Louis' 66 Cal-look Build

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Hey Shubee,

I am just using the dash for filler material. There wont be any grab handle.

--louis

I would Leave the Holes like they are you could tell people the last guy that went for a Ride Soiled his pants and ripped the grab handle right off the dash   LOL ( GET IN HOLD ON AND SHUT UP) LMAO

[Wünderwolff]

And another dash bites the dust    

Way to go Louis   It will look great.

[louisb]

Check out these illustrations a friend and fellow VW nut Tony Zampino drew for me. Its a spin on the old "Lone Wolf, No Club" plaques that hotrodders use. Since there are no clubs of the caliber of DAS or DKP in my area I am going to have a set of window stickers and a hood ornament made with this logo for the '66. There are two versions and I am not sure which one I will use yet. Probably not your traditional Cal-look club logo but I like it.

--Turll

[javabug]

Hey glad you got the art worked out, looks great.  Much better than what I was coming up with.

[peach_]

Im liking the 1st one alot 

[louisb]

This weekend's work. I split the shell from the pan so it would be easier to work on. The pan looks really nice:










Here some shots of the dash work I did over the weekend. Finished welding in the gauge filler section, filled the fuse box hole and tacked in the filler for the ash tray area. The last shot shows my solution for the turn signal and high beam indicators.











This last pics shows where I ground out about a quarter inch of filler. I knew the car had been hit in the drivers front quarter, I just was not sure how bad. Its hard to see in the pic but that area where the paint has been stripped is pretty bumpy and has been pushed in a bit. I am pretty sure I can hammer and shrink it out though so no filler is needed. I am just glad it is not any worse.




On the schedule for this week is more dash work.
--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Nice! Good to see the wheels are back in motion. Will you be using the '67 pan you already started on, or keep this one on it's original?

I will keep this one on its pan. I am kind of funny about things like that. I know where a Manx body is that may end up on the '67 pan.

--louis

I will keep this one on its pan. I am kind of funny about things like that.   What Happened Louis LMAO

[louisb]

After bitching about the heat for three weeks I finally sucked it up and went out to work on the '66 some tonight. I decided to start filling the trim holes and plan to weld a few each night. (Don't worry, I wont post each trim hole as I weld it up.    ) Mostly I just needed to make some sort of progress on the car. The dash mods have been wearing me out.


Driver's Side




Pass side. In the background you can see my seats which are waiting to be shipped to Zach G. (BTW Zach, if you read this I have changed my mind on the color again.  )




I have metal worked the first three here. This is about as far as I got tonight.







Okay, not a very exciting update. But it is progress. And as we know, all real Cal-look cars are dechromed. 

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Lookin' good!

Just let me know what the plans are. I've got AssHull's car to keep me busy until then

[louisb]

Spent about six hours today working on the '66 and finished filling all the trim holes. Still got to metal work a couple of them.


















Next up, shrinking out the hood emblem raised area.


--louis

[louisb]

Got pissed off at work today so I decided to go out and beat on the car some. Worked on shrinking the hood emblem area out. I have been wanting to try this since I saw it on Sarge's car. I wanted to see if I could shrink it out with the shrinking disc instead of a torch. The results are mixed so far. The shrinking disc seems to work but the metal is so thin at the top edge of the raised area it started to crack while I was working it with the hammer. (Beating on it.) I ended up running a weld bead around the edge to give it a little more thickness. This seems to be working. Here are a couple of in progress shots showing how far I got today.







In the pictures you can see I have raised up all the low spots and started to file the bead down some. Next I will shrink it back down with the shrinking disc. Man I can't wait for cooler weather.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Good work! I thought about doing that to AssHull's hood, but decided to keep it for a club badge or something, someday. Just the holes were shut.

[ugly duckling]

my god louis it seems you have your hands full just slighty this is the first time i poped on your thread. i dident realise what you were up to. you deffenetly have more energy than me. btw i like your good buddy ozzie he reminds me of my late alex. well you better get back to work it seems you have plenty to do. and keep up the great work!. give ozzie a milk bone bisket for me will ya .take care . JD.   

[louisb]

Thanks UD. I can't wait to get the motor put together, well have it put together, and hear it run.

--louis

[louisb]

I spent a couple of hours finishing up the hood emblem area. It came out really well IMHO, especially for someone who doesn't know what the 'ell they are doing.  I am hoping to have the custom hood emblem made in the spring. I am thinking it should be around 4 inches in diameter. The last pics shows my current thoughts for the car. Give me week and I will change my mind. 












Next up is the front over rider holes and the front fenders. I think I have decided to shave the signals but leave the horn grills. I am getting excited again.

