Happy new year!

Hello and a happy new year! Apologies for the lack of updates, life has been very hectic! We have now moved into our new home and are busy getting everything sorted! The beetle is still at Kings Restorations and no updates to report as yet. Some more parts have arrived from Ron Lummus and once I have broadband installed in the new home (I'm posting this using my new iPhone) I will post some pictures. Anyways 2008 is nearly upon us so myself and Adele would like to wish you all a very happy new year! It looks like it's going to be a good one!!

Parts are here!!

We picked up our US shipment of parts from Spencer today! The parts are awesome!!

Aeromotive fuel pump and a Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator with a carbon fibre pressure gauge! Very sexy!

Painless fuse box, a perfect way to start the wiring from!

Jegs master cut-off and billet switch handle, Moroso switch panel which mounts to the roll cage and will house switches for fuel pump, ignition and starter. We also bought a intercomp tyre gauge which glows in the dark for those night time passes!

And the la pièce de résistance - Weld Aluma Star front wheels! 3.5" wide in Chevy pattern PCD.

We ordered everything here from Jegs.com and we were very impressed with the service and would most definately recommend them to anyone! www.jegs.com

Update!!

We nipped over to John King's workshop last night to check out the bug. Some progress has been made but the bug is, again, worse than we thought! Progress has been slower than John had hoped as his Oval window bug still needs to be finished in time for the TV show deadline so he has been working on ours in what spare time he does have.


The left side heater channel has been cut out as you can see and the new channel has been trial fitted and looks good. More resto updates soon!

This weekend we should pick up our new parts that Spencer has bought back from the States for us so check back for pictures!!

And so it begins........

Today was a good day! The beetle finally moved from its new home in our workshop to John King's workshop 15 minutes away! Sad as it may seem(!) it was really exciting to see the bug loaded up on the truck ready for the work to begin. Although the work started when we ourselves started stripping the car to bare metal it now really feels like the build has begun.

Just leaving...Round the corner...
Empty workshop!!
Just backing up....
Hooking up the winch!Up she goes...
All the way up!Strapping her up..
A couple more turns and she's away! More photo's to come from John!

Panels

Yesterday I recieved the last order of panels I need from Ben at VW Heritage, just in time for the bug to be trailered tomorrow! I also ordered a pair of rust free Californian doors from Karmann Konnection and these should be here on monday! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow now!!

Quick Update

Well nothing much has happened since the last update but I have been ordering parts and sorting other things out! Thanks to Ben at VW Heritage the last few repair panels I need will be here tomorrow! In the next few days a big order with Jegs.com will be placed ready for our good friend Spencer Tramm to bring back from the US for us!!

Also this weekend, all being well, the beetle is finally going to John King's (Kings Restorations) for the welding/repair work! This is the first real major step for us on the project and is really exciting!

Please keep checking back for more updates as they happen!

Raised up and more rust!

While the front end was raised up with the wheels off I took the opportunity to raise the car back up so make life easier for us when we push the car around and on the trailer etc. Sway away adjusters meant it took all of 10 minutes to do!

I also cleaned up the drivers side rear cross member area only to find more rust. I knew it was bad here but it's slightly worse than I thought.

It's also had another poor repair carried at some point and the channel has come away from the body taking with it the spot welded section of the body!

Also I just thought i'd have a look at the passenger side door post bottom and I found they had welded in a plate there too, at least the door can come off on this one and will be replaced anyway! We have Hookys panels for both sides!

At last!

Finally all the underseal has been removed!! I also carried on with removing the paint in the problem areas ready for Jon. This morning I finished up on the offside inner wing which was a pain! This side was much better than I thought it would be with only the bottom channel area rusty which is fine.

I also cleaned the floorpans up from all the crap that was on it and they don't look bad at all.


I also stripped the right hand door post bottom as I knew it had been messed with when I bought it, I was expecting all filler but instead they have plated over the lower door bolt meaning the door cannot be removed until the plate is cut out!

The left side isn't much better either..

Both rear cross members also need work

Nearly there!

I finished up the nearside inner wing last night which took a couple of hours. A couple more rust spots were found but again nothing too major (I hope!!)

The rust spot is caused by the seam inside the bonnet area below, hopefully Jon will work his magic on here and get it looking better then new!


This weekend I should be able to finish up the other side and then get some work done on the inside of the car. I'm doing as much 'prep' work to remove underseal and paint as I can so when the cars goes to Jon's to be welded he doesn't have to spend loads of time doing it! Hopefully saving me some money too!

Still removing Underseal and Paint!

