O/FF 621

New Blog Site!

2010-10-28T11:24:00.002+01:00

So to make things easier for updates and the ability to do more from my iPhone I have started a new blog importing this blog with it. This blog will no longer be updated!

The new blog address is

http://vintageair.wordpress.com

Please come and visit us there!!
Steve

Finally back together!

2010-10-26T22:40:00.003+01:00

Well kind off! Finally got the rusty A Arms off, cleaned up and fitted to the '59! Its only took a week :D To be fair i've only had a couple of hours on it at a time but still! So there on the car with the new stub axles in and brakes on. Just need a pair of rear wings and some slicks for the new wheels and it's ready to be sent off to Wayne. Cannot wait for that!

Rust, Rust and more Rust!

2010-10-22T18:20:00.005+01:00

I managed to get hold of a back end cut from a late beetle last week. I thought it would be a little easier to remove the parts than this!!! So far every single nut and bolt has fought me! Getting there though slowly in between work..

2010-10-15T13:21:00.008+01:00

So before work each morning I have been able to get in the workshop and start some work on the car. Not a massive amount of progress but some nonetheless and it's nice to feel pro-active in getting it rebuilt. We are nearly ready to send the car to Wayne Allman's Intergalactic Custom Shop!

Up on jack stands ready to start stripping the rear end down..

Couldn't resist a trial fit of the new rear wheel ;) Looks good!

Comparison between new and old stub axles, Porsche 944 on the left and new Porsche 930 on the right.

The rear end is now full stripped and waiting for some stock A Arms to be re-fitted in order to get the car rolling and we'll use the bearing housing from the stock A Arms for the custom set-up.

The complete brake system and pedal assembly has now also been totally removed in preparation for the hydraulic set-up. I re-made the front brake lines as we'll no longer be using a line-loc just a staging brake.

We're back..

2010-10-07T10:09:00.002+01:00

We're now back from California and what a trip it was! For once we managed to just chill out, chat shit and buy parts! Oh and then head to Vegas for the bugorama! Unbelievably we had rain which caused some disruption but it was a great race day. We managed to bring some parts home with us, the rest is being shipped soon! We bought our new rear wheels and 930 stub axles along with a few fittings. The rear wheels are 15x8 Billet Specialties and are SFI rated. Still to come is a full Jamar hydraulic pedal assembly and Jamar staging brake and some Mickey Thompson 15x26x8.5 Slicks.. :D

2010-09-30T00:30:00.003+01:00

;)

California and Vegas

2010-09-28T19:15:00.002+01:00

Well as a last minute decision we decided to fly out to So-Cal on Sunday to catch up with friends and then head to Vegas this weekend for the Vegas Bugorama. Hopefully along with chilling out we'll be picking up some parts for the re-build! I have a big list so we'll see what we can do!

Norway and end of season..

2010-09-11T22:28:00.007+01:00

So yet again I've been a little slack in updating the blog! I must try harder!

We have not long returned from a fantastic trip to Norway for the the Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic (SCC) which was simply superb! We met some amazing people from all over Scandinavia including Christian and Søren from Team Angora Racing (Denmark)who were gracious in allowing us use of their worksop on the way to SCC! We then all hooked up Anders and the guys from Men In Bugs and convoy'd from Denmark to the track. We owe a huge thanks to Anders for arranging our Ferry from Denmark to Norway and for introducing us to a great bunch of friends :) Then when arrived at SCC we met so many people and we really felt 'welcome'! A great trip and we'd definately like to go back.

We got back into England on the Thursday and set off for Avon Park on Friday for an MSA round and it was a weekend of high's and low's. Our good friend Bernard Newbury finally ran the elusive 9 and it was celebrations all round, then the low came... Adele, due to non car related issues, crashed at over 100mph hitting the armco 3 times, thankfully she was not hurt but of course the car sustained some damage. It was mostly limited to the engine and box (and of course the wings/fenders) but having assessed the damage it could have been alot worse. So we want to move forward and not dwell or post everywhere about the accident so I will leave this post with, we will be back next year, stronger and faster ;) Oh and some nice photo's from Norway! Keep checking the blog for (hopefully!) more updates!

We also owe a huge thanks to safety crew at SCR for looking after Adele and all the Outlaw Flat Four guys for helping us with the car!

2010-07-15T16:02:00.002+01:00

Taken at the last race, Summer Nationals, it's our new Hazet Assistent tool box which is available to order brand new again. I'd always wanted an original one but there a bit hard to find and then I found them new! For anyone interested we can supply these now, including all the Hazet and Vigor ranges. See www.vintageair.co.uk for details.

Outlaw Flat Four - Adele Woodbridge at Summer Nationals 2010

2010-06-22T09:45:00.000+01:00

New PB

2010-06-22T09:37:00.003+01:00

Last weekend we were out for a test session on Friday and the Summer Nationals event on Saturday and Sunday at Santa Pod Raceway. It was a great weekend making more progress on our suspension settings resulting in a new PB of 11.23 @ 118mph. We came away from the event having learnt alot and with more ideas for improvements. We managed to get some video clips of a couple of passes which is always good for tuning uses! I'll try and post them up soon!

New Sponsor

2010-06-16T09:54:00.006+01:00

We are very pleased to announce a new sponsorship/partnership deal with Damar International Ltd. Damar is one of the UK's leading tool distributor importing from over 30 countries and exporting to over 50. Amongst the many brands in stock Damar are the UK distributor for Hazet and Vigor automotive tools. http://www.damar.biz/

The Hazet brand of specialist tools is known throughout the world for it's superb quality which is why the leading automotive manufacturers themselves use and approve Hazet in their dealer networks. See http://www.hazet.de/en.html for more info.

Vigor Equipment is a relatively new range of tools engineered to DIN standards by a major German manfacturer of premium quality tools specifically to address the needs of the hobbyist mechanic and professional alike. The Vigor automotive tools range has been assembled with typical German obession to detail, there are tools for virtually every task, including sockets, wrenches, spanners, combination ratchets, adapters and screwdrivers as you would expect. The range also extends to more specialised but extremely useful tools such as pullers for trim and cap removal, oil filter wrench sets and LED lights for awkward places. Along with the fantastic tool range there are, of course, a great range of tool cases and trolleys available with or without tools in capacities of 74 to 204 pieces. See http://www.vigor-equipment.com/vigor_en/index_e.html for more info.

Through our business http://www.vintageair.co.uk/, we will be able to supply every tool from both ranges with special deals on the Vigor range and will be carrying brochures and information at this weekends Summer Nationals event. Look for us in the Outlaw Flat Four pits.

Thanks to Brian and David Martin of Damar Int for their support of our racing program and the opportunity for us to supply these fantastic tools. We look forward to a successful partnership.

