An off of body experience ( Mini Tech Day )

As some of you may have heard I have just purchased a 1970 Beetle. My first project for this bug is new floor pans and a new luggage area. To do this I am going to remove the body off the pans. The plan for Saturday is to unbolt the body and accessories, remove the body and place the body on a dolly. To do this I will need some help to lift the body. If anyone is interested in a small Tech Day this Saturday you are welcome to come over and get your hands dirty. I will be starting around 10AM with the fun task of removing the body bolts. If all goes well we should be finished around 1:PM. I will not lie to you this is the first time I have ever done this. So for those of you with no expereance Its always a good time to learn and those with some or lots of experience all pointers are welcomed. This mini tech day is BOYB, Food will be supplied for lunch ( Hotdogs and Chips ) RSVP if you can come so I will know how much food to get.

3620 Biltmore Oaks Dr.
Bethlehem, Ga 30620
770-714-7442

( Near Winder, GA)

Thanks everybody.

would love to come up and help but I have to work. I just pulled the body off of my old '65 so I've done it once before - it's not a bad task if you get all the bolts - I think I have a post under the tech section when I did mine and Bryce and Eric were very helpful in telling me where the other bolts were that I missed.

Which bolts did you have a hard time finding?

I will be there...............just in case there is more change to be found that we might have missed!!

I've taken off the body on my 61 baja. Not too hard. comes off very easy once you get all the bolts off. don't forget the ones inside the rear fender, that bolt to the shock mount. Took me a few mins to figure out those, lol

Make sure you unhook all wiring also or else it will come loose the wrong way. Two strong men or three volks will do. My wife, step daughter and I picked the 66 body and put it on the pan.




Let see that was about 7,000 miles ago!

I'm going to try and be there

Don't forget to build the cart to rest the body on

There are 4 bolts i believe under the back seat - the 2 bolts that turbo Mike said and pull out the gas tank and there are 2 bolts holding the body to the front beam.

Yeah the ones under the backseat, the two on the front beam, the rear shock mounts, and all the ones from the body to the pan. Tho, the one time i did remove a body, a lot of the bolts were so rusted, that when you turn the bolt, the rusted parts of the body would just crunch away, and spin with the crusty bolt. Meaning the only way to get the bolt out was to either use some bolt cutters and try to cut away till it came out. or the body was so rusted, you would have to use some large pliers and just rip it out.

This happened on my 61 baja, and i wanted to see if it was the same on my 74 super, and they were. it was mainly the ones in the corners, at the front and rear floor pan supports. Those were the biggest PITA's to remove. the shock bolts came out easy, even tho they looked badly rusted, and so did the beam, and the ones under the backseat. they looked bad, but came out really easy. maybe i was just lucky, but just thought i'd let you know. Wish i could come, good luck with that.

The body came off without a hitch. We started around 10:30 and finished at 12 noon. A big thanks to everybody who helped. Here are a few pictures of the event.

Well, I wouldn't say without a hitch, we did forget the speedometer cable, kinda provided a false start to the body going on the nicely constructed cart. After that, it was a piece of cake. I'm just glad that I was able to help out, it was a little bit of effort that yielded huge results. Good luck!!

BTW, that was the neatest, most organized garage that I've seen in a long time.[quote]

i can't remember the last time i went into my garage, shed, or workshop with out tripping on somethings, or having to move something out of the way first, . right now, i can't even walk into my shed. its completely stuffed with random VW stuff, hahaha

James gets to join the clean garage club.

I just have little paths between the cars and all the stuff, I just need to put all the stuff on the cars!