Dude’s 58 Ragtop Beetle

[cedric]

The color of dds manifolds,came from a spraycan that was for sale @ homedepot....

[Deanodynosaurs]

Well the car is finally in paint and polished. I cannot thank Stevo at Double H Restorations enough. His work is awesome. Its over 48 hours since I saw it and i'm still smiling like a loon!!













The chassis has also been taken up to the workshop and will very shortly be attached to the body.




Dude 

[Matty c]

looks good dude, will you have it ready for volksworld?

[richie]

Looks real nice Neil, really coming out good

cheers Richie

[Deanodynosaurs]

Looks real nice Neil, really coming out good

cheers Richie

Cheers, I am so happy with it, its finally beginning to feel like it going to get finished.

'Neil'! You havent called me that for years Richard. 

Hope you and yours have a great Christmas mate.   

Dude  (The artist formally know as 'Neil')

[Deanodynosaurs]

looks good dude, will you have it ready for volksworld?

Hi Matty,

Yep, that's the plan.

Dude 

[IP359]

Beautiful work. Can't wait to see it finished. Well done guy!

[Deanodynosaurs]

Quick update.

Rebuild is coming on really well. Thanks to Stevo and Nick at Double H Restorations, I really appreciate all the help you guys are giving me.

So where we at? Well the body and pan are now back together. Here’s them just about to be joined…..



And the body on.



The electrics and the dashboard are going in nicely. (NB, this is a temporary workshop steering wheel!!)





The rest is going together pretty well also.





The car is finally starting to look like a car. I am so happy.

Dude 

[Shane Noone]

Looks ace Dude  Volksworld Show debut ?   

[Deanodynosaurs]

Looks ace Dude  Volksworld Show debut ?   

Yep, already booked in.

Cant wait to see it finished mate i really cant.

Dude 

[Neil Davies]

Looking good Dude, this might just tempt Em to the Volksworld Show!

[Deanodynosaurs]

Looking good Dude, this might just tempt Em to the Volksworld Show!

It would be great to see you mate, been sooooooooooooo long.

Dude 

[dannyboy]

its going to be a stunner mate cant wait to see it finished 

[Deanodynosaurs]

its going to be a stunner mate cant wait to see it finished 

Cheers Danny.

All the cool kids have blue cars mate!! 

Dude 

[Eddie DVK]

its going to be a stunner mate cant wait to see it finished 

Cheers Danny.

All the cool kids have blue cars mate!! 

Dude 

^^

[BeetleBug]

its going to be a stunner mate cant wait to see it finished 

Cheers Danny.

All the cool kids have blue cars mate!! 

Dude 

^^

Indeed 

[butterskotch]

Dude,

It's looking great, Steveo and Nick have done a cracking job.  And so have you for that point.
Keep up the good work and I'll look forward to giving it a once over at the Volksworld.  I'll come introduce myself if I can find you.

Just a shame mine can't be there to debut next to yours...
Maybe next year!!
Ha ha, I've been saying that for the last 10 years!!

Brad

[Deanodynosaurs]

Dude,

It's looking great, Steveo and Nick have done a cracking job.  And so have you for that point.
Keep up the good work and I'll look forward to giving it a once over at the Volksworld.  I'll come introduce myself if I can find you.

Just a shame mine can't be there to debut next to yours...
Maybe next year!!
Ha ha, I've been saying that for the last 10 years!!

Brad

Cheers Brad, really apreciated.

Ive worked hard at the bits i done, and im happy to have a great team of Stevo and Nick.

Mate, would be great to meet up and have a beer at the Volksworld show.
I cant wait to see your car done. Get on with it!!

Dude 

[Neil Davies]

Dude, he's a non-drinker, he could never qualify for Team Wales...
Brad, what Dude said - get your car done, you're even slower than me!
See you both at Sandown!

[butterskotch]

My cars on hold, due to buying a house that needs a lot of time and money on it.
It should be worth it tho, as its a keeper (the house that is).

Oh, added to that, I had my 1st kid last year, so things have been a little busy.

All excuses I know and I WILL GET IT FINISHED!!! Ha ha   

See you both at the Volksworld

[GASBNR]

NICE dude,

hey did you make the dash panels or buy them?
Is that a mph speedo?
sorry if have covered these earlier.

[Deanodynosaurs]

NICE dude,

hey did you make the dash panels or buy them?
Is that a mph speedo?
sorry if have covered these earlier.

Hi Mate.

Thank you.

The larger dash panel is a flat 4 item. The smaller one is a standard one, which I cut out the vented bits, and welded a solid section into. I then cut the holes for the Dehne. Sounds easy but actually took a while to make it look half decent.