EFi

2010-06-09T15:42:00.011+01:00

I realised I haven't posted pictures of the new EFi set-up we're running for this year. It was built by Marco Mansi and features Mikuni throttle bodies more commonly found on a Suzuki motorbike with custom made linkages and stacks. The ECU is a MegaSquirt 2 and is a dream to use. All fuel and ignition is controlled by the ECU, the coil pack just sits in the stock location with a machined piece of ally that slides into the dizzy location (with the drive removed) a plate then bolts to it and the coil is bolted to the plate. It makes for a really tidy set-up.

Site Update

2010-06-09T15:38:00.002+01:00

While I was posting the last update I decided to update the blog site! It will be re-named to OFF621 as I feel it's a more suitable name to send to potential sponsors. The car is still named StripTease III.

Getting there slowly..

2010-06-09T13:19:00.003+01:00

Well since the last update we've been out with the car twice and we're still finding our feet with the set-up. The car itself is working great it's just been us figuring it out! The engine is making power and we've ran a string of 11.3's and an 11.27 and there is definately a little more in it, from testing we found we need to make a pass when the engine is warm because otherwise the ECU goes into cold start and overfuels. I've also been working on the suspension tune-up and so far we've managed to get the 60ft times down from 1.50 to 1.46 and i'd like to see a bit more! We're back out again June 18/19/20th at Santa Pod so hopefully we'll get to make a few laps and work on getting things down.

The season has started!

2010-04-20T15:31:00.004+01:00

Well yet again I have been really slack and not updated this as much as I should have. The EFi conversion is now complete. We finished the install the night before the Volksworld show and then a few days after we had the car on the dyno to map it. We were extremely happy with the results, it made 196hp at the wheels which we believe is more than what we had previously as English dyno's read much lower than our American counterparts!

Just last weekend we took the car to Avon Park Raceway to put in a few test laps and we were over the moon to record a new PB of 11.26 at 117.5mph confirming our thoughts on power. There is still some more to come so we can't wait for the race season to start in 2 weeks.

More pics to come but a quick one from the Volksworld show..

New sponsor for 2010 season

2010-03-04T08:17:00.004Z

Over the off season we have been working hard on our race program and our sponsorship program and we are pleased to annouce Opie Oils have signed up as a sponsor for the 2010 season. Opie Oils are the UK's No 1 performance oil specialist. Opie Oils supply an unmatched range of engine oil, gear oil, brake fluid & lubricants from Silkolene, Castrol, Fuchs, Motul, Mobil, Amsoil & Redline with recommendations from the oilman. Check out http://www.opieoils.co.uk/ for great deals!

Febuary has been a busy month for us again, the engine has been fully rebuilt thanks to Richie Webb and this week our friend Marco Mansi is due at our workshop to install the new EFi set-up we have changed to for this year.

Also this month we were honoured to recieve a fantastic award from the Santa Pod Racers Club 'Best Appearing Racecar' for 2009. We were nominated by the club and then thanks to Eurodragster.com the public voted for their favourite car and ours was chosen! This is a huge accolade for us as no aircooled Volkswagen has ever been nominated before so to win is incredible. Just some names on the trophy are Andy Robinson, Danny Cockerill, Graham Ellis all with Pro Mod cars and now there is us with a little old Volkswagen!!

We can't wait for this season to start!

Happy New Year and update..

2010-01-18T16:26:00.013Z

Happy new year everyone! It was a superb 2009 so we look forward to another great year and 2010. Our plans for the car have been coming together slowly, the engine has been stripped down and is in the final stages of being rebuilt with hopefully more power for next year. We can't rest on our laurels so we continue to asses our options and look for more reliable power. We have just come back from another trip to the states and picked up just a couple of bits for the motor from Jaycee and Vee Dub Parts. Some pictures below are of the motor going back together and new bits! I'll try and update more often with our progress too!

Another final round!

2009-10-02T21:09:00.002+01:00

Well that's it for the 2009 season, it's been a fantastic half season for us, better than we could have hoped for. At last weekends National Finals we made it through to the final again being beaten by James Wotton and his awesome 10second oval. Adele was running consistent 11.5x's which was great in the incredibly sticky track conditions.

So now winter will be setting in soon and we are looking to start on some upgrades/changes on the car. Well we can't sit still can we?! 2 weekends ago I finally drove the car at Avon Park and recorded a 12.2 at 109mph with the belt on on only my 2nd pass which i was really pleased with, I just need more seat time now ;)

So we'd like to thank everyone who has helped us on the car this year, all the Outlaws, Chris Isaacs, Wayne Allman, Volksworld Magazine etc etc and then a huge thanks to our sponsors NGK Spark Plugs, Direct Plastics, Pit Posse Motorsports and to Motorshack with help with our VP fuel.

Keep checking back for updates as i'll be posting as and when I can.

No' 2 Qualifier and Class Event win, and PB's!

2009-09-18T08:55:00.004+01:00

Just a short update as I'm about to leave for another weekends racing! Euro finals was one of the best events of the year! We ran a new E.T PB of 11.40, new MPH PB of 117 and a new 60ft PB of 1.520. We then also qualified No' 2 and won Comp Eliminator! It sucked that Martin, Russ and John broke but good news is, its all fixable! So now we're off to Hot Rod Drags at Avon for some TnT, then 3 days later its the National Finals! A hectic couple of weeks ahead but I'll try and update as often as I can. Pics below from Euro Finals courtesy of Gwynn - Slimboyfat.

NGK Spark Plugs signs up as a sponsor

2009-09-06T09:51:00.002+01:00

We are pleased to announce NGK (UK) Spark Plugs has signed up to sponsor StripTease Racing for the remainder of the season and for the 2010 season. NGK is the world leader in spark plug technology and we are extremely proud to be able to represent them.

Euro finals is coming up soon and we'll be leaving wednesday night, updates soon!

Racing and a new sponsor

2009-08-28T22:43:00.004+01:00

What a weekend!! Adele smashed her personal best twice culminating in a PB of 11.64 at 115mph with, i think, more to come! Adele also pulled a huge wheelie on one pass which was great for the camera shots but I tweaked the suspension for the next pass so we don't wheelie so high!! In short it was a great weekend for PB's for the whole club with about half the guys entered achieving PB's! Thankyou once again to all the Outlaws for such a fantastic weekend.

We have also just picked up a new sponsorship deal with Pit Posse motorsports who manufacture mainly MX parts but also an awesome range of trailer accessories such as fuel jug holders, oil can holders etc. Check out the website here http://pitposse.com/

So its going to be a busy September with 3 race meets coming up, the first being Euro Finals where we are entered in Comp Eliminator, results and pics soon! For now a picture of the 'big' wheelie!

Slow motion launch

2009-08-19T07:55:00.001+01:00

Thanks to the generosity of the Outlaw Flat Four club they bought some slow motion video footage of a few cars that were 'shot' by Blackett Photography. This is ours recorded at Summer Nationals 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2skzWVH5N8

We our back out racing this weekend so more new to follow!

