Heater Channel Replacement Article

*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.

So, you want to replace your heater channels on your Beetle right? How hard is it? Where do I get the parts? How much is it going to cost? What tools do I need? What do I need to be aware of? Read on and I will tell and show you how I did it. Maybe some of my techniques are strange, but then again it is my car. There are a lot of safety concerns when replacing the heater channels in a VW Beetle. There is also the question of if you need to replace the heater channels at all. But which ever the case may be, should you attempt this kind of challenge and successfully complete it you should have a structurally safe vehicle that will last for many more years to come. After all, if you are reading this then you may have already considered replacing the heater channels in your bug! - dragenwagen

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

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.

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
Take out the seats and the carpet as you don't want to catch them on fire when you cut and weld
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)
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)
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.
Now place the jack under the under the wish bone in front of the transaxle like this and jack slowly

*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:

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:

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!

Moving on to heater channels -

Now I will cover how to remove the heater channels and some concerns you will need to be aware of. You will need to know how your car was put together in in the first place to understand how to fix it. The heater channel is a major structural point in your car. It ties the A and B pillar together and it serves as the door sill as well as the passage that the heat from the heat exchanger that the hot air will travel to the front of your car. When you take out the heater channel there is nothing there to keep the door opening from spreading apart and that's why you do one side at a time. I had night mare visions of the roof buckling and the car turning into a twisted mess. Therefore the door opening should be braced with some thing like a piece of angle iron welded across the opening, or simply close the door and never open it while the heater channel is out. The HVW Magazine article showed a jig you could buy for around $78 a side. Nice to have but no thanks. But you will need to check to make sure the door is going to close right before final welding. I will cover how I did it later. I did however find out that my lower hinge pin is very worn and it is going to need to be replaced. My door has always needed a little "lift" right before it latched closed, and its not the latch plate because the body lines don't match up until the door is latched. I thought it was the lower A pillar area where the heater channel was rusted out, but upon real close inspection it is the lower hinge pin that is causing my drivers door to sag.

One really good thing to do is make a bunch of measurements to how the original heater channel is in place. I measured about 12 different measurements at different points. A couple of them were how wide the door opening was, mine was 36.5" from the A Pillar back to the B Pillar. I also measured how far from the tunnel the A Pillar was and how far from the tunnel to the B Pillar was. I also checked to see if the passenger side was the same measurements and they were. Now that the measurements are out of the way you can get on to the removal.

What to do first -

Look at what you have first. Tools, parts, safety gear and a nice place to work safely. You have the car up on jackstands with fenders and running boards off, Take a wire wheel and remove the paint, undercoating, and crud off the lower front wheel well. Now you should be able to see the spot welds there is something like 50 of them. These are going to need to be drilled out , but not right now. I had to do some A pillar repair on mine and I thought it would be best if I made the repair before I started to hack out the heater channels. I cut out some rusted metal in the lower fenderwell. This also included the lowest nut plate for the front fender. You can see what I have done here. I used an old original fender that was banged up pretty bad, the headlight bucket was pushed in and I didn't feel like salvaging it, so I used it for donor metal for any patches I might have to make. Less chance of rejection by the VW body....lol
Speaking of metal patches, you can get rust repair panels from different sources or from donor cars from a junkyard. I think now as an after thought that I should have gotten the lower A pillar repair piece. But who knows maybe I will do that one later after the heater channels are done.
Next you need to remove all the seam sealer, paint and crud off of the lower quarter panel with a wire wheel to see the spot welds. They will need to be drilled out, but not right now.... You are still getting to know how the heater channel is a part of your car
On the inside of the car you will need to remove all the seam sealer, paint and crud where the fender well meets the heater channel and where the front bulkhead and the heater channel attach. You will be cutting the heater channel up at the front bulkhead later so its best to clean all this area up.
This is where the heater channel ties into the A pillar on the inside of your car. This will be cut but go ahead and clean all the junk off of it with the wire wheel. Mine had a badly installed patch that was temporarily installed for support. Yes, I did that a few years back in hope that that would be sufficient. I knew it wouldn't be good enough for a permanent fix and I have removed it as I am in the process of reconstructing the A pillar. As I said earlier I might get the replacement panel and redo the whole thing.
Moving to the back of the car I will show you some more areas where the heater channel is tied into the rest of the body.
This is where the B Pillar ties into the heater channel and this area will need to be cleaned up and all the rust removed. This need to be a strong area as this is also where the seatbelt bolts to the body. If this area is all rusted out you will need to do some reconstructive work or replace the pieces with that of a donor car.
This is where the duct enters the heater channel. I have cleaned off the paint and surface rust and started to drill the spot welds out. There is another piece of the duct that I have already removed. On earlier models this area differs. On pre-68 models this is a metal duct all the way back to where it enters the body and it will have to be cut out with a cutoff wheel. For models with a generator and the voltage regulator under the back seat, it will have to be taken out as its going to get in your way.
The other piece of duct can be removed easily that you have the body off the pan. There are 2 10mm bolts that hold a piece of the duct into place. With the body on the rear torsion bar is in the way and I think that it is impossible to get to both bolts and remove this piece. I have tried to remove that piece under the seat unsuccessfully in the past and just tore it all up. These parts are old and they will break and good luck on finding this in a junkyard
Here the heater channel is spot welded to the lower package shelf. There are spot welds that along this arch and believe it or not there is a couple spot welds that are in between the inner and outer skin of the rear quarter panel. This proved to be a royal pain in the ass, and I think I created a few new words and I think only one tool went flying across the garage! I will cover how I dealt with my anger and solved this problem. This is one of the reasons I say that the inner skins were put on first then the outer skins of the car were put on, well it makes sense.

