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Heater Channel Replacement Article
by dragenwagen
copyright 2002
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*Disclaimer* This really isn't a how to. This is merely a collection of my thoughts and pictures. If you decide to undertake replacing the heater channels in your Beetle, then it is up to you to decide if you are capable of this task. You accept all risks involved in this endeavor. I am in no way responsible for your actions or your results. I am not responsible if you get killed, hurt, injured, squashed, burned, maimed, disfigured, burn your house down, accidental amputation of body parts, snoring, bed wetting, nightmares, drunk and disorderly conduct, profuse swearing or any other unforeseen natural or unnatural act for which I have no control over. Basically you take what I say or any of my pictures as merely reference material or entertainment material. Please do not use my pictures or my articles as I have written this and I am the owner of this article and all that which is contained in it. All pictures are mine. If you would like to link to them or use them in any way please email me and ask first.
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So, you want to replace your heater channels on your Beetle right?
- dragenwagen |
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Intro -
Heater channels are also known as rocker panels or door sills, I will refer to them as heater channels from now on. In a VW Beetle the heater channel runs from the front bulkhead to the rear quarter panel, under the back seat. Its function is (1) to channel the heat from the heat exchangers on the engine to the ducts under the back seat and to the front foot well and up to the window defroster ducts. (2) It is a main structure point for the beetle and its where the pan bolts to the body. Often, condensation builds up in the channel and it will form water, where and it will sit in the heater channel and then rust can and will begin. My car had an after market antenna in the stock location on the cowl, not to mention that it didn't fit right and it hand no seal on it. So, every time it rained or the car was washed water would run down on the drivers side and the water would sit inside the heater channel. My heater channel from the front bulkhead to the A pillar ( where the door hinges are) was completely rusted away! It didn't really look that bad when I looked at the car for the first time. However, the car was in sad shape to begin with. But I wanted a near basket case car so I could do a lot to it and not really worry about messing it up! I knew the floor needed to be replaced, so I bought the replacement pieces from my local VW parts place, Bug-E-Warehouse. They were the Brazilian repo's and were not too bad except for the metal isn't near as thick as the original. and the seat tracks suck, but with that being said, they fit and they are installed! Anyway, I ordered the heater channels from aircooled.net. John Connolly owns the place and his customer service is excellent. I got the original German heater channels and they came in two pieces the top part and the bottom plate. They are of a nice quality and weren't too expensive. The heater channels (L and R sides) for my 1969 Beetle were $360. That's with shipping and tax. They were $159 apiece.
Step One -
The first step in heater channel replacement is determining if you need to replace them at all. Most beetles are at least 20 years old and some are located in some not so favorable climates. If you live in the northern area of the U.S. or Canada and if the roads are salted in the winter time then, your beetle may be a candidate for heater channel replacement. The first thing to do when looking for a beetle is check the floor pan and heater channels. It may be a really nice looking car, but beware of what lies hidden away out of sight! Take a screw driver or an awl and pick around the front fender well and under the running board, especially where the body and pan come together. The stock body to pan seal is most likely to be brittle and/or broken this is another spot where water/moisture can get in. Be careful, if this isn't your car, then I don't think the owner will like you destroying what is left of the body to pan seal! But poke around, be aggressive. If the tool goes through what's left of the undercoat and though what used to be steel then you have a candidate for heater channel replacement. If you are looking to buy a VW and it fails this test then you are most likely best to move on and look at another one.
Step Two -
Now that you have determined that you need a heater channel replacement you have to determine if you are able to accomplish this task!A good source for a video is the Bug Me series., especially the Heater Channel Video. Get these and they will show you the process of heater channel replacement and other VW procedures. You need a sizable work area and good tools. This is no task for an amateur or novice, especially if you live in an apartment. Your car will be apart for weeks, unless you work on it every day. This is not a weekend project either! You have to consider if you housing association will allow such work to be done. It is noisy and dirty work and unsightly, so you might piss off the neighbors. So doing it in an apartment parking lot is not advised. If you have a 2 car garage, that is perfect. Lots of room as you'll need it! Some of the tools and you need are going to be needing are:
| Jack -good quality | Heater Channels | Safety goggles |
| Jack Stands- good quality | Body to Pan Seal | Heavy Gloves |
| Grinder with cutoff wheels | POR-15 | Ear plugs |
| Welder with welding mask (MIG w/ gas preferred) | Primer | Band Aids |
| 3/8" Drill with spot weld cutter | Sealer | Neosporin |
| Wrenches and sockets | Undercoat | Cool Beverages ( no alcohol while working now!) |
| 36 Grit Sanding pads | Extra sheet metal for patches | Hand Cleaner |
| Hammer | Paint stripper For undercoat removal | |
| Cold Chisel | Saw horses - sturdy ( for car body support ) | |
| Air compressor (optional) | Automotive Paint | |
| Air Chisel (optional) | Paint Thinner | |
| Paint Sprayer (optional) | Body Filler ( bondo - eeks! for smoothing welds) |
As you can see the list of tools and supplies is VERY long. This is just a portion of the things I have used in replacing my heater channels. So actually I have spent somewhere around $2000 in parts and tools ( yes as John Henry called them... I have gotten some of the big ticket items like an air compressor and a MIG Welder). So, needless to say you can beg and borrow tools (not from me...lol) Restoring or rebuilding a car is not cheap! But safety is always at the top of the list when it comes to working on any car, and good tools always work better. Good housekeeping is always a plus, as you will have jagged, rusty metal all around you. and you don't want to get a nasty cut infected now do ya?! Ok, back to the heater channels.
