arctic alice, early sixties cal-look

[karl h]

after a 69 bay, three 67s und a 72 i now want to do a car for myself (i promise)
my 61 panel project is on halt due to money and skill shortage (man, its expensive to restore a bus), i turned to the 63 shell i have on the rotisserie. this is how i got it:
(fairly) cheap, no doors/hoods/fenders included, besically just a lot of rust with a dented roof. but its the year of my birth, so i will give it a go

[karl h]

i parted out a 59 that was too far gone, but the rest of the missing sheet metal was there, along with all the hardware to assemble a complete car.
the sunroof comes from this car, a metal only localy manufactured baja, that used a lot of Kübel parts (notice the Notek wartime drivinglight)

[karl h]

on saturday i will hop into the car with Mexx and get a 69 IRS pan from Oliver in upper Austria, this will be the foundation of the project.
i have lots of parts for this, it will use all the good parts i saved when i sold my oval ragtop:
993 front brakes with drop spindles and aluminium Brembo calippers
944 rears with 944 adjustable springplates
901 trans that Mexx regeared for me
engine will be a WBX 2.1 that is later going into the panel, but it will have to do until the 84x97 nickie motor ist done
paint will be arctic L363 with dark blue ragtop and light grey interior (i think)
i have 5.5/6 hearts i have redone and a set of early porsche steelies to make it a roller, but i wont tell the final wheelchoice yet...

[karl h]

the body is really bad, lots of "repairs". i braced it before taking out the heaterchanels. right side chanel could be taken out by hand 

[vwhelmot]

Good stuff. Subscribed.

[karl h]

thanx Lyndon!
looks like this now. about every replacement metal will be necessairy. why do i do this? i just have a soft spot for cars no one else would rescue    and to be honest: most of the stuff you get nowadays is pretty rusted through in this neck of the woods. why pay a lot of money for a car that looks better, but basically needs the same work to do it right
the best part is the front clip, it has been hit, but not too serously. i may be able to save it

[Neil Davies]

Good project, looking forward to it developing. That nose does seem saveable - just gentle tapping, bit by bit.

[karl h]

Thanx Neil for chiming in. There was actually a crease (the rusted vertical line) i was able to straighten out. Just having a glass of wine and loking at it now  

[vwhelmot]

It's because all beetles have a heart just like Herbie 😂

[karl h]

since the rear bodymount on the drivers side had been removed with a cutoff wheel, i had to adress this wheelwell first to get a good solid mounting of the body on the rotisserie. i constructed two removable arms to the more forward positioned mountingholes in the body

[karl h]

then i cut out the rusty part

[karl h]

and welded in the repairpanel

[karl h]

some more sheetmetal came in. these are the better quality heater chanels, no seam on the bottom and no blind stamping of the later heateroutlet in the middle. they are empty though, no heater ducting inside, just a little bend under the vertical pipe. i think splits also had no heater ducting stock. since this will be no winter car i can live with that. when the heater is on it will dry out all of the moisture in the chanel,so this has a small benefit

[karl h]

the pan is here, a 69 irs from an automatic, rust free
i think i will have it sandblasted, but first i have to make a few adjustments: clutch tube and oil lines for a front oilcooler, as well as modify it to accept the porsche shifter and 901 fivespeed. some notches for the 944 adjustable trailingarms, remove the stock jackpoints (i hate these )

[Frenchy Dehoux]

  Great project i will follow your progress !!!

   Frenchy

[Neil Davies]

Pan looks like a good basis. I always chop the jacking points off too - they're just water traps. Are you sticking with the balljoint framehead or changing for linkpin? I remember being told years ago that the linkpin/IRS combination is the best handling one.

[Nico86]

Great project, keep us updated about the work. I like that Baja too  You certainly can get money for your project by selling these Kubel parts for a good price.

[karl h]

thanx for the interrest, guys!
i will keep the balljoint front beam, my dropped spindle/porsche brake combo fits it. sadly the rest of the "baja" was not mine, so no selling of parts....

[karl h]

passenger side wheelwell is repaired, both rear bodymounts are now functional

[karl h]

i was now able to take out the driversside heaterchanel

[karl h]

i cut off the stock jackpoints next and mounted the new heaterchanels to the pan with all screws. i did not tighten them all the way to be able to make minor adjustments.
after mounting the front beam to get the locating points of the body i will lower the body on the pan next

[karl h]

beam is mounted

[karl h]

using my electric winch i lowered the body onto the pan. this simplyfies this action a lot for a one-man-show like me

[karl h]

i will have to shorten the rear bodymounts, since it turned out that the 63 has these protruding further down. the 69 IRS pan has the later style, so there is 5cm to cut off. i was aware of this early body/late pan problem, but didnt know when the pans got the higher mounting points

[karl h]

shortened, the body now sits on the pan how it should

[karl h]

there is not much left where i can weld the body to the heaterchanels, but it will be enough: front firewall, a-pillar, b-pillar and the inner sidewall

[karl h]

before any welding can be done the doorgaps have to be checked, even with a brace. this is used to manipulate the a-pillar to the correct position

[karl h]

after some fiddling i ended up with acceptable doorgaps. heaterchanels are welded now.
the screw-plate of the a-pillar is very weak, missing its inner part of the pillar and the outer skin in the wheelwell, this will have to be adressed next

[karl h]

the a-pillars are now done from the inside

[karl h]

some more wok done to the left side heaterchanel/sidewall