Now that you understand how the heater channel ties in with the rest of the body you will be able to determine what your car needs or what does and doesn't need to be replaced. Now is it necessary to replace the heater channels on both sides? Well would you replace one brake pad? Or replace just one piston ring? I would go ahead and replace both sides, that way you know that the job was done right and they should last a long time. Besides I don't want to have to tear into this car like this again!

Cutting out Heater Channels -

What to do first -

Since I am going to leave the doors on and leave them closed for structural reasons I cut the area out in the door sill while all the other welds are still in place. I cut them with my Dremel tool with a cutting disk... yeah, they are small and you go through quite a bit of them . They are small and you can get into the corners real good. Be sure and wear some safety goggles and hearing protection. Cut everything that is accessible with the door open that will not be accessible with the door closed! Once you have all these cut I also used a hack saw to cut into some areas that was difficult for the Dremel to get to. Don't cut all the way through the heater channel. Just the weld beads around the A and B Pillar.
Ok now that you have cut through the welds in the door sill at the A and B Pillars you can shut the door and forget about opening them for a while!
Drill out spot welds in fender well. There must be about 50 of them to drill out. When you are drilling them out the bit will probably go through into the heater channel. No problem with that because you are replacing it anyway. Make sure you get the weld drilled out as it makes it easier to break the weld with the chisel.
Cut around A Pillar. Now here is a problem on the drivers side. The wiring harness goes through a hole in the heater channel as seen here. You have 2 choices. Cut the metal around the wiring harness, or you will have to remove all the wires at the fuse block or where ever they go. It might be easier to cut the metal out from around the wiring harness, then you don't have to remember where they all went. I took mine off from the fuse block. I was thinking that I am going to get a new wiring harness and install it. I have already spliced every wire that went to the back of the car because mine had a short in the harness where it disappears into the rear fender well and all the insulation was melted off. I got everything to work, but I think the type of wire I used will add more resistance and not work quite right, even though it does work. Why? I'm not an electrical engineer, but the wire I used is 12 gauge stranded, but the strands are thicker and the insulation seems thinner.
Cut the weld bead up at the bulkhead in the inside of car. This is an after shot photo. You can see the patch I welded in and the crappy temporary patch on the A pillar. This area was pretty bad off. You can see where I cut the heater channel out at the front bulkhead (just behind the clutch pedal) Notice I left the metal on the bulkhead I cut just past the weld bead. I am going to take off the temporary patch and fix the inner A Pillar later.
Cut around the B Pillar. I used a grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the bead around this area. I had to use my Dremel tool to get at a piece of the weld around the duct. The bead weld here is pretty hefty, so I cut just to one side of it I have already cut the area under the door, remember the first cuts you should have made? This is why, because you should not attempt to open the door about now! You can see where I spliced in my wiring harness. That's why I want to replace it
Drill out rest of the spot welds behind B Pillar and use a chisel to break spot welds on the very back of the heater channel.
A this point you should have all the welds cut and you will see that the heater channel just wont come out. That's when I found the heater channel is tied in a few more places. This rusty channel was almost out but it didn't want to come out I shook it and kicked at it and I threw the hammer out of the garage into the yard. Yes it made me feel better. I finished my temper tantrum and I went back to look what was holding the channel in there.
I found that I had to drill a few more spot welds at the front of the bulkhead in the front fender well and persuade the thing to come apart with my air chisel. I had to start drilling on the spot welds going up the front part of the fender well, but only a few. Yes I know the metal is bent outward, but it was necessary and I can hammer it back into shape later. This is an after shot, but you get the idea. Ignore the brass on the front bulkhead. This is something I tried to fix about ... well I don't remember! I tried to fix it but I blew holes in the metal and I am going to cut it out and try again after the channel is in. Its in a difficult place to work and I still have to clean up the area under the gas tank and paint.
I found the back of the heater channel interesting. The way it is put together is kind of overlapped with the rear package tray and the quarter panel.
I took my Dremel tool with a cutting disk and I cut along the back side of the channel. This is another after shot but you can tell where the metal overlapped. Check the area real good there is several pieces of overlapping metal here and I did find some rust hiding in the rear wheel well I cut it out and fixed it but it was a real small area. I am going to cut a piece of metal out of that old fender and cover the entire rear piece so it will be completely sealed.
Also there is a piece of metal that overlaps the back side of the heater channel. ( another after photo, sorry) I tried to drill it but I had my Dremel and air chisel handy and I wanted this thing out, and my patience was growing thin at this point. It was hot and I was working on the car all day long. I should have quit but I was being as stubborn as this heater channel. See the rust hole in the rear quarter. I need to fix that. But see the gap? That's ok because on the inside it is touching the rear package tray.
Age and the elements have taken its toll on this heater channel. Now that I cut though this piece that was overlapped I still couldn't get the thing out. Now I was frustrated , so I grabbed my air chisel and started to cut like a mad man! The air chisel cut through the rusty metal of the heater channel like a hot knife through butter. Now I could see into the back of the heater channel and I broke right through the welds in the back of the channel and it almost fell out of the car. So I put my foot to it and it fell out on the floor in all of it's rusty glory. I stood up with the taste of rusty metal in my mouth, wiped the sweat out of my eyes and said " HA! take that you rotten S-O-B"! I think the neighbor kid now know not to stand in my driveway for fear of flying tools, and I bet he now knows a few more twists to the curse words he shouldn't know.
Below are some pictures of my triumphant success, and the last picture is some of the junk I found lurking in the heater channel. An old set of points, a 1965 Quarter, a lug bolt, a piece to some wiper blade refills, a door panel clip and a piece that goes to the door handle trim (I think), a washer and a piece of bondo.