Bug Jam 2009

2009-07-26T17:28:00.002+01:00

With 17 Outlaw Flat Four cars entered for Bug Jam it turned out to be a great weekend for us. The weather was awful but the vibe in the pits more than made up for it. We're really proud to be part of the Outlaw Flat Four Club and we're really looking to the rest of this season!

Racing wise we managed to get a few passes in on Saturday and one in on Sunday morning before the rain set in and the meeting was called. It was a strange weekend for us with the car as the track wasn't in the best of shapes as the treaded tyres from the RWYB session ripped all the rubber up from the normally superbly prepped track. In the morning's RWYB session we managed a stonking 12.0 at 109 with not much traction off the line (although it did manage to lift the wheels as we found out in photo's!). We were looking forward to the MSA session but we had 'bogging' issues of the line, I tried up pressures in the tyres but one moment it would spin and then it would hook up and I couldn't seem to get a handle on the track. The best Adele managed was a 12.2 but it was enough to qualify and more seat time in the car. With the meeting then called its now onto Avon Park for the Open Sports Nationals in 3 weeks time..

Hessich Oldendorf and EBI3

2009-07-26T16:54:00.008+01:00

So its been a while since our last update again but things have been so busy as usual! We took a 2 week trip to Europe with a couple of friends from the US and we took in Hessich Oldendorf vintage VW treffen and EBI3! What a trip! Hessich was absolutely amazing, I'm an absolute sucker for a stock early bug and with 27 hebmullers amongst things it truly was awesome! We then took in the Auto Museum in Wolfsburg which was so cool and then we headed to the actual VW factory for a guided tour which was really cool.

Part of the weeks festivities was a couple of shop open houses and one shop that really had us drop our jaw's was Steve's VW Shop in Zaffelare, WOW!!! This place was amazing! Steve and his wife Sofie were so hospitable and showed us round the shop and fed and watered us like Royals! Photo's will be below! Steve has the latest technology in order to build some outstanding motors and we'd certainly like to try them out!

EBI 3 was again a really cool trip with the car running strong on the makeshift strip running a best time of 12.2 wheel spinning off the start! We were then approached by Daisuke from Street VWs magazine in Japan for a magazine feature on our car, we were super stocked with that. And then we were fortunate enough to win Best 57-67 Type 1 which for us was an amazing achievement as we didn't 'show' the car and there were so many nice cars on show. All in all a great trip! Now for the photos..

11.92 @ 111MPH!

2009-06-17T16:54:00.006+01:00

So much has happened since we returned from the Volksworld show in March, I finished wiring the car and we fired the motor first time of asking!! The day after we finished we took the car down to Banbury to Junction 11 photo studio's where we had a photo shoot for Volksworld magazine. What an amazing day! Ivan thinks it's the best shoot they've ever done which was an awesome comment to hear. After another trip to Wayne Allman's 'Intergalatic Custom Shop' long time we finally got the car to the track these past couple of weekends! We had a couple of test and tune days and then we entered Summer Nationals this past weekend. What a weekend! We went 11.92 @ 111mph and there is definately more left in the motor! We also got invited into Outlaw Flat Four Club which is awesome!! We have to thank so many people ( a list would take me so long!) so to everyone thats helped 'Thankyou'!! I have lots of photo's to upload so I'll do my best to get them on here as soon as I can!

Next outing is EBI 3 so I'll do my best to keep the blog updated!

2009-04-17T10:12:00.001+01:00

Well in the time we've been back from the show it seems all we've done is work! So I thought I'd update the blog whilst waiting on a job at work! Well we achieved one of our ultimate goals with the car and we won a top 20 award at the Volksworld show 2009! We were so chufted and all the hard work really felt worthwhile. So now I just need to finish the wiring and try and run an 11second 1/4 mile!! Soon we hope...

2009-04-17T10:08:00.001+01:00

The awesome 'trophy' up close!!

2009-04-17T10:07:00.002+01:00

We decided on RAL Platinum Grey for the interior and I think it works well! Just waiting on another Simpson harness now!

Volksworld 2009

2009-03-27T19:41:00.002Z

Well we made it!!! We have overcome so many issues but we're here! Thankyou to Wayne Allman, Stoo Simpson and Jamie Billau for the help in the last couple of weeks!

Final build - Update 2

2009-02-10T22:23:00.004Z

Over the weekend we picked up the parts we had lent out so today I was able to get the floorpan rolling. I've still got lots to do so after I took these shots it was back in the garage with the 'pan up on jack stands again! It was just nice to see it rolling for the first time!

The brakelines are now 90% plumbed in with just the front half of the staging brake line needed to be completed.

Nice wheels!

Final build - Update 1

2009-02-08T19:32:00.005Z

We decided to take a break for the weekend from working on the car so I thought I'd update the thread! This is where we are at with the 'pan at the moment, by the end of the week it should be rolling as we have all the parts back that we needed last week.

Thanks to Stoo 'The Worm' Simpson and Billy 'The Drill' Harris for helping us last weekend with getting the floorpan home from the powder coaters and for working on the 'pan with us!

Stooey!!

Billy!!

New rear shock mounts

2009-01-24T20:36:00.006Z

On Thursday I drove down to the workshops of Wayne Allman (Interglactic custom shop) to pick up the floorpan with its new rear shock mounts! Due to the IRS conversion and us wanting to run the car really low, the A Arms caught on the old shock towers. This was Waynes solution!

The floorpan has already been took to the powder coaters near us in Lincoln so that should be back next weekend ready for a mammouth session getting it built!

Paintshop update

2009-01-16T17:27:00.005Z

Well I popped up today to Curbishley Automotive in Chesterfield and I'm really pleased with the results! The doors, wings, decklid, rear valence and bonnet are in colour and they look fantastic! They still haven't been polished so these pictures are of the paint straight from the gun! Martin has now started to paint the exterior on the body and we're looking good for an early completion!

Last weekend the floorpan was delivered to Wayne Allman at the Intergalactic Custom Shop for the fabrication of the new shock towers and welding in of my mid mount. That should be due back hopefully sometime next week!

Thanks to Derek of Absolutely Shocks LTD I ordered a pair of Gaz Gold Pro coilovers, after talking to Derek at the autosport show at the weekend on the GAZ shocks stand I was impressed with the kit and decided to order a pair. We got a great deal on them so if anyone is after any shocks see these guys! info@absolutelyshocks.com

Happy New Year and update!!

2009-01-02T15:22:00.008Z

Happy new year everyone! We hope you all have a great 2009!

Throughout the festive period Martin and the guys have been working on the car and I nipped up today to have a quick peek! Work has really been progressing and i'm so chufted with it so far!! Martin has asked me to come back up in a couple of weeks to check it out again, I can't wait!

