1303 beetle

[sava001006]

22/06/2011

I did some cleaning of the chassis with the wire brush to get all the crap off it but hopefully I will be welding the floor pans in because all my bits turned up today, also I started to work on refurbing the empi 8 wheels but this is just a little side job to do so they will be finished for when the chassis is.

23/06/2011

Major progress on the beetle which is good we had to weld the floor pans in but it wasn't as simple as just dropping them in and then welding them into place, it never is so we first put them into place and then marked up where will need trimming then back off trim them then put them back. We had to keep doing this until they fit nice. Then when we had don’t this we had to take it out and I put holes in ready for welding it into place.

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then once laid back down, we had to measure the bolt holes I could get some tacks down to hold them in place once this had done I could crack on with the other welds so I ended up with something like this

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

On the back of the drives side floor pan we modified it because the existing brace that was there was solid so there was no point grinding it away

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

When the welds had gone cold I coated it all with crust so that and rust I hadn’t spotted has become more ridged.

23/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And that’s how I left it I will crack on with it in the morning.

Total spent so far = 2,870.83

24/06/2011

First thing was first I was to get myself down the shop and get some tiger seal to use as a seam sealer, I thought this was a good choice because tiger seal doesn’t come off with any ease so after I had got a couple of tubes I cracked on with the sealing of it, ive only done the top and the underside rear because im waiting for a part to come in the post.

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once this had been put on I could crack on with the krusting

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

After I did this I started to crust the trailing arms but ran out to off to Halfords to get some more. After I got back I cracked on with painting it in krust again.

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once I had done this the tiger seal that I had put on the pan has dried so I could start prepping the chassis for paint, so I first got rid of all the sound deadening and ruffed up the new floor pans so that the POR15 has a good surface to stick to which ended up with this.

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once this was ready I could crack on painting, I was very impressed with the finish.

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

24/06/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Total so far £2,879.12

30/06/2011

Not the biggest update but I have painted my trailing arms with POR 15 ready to put it all back together also, the frame head bottom has turned up today so I will be welding that in place tomorrow, then it should start coming together.


01/07/2011
Update time, we didn’t get to the stage that I wanted to get to but I still got a fair bit done on the chassis, the first thing to do was to drill the spot welds that were hold the bottom of the frame head on, along with cutting it neatly before the suspension arms so that I can weld the new panel in without messing with the suspension geometry. In the process of drilling the spot weld the drill decided to be on constant hammer action so we took it to bit and remover the bit that has the hammer action. With this it was worse and now every time you use it its like a smoke machine but with just 3 welds left we used it. Anyway the pics

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once I had done this I hovered all crap out of the tunnel and cleaned the metal so it will weld

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once this was all cleaned I threaded the clutch cable through the tunnel because I thought it would be easier. When this was done I crusted the metal

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then on with the welding so the first bit

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then with the second bit I had to drill some holes it because it was thicker metal that the floor pans, this meant a trip to the shop for a new drill.

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then once again cover it in krust

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then on with the seam sealer, but I had to do all the underneath

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And then with the POR 15

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

By this time it was too late to shults the car so I will have to leave it for tomorrow, so if all goes to plan there should be a update tomorrow.

02/07/2011

Did a little painting with the POR 15 I did the shocks on the back for the back of the car. Then later on I started with the shults, the first thing to do was to weld the accelerator pedal on.

01/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once I had done this the shults could begin, first we maked the area that we didn’t want the shults to get.

02/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once it was masked I could begin with the spraying with the shults. It took some getting though the gun but once it was going it worked great and left a nice finish.

02/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

02/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

02/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Hopefully the assembly will start tomorrow and start taking shape.

03/07/2011

Got some good progress today which I was rather happy with first up was to do the front arms which were straight forward the only bet that took some doing was to squash the bushes.

03/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then it was onto the IRS which then got tricky because we did have a tool to screw the strange bolt that held the trailing arms on so we decided to make one, simply weld two bots together simples.

03/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

So now with my ‘special’ tool I can crack on with the trailing arms

03/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

03/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And that’s is for the night, I’ve also sod a few bits so the cost has come down

Cost to date = £2,862.12

05/07/2011

I’ve made some more great progress I painted the front of the beetle with POR 15, then I started on the rear end again this time it was sorting the torsion bar which is just hard work, after a lot of messing about I managed to move the torsion bar to the correct place. Or so I hope then had the put the spring plate on, which has to be sprung in place by jacking it up. This caused a problem because the chassis has no weight to it so both me and my dad has to sit on the chassis but we eventually managed it. To hold it in place the torsion bar covers needed to go on, but I had got the ones which have spaces which clearly didn’t fit so outcome the hammer and mole grips and ended up with

05/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

05/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

This now means that they fit which is brilliant, so now I can bolt one side all together

05/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

We then decided that it was too hard to do the other side the same night, so I then started to the brakes. First on with the brake master cylinder.

