Getting ready for 2008

Called in to see the body shell a few days a go, a small amount of work has been completed but nothing to merit any photos.
I replaced the driver's side rear wheel bearing hub seals seals today, I put the rear drum back on but left the brake linnings out so that I can check in a couple of days for leaks and prevent the linnings getting oil on them.
Next activities in January\February will be:

• Replace the front passenger side brake cylinder balance pipe
• Treat the fuel tank with a POR15 sealant kit
• Try to strip the anodosing off some aluminium trim pieces and see if I can then polish them up and re-annodise with a home kit
• Collect the pieices that I took to the chromers for replating and passive coating
• Fire up the engine
• Chase the body shop to make some real progress and get the shell back by the end of March at the latest

Paint prep progress

The body shop has made some more progress on preping the car for paint. The main shell received a flash coat of primer and then a high build polyester filler primer on top. This now needs to be flatted back and remaining imperfections identified and sorted. Hopefully the pace will now keep up and maybe the bodyshell will be back home in the new year.

Rear brake drums

I finally got the NOS rear brake drum drilled to accept the rear hub oil seal thrower and have refitted that drum to the axle. However problems continue with the other side as the seal is now leaking and will need to be replaced before the car goes on the road.

Trim rings and chroming

I managed to pick up a set of the correct wheel trim rings off The Samba. These are a 1961 set as fitted to Type 14 and Type 2 but only to the T34 for a short period of time. Overall they are not in bad condition. I am looking into anodising companies for a few parts on the car and may get the trim rings refinished at the same time.

Meanwhile I took a load of small parts for rechroming at London Chroming Co along with other parts for passive plating, these should be done in about a month.

Finally I took the rear drums back of the rear axle and off to an engineering shop to have a hole drilled in the NOS one of the pair so that I can fit the oil thrower assembly back on.

No more progress on the bodywork but hopefully things will have moved on by the next post.

Prep work photos & progress

Here is a selection of the photos Mike kindly took for me when he called in at the body shop - all metal surfaces inside and out are being stripped totally bare to ensure no trace of rust remains.

I have also received the rear wing repair panels to use as a profile template and will drop then in at the end of the week, Paul at the bodyshop says there has also been more progress since these photos.

Meantime I took some minor pieces that needed rechroming to the plating shop, along with various small parts for passive plating - should be back in about 1 month.

Prep work continues

Called into the bodyshop today. All panels have now been profiled and skimmed and work is now underway with preping the underneath of the car. There is a small amount of work left to do to ensure the swage line in the rear wing panel is correct and also some minor work in the front boot area, replacement of cable ties etc. After this the primer will be going on, as soon as I have pics I will post them.

A little filler here, a little filler there..

Dropped in at the weekend to see what progress there has been with the body, more filler has been applied here and there, mainly on the passenger side, and some progress has been made on the drivers side.

The hope is that after next week there can be a big push to make more progress and get it into primer.

I took a range of small parts for blasting at the weekend and will post a few pics of them during the week.

magazine insert

I acquired the ad below at Bad Camberg in June. The dealer told me it was an insert for magazines in the 60's. I am a bit doubtful as to wether it is an original item due to the thick nature of the paper it is printed on but it is a nice stylised view of the VW range.

Signs of progress

Mike Dempster called in for me at the body shop to check on progress and found activity taking place. One of the front wings was in the middle of being preped for a light skim of filler and hopefully this means that the pace will pick up.

The body has gone in on a 'fill in' basis so it has to wait its turn between other jobs which is why progress might seem slow. I'm quite happy with this as long as the end result is good. In the meantime work has been completed also on the front panel which proved to be slightly out of shape following the rebuild.

Georgsmarienhuette - Type 34s - Part 3

Here are the last of the type 34 photos from GMH. they include the tacho that Johannes managed to pick up from a guy who had owned it from new - he approached him (I think) at another meeting and said he had one at home left over from when he had owned a car - it just needed some cosmetic paint work to the bezel and pointer.

Also a couple of fantastic shots of Joerg's 341 as we drove behind it in convoy for 2 hours - Joerg kindly offered me a drive in it at the end of the meeting but I was disappointed to have to say no as we needed to set off on our 8 hour trip back to the channel tunnel - next time and thanks for the offer Joerg!

Georgsmarienhuette - Type 34s - Part 2

There were quite a lot of later cars there including one of the latest automatic 69 models known (owned by Joachim Linder) and a green sunroof model owned by a local VW dealership and displayed with an early paint and material swatch book in the back window.

Georgsmarienhuette - Type 34s - Part 1

Here are photos of some of the Type34s at the meeting - the overall standard of the cars was very good. The pale yellow prototype 341 is chassis number 15,000 and the white 341 belongs to Joerg Fischer and is outstanding. The white 62 at the start of the small line up is Johannes Krassenbrink's fantastically original car. Our roulette green 65 model car covered the 1,200 odd miles with no problem other than a bit of lazy starting, due to my adjusting the slow running jets and a noisy bearing from the reconditioned generator that I fitted recently.

Tin Plate Type 34

Went to the celebration of 50 years of the launch of the type 14 Karmann Ghia convertible in Georgsmarienhütte, Germany over the weekend and acquired a nice Shimazakil tin plate Type 34 (missing its plastic siren) - its a long time since I bothered to buy any models but thought I would treat myself as this version with the Dutch Rijkspolitie emblems is quite rare.

Photos of the type 34s at the event to follow shortly.

Latest body update

Called into the body shop to check on progress. Some prep work has started on the panels with filler being applied to address areas of minor distortion following the metal work. More work is expected to happen over the next week or so as there is a gap in the body shop's work schedule that my car can slot into.

In the mean time a new door striker plate arrived from the Phillipinnes whilst i was on holiday.

Still here but no progress

Been away with work in New York for 2 weeks so I have not been able to make any progress personally. I don't think there has been any progress with the body shop either and will not get chance to check before we go away next weekend on holidays to Devon and then to the 50th celebration of the type 1 KG convertible in Germany - any news and I will post it.

In the meantime I have a new door striker plate on the way from the Phillipines for the 62 and a new drivers door lock for the 65.

We also have a new non restoration project which is keeping us busy! He even has his own blog site.

Small mechanical tweaks

I received a pair of NOS upper bump stops (snubbers) from ISP West this week. The existing ones are badly cracked and will be replaced with the new ones when I do the final set up of the front end.

I have also replaced the rear brake drum balance bars with the ones I picked up at Bad Camberg, the previous ones were both left hand ones and the car now has a left and right hand one which should be better for it and for stopping!

Type 34 sill sets

BerT3 is currently selling sill sets for the T34. Anyone who has attempted to restore one of these cars will know that this is one of the biggest challenges in the restoration. I had to have new inner and middle sills made by hand and my existing heater channels repaired. I used outer sills from another supplier and had major problems with the fit of one of them,

BerT3 is selling the whole package of outer sills, heater channel, inner sill and front and rear wing repair panels for both sides at a price of euro 1,000 plus euro 150 P&P (check the later depending where you are). The outer sill profile (not length) is made of one piece and this avoids the problem I experienced with the panel I used.

Would recommend anyone who has serious sill problems to look into this package - just needs the heater outletfor the inner sills to be let in. Mail BerT3 here for more details. bert.van.der.jeught@pandora.be

Bad Camberg 7 - General

Here are some photos that show the general beetles and show ground.