This is a before picture of my 1973 VW Thing project car. It was pretty rusty, body was not bolted to frame, lots of parts laying on floors and seats of interior when I bought it at an auction sometime around 1994. Note the front bumper got caught on something at some point and can now be used as a weopon (if it ran, which it did not). It has a title but the previous owner had not signed it over. It took a while to track them down but I did get a signature and a clear title finally.

Now this is a face only a mother could love, or maybe a VW nut like me. It just needs a little work!

 

Here's the engine compartment. It actually turns over.

 

Like a lot of early Things, this one got the glue on indoor outdoor carpet option. The carpet has been removed at this point but the glue is still there. Yuk!

 

Here's an interesting shot of the underside. Note the previous owner had cut out the original ribbed pan around the edges and layed in flat metal with a few tack welds in the corners. Don't bother painting or undercoating. A very nice quality job. NOT!

 

A shot of the passenger side with evidence of the rust worm at work.

 

More cancer in the usual midwest rust locations, bottoms of door, along seam behind front wheels.

 

Here's a shot of the gas heater. It is actually in pristine condition. It hasn't been used very much, maybe because there is no gas tank!

 

This is a shot later after the body was pulled and the chassis was sandplasted and primed. I am not very happy with the flat metal pans.... What to do? Time will tell.

 

Here is a picture after it came back from the bead blaster. I shot a coat of metal etching primer all over to hold the rust at bay until I could get the rust holes repaired. At that point it sat in the garage for a few years as I collected parts for it, In the mean time, I bought a couple other Things to drive while I was going to work on this one. The trouble with that theory is I spent my time working on those other Things and not on this one.

Fast forward to 2008, This is a shot of my 1973 VW Thing project car back in late March. I finally decided some progress needed to be made on this car and hauled to Archedale, NC for some metal repair by The Metal Wizard, Kelly Brown, Jr. in early April. For more info on Kelly's work, click on www.metwiz.com

This is a nose shot. Note the nice new Walmart tires. I had to replace the dry rotted tires so that I could tow this car the 600 miles from Indiana to North Carolina. I am sure the old ones would have blown up on the highway. That would not be fun.

Here's a shot of the body in Kelly's shop, queued up and ready for some cutting, welding and grinding.

This is the chassis with new pans welded in. These are Karman Ghia replacement pans that became available after I bought this car. I scored these at a swap meet for $200. They are decent quality and fit well. I cut out the old flat sheet metal the previous owner had tacked in but there was still plenty of metal clean up for before these went in. After this, they were seam sealed top and bottom.

 

Surgery has begun. The whole driver's side got cut out. Note the bracing to keep the body from flexing. The driver's side was so rusty olong the bottom that it made more sense to weld in a replacement piece from a donor that I had picked up 5 or 6 years ago. I wish I had the passenger side too but this is what I had so we went with it.

 

This shot shows the front tacked in and the rear close to being ready to tack up.

Here's another shot after significant welding and grinding efforts have occurred.

Since this is an Illinois car, it also had rust in the usual spot behind the back seat in front of the rear wheels. This is the driver's side. Lots of compound curves, an inside the car layer of metal and a layer of metal in the wheel well. Turned out very nice. Way better than a lot of the bondo sculpting you usually see in these cars.

Okay, here's the passenger side. Original metal and new metal where there wasn't any original metal. Kelly and Mike do nice work!

Another usual rust spot for a midwest Thing. That's all metal there, no bondo required.

 

Last but not least is new metal in front of the rear wheels tacked up. More tacking, more grinding and it will be good to go.

Ok here is a photo of my Jeep towing The Thing home from Kelly's shop. All the rust is taken care of. Now we need to find a pick a color and find a painter. I am thinking L65K Ravenna Green. We shall see.

 

That's it for now. Come back later for more progress.

Thanks,

Rich Smith

rich.smith54@gmail.com