--louis

[louisb]

I decided to whip up a tach mount this week. The tach I will be using is an Autometer mini-monster (3 3/8") . I think it is a little less obnoxious than the bigger tachs but still has the shift light. I had already purchased a Bugpack tach mount but didn't care for the looks once I got it, so I decided to keep the rotating tach base and build a new mount. I wanted something that was reminiscent of the mounts in the Berg cars and this is what i ended up with.


Getting fancy, I even used a template this time:




Couple of minutes with the drill press and then cut it out with the cutting wheel:







Make it pretty with the belt sander:




Spent a couple of hours hand sanding it smooth then mounted it in the car:
















I will fully polish it later. I thought about doing it by hand, but just that little bit wore me out. Time to buy a buffing motor. Not too bad for about six hours and $50 bucks including the original Bugpack mount.

--louis

[henk]

looks good,i had a support a bit like it but i changed it because it vibrate a lot.

henk!!!

[beetletom]

nice fab skills! 

[louisb]

I spent the past two weeks scraping undercoating from the wheel wells and installing some HiPacs from Hooky's Panel. In the process I managed to drip melted undercoating on my right hand an burn all the skin off a dime sized area of my pointer finger. And no it didn't feel good.    I did find that map gas and a scraper is still the best way to remove undercoating though.


This stuff is thick. Not sure why you would need undercoating on a car from Arizona. It only rains there three or four times a century.










The rest of it came off pretty easy with a wire cup brush on the grinder.




Installing the HiPacs from Hooky's. This is a real nice product. Too bad no one in the US carries them. Shipping was almost as much as the HiPacs.










This area gave me a bit of trouble. I had to shrink it out so that the cover would lie flat.










Here it is with the plug welds dressed







And finally the cover. I used some cheap black paint to keep it from rusting.







It took about 5 hours to get one side done. I will finish the other one when I get back from vacation in a few weeks.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

This stuff is thick. Not sure why you would need undercoating on a car from Arizona. It only rains there three or four times a century.

All day yesterday must have been one of those times

Looking good!!

[louisb]

This stuff is thick. Not sure why you would need undercoating on a car from Arizona. It only rains there three or four times a century.

All day yesterday must have been one of those times

Looking good!!

Its rained here every day since June. But its good to know it actually rains there since I just applied for a job in Scottsdale. Now I just need to go figure out where that is. 

--louis

[Neil Davies]

In the process I managed to drip melted undercoating on my right hand an burn all the skin off a dime sized area of my pointer finger. And no it didn't feel good.   

I know it's a little late now, but I find that soap is the best thing for a burn. Keep a bar in the work shop and as soon as you burn yourself, splash shome water on the soap and rub it into the burn - I managed to mig weld through a panel right onto my left hand forefinger, and the soap trick kept the blistering down to a minimum - now, four weeks on there is no scarring or sign of the injury!

[louisb]

Soup huh, never heard of that one before. I will give that a try next time I burn myself.

Thanks,

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Scottsdale is in the Phoenix area. Translation: HOT. Lived there for 3 years and I don't miss it a bit. But you gotta do what you gotta do...

[louisb]

Yeah I just applied with godaddy.com but we will see what happens. Most of the jobs I have applied for are in the DC, LA or San Fran. (areas with lots of hi-tech jobs) If I end up relocating hopefully I will end up some place that has a larger VW community than here.

--louis

[JSL]

I was in Scottsdale last year for a few days, I loved it! Think there was a bar called 'Dos Gingos' that I enjoyed quite a bit! Hehe Very different to England 

J

[Zach Gomulka]

Those bastard bouncers at Dos Gringos!!! My friends and I were there one time... We all manage our way through the throngs of people, and step inside. I decide to survey my, er, options, and begin to peruse the premises by myself. I walk upstairs, walk around the bar, then all of the sudden some door guy with no neck but not good enough to play for ASU grabs me by the arm and tells me I'm out! I ask why and he gives me no answer! I hadn't been there 5 minutes, hadn't ordered a drink yet, hadn't even talked to anyone yet! And I was getting thrown out!? So he hauls me out the back entrance and I see a buddy of mine out there, too. Same story! So we walk back around to the front entrance to give it another go, since all our friends were in there (and it was more the principal, than anything). Almost made it in and the same bouncer walks by and thwarts my second attempt! So, I give my other friends a ring to tell them get the f@#k out, we're going somewhere else. Waiting there on the sidewalk for them to arrive, I overhear a Scottsdale Girl (different from other girls: distinguished from the others by layers of make-up, bottle blonde hair, orange glow skin, fake knockers, and generally slutty attire) balling her poor little eyes out on her cell... I listen in and find out the bouncers kicked her out, too!

Then there's the time we went there for my 25th birthday and Slinger decided he wanted to foot race...

[SlingShot]

Then there's the time we went there for my 25th birthday and Slinger decided he wanted to foot race...

I beat the competition, but lost the race.