Step Three
- Safety First!
Now you may ask, "Do I have to pull the body off to replace my heater channels?" Well I have heard that you can do it with the body on, But I am real skeptical on that. Hot VW's and Dunebuggy Magazine has an issue out that has some great articles in it. One article covers heater channel replacement with the body still on, however I have studied my car at least a year before I actually started to cut anything. I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was getting into. I scoured the net looking for information on VW heater channel replacement. I found a few web sites that had a few pictures and a general write up, but what I was looking for were real good detailed photos, not semi-staged photos where everything was going exactly as planned, actual work in progress. I have pulled the body off my '69 about 2 or 3 times now. Why? Because, I replaced the floor pans and I wanted to see if the floor pan holes lined up with the old heater channels. Yeah, you say, "Well you are going to replace them any way... right?" But I wanted to see so I could get all the measurements I could before I cut them out. By the way, the holes didn't line up real good under the seat they are about a 1/4" off center. But that isn't a real big deal as I can take my dremel tool and elongate the holes slightly. Now is it necessary to remove the engine. Yes, it helps if you are going to take the body completely off. Now to take the body off is a completely different task, but I think I will cover it in this article anyway.
Please have some sturdy saw horses or other means of supporting the body! If you don't it can come crashing down on you and a beetle body weighs in at about 200+ pounds. If your support system fails, then 200lbs. comes down on you arms or fingers that happen to be in between the pan and body, well I would hate to have to see the mess that will need to be cleaned up or the hospital bill, not to mention the pain and suffering you are going to go through. So please place some sturdy 4x4's in some good places to eliminate the "pinch points" that are created. Now if you have the body off completely, then have some sort of secondary support means in case the primary fails. I tend to stay out from under the body directly and I am always aware of pinch points. There is one other good safety practice to follow, If you have children then please keep them out of the garage or workspace when you have your car suspended in mid air and don't allow them to play any where near the car while it is apart! Its not a bad idea to have another adult around or within shouting distance in case you do get pinned under the car for some reason. I will get off my soapbox now and stop harping about safety.
Step Four - Evaluation
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| You have to understand how the heater channels tie in to the rest of the body. I spent a long time studying how my car was assembled. I wonder sometimes what order they went in. The way some of the panels overlap and how they are spot welded and seam welded. It seems they built it from the ground up. The heater channels tie into the front bulk head and the fender wells and to the rear quarter panels and rear package shelf. The front part of the heater channels are tied in real good at the front bulk head. I had to drill out some of the spot welds that go upwards toward the front wheel, arch maybe about 5 or 6 of them. Funny thing about the front bulkhead is actually two pieces and there is a gap in the middle. I thought for sure the heater channel went all the way to the front, but it doesn't it stops in between the two pieces of the front bulkhead. The heater channel is capped off with a strange piece of metal all formed up to be a strengthening member as seen here. |
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Remove the
body -
You can get 3 or 4 hefty friends over to help you lift off the body and set it aside or ridicule you for trying something this stupid. I chose to do it all by my self and save the ridicule from any friends that I might have. I will describe the process of a one person body removal technique that I did. You might see something that would have made it easier but don't criticize until you try to take the body off a car by yourself
I think that removing the body is very helpful to this monstrous task. But this is my first heater channel replacement, and this is major beetle surgery, which like I have said is not for the faint of heart. It will take quite a bit of metal working skills and welding skills. Some of these skills may be learned at a local vocational school. Check in your local area to see if welding or body working classes are available. Some classes actually will use your vehicle as an example and other student may get a chance to work on your car! I have had 2 semesters of auto body and 1 semester of welding that I took at a vocational school in Florida back in the mid 1980's. My father and I were restoring a 1957 Bel-Aire 2 door hardtop and I was working on my 1968 beetle. We actually did some rust repair on one of the rear quarters and I sprayed the car inside and out with acrylic enamel. It turned out pretty good.