Installing New Heater Channels -

Now take the time to clean up all the mess that you have made and check to see that you have cleaned up all the rusty areas and straighten out out any bent up metal you caused when you cut out the old heater channel.

Here is where it gets interesting. Now I have to decide how to do this. I was wondering how I was going to make sure everything lined up when I put in the new heater channel, making sure all the bolts were going to into the holes and actually line up with the nut plates. This proved to be the biggest challenge yet. I didn't want to weld anything in until I was sure about how I was going to do this. Since my replacement heater channels were in two pieces, meaning top and bottom were not joined, there was no way to tell where I had to place them to get the top half lined up with the body and the bottom half to line up with the holes in the pan. Now you see why this was a challenge. Originally, I was going to weld in the top half and paint the inside of the channel and then weld the bottom half on. Simple right? Well sort of. That was still my plan, but it wasn't exactly happening as I planned. I put the new channel in place and wedged some wood to keep it in place to check few things. It was becoming apparent that this wasn't going to work. I'll tell you why later if you can't figure it out.

Then I clamped everything into place with some C clamps so I could get a better idea how this thing was going to come together. But I still had one thing that was lurking in the back of my mind... Figure it out yet?

Then, may I be struck down by the all mighty VW gods... I committed the biggest sin in heater channel replacement! I OPENED THE DOOR! What was I thinking you say! Its not welded in! Well.... yeah. I know. Not that I recommend it. But I did have everything in place and clamped real tight. Just look at how I pulled it off. I was real curious about the door and how it was going to close. I was real careful in opening it and only for the sake of obtaining some good photos.

