The Cal-look Lounge

This '63 was bought by a family friend, Gary, back in '74 as a stocker... a few years later it was wrecked, and became the subject of a Baja project like many VW's back then... But this was to be an all out race car. Gary, being a welder/fabricator/VW shop owner, did all the work himself, including building the cage, body lift, 10" wider beam, etc. But about 25 years ago, progress stopped, and the project sat until 2 years ago when my uncle Terry decided to buy it from Gary. Short story long, now it's turned into dual purpose street/offroad car, and I'm the lucky guy who gets to put in a full headliner, carpet, and make it civilized ::)

So, first things first, the headliner. Got a grey perforated vinyl headliner from Wolfsburg West, and went to work. B pillars are tough enough to get right in a stock application, this one had the claws removed from the B pillar, and ohh yeah, BARS EVERYWHERE! Took me quite a bit longer than average to get them in place, but they're in. I sewed the horizontal piece to the vertical B pillar piece just like factory... not like this car is anywhere close to being stock, but it's just what I do! The portion in the rear is left loose for now, it goes over the C pillar part later. I wanted to put some pinch welt over the flange on the B pillar where the claws once were, but the roll cage was unfortunately just too close to the body to fit it in :-\

Good job, Zach! 8)

cool.  I am helping my son with a similar car.  keep the pics coming.

It will fun to watch this project -- I have never had to Baulz to try something like this -- -- more pics please

nice work so far!

Thanks guys. I'm trying to fit it in, I've got way too many projects going on right now. Gotta pull that fuel tank so I can get to the rear a little easier...

Little by little... Just finished the rear window surround, this is murder on my back!

Fucking nightmare job from hell.

The pics make it look so easy! :D

Those C pillar pieces that run the length of the roof usually take me about 30 minutes per side. I've got over 2 hours each in these.

I really hate this car.

Wow Zach... Impressive!

Thanks Rick, comments like that really keep me going.
Once the headliner is done it should be pretty smooth sailing. I'll have to do carpets up from scratch (kit wouldn't fit in this), but I enjoy doing custom fit carpets.

Zach your doing an awesome job

Gotta be a challenge working around that cage.

if it were easy, anybody could do it. After my ghia headliner, which I'm told is the easiest headliner to install, I will leave it to the pros. what a bitch that was

Yep, Ghia's are comparitively easy ;)

Thanks guys. I've been fighting on and off with the U shaped piece that goes around the front and sides, it's really giving me hell. No room to get my hands in between the bars on the corners. Going to give it another go here in a sec...

Nice work, Zach... that's looking pretty damn sweet.  I may attempt a headliner in my '70 if I ever get it painted... mainly because I can't afford to pay a shop to do it.  I've got a video from California Pacific and I have no intentions of this car being a show car, so I figure there's only one way to learn. ;d

There's normal difficulty and then there's extra added difficulty. This is definitely "Boss Level" difficulty  ;D