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Author Topic: How an ugly restolooker became a nice 54 convertible CAL LOOK  (Read 26341 times)
peter - belgium
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« on: October 29, 2008, 20:01:51 pm »

The day the convertible arrived!
Plans for it: Overhaul the mechanics and just drive it as it is!


Engine removed, cleaning up the mess behind


What every Cal Looker need to be able to properly install a big engine Wink A removable rear apron!


After lots of hours, thinner, heat, scraping, ...
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2008, 20:07:25 pm »

The convertible strenghtners are a bot rusted through, so time to replace them!


I decided not to replace the complete units, but restore the original ones by cutting out all the rot and replacing it with fresh metal


The inforcement part I made


a "tiny small hole" that needs fixing up Shocked


Making the replacement part


Welded on


As strong as new again!
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2008, 20:10:44 pm »

The engine installed


Bosh010


Dual circuit with special Volvo reservoir


New exhaust


A gearbox intermediate mount I made (Special PBW edition Grin)


Installed on a new gearbox


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peter - belgium
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« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2008, 20:15:53 pm »

At this point the convertible was ready to drive:

new gearbox, new brakes up front and back, engine, dual circuit, ...


But then some things changed in my live and I decided to properly redo the convertible and just make it the way I wanted!
Turned out a very good decision, because everything I took off the convertible needed work. every little item had some things missing, or broken, or ...

So work started end May 08
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2008, 20:19:27 pm »

So, removing everything that could be removed!
Wings removed, welding on the wings done, straightening all 4 of them... turned out some more work then anticipated.




All 4 wings straightened


Naked Grin
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2008, 20:21:20 pm »

Before taking out the engine again, testfitting some nice Carbs.
What do you guys prefer: left or right set-up??


STUPID QUESTION!! there is only 1 answer Grin
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Diederick/DVK
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« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2008, 20:25:32 pm »

cool project! love how it looks with the sprintstars. i'd love it even more if you dechromed it Wink
there's not enough dechromed old verts around!!  Grin

is this the 1776 engine you posted a long time ago?
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2008, 20:28:09 pm »

The convertible came with 66 seats in the front, so I stripped a set of the correct oval seats to get the frames painted again. But also the chassis runners had to be restored since the PO fucked this up in an attempt to install the 66 seats.


And stripping the body






AUCH!! What was the idea here???


After cutting it all off and recreating a new support
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2008, 20:34:42 pm »

The doors needed a fair amount of work as well. These swung open too far at some point in live bending over the hinge. So nothing a big hammer and some rewelding can not fix Wink


Done Grin


Converting a later front hood to an earlier style




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peter - belgium
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« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2008, 20:37:55 pm »

Primer time!
The body in the garage


and in primer


And on to the small parts






Although this decklid was just painted in nice and shiny blue, it still took me over 10 hours before I found teh decklid reday for primer!! You can imagine how it looked...

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peter - belgium
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« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2008, 20:41:59 pm »

And after primer comes color decision time!
I always liked Coral red (I painted the lower half of my old 66 samba Coral red as well)
So I still had that color sample, made it easier to decide on colors for the interior Cheesy


Fellow club member Gino mixing the Coral Red Paint


And the insides of the convertible PAINTED






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peter - belgium
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« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2008, 20:46:12 pm »

And after drying it was time to finish off the outside and get that painted Cheesy


Gino at work


Just painted


Clearly happy with a job well done!




Mmmmmm



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Builder of the SLAMBULANCE and all other sort of slam stuff (bus and beetle!)

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peter - belgium
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« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2008, 20:48:08 pm »

And the interior arrived, the kids are test-sitting it Grin


and checking against the color of the car!


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Builder of the SLAMBULANCE and all other sort of slam stuff (bus and beetle!)

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peter - belgium
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« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2008, 20:50:16 pm »

And time to build it all up again!

















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peter - belgium
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« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2008, 20:54:45 pm »

2 days before DDD (which was my goal for this project), the engine died on me Shocked  So I got a spare engine from Gino and installed that in convertible, just to get to Bitburg!


