Cheers. I got offered Fran's cousins fasty for nowt but I was living in a housing association flat at the time which wouldn't allow a non taxed or insured vehicle to be parked in their carpark so it got scrapped. I've wanted a squareback for years. Missed out on one a couple of years back that was only £700 and included loads of panels and parts too.
Weather has been carp again today. I think summer has been and gone in Cumbria now. Galeforce winds at the moment. Painted the handbrake handle silver as it was looking a little shabby. Had to redrill the mounting holes for the number plate as they were 2cm out on the 'new' lid i fitted. Still using the bug as a storage shed.
Spent a good while trying to get the engine lid fitted and adjusted so it closed without catching. Managed to scratch the new paint in the process. Got the spring fitted eventually too after struggling to fit it with the engine lid on. It has to be fitted to the lid before its bolted to the car. Tagged the garage wall.
Managed to get a couple of hours to work on the floorpan today. Chopped a bit more of the rear crossmember off. Made the small reinforcement panel that supports the edge of the crossmember and welded it on. Not pretty but strong (bit like me ). Clamped the pan repair into place to see how it fits. Still needs a little trimming. Clamped the crossmember repair to the underside of the pan. I'll probably lie the pan flat and weld it from above.
Did a bit of welding today. Welded the crossmember back onto the spine where the welds popped off. Crossmember corner and pan repair welded in. Some welds were needed on the underside too. Had a wee fire up the side of my camper too.
Drizzling here again so i stuck some silentcoat pads to the panels on the shell. Doors got a couple each. Inner arch and a strip on the front bulkhead. Other side got some too. Went a bit overboard here as i had some offcuts. Some strips on the rear bulkhead. 1/2 a dozen pads on the roof. This has made a massive difference. It no longer sounds like a steel dustbin when tapped. It sounds more like a plastic wheeliebin now. Doesn't look like nearly £190 worth of parts does it?
Finished welding up the front of the framehead. No suprises here. The klokkerholm bottom plate is just as good as every other klokkerholm panel i've ever had the misfortune to have to use. Gonna take some serious hammering to get it to bend as its 2mm steel. Managed to get the last section of fuel line out and gave the tunnel a clean up. Well i brushed the rubbish out anyway. Nice bit of penetration.
Fitted a few bits back onto the drivers door. I think the door pull is the one from the passengers door. I can't find the drivers 1/4 light even though they were both bubblewrapped together ina a bag. Passengers one is there though. Drivers window is also missing its lifter channel so i had to buy one. Not gonna spend a fiver on the small strip of rubber along the edge though so looking at alternatives.
i used tiger seal in mine works great put tigers seal in channel then fit glass then close window to let it set perfect
Good idea. I was gonna use a bit of old bike inner tube in the channel. I don't think i'm gonna have the time to finish it for Tatton in 6 weeks time. Still don't have a headliner, window seals, wheels or tyres yet and still need to get an exhaust for the engine and give it a check over.
Managed to get a klokkerholm panel to fit without resorting to using a BFH on it. Not 100% certain if they've improved their panels or if my bug is just the same warped shape as their pants panels.
Found this old velleman transistor ignition kit in the shed which i might as well use. Been looking through the shed and found 4 window winder handles and no two are the same. The ones on both my caravelle and westy are different too. Same with the other black inner door handle. Thats slightly different from the other one i have too.
Finally found the drivers side 1/4 light, though the seals are a little split and crispy in places. Got the last couple of bits welded into the framehead and the welds ground down too then gave it all a coat of vactan rust convertor. I was gonna put a coat of grey oxide on but i can't find the bloody tin in the garage.
I think my shed is like your garage, always losing things and then find them after I have a replacement I'm enjoying following your progress, I've just started working on a '69 build '70 MY Beetle for my son, he's 17 next year , looks like I'll need a LH floorpan
Atleast floorpans are relatively easy to replace. Just a case of drilling out hundreds of spotwelds and zipping a new one in. I think i should have just bitten the bullet and bought new pan halfs instead of repairing the bits above the jacking points, fitting a 1/4 pan and repairing the bit behind the pedals. Probably would have been quicker. Luckily i've never seen the garage fairy. Really lucky if he looks like this.
Finally found the grey oxide primer today. It was hidden in the spare wheel well of my bug. Pretty sure i never put in there. Seems to go on OK, though it likes to eat cheap brushes. Had a sort through the various boxes of parts to see whats missing. Noticed that the other handbrake i have has a small raised nipple the equiliser bar fits over. The one i cleaned up and painted doesn't as its snapped off. Looks like i've have to start again on the other lever. Had a look at the master cylinder too and its seized solid. All the ports are full of rust and the threads are nearly gone. Something else to add to the list to replace.
Been poo weather up here again today with temperature into single figures this morning (in June FFS) so i just cleaned all the windows, fitted the new lifter channel i had to buy to replace the one that rotted off and removed a few old stickers from the glass.
I had one of those!! Didn't they steal away with everyone's £2 and not print the book they promised?!
