More Progress

I got the front hood handle installed. All the little bits and pieces that have been littering the house over the past few months, are slowly migrating into the garage.












The left rear "area" is pretty much complete. All brake lines are in, the parking brake cable is installed and connected. The brake drum is on, but the axle nut is not installed yet, I still need to clean up the threads.

I also installed the heater cable that will operate the heater boxes off the engine.

Busy Night!

Got the front brake drum installed. They are brand new so they look darn pretty.











The deck lid inside latch that was zinc plated has now been installed along with the little rubber anti-rattle things (the little black circles on either side of the latch.












The outer latch was installed as well. It's the little victories.













The pedal assembly was installed tonight as well. It was a busy night!

Body on a stand!

I built a stand for the body. It is great, I can keep the chassis under it until it is ready to drop it down onto it. It might be too high, I actually think that I would not be able to get it out of the garage if I had to, haha. Everything has wheels, so it can be moved around the garage.

The only problem, as I have mentioned, is it is too freakin' cold in the garage to keep working. Anyone want to donate a pellet stove, feel free!!!!

Wheel Bearing Packed!

I had the great fun of hand packing all my front wheel bearings. Just sitting back, watching TV, with a hand full of grease. I hope to get the front drums on sometime this week. I also want to get bumper brakets on so I can get the body lifted over the body chassis. This will free up space in the garage so my wife can park her car in it.

Got the bearing races in tonight. The first drum took a while, but then I figured out how it's done and breezed through the second one in about half the time. Now all I need to do is pack the bearings and I can install the front drum. I am waiting on new axle nuts to the rear

Transmission Installed

The transmission is in and bolted up. Actually went in pretty easy. The next step will be putting in the rear bearings and the rear brakes.

Here is an overview of the frame, starting to look like a car again.

Front Axle Beam Attached

One huge step toward completion! The axle beam is now reattached to the chassis. I even managed to get the front brake backing plates attached

Zinc Plate and Front Axle

My mounting hardware is back from the Zinc Plater. They look great, can't wait to start sticking stuff back together. With winter upon us, it is tough to go to a cold garage.

Here is the front axle all stripped of paint,

undercoating, and grime. It is sitting on the dining room floor, I brought it inside to let the metal warm up, so it will take paint better. You can see it resting on my front seats!

It Must Be Love...

Well, got my backing plates all back together, with shoes, wheel cylinders, and parts. I say it must be love because see the table all those parts are on? That is my wife's antique dining room table. How many others would let their husbands do this on the dining room table. We actually used the parts as a center piece for this evenings dinner!

Undercover

Not a big update, I got a car cover, to protect her from the dust and dirt flying around the garage.

Got An Engine!

Well, I actually found a complete >>RUNNING<< 1967 engine, with the correct air cleaner and generator. I am hoping to get it on my test stand, and will be posting a video of it running. Granted it needs a muffler, but it is still way cool. I will be going through it, and keep the results posted!

Backing plates done

The backing plates are finally done! The biggest challenge was the little leaf springs that hold the adjusting stars in place. All mine were broke off. I tried to research on how this could be fixed, by suggestions were a little vague, so you can see on the picture below on what I did. The brakes on the Classic VW are manual adjusting, which means that every so often you need to jack the car, insert a screwdriver through the drum and rotate the stars to tighten the brakes. Without the leaf springs, the star could back off, and cause the brakes to be less effective.

I drilled an 1/8 hole throuh the new little leaf spring (from Wolfsburg West) and drilled into the plate. I dripped some loctite in the hole and put in a #6 x 1/2 sheet metal screw to hold it together

Body Home!

The body came home yesterday, on the 30 mile trip home, I got a few chips and rub marks, but not too bad.I spend most of the afternoon, just staring at her. I flipped the chassis over and installed the master cylinder. I am hoping to get the chassis parts on this week, so I can get the body placed on the chassis by the end of next week.

Here is the info on the guy that did it, he did an awesome job!!!

Mark Massey

OldVWs Restoration

2542 Sunnybrook Dr.

Green Bay, WI 54313

920-609-2921

Chassis DONE!!!

I have finished painted the chassis yesterday with a coat of Eastwood Chassis Black. Looks pretty good, I never used a HVLP paint gun before, and the one I bought was $14.99 on from Harbor Freight, so the quality wasn't there, but still managed to get it done. Also, it is the bottom of the car, so it really won't be seen too much, but I know it is paint and pretty.

Also, yesterday, got word that my car is done!!!! I am so excited, Mark in Green Bay is just finishing up replacing the ball joint on the front beam, and then I shall pick her up!

Chassis Bottom Painted

Well, the bottom of the chassis got painted this morning, I was hoping to get a coat of Chassis Black on tonight, but work had a different plan. I got the joy of working and extra 3 hours, and being I didn't want piss off the neighbors at 10pm running my air compressor.