05/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then once this had been fit I could crack on with the first break line, which was fiddly because it was so long but we did manage to fit it.

05/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then we called it a night because it was the morning

Cost so far = £2,951.62

 

[john.med]

Wow, proper nut and bolt resto'...

 

[sava001006]

Wow, proper nut and bolt resto'...

thankyou its taking some time but it will be nice when it is done

 

[woody3]

thats a major build there mate, will look good when its done
would love abeetle myself
j

 

[fUbAr]

Fantastic progress. Do you have a target date to get it all done? Hopefully in time for next years show season perhaps?

 

[sava001006]

Fantastic progress. Do you have a target date to get it all done? Hopefully in time for next years show season perhaps?

yeah hopefully in about 11 months time ready for the big vw beetle shows, it would be nice to get paint on the body before winter

 

[bmh.01]

Awesome stuff, I have to admit i'm not a beetle fan but am following this with great interested. Good work!

 

[Scrooge]

Excellent progress!

 

[adam172]

wow how have i never come across this thread before!! truly epic!

will be following this much more closely from now on!!

 

[sava001006]

06/07/2011
Did some more work tonight which was great, I managed to install the rest of the brake pipes onto the chassis which was a straight forward task because I had kept all the old ones so I could just make them both the same so they fit just right. I also fitted some of the cables through the tunnel but I still need to order some more

06/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

06/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

06/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

06/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

06/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

07/07/2011
A lot of progress done today which is really good, I’m at the stage of getting giddy because of things are starting to come together so on wards, the first thing was to sort the other spring plate out when seemed easier this time around, then on with the rear wheels and off the axel stands which is brill but have to remember to put a brick under the wheel to stop if from rolling off.

07/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then I had to sort the pedal box out so I had to get the welder out but after some drilling and welding they were in

07/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Next on list of bits to do was the front bit, I have a clue what its there for but I sealed it onto the chassis.

07/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then on with the front suspension I haven’t stripped these because I will be changing the discs but with storing the chassis outside I left the old ones on because new ones would just end up rusting, we hammered the struts on and made up a jig so that the car can stand itself up making it easier to roll about.

07/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Its eventually back on four wheels which is great.

07/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

It looks brill; I’ve also ordered some more bits for the beetle

Cost to date = £3,023.60

08/07/2011

Didn’t get any photo’s today because all the work was to do with the tunnel, which was to thread all the cable that I have just bought though the relevant tubes but the problem was that the heater cable tubes are rusted shut so we will have to think of a way of clearing them or fixing them up

 

[fUbAr]

It moves!! :approve:

 

[Rob]

Awesome progress, I love how you've actually started from nothing with this, and the fact you're bothering to photo and write about everything.

Makes for great reading and probably (imo) the most interesting project on here.

Keep it up

 

[fUbAr]

Its standard practice these days tbh Rob. Buy a decent resto beetle/bus and expect to get a portfolio of the process. It's a nice touch which will set this apart from some of the others.

I wish the project section contained more threads like this!

 

[Rob]

I wish I had the energy to project mine properly like this, I've done a fair whack to it now, but I'm just too busy getting stuck in to grab my camera and make it dirty

 

[Revels]

Incredible work! :approve:

 

[Wick]

Top write up!!

 

[sava001006]

thankyou everyone for the kind words, and rob ive got about 230 of the prject so far. It will make a good read when it is finished

 

[Leeshez]

What an amazing story and effort on the car .

 

[sava001006]

09/07/2011

I managed to rally the troops so that we could all move the shell in to the workshop. So that I can begin to work on the beetle.

13/07/2011
I managed to get a fair bit of work done on the shell today although most of it was stripping it all the electrics and the sound insulation out of it.

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

It was a bit messy so Henry the Hoover also came and helped out

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And some of the crap I took from the car

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

13/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

I also ordered a electric fuel pump as well

Cost to date = £3,052.35

 

[Oldskoolbaby]

Looks a great little project. I say shot blast the shell to unearth any horrors. Would be a shame to do all that hard work and find it rusting in the next year or two.

 

[Tunst]

I love this project. Keep up the good work mate.

