Yet another Project '66: Happiness definitely is a HotVW!

[Wünderwolff]

Yet another '66 on the Lounge!

I got it all torn down from Jelle aka LowFastBus.

Actually I traded for a red '68 convertible which in turn I had traded for my trusty 411 variant (I use the term trusty very loosely, the bitch never loved me and I hated her after she broke down and I had to fix her last winter, freezing my fingers on her frigid internals. And still she wouldn't run). I never even saw the convertible from up close, but even without driving it, soon decided it was nothing for me. So during EBI 2 Jelle and I made a deal. He got the Convertible and I got to work on my new '66 in his workshop.

[Wünderwolff]

The car was complete and Beige when its previous owner called Jelle to restore the car. It already looked quite good and taken care of, but the guy wanted it perfect. So Jelle starded sourcing a new body.

The guy also wanted it fast, which was not an option so he lost interest and the car stayed at Jelle halfway through its restoration, if you consider completely torn down half way 

I even had a hand in that. When dismantled, Jelle had to get rid of all the old metal. As the complete arse did not fit in the trailer and no grinding discs were to be found, there was nothing left to do but attack the old hulk with an axe. If you know me, you know me likes axing a lot 

[Lee.C]

please don't say you got rid of the Bulkhead - I really need an original panel 

[beetletom]

are you on crack!! 
that shell looks loads better than my 65!!!

or was it really rotten??? 

[Wünderwolff]

Sorry guys, but it seems some nice sheetmetal has gone to the scrapheap    In my defense I can raise that I didn't own the car at that time (except the bulkhead, I'm afraid that got scrapped under my reign, if only I had known it was yours for the taking Lee). So if any one is on Crack it must be Jelle 

The car is now back to its bare chassis again. And I started stripping it even more cleaning it in the process. Only rust on the chassis was surface rust in the battery tray and two holes either side at the jack supports. This rot has been cut out and replaced by new metal and the chassis is now rust free.

I power brushed the center of the chassis and have painted it gloss black with a paintbrush. It looks better on the pictures than in real life. But now is maybe the time to make clear that this will by no means be a show car. It will rather have to be a trusty every day driver, a bit spiced up in the back.

[Wünderwolff]

I also made a wishlist to clean up the front next weekend, baljoints and brakelines and such.

I'm having doubts about one thing though. The car will be running on BRM's (fake of course) 5,5 in the back and narrowed to 4,5 in front so the tires (125 or 135) will fit better on the wheels.

Will I run a stock widht beam or will I narrow it sligthly (max 2") so the tires are tucked just a little bit? I can get a cheap puma for stock width or I can narrow my current stock beam and then either make it adjustable or lower it permanently. The permanent (invisible) lowering would surely help in getting the car through inspection wich is a plus.

Any suggestions?

[lowfastbus]

are you on crack!! 
that shell looks loads better than my 65!!!

or was it really rotten??? 

Hi guys, I'm the one that cut up the body, it was not the worst i've seen but still needed lots off repairs.
All the old repairs had been done badly and it needed; channels, bumper hangers, nose,
 quarter panels front and back and the door pillars up front just to the roof.
I now have left the roof and rear valance, bulkhead has gone to the scrapheap some weeks ago 

Jelle

[donder]

hey tim, i'm lookin' for a frontaxle like your's.
i only need the tubes, no torsion bars of whatsoever,...

If you need my help, let me know,...


see ya

[Wünderwolff]

Yesterday I went to Jelle's Hide Out to work some more on the 66. I didn't get a lot done as Jelle was trying to get rid of a large concrete Cube in his workplace. It didn't take long to get me in destruction mode. We went at it with large hammers first, but this really made no sense. And on top I managed to hit out the light armature right above my head, showering me with shards of glass. That got my blood flowing  So Jelle went out to rent a large electrical jackhammer. And in turns we went at it for the next 3 hours, untill the tool decided to die on us. We only got halfway through the Cube, quality construction that is.

While not drilling away, I took of the front end of the car, cleaned up the head of the frame and gave it a lick of paint. Well there is still next week 

[j-f]

Try TNT, it works well 

[Wünderwolff]

This is my frame minus the front end.

And in the back is me, trying to decide if I should run a new fuel line through or next to the tunnel. If I want it in the tunnel, now is the time, but how do I get it fixed to the frame so it isn't dancing around in the tunnel? And what do I use, simple copper piping?

[Wünderwolff]

I already had 1 original door to my car, badly welded up and some issues on the hinges, and I bought the right side door last month with some welding on the bottom. On both I also had to weld the trim holes and all this with a tight deadline 

But yesterday I picked up two very nice doors for my 66. Actually these are the doors that fit my replacement shell  And as the shell came welded up to go trimless, so do the doors. So all that is left to do on these is to strip them and install one piece windows. How to get a few hours work done in just one 

And I also have a steering wheel on the way, a nice Porsche one with butterfly hornpush. It needs refurbishing and I might need to massage it a bit to make it fit the Bug. But it sure will give my car some allure.