And off we went!
 // Also notice the original chromed sprintstars temporarily on loan from clubmember "Dr. Detail Philip"


Philip driving in front of me


Auch Shocked  The spare engine spit out some oil




But since there was still oil in the engine, we just carried on after some cleaning of the oil Grin
« Last Edit: October 29, 2008, 21:10:18 pm by peter - belgium » Logged

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peter - belgium
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« Reply #15 on: October 29, 2008, 20:56:03 pm »

At DDD






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peter - belgium
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« Reply #16 on: October 29, 2008, 21:12:43 pm »

PBW hood crest Grin




Hood down!










Driving topless


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peter - belgium
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« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2008, 21:13:31 pm »

With Kurts Samba




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peter - belgium
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« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2008, 21:15:24 pm »

On the road:-)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/GhNw9oxJAb4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/GhNw9oxJAb4</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/j2Fy7GzbquQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/j2Fy7GzbquQ</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/GcNIhNApXas" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/GcNIhNApXas</a>
« Last Edit: October 29, 2008, 21:16:59 pm by peter - belgium » Logged

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tikimadness
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« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2008, 21:25:53 pm »

Cool car,yet another great car from belgium.

Michael
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nicolas
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« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2008, 22:02:38 pm »

Cool car,yet another great car from belgium.

Michael

yes indeed and might i add that it is yet another cool car from a 'maybe' underrated club. looks good. and very nice bodywork (pun intended)  Grin
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Nico86
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Turnip engine.


« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2008, 23:17:50 pm »

The kind of work I like ! Congrats your 54 is awesome. Cool
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Sam K
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« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2008, 00:58:47 am »

Nice work! I wish I had your body and paint skills.
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71CALRIPPER
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« Reply #23 on: October 30, 2008, 08:00:55 am »

Stunning dude Smiley lots of hard work
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #24 on: October 30, 2008, 11:22:34 am »

THANKS!!

It was indeed hard work (I spend around 4 months of very long evenings in the garage ) but I made it to DDD which was my goal!!

In the end there was a lot more welding then I anticipated, a lot more straightening, fiddling, adjusting, … As I said, everything needed work. There was not one part I could just take of and re-install as was Embarrassed
When they painted the car blue, they also painted the sidewindows partially blue so that needed a lot of cleaning, adjusting the doors and sidewindows took me a lot of hours, but now all these are nicely aligned on top (how often have you seen this??), door are nice and even, all new rubber seals+chroom strips in doors, electrical wiring was done with cable used in houses, …


There are still several things to do, such as:
•   Narrow the front beam further (10cm) because now I can not fit my CSP disks due to the CB perfromace dropped spindles and offset of the wheels.
•   Fit the CSP disks up front
•   Paint and detail an original set of sprint-star wheels
•   New headliner (this one has a few big tears in there)
•   Nice engine (a pepped up 1600 for starters until I have all my parts for the 2027cc engine)
•   Finish of my PBW dual carb linkage for this engine     (=> will be a nice one Cool)
•   SS bumpers
•   Finishing off the interior work (carpet, cover the strengthener below rear bench, …)
•   …

And all of this should be ready by March09 for the topless edition of the FreddyFiles in Ninove Grin
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Builder of the SLAMBULANCE and all other sort of slam stuff (bus and beetle!)

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vwcab
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peter


« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2008, 12:15:54 pm »

Great car Peter,saw it at DDD#6,it looks awesome.   Wink
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67worshipper
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« Reply #26 on: October 30, 2008, 15:00:25 pm »

peter that steering wheel cover you got on the cabrio is it red or brown? where did you get it? cheers barry
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peter - belgium
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« Reply #27 on: October 31, 2008, 10:25:14 am »

peter that steering wheel cover you got on the cabrio is it red or brown? where did you get it? cheers barry

It is a red one I bought at BadCamberg 2 editions ago... I need to find me a brown or beige one for the convertible, but no luck sofar Sad
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Builder of the SLAMBULANCE and all other sort of slam stuff (bus and beetle!)

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Deanodynosaurs
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« Reply #28 on: October 31, 2008, 11:31:32 am »

WOW! This car is stunning! Shocked  Smiley

Amazing restoration as well! Smiley

Dude  Cool
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vwcab
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peter


« Reply #29 on: October 31, 2008, 21:36:15 pm »

I like the gauges, built in the gloveboxdoor.  Cool
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