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.
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!
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.
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. 😀
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?
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....🤣😂
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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?
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
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
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....
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.
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
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.
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.
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 RUclips . Thats why I have been not commenting.
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
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.
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. 😞
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....
Did you just say “grind to fit, paint to match?” 🤣
I like the way you say how much time the actual job takes unlike some u-tube channels who give the impression everything only takes like 5 minutes.
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.
Aggravating as hell. You made it through without losing your mind Mike. Well done, I'm impressed.
on camera......haha
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.
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!
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.
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. 😀
Thanks for not giving up on this truck and saving it from a sure disaster.
You tried every solution befor cutting and welding so much work but you prevailed , well done 👍
every one and anticipated the results of the ones I didnt do. This was the ONLY way to solve this.
Wow! Great exhibition of patience. I would have spoken in four letter words. Now we need to see how to grind down door rubber.
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?
Something learned from experience.
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!
Mike you know the front part of the van where the VW emblem was you should cut that out into a square and frame it that is cool!!!
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....🤣😂
Persistence paid off 👍
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.
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.
Mike you always make such a nice job! I got excited when your videos comes out 😄😄 you nailed those doors!
Wow you just saved someone days of frustration with this video. Sorry you had to go through this. Amazing repair, super creative.
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, what a pain in the ass repair that was. Well done on your persistence to get it right
Its so fiddly getting vthe finishing touches done, but you're nearly there, not far to go now
Thanks Mike !!!!!!!!!!
Great work thank's for all the great video's 👍👍
the nightmare is always after the paint job to do those things.
but you did it very good job on that. nice work again.
A pain in the ass for sure... but you made it work.. looks beautiful in my eyes... very cool.
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.
Thought maybe you would have trialled fitted these before painting. Anyway all working now.
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.
Another great production Mike, why is it the small things with VW that take the time and effort. Keep going buddy nearly there
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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?
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
That was a door handle nightmare for sure :)
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
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....
You could try using an inside and outside plate threading the inside plate for bolts and crush the dimples and then re size the holes.
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.
Man....that really sucks you had to go through that. What can ya do!!!
Gigantic 3 Demensional exercise in mechanical engineering! U. R. De-Man!! Go Mike👍👓👍
Your got more patience than me but I had a similiar problem with GMC truck resto doors wouldn't close properly spent days
Thank's for the video and your time.
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
not available anywhere on this year doors.. I have seen used ones in really bad shape sell for near 1000 each.
@@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
You could still out the divots and weld in some washers then it will be a flat serffes.
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.
Mike can you use a twist on 80 pad l shaped grinder sand down completely
I would use washers in side of the door to hold the latch
Can you use the little flat belt grinder and reacvh up in there??
try grinding a little off the latch and striker
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.
yea probably the problem there i think they are different.
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 RUclips . Thats why I have been not commenting.
I was sure your watching on the TV.... Its cool love your perspective on the comment section though.
looks very good
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
Pretty Fn frustrating to make those work. will be getting the handles soon.
Can you move the catch on the doorpost in to match ?
Man, I really miss my bus 😫
Can you cut the section from the old door and weld it in? PITA but maybe?!?!?!
Nothing quite as irritating as seeing those "thumbs down" buttons pushed... Who would do that? What a pair of jerks!?
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.
Nice editing
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. 😞
Please put a board or some sort of cardboard on the bed so you don’t ruin the paint when you put tools on it!