All my mounting hardware is in the process of getting zinc platted.

Painted Chassis

The top of the chassis is painted! It is covered with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. I put on the first coat in the early afternoon, and just got finished putting on the second coat tonight. It seems to be drying a little slow, so I was planning to flip the chassis tomorrow and paint the bottom, but I think I will give it a full day to dry. I am guessing with how cool it is, it my be taking some time to dry.

I got the pedal assembly all repainted

Pan replacement

I decided to replace the floor pans, because, even though they appeared to be great, after I stated stripping the undercoat, I found the metal thinned out greatly and lots of little pin holes all over the place. I am guessing that from living on the Gulf Coast (Sarasota, FL) that salt spray, and salty water getting stuck between the metal and undercoating did some secret rusting. Plus they were dented from years of running over stuff. I got a pair of Wolfsburg West pans. They are great, very thick, they look great.

in paint

passenger side pan replace!

OMG! Look at how beautiful she looks!

Chassis Progress

Chassis clean up is very slow going, :(

That stupid 43 year old undercoat is just a pain in the a$$. I had a friend from work over for a couple of hours the other night, he scraped and scraped for hours. Thanks Matt! Also found out that the rear fender I had, will not work, appartently they are in bad shape, and may fail, and crack, so the search is on for new fenders. BOOOO!

The front axle beam was dropped off this morning in Green Bay. Mark up at VW Restorations will be replacing the ball joint and tie rod ends. He is also the guy who is taking care of the body and paint.

sandblasting parts complete

On Sunday, 01 August, I finally got all my little parts sandblasting. I have started putting my "Z-Bar" back together. Then on to putting the brakes together.

Here is the transmission, cleaned and painted. I know that you will never really see the tranny, but I will know it is clean and shiny!

You can actually see the ribs. It did take a while to get all the little nooks and crannies cleaned out, but the results are awesome!

The Chassis

Here is the chassis as of about last week. The tar boards just popped right off, and it looks pretty darn good, overall

The worst part of the chassis. A nice big hole under the battery. I will be ordering the replacement metal soon. My goal was to have the chassis all finished by the end of July, but, that ain't going to happen, so, I am no moving that date back to the end of August. All that darn working and quality family time!

Here is a nice picture of the transmission. It is just a little dirty. 43 years of leaking gear oil, sand, dirt, road gravel creates, well, pretty much concrete. It has been cleaned now.

Stripped

As of today, I have the chassis stripped down, the tranny cleaned, and the body is stripped down, and being built back up!

The Story

I grew up with a beetle, my Mom had a 1968 Savannah Beige Auto stick, she bought brand new. I was born in ’73 so my earliest memories include that bug. We moved to Florida in 1988, and left the bug behind. 20 years of Wisconsin winters and road salt had taken its toll. But, no matter what , beetle were in my blood.
In summer of 1992 my parents moved back to our home state of Wisconsin. I brought my beetle and began the restoration. On March 13th 2000, the place where my beetle was stored was foreclosed on. One day the movers came and took everything including my ’67 and ’72. I got a hold of the company and they said I needed to “pay $150 in towing fees” to get the cars back. The owner of the foreclosed property told me not to get them yet because he was going to sue the bank for grand theft and he would give me part of the settlement. A few months went by and I decided to get my car anyway but the number was now disconnected. I tried to locate where they went but just like that the cars were gone.

Over the next few years I owned a couple more bugs, a 74 standard, a 56 sunroof, and was restoring another 56, that I had to sell when I was laid off from my pilot job at United Airlines in 2008. On 14 March, 2010, ten years and one day from the loss of my Beetle, I got home from work late, sat down, fired up the laptop, and opened Craigslist. An ad caught my eye “67 and 73 Bug $600” I clicked on it, I said “Holy err ‘Cow’” My wife knew right away. There was pictures of my cars, I laughed and told my wife this guy got the year of the SB wrong. I went and picked my 67 the next day, although it sucked that I had to buy the car twice, even though I had the title. A friend said I showed up with the Sheriff, said the car was stolen 10 years ago, and just taken my car, since I had the title, I was just happy to get her back. The car was stored in a barn, it was still in great shape, but a lot of the small parts, which I had removed some 15 years earlier, were missing, as well as the rear fenders. It turned out that the company that removed the cars went out of business shortly after I talked to them. This other guy got them, and stored them for ten years, when yet another guy bought them, strip some parts, and put them on Craigslist a few days later, when I saw them.

I have been searching the net for all the little and big parts, and the Samba has been a big help. The body is about 30 miles north of me getting her nose fixed, as well as a fresh coat of Lotus White. I have the chassis in my garage, getting all cleaned up. I am hoping that I can have it on the road by June of 2011.