Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi guys my nmae is Scott and I live in the ever sunny UK I thought this would be agood place to share my project photos so heres the story:

Hey folks, finally got a new bug after missing my old one far too much! Going to be doing a sympathetic resto over the next few months so thought I'd share....

The story..

Found her on ebay local to me so went and had a nose. She's a tax exempt 1972 South African import in what I think is Pastel White? Being an SA bug she has the kooky early pan with link pin beam, wide five wheels but a later body and a padded 13-0 dash? Odd...she was imported in 1979 so she's no newcomer to the UK..

The seller had been restoring her and put in two new pans, heater channels, rear quarters, A post repairs, lower front inner wings, some rear bumper mounts and some plating to the bulkhead, rear seat area, the usual really. It's had a full front clip but this looks like it's been on for a while. The spare wheel well is immaculate. His welding isnt pretty but it's solid and better than I can do (cant weld!)...unfortunately he moved house and lost his garage so the bug was moved to a lock up where she has sat for a few months gathering dirt!

I paid £500 for her and for that I got a complete car minus some engine bolts, seat belts and some other fiddly little bits. I also got a rebuilt 1600tp with an alternator conversion and a brand new clutch in the box. I cant vouch for it as I havent heard it run but it looks clean enough, has no end float etc so time will tell. The guy also gave me three decent books on restoring bugs and campers.

The plus points so far are four good original wings, both the doors are good, wiring is relatively untouched, engine lid and bonnet both in good condition, and the interior is also decent bar some ripped seams on the drivers seat which I hope to have repaired. Headliner etc is all good. Also has nice rear popouts! The pass side door opens and shuts without any drop...

Bad points.. Needs a battery, need to test all electrics and the engine but fingers crossed! A lot of filler had been slapped on the front and rear quarters but never sanded as he never got round to it... the drivers door wasnt bolted on properly and it needs a front widscreen as it has a crack in it...

Ok now the lecture is over :yawn: heres some pics....

I dont have many good pics of her as she arrived but heres what I have:

Original ebay pic



Some of the front, if you look close you can see the filler on the quarters...





and back....





inside....

and more...







engine..



interior...







The main plan for her is to make sure she is totally solid, fit the engine, tackle the bodywork inc a quick blow over in the original colour, keep the body and interior stock, clean repair interior, narrowed 2" beam, dropped spindles, new bumpers, tickle with the lowering stick, and some nice wheels depending on my cash flow

First things first, I sorted out the drivers door by bolting it back on and spending a few hours fiddling with it. It now shuts fine with only a tiny amount of droop (shame as the pass side is spot on but some more fiddling might get it!). Next was the removal of the wings, luckily the previous owner had put ss fittings on so it was easy to get them off....



next I set about the inner wings with a heat gun to remove what was left of the old underseal, and the shitty underseal the previous owner had slapped on the repairs he made...sticky horrible job!

pass side front...note the front clip repair




pass side rear, excuse my pics, my garage is narrow and it's hard to get the angle...



drivers front...



drivers rear... notice the floor with the mountain of filler removed from the rear quarter! tut tut...





once all four were cleaned off using the gun and white spirit... I then took a flap disc to the ridiculous amount of filler on the quarters. I can see what he was doing, obviously building up to sand back down, but jesus, there was tons of it, all old and damp from not being sanded and painted properly....bye bye!



not only were the quarters thick with it, but the A post bottoms too...again...long gone! Sadly after uncovering the repairs I noticed that rather than butt jointing the welds he has overlapped them on the rear quarters and the A posts so it will take a lot more work to get them to look right, in fact I'll prob never get the A posts right, but it is only going to be a nice daily so i'm not too fussed, shame though, a bit of fore-thought could of made much neater repairs!

heres a pic of the wheel well...



and i made a start taking underseal off the bulkhead...



everything was going well but after removing the underseal of the inner wings i discovered some bad news.....RUST!..... ok nothing serious but looks like bolting the wings back on before undersealing had took it's toll! I've buffed back to good metal around each or at least metal a chisel wont break through...doh :rolleyes:

The front drivers side inner wing has one bolt hole rusted through...



The drivers rear inner wing has a tiny cm hole near a bolt hole...



The pass side rear inner wing has two holes near bolt holes, onle fairly big, one tiny...





Probably the worst part is the pass side front inner wing which has numerous holes between the two bolt holes...oh dear!



last but not least there are some small holes in the drivers side engine tray...again nothing major..oh and if your wondering why it's black/grey it's because I coated it in rust converter to stop it getting worse...



so...that's where i'm up to so far. I've seen an ad for a guy on here called kev? who does mobile welding and lives 5 mins from me in birkenhead so I'm going to ask him for a quote for the above welding and try and get them sorted asap so I can get on with rust-proofing the whole car...wish me luck!

...after looking round i've decide that it's got to be a late model resto-cal I'll post some inspiration pics soon, but if you've seen foxy's marathon on restowagen you know where I'm heading, did a quick rendering of what i'd like....



gotta have a dream..

well, I had an hour this afternoon free so I went out to see if there was anything "free" to do...