 

[sava001006]

Looks a great little project. I say shot blast the shell to unearth any horrors. Would be a shame to do all that hard work and find it rusting in the next year or two.

i will be stripping the sheel to bare metal

 

[sava001006]

16/07/2011
I started to clean up the rusty areas to see how bad the damage is, after a lot or work I uncovered this

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Once we had done this the front clip needed replacing so we set about getting it off, didn’t take much doing once the angle grinder was fired up, we ended up with this

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then to test fit the new clip, I already had this as it come with the car

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

As for the stripping of the interior

16/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Ive also ordered some repair panels

Cost to date = £3,120.09

 

[sava001006]

23/07/2011
Bit of progress today, I’ve been cutting away at the body to see what’s under the bad patches. As usual there is ‘bodging’ which includes what must be tiger seal to hold the heater channels in. To be fair there isn’t much in the front inner wing to repair. Anyways here is some photo’s

23/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

23/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

23/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

23/07/2011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Ive also ordered yet not some more panel repair bits
Cost to date = £3,194.71

 

[sava001006]

29/08/2011

Right I best crack on with the build as its been a while since I have worked on it, I’m now at the stage where it is just cutting something out and welding a new bit it so the pics have suffered but I still have managed to do it. First bit was to repair the strut mount.

29082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Next up was the door shut, just where the hidges go so as you can imagen this wasn't the easiest thing to do but after putting the door on then off then on we soon got it figured to we crack on with welding that up

29082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

We also welded the heater channels in correctly and seam sealed it all up so that no water can get in the joint and rust all over again

29082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Also while on holiday I picked up some wings and some other bits so the costing has gone up

Total spend to date = £3,312.21

30/08/2011

More cutting and welding so off we go. First up was the frame head repair both sides first was the passengers.

30082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then the other side all crusted and welded.

30082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

I had some scraps of metal left over and a little more time before it was dark so I welded a little piece to the very front of the beetle were it had rusted away

30082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

This wasn't a easy piece because the metal wasn't very thick so I had to be careful with the welder

31/08/2011

First things first this was what I was up against. A lot of weld that wasn't that strong.

31082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then it was to cut out the inner wing, managed to get a photo of this as my dad was having a butchers at it.

31082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Then it was to weld it all back in. But I have good news my welding is also getting a lot better. Well it holds

31082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

31082011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Its slowly getting there just taking some doing that’s all

01/09/2011

More cutting more welding, again it getting hard work because I currently never seem to be getting anywhere but I best crack on with the work so onwards door shuts. So got somes pictures of this

01092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

01092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

01092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

All nicely welded in which is great took a lot of hitting and a few choice words which seem to have made it fit. I also decided to put the front end together to spur me on.

01092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

01092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

This seems to be great coming along.

02/09/2011

On with fixing the front part of the beetle this seems to take for ever because I had to make the panel out of a flat piece of metal but we eventually got it fitted and welded up

02092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

02092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And I also cover the thing in crust just to stop any rust coming up. I also knocked up another little bit for the front nose that had rusted away.

02092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

I also bought some stainless wing bold so I also had time to do the front of the front arch so welded that in.

02092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

Cost to date = £3,322.21

09/09/2011

Front clip welding time this is the last bit on the front of the beetle to weld hopefully, but before that I had to weld some new bolts in place once they had been done then welded the front clip on

09092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

And on with the bolts and the wings, I also put the bonnet on so that it looks complete

09092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

09092011 by joshsav, on Flickr

So that is how is how it stands.

 

[Rob]

Amazing.

Keep it up, I actually cannot wait to see it finished.

 

[gez 172]

looking good! will be keeping an eye on this!

 

[Winston]

Skills!!!! I still really need to learn to weld.

 

[sava001006]

I havent updated this is ages because ive been creating a website for it all to go upon. all the computer geeks on the forum will moan that it is a crap site but i will be improving it when i have got any spare time. there has been a update so please check it out

www.restoredaircooled.co.uk and click the build link on the left hand side. the update is at the bottom of the page.

 

[not normal dan]

this is great, really going to be keeping a close eye on this one! keep it up

 

[dalla]

Awesome project mate. I often dream about a "Gelb Schwarze" renner for hill climbing.

 

[AP'Moss]

Wow you really know your stuff, cant wait to see the finished product

 

[sava001006]

right guys managed to do some welding on the beetle the otherday so i updated the website

http://www.restoreaircooled.co.uk/Updates.html

 

[Dweeb]

that is one blue website

 

[Kieran..]

id love a project like this!

 

[koi]

bookmarked, can you change the background colour to make it easier to read?

 

[sava001006]

bookmarked, can you change the background colour to make it easier to read?

ive changed it now.

and there are a few updates since last time i posted in here

restoreaircooled.co.uk