Engine bay, door post and zinc paint

We trimmed off a lot of the engine bay bodywork today, the stuff that a full-bodied Beetle needs but a Baja can do without.....like the metal that goes over the gearbox area and the side trays that form the engine bay.
With a full-bodied car this metalwork is essential to duct cooling air to the engine and keep any hot air produced by the engine away from the cooling air intake - it works very well but it also relies on having a closed engine compartment including an engine lid.......
With a Baja there is no engine lid, or much else for that matter, so there's no point in keeping the metal.

We even removed the louvre panel behind the air intake grille, Matt has always moaned about the nasty state of this area and how it would be impossible to paint.
He's right, it was totally manky and the car looks way better without it.

You couldn't do this on a standard bug
We had lunch, Salmon Goujons and chips this time, before starting on the remaining door post bottom repair.

Here's Matt prepping the area for the new panel
The new panel went into place as easy as the first and looks even better, even if I do say so myself!
More butt-welding....fnarr fnarr!

Matt dressing the welds on the repair - go sparky!

I skanked some zinc-rich cold-galv spray in aerosols from a company that came to my workplace, we sprayed some on the repaired areas.......looks sweet!

A shot showing how much work has been done to the front end

I also skanked some bright finish zinc-rich cold-galv spray which looks the bomb on the area behind the rear grille, it's nigh on a perfect match for the original VW silver....
Next time we'll be fitting the driver's side front inner wing repair and closing the awkward bit over the torsion bar at the back.......