Sunny (Joy's 75 Convertible Bug) is about to undergo a major (but ultra low budget) amature restoration.
I'll be pulling the body off to deal with some rust and replace the driver's side pan. I've already replace the passenger side with the body on. There is some rust through on the top/inside of the passenger side heater channel beside the battery. It's under the back seat, so I'm not worried about how the repair looks. What really worries me about the heater channel is the internal heat pipe is rusting away from the inside out near the vent, and when I bolted the new floor pan, I broke off one bolt and two of the other bolts broke their welded-in nuts loose. I would like to drill out the spot welds and remove the support rail and bottom plate from the heater channel, then remove the internal heat duct and get rid of ALL of the internal rust. I'm afraid if I just patch the outside now, I'll be needing a heater channel replacement in two or three years. Has anyone here every done anything like this? I'm not a body man . . . I'm 110% open to any tips or advice!
While I have it apart, I'm thinking about trying to replace the heat duct with PVC or some other type of plastic pipe. Plastic pipe would be less prone to sweating during the heating/cooling cycles this duct goes through wouldn't it? I know it wouldn't rust, but if it sweats excessively the outer part of the heater channel would rust from the inside.