EDIT: oh and last week I cleaned and narrowed my front axle. I'm waiting for the adjusters to lower it and paint it. I know not everyone likes the narrowed look, but what is 6 inches anyway  (Just kidding, I only cut out a small 2"). I hope it will tuck my wheels just enough for the tires not to rub on the fender. I compared to Jelles car which is running 5,5" wheels with 135 tires. These lean to the centre of the rim as the rim is to wide for them. I will be running 4,5" with 135 tires so these will be pretty straight on the wheels. We'll see what it looks like.

[Wünderwolff]

Yet another day scrubbing pans  Not a fun job, especially with Jelle convincing me to strip the chassis down more and more. I really would like to start to build up, but it makes sense to put the painted chassis against the wall (just need to finish the forks) and start welding the shell.

What I did however, is run a second hard fuel line through the tunnel, making it exit in the right side fork leg, looks like it should have been like this from the factory. This job was so easy, I would recommend it to everyone, just need to finish it of with a spot weld to attach it to the frame. I took a slightly thicker tube, so when I will run that hopped up engine it will get fed enough juice. And I will have the (standard) fuel return line if I ever choose to go Turbo or Injection 

And then we put the shell on a piedestalle. It's a bit worse than hoped for, with some unexpected rot in the left rear bumpersupport and schockmount. But all in all this is a very solid shell.

[Wünderwolff]

Yesterday I went to Ninove again to do some more work on the leftside of my 66. I started hacking into the front fenderwell, where I cut out a 30 by 5cm strip at the bottom. I also cleaned up the door frame bottom where I removed the clamps for the tapistry. I will be removing all these fixtures throughout the car as I'm going carpetless. Boy, will I someday regret this  Then I moved further backwards where I removed the remains of the bodymounts and some of the fenderwell not bigger than said bodymounts. All the way at the back I removed the rear apron to make it removable for easy engine installs. Too little work done, too little time before next season 

I will be ordering some sheetmetal at GAS this week, so next weekend I can start welding the left side of the car. Then on to the right side, that looks a little worse around the back of the heater channel, but we'll see how it turns out. I have to keep reminding me this will be a driver, not a showcar.

Maybe Jelle can take and post some pictures if he thinks it's worthwile.

Edit: Ow, nearly forgot, CSP adjusters were delivered, so next week I'll finnish the front axle.

[lowfastbus]

here's how it looks now... a mess

[lowfastbus]

Tim did some work this weekend... left side heater channel is solid again

[Wünderwolff]

Well, to be honest, I spread the work over two weekends. But only both sundays. You have to take into account I'm a novice in welding sheetmetal. I'm used to welding boats, real manly constructions in real steel, not girlie, less than 1mm tinfoil 

But slowly I'm getting there. I'm not too happy with the front fix (although it isn't all that bad) but the end of the heaterchannel is a nice weld. And I certainly improved on the tripleskinned rear corner, the one just above the heatertubes. We even hammered the pressing back in the upper piece of sheet metal.

I don't know if I'll meet the Ninove deadline, but I'll keep on trying 

[Wünderwolff]

Today I started on my one-piece window doors.

I bought an Ompi One-Piece window set through my friend at GAS and immediately bought an extra set of bugpack snap-in sashes, hoping for the best. Turned out the snap-in sashes were exactly the same crappy rubbers as the Ompi ones, both straight as I am and with felt sprayed on (wonder how long that will last  ) only difference being that there are pre-punched holes in the Bug-Packs. Well, be what it is, I'll make them fit.

Luckily they included a work-description in the set  So I set out on demolishing a set of perfect doors (perfect exept someone already welded the trim holes  ) The window was out soon enough, had to help a bit with the felt channel and finally out came the quarter window. Then, according to the manual, I was supposed to take the hammer and chissel and bash the shit out of the door to loose the quart. win. support. Perfect path to filler if you ask me, lots of it. So out came the grinder for a bit of sparkles. In theory I then would drill the the extra holes for the sashes, but that is just impossible  How the hell do I get my drill in there  Well I'll fix that later than. I put the regulator channel on the new window and assembled the door just to make sure I would not regret. And lo and behold, it works great  After respray I'll install all rubbers and channels and then I'll have to adjust here and there, but it looks prommissing.

Oh, and remember I had two sets of sashes. Well I already wanted to practice curving them, so I cut up the Ompi's. And even that will work and look rather good. Like everyone says, I have cut in the rubber to be able to curve it a bit. I'll use an excess of glue, but at the front there is no metal enough to glue to. But I bent the metal in the rubber over and now it kind of grabs what little metal there is. Glue again and I think it will work.

When I finalise I'll take some good pics, for now just a cell phone pic to show what I'm up to. Isn't it wonderfull how loosing the quarter windows makes the doors so much sleeker.

