Basically I had a little project that got out of hand, you know how that happens I'm sure. My Daughter bought a '68 VW Bug that was my mothers. It had been constructed out of parts of about 38 other VW's (a particular passion of his) by my father, and mom had driven it for about 15 years, and parked it. My daughter saved her money and bought it to drive to High School, and College. Well as things normally go on College campuses it got wrecked. Not her fault, another student was out in space, and pulled out, directly in front of her, and whammo. Busted Bug! SO began the project. Along the way I got broken a couple times myself, I bought another VW to replace it while I ordered the necessary parts to fix the family car ( the '68 is a family heirloom) correctly. It lasted a total of about three hours and got wrecked, my wife and daughter ran into each other in New York but that's another story. I rebuilt it, and returned it to New York. The transaxle went out , we thought it was the clutch which we changed in a parking lot in about two hours. I learned so much on that car I can't even tell you all of it here, anyway the rear hub was stripped which we discovered in a parking lot in an Ice storm, just before the heater core in the truck we were towing with, blew and we towed it back in sub zero temperatures. Another car was purchased to replace it. A Buick SkyHawk, That was a real car. But this is a Volkswagen Tirade so back to the point.
New Rocker Panels 
Actually they are "air channels" on a Volkswagen, I bought a pair of them from the same company. I didn't notice until I had tried to put them in, that the first set were mismatched, of course the one they sent to replace it, was NOT the match for the one that was fully welded in. So I had to remove the one out that was fully welded in, and it used quite a bit of good metal to do that, but I am an amazing welder in some respects, mostly that I don't know what is impossible, so I guess I just did what needed to be done. Anyway, I have been putting new metal in all the places that rusted away since the car was new. I am amazed at how much of the cars strength is related to these two "tubes". They were pieced together when my dad rebuilt the car and 23 years later destroyed in the wreck at the college. In fact it was a 4 month fight with the insurance company to keep them from scrapping it. I had experience with the system required by Ohio to put a "Salvaged Title" car back on the road. That is the most ridiculous waste of money and time I was involved in (previous to my involvement with Worker Comp). I was sure they couldn't come up with a more restrictive, ignorant system, then I got involved with WC and realized, yes they can. Meanwhile, I have been replacing everything I can with good steel. I know it's easier and acceptable to use body filler or fiberglass to do such things, but I like to weld and I only get better, the more I do it. So I weld and grind, and weld and grind, and weld and grind, eventually you won't be able to tell where it's repaired, I hope.
The Front End
In fact, the brunt of the accident was absorbed by the front. It collapsed, a beautiful design principal but a bit of a pain to replace. I couldn't find anywhere to obtain an actual measurement, it seems the only thing a shade tree mechanic can do, is fit the front end to the hood. But the problem was I never had a hood and it would have been crushed anyway. Of course that being the case you would think I'd buy a new one for the car, but it doesn't get a hood like you might think. Did I mention the car had a "Rolls Royce Kit" on it? You know, with the large chrome square grill "and should have had dual headlights", and the "Continental" rear deck lid. The engine was OK, and hopefully unhurt, but that's an easy thing to fix later. I have removed and replaced the engine in under two hours in parking lots before, so the engine is not a worry. Actually I am just trying to get the body back on the wheels before I have a little surgery, which has promised to make me unable to do anything physical for about 6 weeks. So I'm pounding along at a high rate of speed to get this thing rewheeled.
This is the black 65 bug that was purchased to replace the 68 after the accident. about three years after the accident . It had a terrible life for a few months but that is a long and draawn out story I don't have time to tell today, but I will make another page, it really deserves its own page, or two, as the case may be. I'll try to get all the pertinent facts up to speed and find some pictures to support them. 
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