Decided to pull the glass out as the front windscreen was cracked anyway. This soon led to some misfortune as I discovered all the glass is pretty much shot as the previous owner didnt protect the glass and it's all covered in welding splatter..... bol*@cks!

Add glass to list of parts! :rolleyes:
Some boring pics...





Also.... After having a quick look at the beam I'm wondering if a 2" narrowed jobie will actually fit? I know the towers are recessed but I'm not sure if it will be enough. I have an inch of clearance at the bottom where the top tube of the beam is, but prob half an inch at the top where the shocks bolt on....grrr.... It looks like the new front clip is welded on exactly behind the shock towers causing a bit of a bump..





This puts me in a dilemma.. Aside from the cost issues, I'm not sure even if I scraped the money together if I'd be happy with inner wing mods just for a 2" beam. I'm contemplating a standard width beam but unsure if it will just annoy me...I guess this is what comes of early pans and late bodies! If it's close would anyone advise some "gentle persuasion" of the inner wings?

If anyone has any knowledge of or has a 2" beam I'd appreciate some advice...pretty please!

Still nothing major to report, just finished a good contract doing artwork for the navy and I'm expecting a cheque any day...soon as it's here progress might actually begin!! :rolleyes:

One good bit of news after being inspired by a few people, i've decided it's time to learn how to weld and with what little money I had spare bought this off vzi...







It's a Clarke 110em turbo mig. Only 100amps but should be plenty for basic bodywork. If I get any good at it I may go bigger in the future. I bought it mainly as I've read that Clarke are pretty decent as far as hobby welders go, it also has the fan which is a bonus. It is a gassless but it's already been converted and came with a full bottle of co2, just need a regulator. It was cheap and looks in not bad nick. It also has a set of wheels and handle added to move it around easier.

I've got to get a mask, gloves etc but I cant wait. I also dug out a compressor I bought ages ago but never used. Think it only cost me £30, it's not massive or mega power but from what I've read, should just be capable of spraying a car albeit with a 1.2mm gun and obvious refills of the tank. I also got a load of air tools with it, impact wrench, socket wrench, drill, die grinder, tyre inflator, air gun, water/oil gun, and a spray gun (i'll be changing that though). Tried it out and it works great but the quick fit coupling is crap and kept letting loads of air out so i'm ordering a new set and hose.



also thought i'd add a gratuitous pussy shot..................... of my bengal wearing his new winter outfit! he f*@kin hates it and I cant blame him! He's the Val Doonican of cats!



So yeah...money = progress, roll on pay day!

I meant to post this which is my updated "if only" concept rendering!

still not much in the way of progress, only just got paid and new bank card after misplacing my old one! doh.... however, it arrived this morning and I promptly ordered the following:

Auto Darkening Helmet
Twin Gauge Regulator
Hose and Adaptor for above
Respirator
Gloves
Tip Dip
New Shrouds
3 Piece Wire Brush Set
Mig Pliers
Tin Snips
10 40 Grit Flap Discs
10 1mm Cutting Discs
Standard Safety Goggles for grinding
Pair of decent Ear Deffenders
C Clamp Set
Magnetic Clamp Set
Welding Hood (for the missus, long story)
Set of overalls (never had any in all these years of car DIY)

So...should be set to get learning and get stuck into the car! Also bought a set of trim rings off Roonstar (cheers!) and hopefully getting a set of porsche nipple caps so did some more daydreaming, this time photoshopped a white bug to see what mine might look like...

before (dont know whos bug this is? found on google):



After (photoshop magic, spot the difference anyone? ):

Hoorah, work has now started on the bug!! It's been ages since I updated this but I ran out of money and time... the story continues from here:

I finally got my finger out and decided to get going, now as you may recall I had bought the equipment to start learning to weld, however I then wanted some more time and space to learn properly so I put up a thread asking if some kind soul would come and do it for me. That thread was answered by Bigdubber or Lee as he's known. I want to start by saying what a top guy Lee is, he fixed all the holes, made me laugh, told me stories and put up with me asking a million questions as he worked!

So, there wasnt loads to do but all the holes are now fixed and I'm preparing to clean up all the old bumpy welds from the previous owner

These threads are boring without pics so heres a couple of bits of fresh metal waiting for a good grinding....engine tray...



after...



I have more of these but need to go through them... In terms of mech work, I've now pulled the front beam off mainly to check the framehead which I'm pleased to say is solid...



Also I had trouble getting one stubborn half rounded (previous owner again :rolleyes:) wheel bolt out but Lee taught me a trick using a big chisel this is what was left...



aside from that I've also removed the master cylinder and all the brake lines as they were a mess. Now after seeing Lee at work I really wanted to try welding, I attempted one piece which he promptly knocked off with a hammer.. but since then I've actually started to understand it and have fixed a couple of minor things... First was a section that I noticed had pin holes and some rot by the rear shock mount, I cut out the nasty piece...



and then proceeded to replace it and grind it flush...



