Heater Channel Replacement

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Heater Channel Replacement Article

by dragenwagen

Page 7

*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.

Finishing the A Pillar -

Remember I had to finish repairing the A pillar? This page covers how I finished that area off. I was concerned about something here. I sat on the door sill as I was cutting out the old temporary patch and I could hear some squeaking of the sheet metal. I thought that this was going to be a problem. I told myself that it was because I hadn't finished welding in the A Pillar and that the bottom plate was not welded on yet. But everything turned out ok and and the A pillar repair is complete and the squeak is gone.

There is a piece of metal in the inside of the A pillar that the door hinge attaches to I went ahead and welded this to the heater channel after I cut the old temporary patch out. I don't know if this should be attached to the heater channel or how you would get this welded if you A pillar is in good shape, as the sheet metal on a good pillar would be in the way. Mine was all rusted in this area so I am doing what I think would be best. You could cut a flap out to expose this area and weld the inner piece to the heater channel and bend the flap back into place and weld it up. That's what I would have done if my A pillar was in good shape.

Another shot of what I have to deal with. I had to cut some pieces of sheet metal to put into place here as the old metal was rusted away!

I was curious on how the running board was going to affect this repair so I mounted it to see what kind of clearance issues I was going to have. Notice I still have the jack in place for support on the door post. I haven't finished the A pillar yet so it stays until I am done.

Here is the A pillar finished. I used a piece of card board out of a 12 pack soda box and trimmed it to fit perfectly. Then I traced the piece of cardboard onto the old fender I have been using for donor metal. I cut the piece out and I had to make a few bends, so I put it in my vise and bent it and hammered it into shape. I put in the piece and welded it all up and dressed the welds and then I covered the whole area with some body filler. Most of the repair wont be seen and the plastic cap goes in the hole for the lower hinge mount. I still think I am going to put in some of those chrome door sill guards and the carpet will cover the rest.

Having done all this work I wanted to see what it was going to look like when I was done. So I went ahead and fit everything up and I am quite impressed with the results...

Now you know that the bottom plate is not attached yet, and there are a few more things yet let to do. Go to the next page to see what else that I have to show you. I have been tring to keep the number of pictures per page somewhat limited. The pictures on the pages are not "true thumbnails" as I said earlier, they are the full image just resized to fit on the page so you are actually downloading the full image to your temporary file. Cable and DSL subscribers shouldn't really be too affected by this, but dial up people will have to wait for the images to download... sorry. But one good thing about that is that when you click on an image it appears right away! I might go back later and reduce the size of the thumbnails, but that will be alot of work

Page 8 -

Home Heater channel page 1 Heater channel page 2

email me Heater channel page 3 Heater channel page 4

Heater channel page 5 Heater channel page 6

Heater channel page 7 Heater channel page 8

Heater channel page 9 Heater channel page 10

Heater channel page 11 Heater channel page 12 - Not done Yet

There is a piece of metal in the inside of the A pillar that the door hinge attaches to I went ahead and welded this to the heater channel after I cut the old temporary patch out. I don't know if this should be attached to the heater channel or how you would get this welded if you A pillar is in good shape, as the sheet metal on a good pillar would be in the way. Mine was all rusted in this area so I am doing what I think would be best. You could cut a flap out to expose this area and weld the inner piece to the heater channel and bend the flap back into place and weld it up. That's what I would have done if my A pillar was in good shape.
Another shot of what I have to deal with. I had to cut some pieces of sheet metal to put into place here as the old metal was rusted away!
I was curious on how the running board was going to affect this repair so I mounted it to see what kind of clearance issues I was going to have. Notice I still have the jack in place for support on the door post. I haven't finished the A pillar yet so it stays until I am done.
Here is the A pillar finished. I used a piece of card board out of a 12 pack soda box and trimmed it to fit perfectly. Then I traced the piece of cardboard onto the old fender I have been using for donor metal. I cut the piece out and I had to make a few bends, so I put it in my vise and bent it and hammered it into shape. I put in the piece and welded it all up and dressed the welds and then I covered the whole area with some body filler. Most of the repair wont be seen and the plastic cap goes in the hole for the lower hinge mount. I still think I am going to put in some of those chrome door sill guards and the carpet will cover the rest.
Having done all this work I wanted to see what it was going to look like when I was done. So I went ahead and fit everything up and I am quite impressed with the results...

Home	Heater channel page 1	Heater channel page 2
email me	Heater channel page 3	Heater channel page 4
	Heater channel page 5	Heater channel page 6
	Heater channel page 7	Heater channel page 8
	Heater channel page 9	Heater channel page 10
	Heater channel page 11	Heater channel page 12 - Not done Yet