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.