Installing New Heater Channels -

Did you figure out what I was thinking yet? No. Well read on. If you noticed in the previous page, I had the body about 6 inches off the pan, with some clamps holding in the heater channel. I wanted to make sure that everything lined up first before I welded it in. I couldn't figure out where the bottom plate went... the exact place, I mean. I had the bottom plate bolted into place on the pan and the clamps were in the way. So I took off the clamps and jacked the pan up to meet the heater channel. It was was a little tricky at first but I finally got the heater channel in place and sandwiched in between the pan and body. NOW everything was in place. I didn't want to weld on the bottom plate just yet as I wanted to paint the inside of the heater channel after I welded it into the body because the heat from the welds will burn off the paint/primer... well, if you weld it right!

Here is a picture of the pan jacked up to the body. I have placed every clamp and vise grip I have to hold the bottom plate to the heater channel. The heater channel is in place and I want to check my measurements that I made and I want to see if the door opening is correct. The jack supporting the door post is important, for more than one reason. First it raises the floor pan to meet the channel. Second, the door needs open and close smoothly and jacking the door post until the door closes properly is important. You can adjust the door striker plate if you have to. Don't weld anything until you have the door adjusted properly.
I had to put a clamp on the rear body mount to keep the body down against the pan. Put the body bolts back in and tighten them down. I did put the ones in under the gas tank and one under the back seat back in, but in this picture was before I put the bolt in. This is to make sure the body is in the right place and is held down tightly against the pan.
With the body bolts back in and the door post supported you can now check the door alignment. The body does have more support and you can open the door with the post supported, Notice I am stressing the support under the door post.
Notice that there is a gap in between the rear plate and the heater channel. This is ok because the old heater channel had the overlapping sheetmetal. I ended up cutting a small piece of metal to overlap the gap here. The bottom plate also will need a piece over lapping the underside, but I am going to wait until the bottom plate is welded onto the upper piece. This will probably be the last weld I make on the heater channel to close it up.

Welding in new heater channels -

Safety equipment required:

Fire extinguisher

Heavy welding gloves.

Proper welding goggles or helmet

Preferably a long sleeve shirt, heavy shoes and long pants

Use common sense when welding. Don't weld near flammable materials, have adequate ventilation. Keep the fire extinguisher handy. After welding and you are cleaning up your work area, stay around and chill out and admire you work for about a half hour. Why? I like to call it the cool down period, because there was alot of sparks flying around and a lot of things getting red hot. This is to ensure that everything has had enough time to cool down and that something is not smoldering and catch the garage on fire.

Now that everything is in place and the door aligned, the heater channel is ready to be welded. You will have to take a wire wheel or sand paper to remove the primer off of the heater channel in order for the welder to operate properly. I used my Lincoln 135 welder. You can use an arc welder or an oxy/acetylene torch. Use what ever you have or are experienced with, or what ever you feel most comfortable with. If you don't have a welder you may be able to rent one from a tool rental place. Home Depot rents MIG welders, well at least one near where I live does. If you have a friend, or are going to pay someone to weld for you, make sure that they know what they are doing. I have practiced with my new welder on several things, including an old fender, some angle iron, welding in the patch on the A-pillar. I am not a professional welder, nor do I have much experience with welding. You will have to adjust the settings on you welder depending on how its working. Try spot welding the panels into place first then when it is secure and satisfied with the fit of the panels, you can go back and stitch the welds together in a bead around the A and B pillars.

Get some small sheet metal screws that are used for those metal studs in construction. They are great for holding panels tightly together when welding. They are available at Home Depot. Drill a small pilot hole and screw the panels together. The ones I used were self starting, but I drilled a pilot hole anyway. Then drill a hole just through the top panel on either side of the screw and use those holes to tack weld the panels together. Or you can put the screws in between the holes that are there when you drilled out the spot welds. After you get the panel tack welded into place then you can take out the screw and fill in the hole with the welder.