Happy Christmas

2008-12-25T11:29:00.001Z

Happy Christmas everyone! Thanks for reading the blog!

Steve & Adele

Sent from my iPhone

At the paint shop!

2008-12-14T21:11:00.007Z

So today with the aid of Spencer and his trailer we took the body shell and parts into Curbishley Automotive for Martin to work his magic! The past few days have been spent mocking things up and then stripping the car down! We can't wait to see the results.

While the body is away being painted its time for us to work on the floorpan and have it completely painted and rebuilt in time for the body to be reunited again!

Curbishley Automotive headquarters!

Out of the trailer...

And into the body shop and discussions on paint!! Work will begin in earnest on Monday for all of us!

Ready for the paint shop!

2008-12-13T14:59:00.006Z

Well this week I have been really busy getting the rest of the things mocked up as the body is off to Martin Curbishly's tomorrow for paint! The bonnet has been drilled to accept the bonnet handle and all the trim and the rear wings have been drilled in the correct position for the tail lights. The doors have both now been 'lightened' and the inner frame cut for a 1 one piece window. A few pics below..

So this was the inner frame that needed to be cut away to allow a single piece of lexan to fit.

And this is the end result, just a little bit of tidying up and its good to go! You can just make the holes in the door I have drilled to help lighten it. Once the door card is fitted the holes will not be seen!

I was also able to trial fit the Aeromotive fuel pump and filter after finally ordering the proper billet mount for it! I was originally planning on running the pump under the tank on the bulkhead but there wasn't enough room! Plus this way there is easy access if there is a problem!

Tomorrow Spencer will be round in the morning and it the body will be off for paint at last!

It's home!

2008-12-07T21:50:00.015Z

Yesterday Spencer delivered the car home to us and yet again we were blown away by the finishing work Chris has done on the car! A huge thanks to Spencer for his help in picking up and delivering the car :)

Today, with a day off work, I managed to spend the full day on the car getting parts mocked up and just generally checking out the car!! Check out the photo's below!

First picture as the car came off the trailer!

On the driveway about to pushed in the garage as I had to go to work!

This is how the rear T handle has been mounted, done so the handle hasn't been cut down and also it gives a resting point on the valance so when the dzus fasteners are removed the decklid doesn't come flying off!

Dzus mounting bracket for the decklid, also makes the decklid stand off.

Rear view of the valance, you can see the mounting points for the decklid and also the dzus fasteners for holding the valance on..

These are the dzus fastneres which act as support brackets for the rear valance. The set-up is really strong and there is no movement from the rear end.

The valance is bolted on the sides to the rear wings which allows the whole rear end to come off like this! This makes for really quick access to the engine if required! It does take 2 people to remove if your wondering.

Another one of Chris' ideas! Instead of welding tabs onto the body he made this strip which is bolted the body along with the wing beading and then of course the wings are dzus fastened onto this! The main reason for this was to not have to mess about with the wing beading everytime the wings came off.

To the front and the fibreglass bonnet has also been dzus fastened on..

Front end all on..

We mocked up a few things today..

Looking like a car again! Yes the front end needs narrowing and lowering some more!!

PowderPuff headquarters!

So now the plan is to get as much done as I can this week before I go to work at 10am and then next week we are hoping its off to paint!!

New gearbox!

2008-11-25T20:27:00.002Z

I drove down to Middlesex today to vist Peter Englezos from Cogbox and pick up our new IRS gearbox. I'll post the full specs later but its basically a Type 1 IRS single side cover (SSC) case with spool and a whole host of goodies! While I was there I also picked up a pair of Sway Away race axles and a solid rear mount and a solid nose cone mount. The bug will be back in our own workshop next weekend and we have lots to do!!

Latest Pictures

2008-11-22T22:00:00.000Z

Latest Pictures!

2008-11-22T21:53:00.000Z

Quick Update...

2008-11-11T20:34:00.007Z

We seem to be finally getting somewhere with the car now, just waiting for the OK to pick it up from Chris's.

We realistically have 16 weeks or 112 days to get the car finished which would leave us with just over a week until the Volksworld show. I would like to think that it will be done, at the moment we pretty much have all the funds sorted to fully complete the build (touch wood!) thanks to some sponsorship for the paint also. It feels like we have come on more in the last 6 months that we have in the last 3 years!!

From This To This

There are just a few more things that we need to mock up before the car can go across to Martins for the paint in early december . Lets just hope that after all the hard work that my back can keep up with it :)

Narrowed A Arms

2008-11-07T21:31:00.015Z

Well it was another mission today to get some work done on the car! After last sunday at Chris' we dropped the A Arms off to Wayne Allman to get narrowed and being the guy that he is, they were done and ready to go Wednesday night! My best friend Adie Harper kindly picked them up for us and we finally got them this morning! They have been narrowed a total of 1" per side and Wayne has done an absolutey cracking job as usual. I cannot recommend Wayne (and Chris) highly enough for their fabrication skills! Once we had picked up the A Arms at 6am this morning we drove down to Peter at Cogbox to pick up a gearbox casing which we could be used for mock up. Our gearbox wasn't quite ready so Pete had sorted out a bare case which was perfect for what we needed! From Pete's we then headed over to Chris' 'shop and got everything fitted up. Pics below!

As you can see the bearing carrier was cut out and repositioned the maximum of an inch further in giving us more clearence on the rear.

We arrived at Chris' to find our 4cm wider rear wings had arrived from CSP which we got a cracking deal through Micheal at Machine 7. You can tell here that they are wider but once everythings all button'd up and painted they will look a treat.

Chris also made a really cool bracket to house the staging brake right next to the shifter.

He had also fitted our custom Simpson Window net..

After that we got cracking, gearbox going in..

This was a really cool part, the engine going in!

We then got all the A Arms and brakes back on for a trial fit of everything, we are super chufted with the results!

Packing up and tucked in for the night!!

The car is due back from Chris' with all his work complete in less than 2 weeks! We can't wait!

Photo Update

2008-11-02T21:55:00.014Z

Well today we drove the 400 mile round trip down to Chris' in Wickford, Essex to pick up the A Arms and check out the car! Yet again Chris' work just amazes us! The man is a genius!!! The arms are being dropped off to another metal work genius Wayne Allman tomorrow ready to be narrowed an inch! Anyways the photos..!

To get the correct position for the funny car style (which is quite a bit further back in the car than stock seats) the shifter needed to be moved 5" backwards. See below pics!

The driving position feels great, no stretching for the shifter or being too close up front.

The removable steering wheel is complete now, the wheel is fitted with a Mark Williams quick release adapter. The quick release is one of the nicest kits we've seen and although its got small splines there is a 'master' spline to ensure you are fitting the wheel in the correct position!

