Melburg Luft

Hi guys,

So it seems my panel beater feels before he finished the final piece of bodywork namely my 4-tab bonnet, that I should try and find one in better shape than the one I have currently.
I've contacted a few of the usual suspects but it has turned up nothing. Hopefully the power of the people will be able to find one, or know of someone who has one lying around.

For those who aren't aware, the early oval 4-tab's are different in the hinge area and have a small metal triangle brace under the badge/4-tab area.

Some pics:







Any help appreciated as that is now the last thing I need to finish the car. Happy to include the one I have which isn't terrible, just requires more work for someone who would still like one in return for a rat etc.

D.

I heard many years ago the bonnets were "matched" to the car as they are all not quite identical (both bonnets and shells)? If this is the case, would repairing the current one be the go?

I kinda doubt that.
When you see the early Wolfsburg films assembling the cars, the bonnets get pressed and then bolted onto the cars. With the amount of cars they were building, there was not enough time to custom make/modify/fit bonnets to each car.

Pretty sure they were custom fits on 356's though.

Thanks for that,
I remember in the 90s a VW shop in Brissy saying that-a wives tale-good luck with bonnet hunting

I would have thought that the bonnet you currently have looks pretty damn good.

Josh, i'm on my second one and it's not great. Fair bit of bog will be needed to straight it out not to mention the rusty areas.

Ok, i'm going to extend the search to include really nice '56-'57 4-tab Oval hoods. Anyone have a nice one of those?

We are going to swap the early inner frame structure onto a much nice later 4 tab hood and be done with it.

They can be metal finished quite well with a bit of time and effort. Bugboy metal finished on that was totally fucked in a car accident and he's no panel beater. Surely a bit of effort will bring it up nice. It looks solid which is rare in itself

We're a long time dead mate...

I get what ya doing and trying to achieve, a nice job etc, but.... Get a bonnet, paint it and stick the car... Then drive and enjoy...

Do as I say not as I do

A bonnet is the first thing to cop stone chips to.... If I was to repaint any part of my car it would be my bonnet but I figured just that.... It will cop stones etc and until it looks well fucked ima leave it. I agree with the other boys... A solid early 4 tab is like rocking horse shit

repairing would be the best option. iv not seen many four tab bonnets in excellent condition, if it was me id repair the one you have, its in much better shape than half of the shit i fix at vw performance centre... just my two cents good luck either way mate, will keep an ear out for one

Thanks guys, as always some insightful advice.

I think the bottom line is my panel shop are now very busy, so it's easier for them to get me to bring another hood than spend their time fixing this one.
It's a bit annoying because I don't think they have any idea how rare the early hoods are, and they seem to thing I can just 'get another one' as it's only a beetle right?
I agree the out curve has many dents in it, but surely?

I might go pick up the hood and show it to a few guys and get some quotes, might be worth my while to have it repaired independantly, primed and then take it back to be painted with the rest of the car, because I can't see transferring and early inner skin, to a later hood that easy of an exercise either, and will more than likely never be 'quite right'.

no use taking it else where ,you need it on that body when repairing it

jnr356 wrote:no use taking it else where ,you need it on that body when repairing it

And herein, lies the problem

Just tell them how hard it is find one even as good as the one you have. If they don't get it, they shouldn't be working on the car.

Will reinforce it this week.

Or suggest to them as a panel shop that they source one... Given it's that easy

type3disease wrote:Or suggest to them as a panel shop that they source one... Given it's that easy

WINNER!

The main concern my beater has is that the outside curve has many small dings and he doesn't want to have to skim the whole thing with filler and says it'd be better to have an outer skin that is straighter to start with, and unpick these hinge points and weld them onto a new skin.
He says to fix the rust under the hinge point metal, they have to be unpicked anyway, so why not re weld them back onto a straight outer skin.

A couple of pics of my ACTUAL current early 4-tab.
These are thumbails as the original are large to see good detail (albeit iphone pics)
To see in full side, when you click the thumbnail, click the little magnifying logo in the bottom right corner of the image box TWICE to 'view full size'.

any other bonnet is gonna need work,if not more