I started with the rear quarter panel. I had previously straightened all the sheet metal with a hammer and dolly and used a wire wheel to clean up the existing sheet metal. I used the small sheet metal screws to hold the quarter panel and the heater channel tightly together. The two panels were then welded together, the screws removed and the remaining holes filled in .
Next I tack welded the B pillar into place in a few places. I welded the tack welds about an inch apart to control the heat, then went back and stitched them all together. I have some rust in the lower B Pillar. I cut a piece of sheet metal and repaired this area. It has to be strong because the lower seat belt attaches here. Also the lowest "finger" that hold the windlace, the part of the headliner material, is gone and will have to be replaced.
You can see here how the B pillar is welded in. I had some rust in the lower B pillar and the lowest windlace retainer is missing. I will have to put another retainer in later. After it is welded in, you can hit it with a grinder to finish off the welds. I didn't grind too much as this will be covered up and you wont see it
I used the screw method here again to hold the panels together. Then I welded the two together and also put a few weld on the outer lip of the inner quarter panel. I didn't grind these welds down as they are under the seat and won't be seen. This picture was before I finished welding the rear part of the heater channel to the rear package tray. Go ahead and use the screw method to weld these together also. I had to put in a small patch in the rear package tray lip as it was rusted way. I cut a piece of sheet metal out of the old fender and welded it into place.
Now you can finish off the weld that that goes in the door sill. This will be seen so you will have to grind it down a little. Now the B Pillar should be finished welded in
With the B Pillar welded in you should check the door alignment once again and check the measurement for the door opening. I welded the B pillar first because I could tell that the B Pillar fit the best and I could tell that it was in place. With that in place I knew I could make adjustment for the door if I had to. Now with the door operating smoothly and all lined up I closed the door and welded the front wheel well into place. Use the screws to hold the fender well into place then weld, remove screws and fill in the remaining holes.
Now you can weld the very front of the heater channel where it meets the front bulkhead. I didn't weld the A pillar into place just yet as I am going to finish fixing a previously installed patch. This area was really eaten up with rust and needed a lot of reconstruction. But if yours is in good shape then you can go ahead and finish welding the A pillar.
Next I cut out the rusty area in the lower quarter panel and welded new sheetmetal. I finished it off with just a skim coat of body filler. This is not to be confused with just slapping some bondo in the rust hole. The repair I made was all metal. The rust was cut out and new sheet metal was welded in. The body filler is just to smooth out the area where I ground down the welds, but then again you knew that right?!
You should now be pretty much done with the repairs on the heater channel. I have more to add on what I am doing. So stay with me and you will see more. I know the pages might take some time to load, but I feel that if you are following this far then you are interested in how all this is going to turn out.
I have put some seam sealer on all the welds that I made. Why, well if you remember right the factory had put some seam sealer on the welds when they built the car originally! I also put some seam sealer on the lowest part of the quarter panel where the running board attaches. The seam sealer I used was some stuff made by DAP and it is used for sealing metal gutters and roof flashing. Will this stuff be good enough? I hope so. It didn't seem to dry completely, so I let it sit for a few days and it is still just a bit mushy. That might be good in a way then it won't become brittle and break apart exposing the seam. I did, however, thought about this and I went ahead and primered the areas first so that the primer could get into all the little crevices then applied liberal amounts of sealer. I went back after a few days and sprayed primer over the whole thing. Hopefully that takes care of the seams... Time will tell.

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

More to be done -

The inside if the heater channels need to be pained. You can try to use POR-15 or try to get some spray paint in the heater channel. It is difficult to get the paint in there. Before I lowered the pan I made some marks on the heater channel and bottom plate with a file so I could line it back up later. I put the saw horses back under the body and lowered it back down as far as I could get it to go. Then I tried to use my paint gun to paint the inside of the channels but there wasn't enough space to get it in there. So I just used a rattle can. I sprayed the inside with primer and then I sprayed it with some flat black. I ran out of paint at the time I am writing this and I will have to get some more. It's not really what I wanted to use but it will have to do. The inside of the channel was hard also to completely cover because the heater tube inside the channel was in the way. So I painted it the best I could and I will leave it at that.

I need to re-spray the fender well, but I have some more work to do here.
This is the area that I fixed... remember the rotten area and the big hole I cut out? There is some body filler here but its not real thick, just a skim coat. I didn't really sand it down all that much and it does look kind of crappy. But I am not too concerned about that as I am going to put some seam sealer here and undercoat all of this area real good and you won't see any of this. I could have spent more time making it all smooth and look like nothing was done here, but what's the point... it's going to be a daily driver and the area is all sealed and undercoated.
Just another shot of the door opening. This is after I started to raise the pan back into place and I forgot to take some pictures so I lowered it back down to take a picture.
Before I get ahead of my self, I need to explain about the next thing I did. Remember the 2 17mm bolts that go in the underside of the bulkhead? Well mine were rusted beyond any hope of reusing them and the nut plate was trashed also. The new heater channel didn't come with any provisions for these bolts. This is a big tie in place for the heater channel and those bolts need to be there. One night I was thinking how to accomplish this with what I had on had. I remember how badly the bolts were rusted in there. Granted, they were in there for 30 years untouched, and I somehow managed to get them out with out snapping them off. So I figured I would replace them with a different method. I used a piece of 1" flat stock and welded the nuts on, then I put a piece of 3/8" all thread rod in and welded them into the nuts. I made them long enough to go through the holes with more than I needed. I can cut off the excess after I am through. I will put some heavy flat washers and some lock washers on the underside. I didn't weld the plate to the bottom plate as I wanted to have it to where I can center it when its all done. I think I am going to go back and weld a strap over the top to keep it in place, but yet still have the side to side movement. This is what I decided to do and you can do something different if you so choose. Dumb idea? Maybe. Maybe not, but something had to be done.