These are the mounts for the 5 point harness, the bottom mount is for the crotch strap, the other mounting points are on the cage and a threaded plate welded into the tunnel. You can also make out in the bottom picture a support mount off the tunnel for the seats.

Some more detail shots of the seats, very comfy they are too!

Another one of my ideas was to fit a vertical bar to the door exactly in place of where the stock quarter light would be, the idea being once the bar was chromed it would from the outside resemble a stock quarter light...

I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, they should look cool once they are chromed!

And finally the all important chassis builders tag. Incredibly proud of this!!

2008-11-01T08:34:00.001Z

149 Days to go until Volksworld

Plans have changed slightly, the car was going to come back from Chris's this weekend and then to Jon for a day or so to finish up the few bits of metal work and then back to Chris's in a few weeks once the A-Arm issue was sorted however, the car is now staying at Chris's to finish everything off!

We are going down tomorrow to pick up the A-Arms, straight to Wayne's to be narrowed, then back to Chris next Friday firstly knocking on Pete's door for the gearbox then round the M25 with the box, A-Arms and Engine so Chris can mock up the rear end, fit the new widened CSP wings, modified Valance, Decklid and finish it all off, to then go down again Friday after and pick up the car.

We then have 2 weeks free to dry mock up anything we need and then its off to Martin Curbishley for 8 weeks for the paint http://www.curbishleypaint.com/

And here is me thinking we may get a few weeks off now its Winter

This is along with Steve and I out of the house 12 hours a day with our 'normal' jobs !!

2008-10-30T20:30:00.004Z

I haven't updated this for a while so I thought i'd best write something!! We're back from the states with even more goodies! A couple of cool things we got was a System 1 re-useable oil filter and a Clyde Berg breather box with -8AN fittings

And another really cool pair of items we bought was these..

It is one side of a Heim Joint conversion. Basically they remove the need for torsion bars and you use a coilover shock for your ride height and then use the single (or double) adjuster for controlling compression and rebound. The heim joint (or rose joint I think they are also called) is then a pivot point for when the A Arms and spring plates move up and down. This hasn't been done before on a racecar as far as I'm aware but i'm told works similar to a ladder bar set-up. The actual shock lb needs to be around 450-550lbs for anyone interested.

Chris is now also nearing completion on the car and we're going down again on Sunday to see the progress! Since the last update the gear shifter has been relocated backwards 5", the window net mounts fabricated and fitted and the bonnet fully dzus fastened on. He also did alot of other trick things I wanted but I'll show you pictures of them ;) All thats left now for Chris to do is mount the rear wings on Dzus fasteners (when they arrive, hence why they haven't been fitted yet) and fabricate supports for the rear valence off the exhaust header and mount the decklid on dzus fastners. Its going to be all action stations if we're to make the deadline of The Volksworld Show 2009!

Update from Chris

2008-10-07T17:11:00.006+01:00

We are over in California again for a couple of weeks but the work continues on the car! The seats are now built and are looking amazing! Every time we see more pics of Chris' work we are blown away!
Amazing!!!

While we have been out in the states we drove to Las Vegas for the Bugorama at the world famous dragstrip aptly named 'The Strip' at Las Vegas. We drove down with our very good friends Susy and Mike Herbert and Steve Dalton. Steve was kind enough to let Adele drive his car in the Sportsman class which was super cool! The post below is a really cool picture of Susy driving her Ghia and Adele in Steve's bug.

Update from Chris!

2008-09-25T22:20:00.004+01:00

Chris sent us some new photo's of the funny car cage!! The roll cage is now basically complete , the funny car cage is modelled on SFI 25.4 spec so with a couple more tubes the car could be tech'd to 7.50! As it stands the car will be tagged to 8.50. The tubular frame for the seats is under construction at the moment! Pics below of the FCC..

Cage Update!

2008-09-15T21:08:00.014+01:00

We had a trip down to Chris Isaacs' workshop on sunday to be measured up for the funny car cage surround and for the seats. Chris had already tacked in the 6 point part of the 8 point cage and to say we were pleased with the results is an understatement! We are absolutely blown away with the work Chris has done so far! Amazing!! I'll let the pictures do the talking..

As you can see the cage is being built in a way so as the body will still come off the pan! The 2 pics below are the measuring up part!!

The make shift seat above!

Adele in the 'hot seat' ! One of the things to come out of the measure up was we needed to sit further back in the car in order for the cage surround to work properly and also so we could both sit and drive comfortably. The end result is the shifter now needs to be relocated 5-6" further back and possibly some pedal extenstions need to be made for when Adele drives. But this is nothing that we can't sort and I can't wait to see how the end result is going to look!! Check back soon for more updates!

Chris Isaacs

2008-08-18T21:33:00.004+01:00

Today the bug finally made it down to Chris Isaacs workshop in deepest darkest Essex! It was a 400 mile round trip but it's in very capable hands! The car should be ready by the end of October, early November and I can't wait!!

All loaded up and ready to go! The fountain trailer I hired is really good, really impressed with how easy it is to use and how well it towed.

In the entry outside Chris' workshop..

Safely in the workshop next to Chris' Morris Minor circuit racer that he's building in his spare time!!

While the car is away I can get some of the other jobs done like fitting permanent electric into our workshop and fitting a nice new flooring!!

It's rolling!

2008-08-08T20:55:00.003+01:00

It's rolling! Ok so it looks like a baja but hey!! Tomorrow we should be able to bolt the body down and other bits ready for Chris!

It's rolling!

2008-08-08T20:51:00.001+01:00

It's rolling!

2008-08-08T20:50:00.000+01:00

Rear brakes are on!

2008-08-08T11:17:00.000+01:00

Rear brakes are on!

2008-08-08T10:43:00.001+01:00

The last couple of days have been spent fitting up the rear brakes! I'm really pleased with the results!

More Pictures

2008-07-31T17:39:00.005+01:00

Some more pictures of the body shell..

Update!

2008-07-31T12:02:00.007+01:00

Well its been a very busy time lately with working on the car but mainly working in our day jobs! Last weekend while I was at work Adele fitted up the front end of the chassis so now a stock front beam is on for mock up and so are the brakes! They look cool bolted up!

I've had a couple of days off so yesterday I hired a van and loaded the body shell into the back to take it to Marrawise in Coventry for media blasting. I know there are lots of arguments against the process but I'm extremely happy with the results! There is some media that still needs air hosing out but the actual finish of the process is really good! I would highly recommend Marawise for this job and best of all it only cost £100!! Bargain!

We dropped the body back on the pan to save some space in the workshop, as you can see in the middle photo we also bolted on the rear IRS A-Arms for mock up. It's nice to feel like we've progressed a little further now! :)

Towbar finally fitted!

