it fitting just right, so I cut it too much. Second time, and it still needs to be tweaked a bit. If that doesn't work, then third times a charm

Well got the second one to fit And I welded it in on Saturday. Spent most of the day getting the Rabbit Vert ready for Terryville. So this is all I got done on the Notch.

Here's a few pics.

It's the little piece on the left side. So much trouble for such a small piece.


Just another angle.


One from the outside, (crappy focus).


Another one from the outside, (crappy focus again ).

[cybernotchback]

Cut some 1/8"x 2" x 2" "L" for the "B" pillar extensions of the HC on the passengers side.


This is the begining of the bottom plate. The clamps are holding on an extension because 2" is just a bit shy of what I need. I should have found 2 1/2", or 3" "L" to start off with . Would save me a bit of welding.


And here's the top plate of the box section that will become the back of the HC. You can make out the pie cut, and how the top needs to bend to give the right shape to the back of the HC. Again with an extension clamped to it.


This box section extension will be the bottom mount of the "B" pillar hoop, (roll bar) that I have planned. So I over engineered this a bit.

Not much but some progress.

[cybernotchback]

A bit of progress yesterday, Sunday. Steady progress

Here's a shot of the bottom, (Near), and top, (Far) extension "L" plates for the HC. And the 2" exhaust tubing elbow that will be the extension pipe for the heat.


Just a shot of the way the extension will look when complete. Well except that the heat pipe will be sticking out on the right about where the tape measure is. The shape of the extension isn't obvious in this photo though.

Another angle of the extension. This angle shows the final shape a bit better.

[cybernotchback]

Fitted the extension for the heat tube in the heater channel on the Notch, yesterday. I used a section of 2" exhaust tubing elbow. Had to flare the end a bit, (the bend for the elbow distorted the tube a little). Ran out of time, (light) so I didn't get it welded in just yet. Maybe tonight if the rain holds off.

[cybernotchback]

Welded the heat extension tube onto the heater channel last night. And a bit on the box extension. Then I ran out of light. Slow and steady progress, I'm trying to do a bit each night.

[cybernotchback]

I worked a bit on fitting the box extensions to the HC's. Cut a 2" hole in the side of the bottom plate "L" on an angle to get an oval hole to fit the heat tube. Fits pretty good and I have the extension tacked in place. Now to fit the top plate"L", and to fill in any gaps. This was over last weekend, (Labor Day). Then I got stalled this week with issues with the Jeep, just when I need it, while mom's in town

[cybernotchback]

Nothing really new just some photos form 9-6-05.

This shows the extension tube that I welded on to the heater channel. And the bottom "L" of the box extension is also welded on at this point. The top section is to the right in the photo.


Another angle showing the hole that had to be drilled/cut in the side for the heat tube. 2" hole saw on a very severe angle, some oil, and I took my time.

[cybernotchback]

Tack welded the top plate of the heater channel extensions on. I'll check for fit and then BUZZZZZZ...... No pics though. Then I'll start on the front HC extension. Not much, but some progress.