Trim time

While Jordan and I worked on the VW, Paul was busy sanding and prepping about a dozen or so interior trim parts for the ’57. Most of these parts were stripped because the factory only applied a couple of coats of paint and did so directly over the bare metal. This isnt going to cut it for todays quality. When trying to sand these parts the paint just flakes right off so stripping them wasnt really hard, just a bit time consuming because of the number of parts. Looks like he has them pretty close. We hope tomorrow evening they will look as good as the car does.

The doors

A week or so ago we ordered a whole slew of parts for the Bug, They came in Monday and after going through and making sure we had everything we started putting the car back together. We started by disassembling the vent windows. These have to come completely apart to replace 2 of the gaskets that keep the wind and rain out. We are missing one of those rubbers and dont really have answer yet on when they will arrive but we went ahead and disassembled them. Once apart they were cleaned and polished up and the black frame was repainted. Now, when all this goes back together it will look really nice. We then installed the outer window scraper and the clips that hold the felt channel in place. Yesterday, before we left we set both of the door latch mechanisms in some degreaser to minimize scrubbing today. It worked beautifully. We rinsed off the latches, let them dry then lubed them up before installing them. We also installed the door handle as well as the door rubber and check rod. Before we installed the window regulator we applied a little sound deadening material to help with noise inside the car and to help make the doors sound really solid when closing them. This is about as far as we can go with this door until the back ordered rubber parts come in. Tomorrow we will do the same for the other door.

Bed liner and hood primer

Let the fun begin

Here you can see we have gotten started on the bodywork on the ’71 C10. This truck will be restoration with a few twists to make it more fun to drive and look better than when it was new. Paul worked on sanding the bottom of the bed in preparation for its epoxy coating followed by Raptor liner bed liner. The top side will also receive the same treatment. While Paul was working on that, Jordan and I was straightening out the bedsides. This truck has seen its days as a work truck. The beds are not in horrible shape but do need quite a bit of straightening out. All the molding holes have already been welded up as well as the side marker lights. These areas must now be straightened. We primed these panels a few weeks ago using PPG’s Vibrance line of high build epoxy. We then blocked the bedsides out with 80 grit sandpaper and started the body work you see here. Once the outsides of these bedsides are straight, we will prime these 2 more times to be sure they are nice and straight. This will ensure a slick paint job that you can also use as a mirror. Cole worked the hood over really good. Cleaning the pits of rust out and sanding it so we can apply epoxy to it as well. We also metal worked the hood out at this time to minimize filler. Tomorrow we plan on spraying some primer and bedliner so stay tuned.

FJ55 still going

The FJ has been moving along just fine. The bumpers have been stripped, repaired and primed. Today we were able to sand the bumpers for paint tomorrow and got the doors trimmed out. We also stopped and painted the grill and the side vents and cover. They really turned out nice. The grill should look great when it’s back in its rightful place. We have a couple of finishing touches to put on the grill before  that happens though. The doors really look nice. Hopefully by Friday we hope to have the outside painted so that they can go back on the vehicle next week. This will only leave the tops of the front fenders left to repair and paint. This rare FJ is looking better and better. 

Gotta keep ’em separated

As you can see we have been making great progress on the ’70 beetle. Unfortunately, our progress has revealed a few real rust issues. Some of these rust problems were caused by a leaky master cylinder and brake fluid  resivoir others good ole fashioned water. Because the owner wants to keep this car for another 45 years we will replace all rusty parts and take all measures to keep it from returning. We didn’t have any issues separating the body from the pan and all of the pan bolts came out with no problems. Most of them however, were just about rusted in two so they will all be replaced as well. The engine was also removed so that we can more easily degrease the chassis. The engine runs well already so we will just clean the engine tins and paint them. Next on the agenda will be to remove the old wiring harness, windshield and back glass so we can get the body over to the blaster. Once back from the blaster our replacement parts should be in so we can start rust repairs. Stay with us on this repair. We are looking forward to this project. 

Little body work, little painting

We have been keeping the progress moving on the ’57 over the past week. We have got a good jump on the body work for the fenders as well as painting the fresh air tubes.  These parts were sprayed with epoxy a couple of weeks ago and have been sanded back down, sealed and sprayed with an egg shell urethane paint. These parts are now ready to be stored until they go back on the car. The fenders have a few dents from over the years that have to be repaired before paint. Here you can see that has begun. We will continue to work the fenders until all the dents are out. Once that is achieved, the will be primed again with a urethane primer. We may do this several times to be sure we are able to block out any waves or slight imperfections in the metal. This will ensure a completely flat, straight panel for the best possible paint job.

Deconstruction continues

Yesterday Jordan spent a good portion of the day breaking down the doors. Today, he has been at it pretty steady all day. The doors are both completely apart and removed, the trunk is off and apart, the hood moldings have been removed as well, as a few more interior molding parts. The time consuming part of all this is bagging and tagging all of the parts and their bolts to make reassembly much easier. And buddy I’ll tell ya, their are a lot little parts. We have tubs that we use to store parts in so that things remain in one spot for safe keeping. Inside the tubs are bags with screws, bolts and clips labeled where they came from as well as the tons of bright work from the same panels. Hopefully tomorrow these newly disassembled parts will be going to the blaster.

The heartbeats back

Today we rejuvenated the original dash pad for the Ghia. I really wish I had thought to get a before picture. The transformation was really impressive.  I used a product from a company call CarWorx. This product is supposed to last for years. We started by thoroughly cleaning the pad with a degreaser. We then went back over that with a milder soap. Once it was dry, we applied the CarWorx per the instructions. I couldn’t believe it! It really looks brand new. Now for the engine. A complete tune up was done consisting of points, condenser, distributer cap, rotor button, plugs and wires. The valves were adjusted and the oil was changed. A new header and clutch and pressure plate rounded out the engine work. While all that was being done, we painted the engine tins to clean things up a bit. The new header will allow for a little performance upgrade while offering a slightly deeper sound over the stock muffler. After all this work was done, it was test run to be sure it all worked like it was supposed to and now its ready to go back into the car.

Getting there

We had a pretty prosperous day on the Ghia today. We were able to get the wiring pretty well wrapped up. The back up lights were wired up today and the switch tested. Its about the only electrical part that hasn’t been replaced so we tested it to be sure its working properly. Sure enough its working so the back up lights should be fine. We still need a few parts so we moved on to putting the doors on. It took 3 people to make sure they went on without any bumps or bruises but we were able to get them on just fine. They lined up pretty well. Once all the door rubber is installed we may have to tweak a few things but so far so good. The switches have been mounted and looking good in the dash. That lowered stance really looks good on these VW’s. We hope to get the engine back next week from getting a tune up and new exhaust. If we do, we should be able to hook the battery up and start testing all of the circuits. We have gotten many compliments on the color. The owner had a great vision on that. Stay tuned.