2008-06-30T11:31:00.001+01:00

Well its been a manic few days getting things organized, we picked up our motorhome from having a custom made towbar fitted, the guys at Armitage Trailers did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend them for any kind of trailer/towing work! They even fitted us in when they didn't have time so we could have it ready for the trip to EBI 2 on Wednesday!

Floorpan pic 5

2008-06-30T10:41:00.003+01:00

Safely back home in the workshop waiting for us to arrange the space better! Next up is the dry build of the pan and the body to be sent off for media blasting. Once this is done the the body can be refitted ready to go to Chris Isaacs for the cage to be fitted!

Floorpan pic 4

2008-06-30T10:37:00.001+01:00

This is where the fuel lines exit! I have the main line on the left and the return line to the tank on the right. With the Aeromotive set up we have it needs a return line back to the tank to keep the fuel pressure stable. Both lines are -6 fittings with 3/8 hard line.

Floorpan pic 3

2008-06-30T10:33:00.001+01:00

These are the dual fuel line fittings, they have been tig welded onto the alloy fuel line and then tig'd to the plate which has been riveted on. This allows easy removal if needs be..

Floorpan pic 2

2008-06-30T10:25:00.001+01:00

As you can see no visible join where the halves were welded in! This is exactly how I wanted it!

Floorpan is done!

2008-06-30T10:22:00.001+01:00

We drove down to Wayne's yesterday to pick up the completed floorpan, to say we were chufted with the results is an understatement! The 'pan looks awesome! I can't recommend Wayne's work highly enough!! There are a few more photo's to come from my iPhone! This one above is in Waynes workshop.

New doors and Pan halves!!

2008-06-17T18:50:00.004+01:00

So its been a productive past few days on the beetle! Over the weekend we drove down to Karmann Konnection and hand picked a set of excellent doors for the bug. Because of the difficulty of finding really good '59 doors we went with a pair of '60-'64 where the only difference is a small hole by the door handle that we will just need to weld up! Thanks to everyone at KK for helping us sort them!The door above looks really cool with its sun burnt paint! There is just a small dent which needs to be knocked out and its then perfect! The top door is already perfect!

Also we had an update from Wayne today, the new pan halves are welded in and the stock seat runners have been removed! Next up is the fuel line!

Hopefully it shouldn't be too long before its back! I then need to send the body off to be media blasted and up to Martin Curbishleys for a bit of prep work. We are however going to be delayed getting the car into Chris Issacs for the cage work but things are looking up!

Floorpan update

2008-06-10T12:42:00.007+01:00

Well on friday I loaded up the hire van and drove over to Wayne's shop for him to work his magic on the 'pan! Without the jacking points on the pan it fitted in the Vauxhall Vivaro van easily!!

Straight in!!With everything loaded up in the back and the rear wheels and brakes in the front cab we are all set! Wayne will use the rear wheels and brakes to mock up the rear ride height before fully welded in the a-arm brackets, something most people don't do. I can't wait for the 'pan to be done!

Floorpan halves are here!

2008-06-04T15:25:00.005+01:00

Some more pieces to the puzzle arrived today, new floorpan halves from Ben and the guys at VW Heritage/SSP. They are the top quality reproductions and well worth the extra bit of money! Also delivered was the IRS conversion brackets and a few other bits and bobs.

Now that the floorpan halves are here the 'pan is off to Wayne Allman's Intergalatic Custom Shop on friday! Once the 'pan is back from Wayne's things can really start moving forward, very exciting now!

While I've been waiting for the halves to arrive I've kept myself busy doing little jobs like trial fitting and making perfect all my brakes, front and rear. One job which worked a treat was to polish the CNC staging brake that we bought at Pomona swapmeet last year for $5! It was really grubby and dull so with a bit of work its come up like new! Bargain!!

I also polished the front hubs whilst my Dad re-trimmed down the studs on his lathe and chased the threads.

Engine is here!!

2008-05-29T22:20:00.006+01:00

Today we finally took delivery of the engine! After much wrangling with the shipping agent (read massive price increase) and not getting anywhere we finally had the engine delivered here. Very exciting once we forgot about the hassle we had! Pictures below!

The engine was delivered on a lorry as the crate was so big!

I was a bit eager to check it out so it's half unpacked here! It was packed really well and came complete with muffler fitted!!

You can see here how much packing material there was!! There are more VW/Audi boxes to the left which stopped things moving around.

Ready and waiting to be lifted off the base pallet!

Nicely settled in next to its new home!! We are actually moving the engine from the workshop into the house (into the spare dining room!!) so we have as more room to work on the actual car!

One more piece of the puzzle complete :)

Trial fitting the front brakes

2008-05-18T20:24:00.004+01:00

There is not alot I can do at the moment while we wait for the 'pans to arrive so I've just been tinkering around! One job that needed to be done was to cut down the front wheel studs on the Strange brakes as I am running closed end wheel nuts! A mornings work and I'm pretty pleased with how they fit and look!
You can see how long the studs come originally! I removed the studs from the rear and cut them down and chamfered the edges to ensure smooth fitting of the wheel nuts.

The end result! Once the hub is really polished and the dust cap is fitted they will look awesome!!

2008-05-10T23:46:00.004+01:00

I have decided to update the blog today (Its Adele, not Steve which makes a change!)
We have had alot of searching to do recently with regards to funds to complete the build of the car. We are SO near yet SO far, minute after minute, hour after hour i am constantly doing sums making sure invoices are paid and that we have enough to keep on going. Luckily we do, but when i added to my excel list of items bought so far it totalled just under £19,000 and we still have more stuff to buy on top of that . I then started thinking..... What exactly we could of bought for that kind of Money ? Spencers Corrado is up for sale for only £20k which would see us running back to back 8's all day long ?!

But then i thought exactly why we ARE doing this and it suddenly all made sense again ( I Think! ) I also got reading a TotalVW article at my Mum and Dad's house of my original Striptease 65 Bug where it all started 7 years ago........ That car only cost me £1400, £200 later for a 'bigger' (Read: and extra 341cc's ) engine and a cobra monaco bucket seat and away i went HAPPY as larry..... god knows how i ended up where i am now ? Actually i do..... Its the Need for Speed that all petrol (or Meth) heads have.

We are really trying to get the car out for European Finals and i hope so much that it is done. After riding in Steve D's car in America i must admit passing through the finish line on my first run i had a bit of a sniffle as it felt SO good to be back behind the wheel. Nothing more i can really say to that.

As far as a progress update, Steve has been working hard on sorting the decklid so a 'glass mould can be taken by DRE, he has actually done a real good job of straightening it out. The body is as it was 2 months ago hopefully Martin Curbishley http://www.curbishleypaint.com/ is popping over tomorrow to assess the body for prep and paint, then the Pan is off to Wayne's next Saturday. I guess after its back is when the hard work really starts... the Mega Marathon to complete the dry build so it can go over to Chris's.