That is all I have for now, as I have run out of MIG wire and paint and a few other supplies that I need.

I have gone through 4 36 grit sanding pads, about 20-30 Dremel tool cutting disks, 2 wire wheels, 8 sheets of sand paper,1 roll of MIG wire, trashed 2 drill bits. Ruined about 3 or 4 more T-shirts. 12 band aids from sheet metal cuts. Got a few burns from sparks, caught a rag on fire, lost about 4 pounds from sweating. One cut up fender for donor metal, which the wife wants to desperately toss. Dual action electric palm sander is almost history (bearing going bad)... one interesting note though... You know those peel and stick-um sanding pads... those are expensive, and what's with that Velcro backed stuff? I was using so much sand paper through out this whole project that I decided to buy a big pack of like 20 sheets at Home Depot. Varying grits. I bought a can of 3M spray adhesive. Yes I cut my own circles out of a sheet of sand paper... trashed a good set of scissors... and I glue them to the sander. What the heck right, the sander is almost history anyway. I would pull the piece of sand paper off before it completely dried, but some times I forgot to. Any way look for more updates on how I finish this monster task... just think I get to do the other side next. Hopefully it will go allot smoother and quicker. I want this done. And just think I was trying no to spend a fortune on having someone do it for me.

Welding on the bottom plate

Now that the inside is painted, hopefully it wont rust from the inside out. I went ahead jacked the pan back up to the body and put in all the bolts from underneath with the curved washer looking things and the bottom plate it bolted tight to the pan. This is important, because it lines up all the holes in the pan to the heater channel. Then I put every clamp and vise grip I had to hold the bottom tight. Then, I took my wire wheel and took all the primer off the seam between the heater channel and the bottom plate. Everything should be lined up and you can tack weld the two pieces together on the lip. You can also drill some small holes in the top part of the heater channel and do a plug weld. After its all welded I dropped the pan back down to finish the back side of the heater channel. You will also have to weld in a small piece of metal in the rear to close up the heater channel and any rust repairs in the rear wheel well at this time. Once it is all welded up you will want to grind the welds down a little and put some seam sealer to keep water out of the heater channel. I have more work to do on the front bulkhead where it was rusted out so I left the pan and body separated for now.

Here is the back side of the heater channel with a patch in place and a small patch welded in to cover a small rust hole. This area was cut out and I used more of the fender for donor metal. The welds will need to be dressed. Then I applied some primer and painted it with some gray enamel paint I had. I am planning to paint the car with enamel so there should not be incompatibility problems. After the paint dried I applied a good application of the seam sealer then I covered it with some more of the gray enamel to seal in the joints where the patches are. I am not concerned with the looks all that much because this area will get undercoated and you'll never really see the repair, unless you look for it.
Seam sealer is applied to the lower quarter panel seam. Note that I still place a piece of 4x4 post in where ever I am working. This will reduce the pinch points and serve as a back up support when the body is on the saw horses.
This shot is the welds all dressed and painted, sealed and repainted. I haven't put any undercoat on as that will happen after I get the car painted.
My small jack and big sander I call death with a hand grip. That thing is a monster and it loves to chew up metal with lots of sparks. Its heavy and has a lot of torque.
The heater channel bottom all welded and sealed and painted. I will sand the sill down a little and it will be painted the same color as the car, but I wanted to make sure it was sealed real good. I don't want any water getting in there and rusting it out again anytime soon.
Inside kick panel and A pillar. Notice how well everything is sealed and painted. I think that the A pillar repair turned out real nice! Carpet will cover the kick panel and the semi-noticeable fender well repair. The bulkhead will be the next section I work on and that is a another major surgery you wont want to miss!
Front fender well repair sealed and painted, although there is a small portion in the very front that needs finishing off. I will finish this when I do the bulkhead repair.
This is the rear part of the heater channel after the first couple coats of paint. I will apply seam sealer to the area then paint it again.
This is the area after the seam sealer was applied and several more coats of gray paint was sprayed on. This will seal out the water and moisture from the welds and the seams. I missed a spot under the heater duct which I will have to fix. I didn't notice it before so I will have to go back and redo it.
This is a shot of the front bottom plate and my re-engineering of the front bolts. Remember I said the nut plate was rusted away and the new channels didn't have a nut plate welded in place? Well this was my solution to the problem. I figured I would do it this way so all I would have to do it bust the nuts off if they get rusted on... like I going to take the body off when its done! You can also see that I haven't welded in the very front of the heater channel. I will cover this when I fix some rust in the front bulkhead. You also see my sloppiness with the seam sealer. A knife will take care of that. I will paint this area again and install the body to pan seal. The outside of the bottom plate will get some undercoat after the body is bolted back down. This will be to protect the paint on the bottom plate from rocks and road junk that gets kicked up from the tires.