I have to admit, I blew holes in one end so it came out and a larger piece was put in (previous photo) but I was pretty happy, even more so when I belted it with a hammer and it didnt spring out.

Next I tried another piece by the front wheel arch bolts. Now if you look closely you can see the hideous patch bodge master arson has put on (and filler ) underneath... but I'm not brave enough to start pulling too much off yet, however my attempt was done correctly-ish...first cut out the rotten bit...

new piece in, tacked round and ground back...



again for my third attempt at welding i'm quite chuffed. This leads me on to my plans for the car. After some thought and some financial head scratching I've decided to not go as full on with this resto as first planned. I now intend to simply repair and blend all the repairs I make and re-use all the original trim etc. The main reason for this is financial but also because it will be my daily, plus I dont live in the best area and dont want to worry about it sitting outside.

It will still be nice and tidy and follow the restocal look but I hope it just looks like a well kept but not mint bug. I have also decided it will now be getting a 4" narrowed beam! On that note and with my new found welding ability I have started making some repairs to my running boards. They are original heavy german ones with nice wide trim but one had a broken end bolt hole and had been bent out of shape, so far....





before...



after....

Got a fair bit more done today.. mostly grinding back lumpy welds and cleaning the inner wings back to bare metal to ensure theres no more grot...





also took the drivers side front quarter back to bare metal, it revealed some nice old repairs.. :rolleyes:



I also removed the bonnet seal lip right round including the valance and front scuttle area...



sadly it uncovered this...



luckily limited to just the drivers side, it's solid everywhere else. After trying to align the drivers door I realised the door bolt was turning so I had to open her up to see what was wrong..



not only was the mounting plate bent, but threaded and the little metal strip that holds the floating plate had snapped.. oh dear.

Plan is to weld proper nuts onto the plate and refix the holding strap, obviously weld her back up, fingers crossed for the other side! Lastly I started cleaning up the a/b post repairs and did a little hammering to try and get them ready for a skim of filler. I need to buy a Dremel or similar to grind the welds where they meet the heater channels.





Must start removing the old Waxoyl tomorrow from the bulkhead and pans... not looking forward to that.

Mister Paterson wrote:I meant to post this which is my updated "if only" concept rendering!

I LOVE IT!!

Nice thread, keep us updated on the progress of the car

Last couple of days have been slow progress.. started off on a bad note by knocking over my gas bottle and breaking my new regulator so first job was to make that safe for the future...



next I decided to remove the pass door only to find more bad news. The previous owner had obviously splashed out on some of those hex key head door screws which is all very well but he had also rounded them all off in the top hinge leaving me to drill them all out. Note the broken drill still stuck in one..luckily I got all 3 out without damaging the door post threads..



if you have never had to drill a bolt out heres my advice..go slowly... mega speed only blunts drill bits! Whilst I was on that side I checked the bottom hinge plate and yup... threaded on two bolt holes so that was opened up for removal and to be fixed..



I then cleaned all the old waxoyl off the bulkhead and frame head leaving this lovely sight...:rolleyes:



then all the floor pans inside... why do people use waxoyl..I hate it!!

next I have carefully removed the vinyl headliner side pieces as the headliner is decent but these side bits were rotten and torn. Luckily mother is a bit handy with stuff like this so she has been hired to make me up some new ones using the old ones as templates..



also, not sure if anyone has any of these but the rear window vents appear to be made of digestive and are cracked and useless... might have to do some creative vinyl work round the rear screen if I cant get hold of any..



heres how it looks with the side panels out..



next up was removing the old glue and other crap from the rear luggage area...looked like this..



and not much better but ready for some paint...now like this...



last but not least, I've chopped out the rot in the drivers side front quarter ready for new metal (once I get a new reg of course)

Just a quick "words only update"... I've now removed all the old waxoyl off the whole car which was a horrible job but worth it as there was surface rust under the waxoyl that you just dont realise is there till you remove it. The pans look almost the same hence no pics, but I'm glad it's out the way.

Also I've been dismantling the front beam which has giving me a headache. First off the pass side front drum locked up towing the car home and it had welded itself to the spindle. I thought it was just going to be a case of getting the super tight nut off but sadly it wasnt. To start off the nut was jammed soo tight I had to resort to grinding it off and even after being extremely careful I still damaged the spindle thread so that solved the "dropped spindles..should I ...shouldnt I dilema" :rolleyes: The old one is now fubar...

After the nut came off I discovered that the outer bearing is also jammed right in there.. you can actually see one of the roller bearings has twisted sideways in there...to cut a long story short it's stupid tight... looks like I'll have to get a puller to get it off, add more expense to a budget resto

...add to this that two of the hex head grub screws that hold the torsion arms on had no head so i'm hoping to weld the locking nuts on these to get them out otherwise it's back to the drilll....

I will get some pics up but they are really dull.. on a positive note I'm off tomorrow to get some sheet metal, wire and a new reg so I can finish up the welding once and for all, then hopefully start getting the bodywork sorted! Oh and when I did open up one brake drum it looks like all new shoes, fittings etc have been fitted and never used so thats on less thing to buy!