Its still almost nearly there but too far away to believe its actually going to happen. I think once its back from Chris's then i will believe that the dream is nearly there :)

PS: Some pics on the above article inn question ( Cringe! )

Update..

2008-05-09T22:04:00.006+01:00

The IRS parts arrived back from the media blasters last week. The parts were grit blasted which I found to be a bit harsh but for these type of parts it was fine.

The trailing arms were done at the same time and unfortunately the inner sections were slightly 'blasted'. I have managed to repolish them back up so should be fine.

I gave all the parts a light coating of etch primer to cover up the bare metal. Once the car is reasy for final assembly they will go off to be powder coated black.

At stanford hall VW show last weekend we picked up our custom rear valence that Joe and the guys at Autocraft had made for us! It has a 2" centre section for the header and is only single skinned at the rear. On the rear the top 'seal section' will be removed as its not needed.

I've now sprayed it with primer to protect the metal as it was supplied as you can see, bare metal.

Fitting tacho into dash.

2008-05-06T19:37:00.006+01:00

A while ago we had decided to fit our Carbon Fibre Autometer monster tach in the stock speedo location as we aren't keen on big tacho's hanging off the dashboard! Today I managed to get it to fit! Photo's are a bit poor but are legible!

First I removed the lip from the backside of the speedo location and then sliced the hole 'into 4' I was then able to gently hammer the hole bigger allowing the tacho to sit right in.

The tacho sits in a treat and I'm quite pleased with how it looks! I now have to find somewhere to mount the 2 other guages and shift light etc!!

Wheels & Tyres

2008-05-01T21:51:00.003+01:00

Whilst at Santa Pod last weekend we took a trip to Jon Websters Race Shop which is around the corner in Rushden to have our tyres fitted to the wheels. The rear slicks were apparently a real bugger to fit and the guys had to use the Icelandic way of getting the tyre to seat properly!!!

The rear tyres look huge but the are only 6x26! The rears have alot of air inside them at the moment so it makes them look slightly bigger too!

Not so much has been happening since the last update, I finally sourced the IRS A-Arms and spring plates and these were sent off to be media blasted today and should be back soon.

Body Off!

2008-04-20T20:53:00.008+01:00

Yesterday was a great day! I finally got to remove the body from the floorpan! I managed to remove the body and completely strip the floorpan down in time to get everything back in the garage to stay dry. As we don't have a double garage I wanted it to be done in a day so nothing is left outside in the wet! Pictures below!

Waiting for my Father in Law to arrive to help me lift the body off!

The body safely in the garage in the dry!

Adele having a sit in the office!!

For the first time in 50 years the body was separated from the floorpan. A great moment!

Front end off and all the parts stacked up!

I couldn't undo the rear castle nuts on the rear drums so I removed the complete gearbox and axles etc as one! It was pretty heavy so I used the box to 'rest' it on!

Completely stripped! The pan is now being sent off to Wayne Allman's 'Intergalatic Custom Shop' for new pan halves, dual alloy 3/8" fuel line ran in through the tunnel and AN fittings Tig'd onto the ends and 'pan and also the IRS conversion.

Dyno Results!

2008-04-16T06:36:00.002+01:00

I just got word from Pat Downs that our engine made 239hp at 7000rpm on the dyno with the fanbelt on! Really pleased with that!! I should have the full results pretty soon!

Our Engine!

2008-04-12T22:33:00.006+01:00

Yes our motor is finally built!! Pat Downs, the builder, asked if he could have it on display on the CB stand at this years Bug In 33 as he couldn't think of a better item to display there parts! We were extremely chufted to say the least!

We have a few items we want to change but certainly nothing major! You can see on this photo the new CB billet bottom pulley and the alternator fan which has been powder coated black.

A side view and our polished alternator and black powder coated strap. We have a billet CE oil filler cap to fit once the engine is home (this is an example of the small bits I want to change!)

This is a close up of the new CB coil mount kit, finally there is somewhere neat to mount the coil!

The engine should have been dyno'd by now so I'll post the results as soon as I know!

So-Cal 08

2008-04-12T19:31:00.001+01:00

We also bought M&H frontrunner tyres home with us too! We bought 24x3.6 which is a similar size to 145 tyres on most cal-lookers. They are being stored up in our loft as they stink of rubber!!

So-Cal 08

2008-04-12T19:25:00.002+01:00

Erco Star Cut rear wheels, I can pick one up with my little finger!!

Back from So-Cal :(

2008-04-12T19:18:00.002+01:00

We're now back from So-Cal and it sucks!! We had so much fun out there thanks to the outlaw flat four guys and girls and then huge thanks to Susy and Mike Herbert for the hospitality and generousity they shown us. I'll post a few images from my iPhone now and then some more off my camera later! The picture above is a small section of the parts we bought back with us for the beetle!! We bought so much! The front brakes are awesome and the rear wheels are so light!!

Image testing!

2008-04-10T07:04:00.002+01:00

Well it seems I can now finally send images direct from my iPhone straight to the blog! The photo below is of Inch Pincher Too and Gene Bergs little but quick dragster as seen at the host hotel for this years bugin 33 show! We are still out in California but we fly home tomorrow... Boo!!

Snow!

2008-03-23T11:12:00.002Z

For the first time since Easter '84 has Santa Pod seen snow at a race event! We had 4-5cm's overnight so as you can imagine not much racing today! The forecast for tomorrow is good though so fingers crossed! Photo's to come off a snowy Pod when we get home!!

Edit - Photo's below!This was the view from our motorhome when we woke up!! Mad!

The snowman on the starting line which Santa Pod's track crew had made!!

Easter Thunderball

2008-03-21T21:06:00.001Z

Hello from Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod! For the last couple of years we have crewed for Spencer Tramm and his Super Pro ET championship winning VW corrado! This weekend chassis builder extroadinare Chris Isaacs is on driving duties in both his Standard Vangaurd and Spencer's! So far the weather has been incredibly windy but stayed dry most of the day allowing us quite a few passes. As it stands at the moment Chris is no2 qualifier in his super comp Vanguard. More updates to come over the weekend!

Sent from my iPhone

Today's work

2008-03-11T21:08:00.006Z

Adele started on the long process of stripping the the shell back to bare metal yesterday! I carried on today while i'm off work. I've got some fibre stripping disks on order from Frosts which should make the final bits of paint/primer a bit easier to remove!

Almost there on the firewall, the last few bits are pretty stubborn!

I also started on the rear luggage area which again just needs those last stubborn bits removing!

I received in the post today the first parts for my IRS (Independant Rear Suspension) puzzle. We are using a Type 1 IRS gearbox built by Pete at Cogbox with early Porsche 944 stub axles (shown!) and a combination of 944 and stock bus CV joints.