Front Bulkhead Repair

I have some rust in the front bulk head area. I chose not to cut out the whole thing as my wife suggested I do. I have too much to do still on the car. I know the repair panel is available for about $35. But all the cutting and drilling I would have to do! So I chose to just repair it. I hope I made the right choice.

This is what I am dealing with. Yes, I tried to fix the area here with some brass rod a couple years ago. It looked like crap and it wasn't a very good fix, I wasn't happy with it...so I gave up! So I took a piece of soda box and cut it to a shape I was happy with and marked it with a pencil. This is where I would cut it out! I made the cut far back enough so I would be welding to some good metal.
I then transferred the soda box cutout to the trusty old fender and cut a piece out and formed the front piece.
I then clammed that piece into place and with a sharp pencil I retraced the part onto the bulkhead to make sure that it was going to be a good mark to cut on.
Another view of the front piece to be traced. There will be another piece I will weld to this piece so hold on!
Next I went in to the inside and made a line where I was going to cut... no template here as I was going to cut out the piece and make the template from that! Makes more sense in a bit... read on!
Ok so I cut out the rusted area with my Dremel tool. I went along the lines and went underneath. I then went to the inside of the car and cut along the line I made. The piece came out in one piece. But it had some metal missing where it had rusted away, so I would have to do some guess work on the shape!
This is the inside of the car at the line I cut along. I then had the piece out and I made templates to the inside and the very bottom piece. So actually it will be 2 pieces formed and welded together, then I will fit it in and clamp it and weld it all in as one piece. You'll see...!
Here is the piece I made. Note the welds along the one side. That is what hols the two pieces together.
New piece on the left. Old rusted piece on the right.
There is some of the old piece that the metal was rusted away and I had to guess on some of the shape. I left one small piece out as I kind of cut the replacement piece wrong. But that's ok I will cut another piece and close up the bulkhead after this piece is in.

Fitting and welding new piece in.