If you don't think your welding skills are up to par then by all means have some one do it for you, but that would require someone to come to your house and do some welding, which I suppose could start to add up on the cost as this probably won't be done in one day. There is quite a bit of prep work to do if you plan on removing the body.
Find a place big enough to work
Disconnect the battery
| Drain Gas Tank and Remove Disconnect the steering coupler under gas tank |
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| Take out the seats and the carpet as you don't want to catch them on fire when you cut and weld |
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| Remove engine ( it gets in the way if you plan on taking pan out from under the body ) | |
| Remove 2 17mm bolts from under gas tank | |
| Remove two 17mm bolts from rear wheel well (Just in front of jackstand) |
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| Remove running boards and fenders | |
| Remove 9 13mm bolts on both sides of the car that are under the the heater channel that attach the body to the pan. These can be difficult and they will squeak, groan and complain the whole way out. You may be lucky and get all 18 out without snapping any off or tearing the nut place out of the heater channel. But if you do then don't worry too much about it because you will have new bolts and nutplates when you replace that rusty old heater channel. | |
| There are 4 17mm bolts (2 each side) that will have to come out from underneath the car, where the front bulkhead is. You can't miss these, as they are only about an inch apart. These can be a real bear to get out. I had to use some penetrating oil and a little heat, let sit over night and cuss like a sailor while I slowly turned them out. They were so rusted that the threads were almost non-existing. | |
| Remove 4 13mm bolts under the back seat (2 each side) |
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| Now you should have all the bolts out that hold the body to the pan. Now you can place a jack under the bumpers
and "break the seal". Don't go very high with it, just enough to see that you have everything disconnected. Note* I put the a few bolts back in finger tight to keep body from sliding around while jacking it up. Next we are going to raise the car off the ground. The trick here is watch what you are doing very carefully. Raise a little at a time and always have the jack stands as close to the underside of the car at all times. But don't get your body parts in between the car and the jackstands. Like I said raise the car a little at a time front and rear. A good way to do this is to place the jack under the front beam, in the middle, and place your jack stands under the front beam. |
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| Now place the jack under the under the wish bone in front of the transaxle like this and jack slowly |
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*WARNING*
Jack slowly and work out from under car at all times! If you raise one end too much the jackstands will tip and your 1800 pound car will come crashing down on you!!!
*WARNING*
Now I think we understand each other on that point! Now that the car is about 20 something inches off the ground and jackstands are in place...right!?
The pan will be lowered down. You will need some sturdy saw horses to support the 200 pound body. I had to remove the wheels for the saw horses to fit. The drivers side suspension is removed because I was working on painting some of the suspension parts. (I have a new adjustable beam that is going to get installed one of these days.) Place the sawhorses as such:
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In the above pictures I have the saw horses close to the body. This was to prevent sag and stress on the 2x4's. Obviously the closer they are, the more support I have under the car. If I wanted to roll the chassis out from underneath the body, I would move the supports out far enough to clear the wheels. I bought some saw horse hinges and some pressure treated 2x4's at home depot. If you plan on taking the pan out from under the body they will have to be tall enough for the front beam to clear the body. Notice that the front beam is right next to the front sawhorse. I rubbed the front sawhorse on the way down but it worked out ok. If the sawhorse supports are not out far enough then the front drums hit the underside of the 2x4 that went across. I should have made the saw horses taller, but as you can see the Jackstands are all the way up. You will need to remove the shifter as its the highest point. The front beam and front tires will not clear the body at this point. You will have to get the bottom of the body up at least 36 inches for everything to clear. I didn't get the body up high enough and I had to scoot the front end over and remove one front tire and the shock tower went under the body where the hump of the tunnel is, and the transaxle wouldn't go under the saw horse so I let almost all the air out of the rear tires. It was tricky but I got it to work. You learn from your mistakes. Anyway you will now have to lower the pan down away from the body slowly checking to see that everything is going as planned! Again make sure you are not under the car at anytime, well with brief moments to lower the jackstands and before you know it this is what you will have:
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I can't stress enough at this point that there are a lot of "pinch points" ... meaning that if the body supports fail and you happen to have something in between the body and pan then it's going to get ugly! Be careful!
Now its probably late and you are all hot and sweaty and dirty, so take a break and relax. Take a hot shower and
clean up and take the rest of the night off. Now is the time to have a cold beverage if you desire. You still have
a lot of work ahead of you!
Page
2 - Moving on to heater channels
