I'm now looking at keeping my chassis but the framehead is pretty bad, I'm happy with welding and making up a jig etc etc.. My question is regarding the pattern panels: they look shocking quality wise; visibly distorted and welding that looks like it was done by a blind hedgehog....in a bag.



Which is the least rubbish / closest to OEM in your opinions?

I would talk to https://www.customandcommercial.com
Their stuff is normally pretty good

you will be lucky if the axle mounting bolts line up. If Gordons suggestion is no good a cut the rust out and fit new metal in the original is best.
Flags will tell you his aftermarket frame head horror story and let you know his valued opinion.

I have one on mine but did a lot of welding and tweaking before fitting as I had a 1302S floor.

Other option is to talk to Lee @ Volksmagic http://www.volksmagic.com.  Nice guy and has lots of experience with chassis restoration and modification

Hmmm strikes me that it'll be cheaper to just write this chassis off and find a replacement.

Thank you for the replies.

I would suggest selling it on then.  There are a finite number of these old chassis.

I think there is only 1 quality out there which out of the box are shocking quality but with a bit of work they can be made to work.

Before fitting I'd recommend bolting it to a beam to check the alignment of the bolt holes and if not good send it straight back.
If they are ok remove any seam sealer and check/reweld anywhere it needs it then it should be ok, I had 1 that the front face was coming away and 2 of the threaded tubes had broke away.

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

I'm pretty sure there's only one company making these and firms are just putting their own stickers on them. For such a complicated piece I guess we're lucky that anything is available as a repair panel, even if they do need a bit of 'fettling'. As Flags says, they do work but allow for a couple of hours grinding, welding and re-tapping threads. Any alternative chassis that you find will more likely need or have had work done in that area anyway.

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built or for that matter is it going to replace a chassis on one of those metal bodied things, you know a Beetle

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built.

In theory yes, but I'd still keep dealings with 'them' to a minimum if at all possible. I still recon they could give you a whole heap of headaches if the wrong person opened your envelope.

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built or for that matter is it going to replace a chassis on one of those metal bodied things, you know a Beetle

You forget that a lot of LWB ones still say Convertible on them 

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built or for that matter is it going to replace a chassis on one of those metal bodied things, you know a Beetle

You forget that a lot of LWB ones still say Convertible on them 

It is what it says on the tin then, a converted convertible VW, IMHO of course! 

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built or for that matter is it going to replace a chassis on one of those metal bodied things, you know a Beetle

You forget that a lot of LWB ones still say Convertible on them 

I thought "convertible" was OK,  am I wrong Dave?

I`d be looking at the V5 wording BEFORE thinking about selling a chassis these days

The metalwork may be easier to replace than the paperwork 

Wording doesn't matter if it's a LWB being built or for that matter is it going to replace a chassis on one of those metal bodied things, you know a Beetle

You forget that a lot of LWB ones still say Convertible on them 

I thought "convertible" was OK,  am I wrong Dave?

No, it's fine, the last lwb I built was inspected by a DVLA engineer at a VOSA test centre and he got the description on the V5C changed from saloon to convertible, buggy wasn't on his list at the time (5 years ago). He also had Beetle deleted from it so it just read 'VW Convertible, 1970'.