[Wünderwolff]

If you go up a bit, you can see pictures of a some metal missing in the rear fender well. That gaping hole has now been filled. 

I had cut out as little rusted metal as I could. Luckily, because the sheetmetal (repro) was awfull but I was able to reduce it to a very small piece. And because I drilled the spotwelds of the repro metal, I could hide most of the new welds with the outer panel, which was welded back spotweld style. Another benefit of splitting up the repro piece of shit, was that the innerskin was quite easy to form and weld in (visible from inside if you run without carpetting) as it was far from a perfect fit. But I managed, and from the inside, very little filler will be needed for a nice result. The way the outerskin was welded on is less perfect, imagine a large hamer and lots of cursing to get it to fit slightly. I have some gaps, but nothing that can't be helped by a bit of weld seam paste thing It is behind the wheel, so who cares?

[lowfastbus]

The pictures...

[Wünderwolff]

Friday, after half a day at work, I went to weld some more in Ninove, home of everything topless.

I finished the two fender-attachment-holes that I had to replace, ground of the spotwelds on the chassismount in the rear fenderwell and finally (almost) finished welding on the left side of my car by cutting and replacing the bumper support. For once the repro part was a perfect fit. Still it took me ages to get it all lined up because it turned out the fender was a repro as well  Piece of shit was 1" too long, I wonder how this ever fit on the assembled car? Finally I took the original fender from Messies car and much to my likings all was well. I had only lost about two hours of messing about  Today, I'll re-install the sidetray I had to cut to fit the bumper support and grind welds some more and hopefully we'll be able to turn the body around to asses the damage/work to be done on the right side 

[besserwisser]

It wouldnt hurt to put some bracing inside the body when you have it hangin on two places. It doesnt take much to get a body out of wack. Ti sure makes fitting the doors easier.

[Wünderwolff]

Thanks Hans, but will it flex even when you don't have to do welding to the body itself?

And what would you suggest for bracing? Maybe support the shell on two wooden 2by4's going from support to support, as if it would be on the chassis?

[Russell]

Wow and i got a hard time for building a race car out of a 65 ! That shell should have been saved. Pity.

Anyway like the work should be one hell of a ride good luck.

[Lee.C]

we all gave these guys a bit of a hard time too so don't worry 

[lowfastbus]

Tim started on the right rear side and found this "nice" repair... I'll let him tell the rest.

[Wünderwolff]

This was actually the only repair I planned on doing  But it is so hard to turn away from a bad spot of rust, hence all the other work done.

I wanted to get this fixed because somewhere when the car was still young someone had already replaced the right bumper mount. What they did was use a blow torch to cut the old crap out (including taking a bite out of the engine side trays) and welding in a new part with a 5 cm overlap. You can barely see the overlap in the pictures Jelle posted. And they did not even close the overlap so rust could easily eat its way out from under there. To make things worse, they used a late models bumpermount 

So out came the cutter. The new repro piece has again been cut as small as possible, but as you can see it is still mighty big. But I did manage to cut out most of the badly formed pressing. I fitted it all up, hope I can weld it in on wednesday, as a new years gift to my '66 

[besserwisser]

When I did my -67 I just used the doorhinge and the door strikingplate,made some plates to fit and weded some bracing between them. I have seen cars that have been on stands for a long time with bad heaterchannels sag and it doesnty take much to make the door fit poorely. The good thing about bracing is that you dont have to worry when you move your supports around.  The best places for support is under the front where the two bolts are for the pan and at the end of the pan in the rear. I once saw a guy cut both heaterchannels at the same time without bracing . When trying to fit the doors he gave upp scrapped the whole car. Keep up the good work and see you at Bug In next year.

[lowfastbus]

Some more work done to the Tim's 66, let him do the explanations...

[Wünderwolff]

Thanks Jelle 

Triggered by the butchering of Zach and AssHull I was triggerhappy with the grinder. Jelle tried to stop me as the shell had a perfect dash, but as I already had cut out all heating, all channels and clamps for interior, and most of all because I like the clean dash look, I went Mideaval on the metal.

Plan is to relocate the light/wiper switches to the ashtray area (I don't smoke anyway and hate unfunctional things in a car) and close the original holes, I already welded the radiohole, using the original cover for added strength and to prevent warping (I was a bit enthousiastic by that time so the hammer had to help a bit there, nothing a bit of filler can't help). I'll keep the glove compartment, gloves can come in handy with no heating  and mirror that on the left behind the sterring wheel, with some basic gauges in there. I don't know which ones yet, but by changing the panel, I'll always be able to easily change them to another layout. (Thanks Roland) And if I ever need more meters, I have a nice blank canvas where the radio used to be.

I also welded where the jack clamp used to be, some stray holes in the trunk, and the window washer and grab handle holes. I finished by choosing the color of the car