New piece clamped into place, using vise grips and a C clamp. The corner wraps around and I have it clamped tight to the fenderwell. There is a small gap right in the corner that I didn't really account for so I will make a small piece to go in there.
Another shot of how I clamped it into place. Note the 2x4's again to help in creating a secondary support in case the sawhorses fail. Like I said better safe than sorry. I always keep my hands and fingers away from any potential pinch/crush points! There is some small gaps in the new piece and the old bulkhead. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it means I will have to add a little more to the weld. Which means more to grind down. Over all I have to say the piece fits real good.
On the inside I had to come up with a way to clamp the piece in place. I have these nifty adjustable needle nose vise grip type pliers. Anyway I used the hole in the bulkhead and the bottom of the piece to hold it tightly in place. Yes this took quite some finessing along with some not so nice things coming out of my mouth after the 9th time trying to get the clamp to stay! The open area was the area is where I sort of goofed, but it turned out I had something else in mind. I used this opening to get a clamp in there and I will just cut a piece and cover the opening later. I had originally hoped that I could use the opening so I could spray something in there to seal up the welds. I tried to get some paint in there but it didn't work too well.
I tack welded the outside then I went in and tack welded the inside. This is after I started to weld up the seam. I still have a few areas where the welder was blowing holes in the bulkhead. That is very aggravating! I will have to grind a little and then fill in the holes.
Blowing holes into the panel. More grinding. This was hard to get to and bending over to get in here is a strain on the back! The rust on the rest of the bulkhead is just surface rust and comes right off with a wire wheel. I will brush the whole area and prime and paint it and give it a good coat of undercoating just to seal it up. Its a hard area to get to and not really seen. It will get dirty from road grime, but it needs to be addressed, and can't be ignored! Note to self: I need to get a new seal for that brake line.
Inside tack welded. I finished the seam weld with no real problems here.This is after I closed the hole and finished welding. I got a little sloppy with the welds and I didn't really grind them down all that much. Any one who has worked in the foot well knows its a pain to get in there. Try that with a 6 pound grinder! But I finished off the area real good with a wire wheel. I sprayed it with some primer and then I put some gray enamel paint on it to seal the weld. Yeah, I will probably cover it with some seam sealer and paint it again.
Inside finished.
Just another shot of the finished area. Not too bad of a repair. The rust is cut out and replaced with new metal from the donor fender.
I finished welding up the fender well and underneath where the heater channel meets the bulkhead. You can see where I have put the seam painted and put seam sealer and painted again. Looks like a bad bondo job, but the only body filler that is in there was a light skim coat to even things out a bit. I will take the wire wheel to the front and underneath to get the front corner ready to prime, paint, seam seal and paint again. I don't want any water to enter these heater channels!
Closer shot of the front part of the bulkhead. I still have to grind and finish welding the holes up.

Drivers Side Done.

In this last series of pictures I have place the body back on the pan one more time. I noticed that without the engine in that it looks way too high in the rear. I will need to readjust the rear spring plates to bring the rear down some. The front beam is set at its highest point, and I have a new beam to install still. But as you can tell I have gotten my first heater channel in place. Not bad for a first time try. I laid the old rusted out heater channel next to the car to show the difference. I am amazed at the difference in the way it looks. It was some hard work but it all paid off in the results. I went ahead and put some seam sealer on the inside if the front quarter. I will paint this area over again to further seal out any moisture that may try to get at my repairs. The inside rear quarter panel is completed also. It is sealed and painted, but it too will get another coat of paint along with the rest of the interior

Drivers Side Finished
Old Heater Channel Replaced
This was well worth all the work.
Not too shabby for a first time repair.
I decided to add a little extra seam sealer to the front.
This was one rusty heater channel.
Now to tackle the passenger side. This side doesn't seem to be as rusty as the drivers side. So hopefully what I learned from doing the drivers side, the passenger side wont be as difficult to do. Stay Tuned for further updates.
8 Aug, 2004 Time has passed. Almost 2 years. the 69 project has been put on hold. But the repairs have held up! Since I replaced the drivers side heater channel, I have been deployed to the desert - ahhhhh military life - aint it great? So no work got done. Then I returned from that hellish place and got orders to move... : ( I had to put the '69 back together and tow it almost 700 miles. It made the trip with only one minor incident. I was towing the '66 behind a U-Haul and my wife was towing the '69 behind our van. Well she got boxed inbetween a couple 18 wheelers and she ran over a blown out truck tire. OUCH! No damage to the van, but the truck tire got kicked up under the '69 and it bent up the front passenger side fender and running board. The only other thing was one of the rear bearings finally seated its self and the rear hub was a little loose. My schedule is pretty busy and I have not had time to work on the '69, so it sits filled with boxes of parts. Also, I no longer have a garage - big : ( . But I do need to get out and finish this thing. My '66 is a daily driver, so I still get to enjoy at least one aircooled classic car! BTW the weather sucks here - The humidity is horrible, and the '69 sits outside and the cheap $20 bumpers I put on the '69 are rusted to hell. I knew that would happen. But they were cheap replacements until I can get the expensive ones.

July 2006 Well... what can I say. time has passed and life has changed forever. In 2005 We were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Sadly the '69 was under 4 feet of salt water. I had to let it go, so I totaled it with the insurance company. I had to as I could not afford to get my life back on track with replacing necessities like furniture, clothes and appliances. I have decided to try to save my 1966 beetle, which it too was under salt water, but not damaged as badly. Although the engine was a complete loss as well as the electrical system, and brakes, and some interior.

Over the years I have gotten many responses on how helpful it has all been. To those brave enough to tackle a heater channel replacement...good job. For those wanting to try to save their beetle... give it a try.!

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