So the last few days we have continued removing underseal and paint, we haven't had as much time as we had hoped but the progress when we had time has been good. The roof gutters are now fully stripped and are in good condition which is good news! We have now started on the front inner wings removing the horrbile underseal and paint.


As we suspected(knew!) there is some rust and a bad repair but this would have been replaced anyway while the new heater channels are being fitted.

Our company Vintage Air is currently having a Autumn sale to make way for new stock but I thought i'd raid the supplies for a few parts for our car! Competition Engineering (CE) top and bottom pullies, CE billet stainless steel top and bottom nut/bolt, CE fuel pump block off, JayCee billet oil filter, LanD billet MSD clamp, LanD billet hood handle bolts and LanD bilet polished fuel tank clamps! All are available to buy in our online shop too!

Paint Removal

The right hand side inner wing has been fully stripped of underseal and original paint, unfortunately we started to uncover even more rust! Its all fixable though in the capable hands of Jon King!
Below photo shows rust issues on the right hand side wing mount section which we uncovered while removing the underseal.

We also found both sides rear quarters have been 'repaired' ! One side alot worse than the other!! The photo below is the 'good' side

Then the other side...Nicely filled with newspaper and filler! Adele had the task of removing everything..
And this was the result....


We also stripped the paint from the roof gutters, front and rear glass surrounds all of which uncovered even more rust! One day we'll find it all! Back on it again tomorrow..

Underseal

I have started to strip down the rear inner wings of underseal and paint to find out what's underneath. Everything looks ok so far and no nasty surprises as yet! Nitromors and a wire brush on a angle grinder is my weapon of choice!

First of all the underseal was removed using the angle grinder and wire brush which was quite difficult to remove.

Then nitromors was used on the remaining original paint which the wire brush then removed with ease.

Hopefully I'll finish the other side tomorrow.

Paint

Thanks to Martin Curbishley of Curbishley Automotive we now have the paint, thinners and hardener for the bug! As 2 pack paint has now been outlaw'd we thought we'd buy the paint while we still can. Martin kindly sourced the paint for us from Spies & Hecker and it is now waiting paitently in the workshop! Martin will also be handling the painting of the car and has painted many high profile cars and bikes in the UK drag racing scene!


Check out www.curbishleypaint.com for more info on Martin's work!

Engine Update

Following talks with Patrick Downs of CB Performance we have now placed an order for our new motor!! Pat is an incredibly talented guy and one of a handful of guys I would trust to build our engine. After meeting him in California this year and numerous emails and phone calls we placed the order last night and delivery time should be around 3 months. I gave a brief outline of what spec we wanted and Pat did the rest! I can't wait for it to arrive!!

Day Mouldings

Over the weekend I took a trip up to Lincolnshire to Day Mouldings to pick up our new mid-weight fibreglass wings. These were a special request and are lighter than a stock wing but still strong enough to withstand street (ab)use! First impressions are good! The wings look superb and after hearing comments from some well known builders they will fit better than any other repro wing available! For those unfamiliar with Day Mouldings wings I'll post a picture up later so you can see the quality of them. Best of all they are extremely well priced at just £150 for a full set!

Contact - Day Mouldings The Bungalow, Ropers Lane, Sutterton, Lincolnshire PE20 2HZ Tel: 01205 460584

Beetle Update

Now that we have somewhere to work we spent the last weekend stripping the beetle down ready for it to be sent away for welding. We decided to entrust the welding to the very capable hands of John King (Builder of the awesome Green/White Bay window crewcab - Ultra VW featured).

The car is now stripped to a rolling chassis and we now just have to figure out in which order to tackle things first! This will be a our first complete resto so it's an exciting challenge for us!


We now have a list of parts which are surplus to requirements and are available to buy! Check out this page for all the items.. www.vintageair.co.uk/forsale.html

Garage Build - Update 4

The garage is finally finished!!! As soon as I could I pushed the beetle into its new home! I can actually start the strip down of the bug now as we have somewhere dry and undercover to work in!

This is the view from the house, something we have been waiting for, for a long time!

N.O.S panel

I have just picked up this N.O.S resevoir panel/spare wheel well that i've been looking for, for quite a while! You cannot get a repro for a late oval/50's bug so I'm really pleased to have been able to find one N.O.S! Hopefully work will start on the bug real soon!

Petri Power

No real updates so I just thought i'd post a pic of my cool Original Petri steering wheel that I acquired from Wayne Allman! This wheel would have originally been fitted to a coachbuilt Rometsch so its pretty rare!

I also own a pair of original Albert mirrors for the door hinge which again are pretty rare!