Aircooled VW South Africa

As most of you know I'm busy rebuilding my 1976 beetle.
I actually started by asking a couple of questions almost a year ago in the advice section. I only started in january 2010 and from there I just added pic's in my advice post. But have decided that it is time to create a new post under the Projects section.

And I will continue by adding more pics!!!

Body finally removed from pan.




Now the cleaning starts.

Putting a Projects thread out there is a great thing to do ......now commit to weekly updates at the same time each week and you will be surprised how well you progress . I did this with Bobbie......

Well done and please keep posting.....we enjoy and can help when motivation / will to continue is lacking! It works believe me!

Porsche Type Cooling for my Beetle.

I've read a lot of post regarding sand blasting of the chasis\ Body. Is this really necessary?
Take in consideration that I only have minor rust here and there, mostly between fenders and body.
Pan hardly has any rust.

ViperR wrote:Porsche Type Cooling for my Beetle.

This still need some mods to make it work properly

All though this was a Type 1 motor the type 4 needs some work aswell
Search under Projects Allen 1835 motor or someting like that related and check out all the pics and what I have done to the motor for all the std beetle tinware to work

I didn't sand blaster Bobbie as I didn't want the risk or feel that it was necessary. It's early days but we sanded all the rust to the bare metal and then made good.

The reason for sand blasting IMHO, is to ensure that there's nothing lurking under the paint / filler that you cant see. If you know the history, where it's been, any accidents you need to worry about, etc this should all be taken into account as you finally decide. The worst outcome for me is that after your project is complete you get some bubbling rust spots under the paint which you have to then deal with. I have this issue on Mo already!

I'm prepping all the rusted areas with NS1 in the meantime. As the body and pan will stand for a while.

Will start with the front suspension first.

Removing the tarred insulation material, quite a daunting task. Plenty of rust hidden underneath. Looks like I'll have to get the pan sandblasted after all .

Tar Finally removed as well as front suspension.

Look let's be honest, why skip a part like sandblasting and then put in hours of work only to be potentially bit in the ass at a later date?

The body, as Dutch said, needs consideration about the history. If you've owned it for the past 34 years then you are in a better position than anyone to know how bad. If not, do yourself a favour and get all the crap stripped off. It's the only way to be 100% sure and have a clean platform to work from.

Yes you right, I have decided to sandblast after I saw all the rust under the tar mats.

I'm back after repairing hole in pan.
Time to spraypaint.

That looks so good. Everytime I see a chassis that has been taken down to bare...., etch and painted, I get a warm and fuzzy feeling..... I only saw the updates in Feb about those tar boards. They are evil, as I am sure you know by now. And that stone chip is even worse! I started on a 1303 chassis to do the same. It took bloody ages! All that hard work. Then, the chassis got sold. The next owner all he had to do is give it a wuick skim over with sandblasting and he was golden! I can kick my own ass for getting myself covers in all that disgusting dust etc for nothing! Learned my lesson well about (not) planning a project properly.

Now you got such a good base.... Dont skimp on the other parts either. Do the same with them. Clean them properly and painted new. You will reap so much reward once your project rolls down the road the first time!!!

Keep up the pace (and the pics)

Next up Front Suspension with diskbrake conversion!!!

By the way. I forgot to add that I like your 'rotisserie' idea(well, ok.... it cant turn, but that's not my point ). That is a sure way to get to all those little spots easily!