Yep, it is a MPH speedo. I had it rebuilt by a guy who was a aircraft engineer. He used a KMH face, and re-cogged it inside so that it read correctly in MPH but up to 120mph.

Dude 

[GASBNR]

Cool stuff.
It's all in the detail

[Deanodynosaurs]

Right time for an update, and it’s a goodie.

Pictures tell most of the story, but if I start with the obvious, the wings are all fitted, as are the tail lights, headlights, and most of the dash (Cheers Nick from Double H for your help with all this). The wirings is now also in (well 99%), and everything in the engine bay is fitted and ready for the engine. Oh, and most of the smaller bolt on parts are fitted.




 (Yes I know there’s only one headlight fitted! Latter pictures show them both fitted up)


(This is a temporary steering wheel by the way, there a Motalita one waiting to go in)







Next up the car went off Chris at Custom Coach Trimming to have the headlining fitted, as well as the all important ragtop. I cannot thank Chris enough for his excellent work on the car, the trimming is just awesome. He also had to get around a number of issues, but the end result is epic.

The first problem he encountered was with fitting the headlining. For some reason, maybe another 58 quirk, or maybe due to the car being a hard top, but the lip above the rear window was facing the wrong way?! This meant that Chris could not simply catch the headlining behind the lip and tension it up. However after a bit of head scratching Chris came up with the solution of mounting the headlining to some fibreboard, this has the added bonus of being easily removable if the ragtop needs tightening up.





 The second problem was the inner skins that run down the gutter of the roof line. For some reason, maybe when the ragtop was welded in, the usual gap between this had closed up. Rather than the usual 8mm gap, Chris couldn’t even get a putty knife in!!

However a quick call to Nick at Double H Restorations soon sorted that out. Nick came down and gently massaged the inner skin down.................... with a slide hammer! Thanks again Nick for saving the day.



Thankfully after this there were no more problems and Chris expertly installed the headliner. I am so pleased with his amazing work.







However, it’s not a ragtop till the ragtop’s fitted. This bit went was relatively straightforward with Chris expertly re-trimmed the ragtop in mohair. Again he made an awesome job of this.







And here’s the car with the ragtop and headlining all fitted.



There has also been progress in other areas of the interior. After what seemed like months of searching I finally managed to get some blue-grey seat cloth (correct for 58-59 models) from Lenny at West Coast Classic Restorations. Thank’s dude for the help with this, really appreciated.

Lee the Trimmer then expertly re-trimmed my seats in it, and he has done an excellent job. Thanks also to Stevo of Double H for stripping down the seat bases a painting them in a fresh coat of cream before Lee worked his magic.



So that where were at, Volksworld Show the next stop.

Dude 

[Pedalpusher]

Super nice work as usual from the beginning!

Are you gonna use some self-adhesive seal or glue seals in front and back bonnets?

-Mikko-

[Deanodynosaurs]

Super nice work as usual from the beginning!

Are you gonna use some self-adhesive seal or glue seals in front and back bonnets?

-Mikko-

Thank you Mikko

Gonna use the clip on style seals. There much less of a water trap than the standard seals.

Dude

[Pedalpusher]

Thank you Mikko

Gonna use the clip on style seals. There much less of a water trap than the standard seals.

Dude

Yes that is true! Many restoring a car don't take the seal strips off not knowing what lays under. Even for a cleaning/primer and putting them back on.

Is clip on style seals a late beetle thing?

-Mikko-

[Deanodynosaurs]

Thank you Mikko

Gonna use the clip on style seals. There much less of a water trap than the standard seals.

Dude

Yes that is true! Many restoring a car don't take the seal strips off not knowing what lays under. Even for a cleaning/primer and putting them back on.

Is clip on style seals a late beetle thing?

-Mikko-

Yeah that exactly the reason, the strips just trap rust underneath. We also left them off just because it gives a neater look.
Yeah, the clip on style are a later seal thing, but with the bonnet/ decklid closed you cant really see the diffrence.

Dude 

[butterskotch]

Looking great Dude.   

You've now over taken me with the work done to your car, but its great inspiration/motivation for me to get mine finished.

See you at the Volksworld   

Brad

[Deanodynosaurs]

Looking great Dude.   

You've now over taken me with the work done to your car, but its great inspiration/motivation for me to get mine finished.

See you at the Volksworld   

Brad

Cheers Brad. Will be good to see you at the VOlksworld Show.

Not gonna lie, its take a lot of hard work (and money!) to get it progressing this quickly, and i cant thank Stevo and Nick at Double H for all there hard work with it.

Come on dude, get on with yours!! 

Dude