Front Brakes

2008-03-10T09:32:00.004Z

I just got word from Jack Sacchette that our front brakes are done and are ready to ship! He has used them in his lastest advert on TheSamba.com so I've added the photo's on here! We will pick them up when we are in the states in a few weeks!!

Jack has also now teamed up with Ron Lummus to form LS Performance "Realizing the need in the industry for years, L S Performance will be dedicated to the manufacture, distribution and support of . PRODUCTS THAT WORK, SUPPORT THAT YOU CAN COUNT ON, DESIGNS THAT WILL ALWAYS BE THE BENCHMARK FOR THE VW INDUSTRY"

The first line of parts are the front and rear lightweight brakes! :D

Home at last photo's!

2008-03-06T17:35:00.009Z

A sight worth waiting for! It's so cool to finally see the car in the light of day at home. The doors are being replaced as they were already damaged when they arrived. I bought them from Karmann Konnection and there customer service was excellent as they offered to replace the doors for another pair of straight and rust free ones!

Nice arse! The rear wings and valence will fitted with Dzus fasteners once the car goes into Chris Isaacs Racecars.
The new front valence from Autocraft and my NOS resevior panel all welded in and looking great.A close up of the front valence, the bumper holes have been welded up as we are not running any bumpers!
The front channels have been modified so they look more original and not square! The vents are wrong for the year but this car is first and foremost a racecar so i'm not too worried.

The rear window area needed some attention and I'm really pleased with the results!

So now its time for us to get stuck in and start bare metalling the shell and getting it ready for prep-work. The body will be separated from the floorpan and the 'pan sent off for repair very soon!

It's home!!!!!

2008-03-05T21:59:00.001Z

It's home!! I finally dropped off the car into our workshop tonight after 4 months work by John and Eff at Kings Restorations. Picture update will come tomorrow!!

Photo Update!

2008-02-05T21:22:00.000Z

Ok as promised some more photo's of the work in progress..

This is the start of the rear end being cut away so we have plenty of access to aid removal of the engine and 'box. As you can see quite a bit has been cut away which is good for weight saving! There is still quite a bit to finish to make it look perfect.

From this photo you can see how John has cut away metal to match the contour of the underside rear luggage area. This makes it look almost 'normal'!!

From this picture you can see the modifications in the engine bay. The rain gutter at the top has been removed and the bottom panel which goes around the gearbox has also been removed.

Just a quick photo of the whole car! Its getting there!!

The nearside cross member has now been welded in and the wheel tub has been repaired. The welds will be fully dressed back to Johns very high standard.

The offside cross member placed in for measuring up.
The new Autocraft front valence and NOS resevoir panel dropped in place ready to be lined up and tacked in with the bonnet on.

Thanks to Joe Gallagher we bought the rear slicks at the weekend! 6x26 M&H Racemaster, perfect for our Erco wheels. The front tyres will be M&H front runners!

How cool!! Every pair of tyres comes with this message!!

Strange!

2008-02-04T14:07:00.000Z

We finally got our hands on our new rear brakes on Saturday! They've taken a while to arrive but are worth it! The disks and calipers are from Strange Engineering and the billet hubs are Ron Lummus' design. A matching front pair from JayCee is being machined right now and will be the first pair made!We also went to John's this weekend and the bug is looking awesome! We have loads of photo's so expect another update very soon!!

Photo Update!

2008-01-28T13:58:00.000Z

Ok a bit late but here are the photo's I mentioned in the last blog!

The resevoir panel and front valence have been removed as they were not in the best of conditions! I already have the NOS resevior panel to replace the rusty one and John has sourced me a front valence from the lads at Autocraft. I haven't seen it yet but John assures me its top notch!
The nearside cross member has been removed as it was really crap! John has modified a repro panel to look and fit perfect!The nearside heater channel is now in place and the rusty bottom rear quarter has been removed..
John has cut down to size a repair section , alot of other restorers would use the whole panel when actually only a small piece is needed!

The door post bottom also needed placing and only the best will do! Hookys panelshop rocks!

The door lines up perfect!
Now for the wing.. :)

More updates soon! My Strange rear brakes from RLR have also arrived! John picked them up for us while he was in the states and loaded them into a couple of busses he shipped over which arrived at the weekend! Pictures soon as they are so nice!!

Quick update

2008-01-26T21:57:00.000Z

Just a quick update while i'm sorting out the photo's John has sent over! The bug is steadily progressing and is going really well! Tomorrow I should update the blog with a few photo's of the progress so far!

This week we have also ordered a set of custom Strange front brakes from Jack Sacchette (JayCee) to match our Strange Rears and also thanks to Mike Herbert from Rancho Transaxles for sourcing us the rear wheels we have been looking for! Erco Star Cut rims in chevy stud pattern!

2008-01-14T15:57:00.000Z

I thought i would give Steve a day off from writing the updates and do it myself this time!
We went to the Autosport show yesterday and picked up some goodies! 2 of the below but in black, Aeromotive Fuel Filters, one is 10 Microns to be fitted after the fuel pump and the other is 100 microns to be fitted before the fuel pump. Pretty pricey (READ Nearly as much as a cheap set of wheels!! but worth every penny :)

Other thing we picked up was an Odyssey Battery as recommended by a Muffler Mike. We go it at a pretty good price too as it was the show. We were going to originally fit a Optima Red battery, but Steve suggested the odyssey on the recommendation and its also lighter which is a bonus!

More progress!!

2008-01-07T21:14:00.000Z

I popped round to John's at the weekend to check out the progress and give him a hand, work has progressed really quickly and I'm super pleased with the results! John is a master! His skills are superb and I was genuinely blown away with the quality of his work. I snapped a few pics while I was there!
Here is the dash and scuttle panel donor section welded back in (and also the master at work!)

Here you can see where the dash was welded in, except for the repair is so good you really have to look close! He needs a final 'touch' and the repair will be invisible without the use of filler! How it should be done!
The front valence was also removed as my NOS resevoir panel needs to be let in.

And a quick picture of our 'smaller' workshop at our new house! We spent Sunday painting the walls and laying some carpet down! It's only temporary while we sort plans for a new big! workshop!

Dash Removed!

2008-01-03T20:10:00.000Z

I had good news from John today, his oval window bug project is near completion allowing him the time to spend a few hours on ours! The dash area and steering column mount on the '59 was pretty bad so I found a RHD '59 donor section (which took ages to find!!) so John has removed the dash section of ours today and is working his magic on the donor dash section. I should have some more updates/photo's soon as John will be sending them over regularly!

Happy new year!

2007-12-30T22:22:00.000Z

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!!

2007-11-18T17:46:00.000Z

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!!

2007-11-15T16:04:00.000Z

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........

2007-10-29T18:50:00.000Z

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

2007-10-27T17:51:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-24T14:20:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-10-16T10:49:00.000+01:00

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!