Today were gonna take a look at a fairly simple change that can make a big difference in how your air-cooled VW looks. Many of us have cars that were painted with the fenders on. This is not bad at all. I had mine painted almost 10 years ago and I love it. It’s just since we are showing DIY type stuff that you don’t have to be a mechanic or mechanical savant to do, changing out the painted fender beading and putting black beading in seems very me capable.

Basically the plan is to loosen the fender and take this razor blade of minimal destruction and work it through both the body side and the fender side of the beading to break any paint that may have dried and sealed up between the beading and the car pieces. That way once we take the red beading out, it won’t rip off any of my paint.

Senior Mechanic John Bol was kind enough to set my car up on the lift. I also need to thank him for answering all my questions and for not letting me mess up too bad. He loves me….don’t tell him I said that, but yeah…..he does. Cool cat.

My photographer Fish and I decided to do the Date Night kill shot with the air gun. We laughed.

Anyway.

I took the wheel off so I could get to the fender bolts easier. Now….Chirco carries a kit that comes with the fender beading and all the necessary hardware.

https://www.chirco.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=205

I grabbed some wd-40 and sprayed the bolts and the area where the beading meets the body. I was concerned that I would break a bolt and then have a bad day. I knew we had our full kit, but still.

I just took my time and loosened each bolt. It wasn’t that bad at all.

After that since we did our little razor blade move earlier, the beading just popped right out.

On a side note: I found a pretty good use for the old fender beading.

Next I did a little trick that Joe Chirco told me. I put masking tape on the new beading so when I fed it through it would have these little tabs that allowed me to adjust the beading position as I tightened the bolts.
target=”_blank”>Pretty smart Joe….pretty smart.

After that it was pretty easy. I just worked from back to front tightening mostly but not all the way until I got it lined up pretty good, then I went ahead and tightened all the bolts fully.

It was a pretty easy thing to do and it does make a difference. Big time thanks to the fellas at Chirco for overseeing from a distance…..it’s weird….overseeing seems a lot like relentless teasing, but I don’t mind. I appreciate the expertise.

In any case,  if you have any questions you can contact us at 1-800-955-9795, Or just shoot an email to newsletter@chirco.com.

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