Body work update

I went over to the bodyshop earlier this week. John has now repaired the rear boot lid that the blaster managed to distort and also repaired the hole in the roof above the drivers side windscreen pillar.

The new door acquired in Germany last year also required a little adapting to give a good fit along with some alterations to the fit of the front wing.

Various minor holes, revealed by the blasting, have been addressed and the headlight bowls have been fitted after some minor adjustments to the wings to ensure a good fit.

It just remains for some areas to be lead loaded and then the car will be ready to bring back home in the next couple of weeks.

It's come a long way from the state it was in shown in the above photo, I now can't wait to get the paint done and will be firming up my choice of paintshop over the next few months.

This is what it should look like

Thought I would post a couple of pics of how the car originally looked in solid black and how it will look once it is finally finished back in its original colour scheme.

Having a car that is the same as in a brochure makes it easier to imagine what the finished result will be when it started its restoration so far a way from this.

Wanted - roof gutter trims

I have managed to acquire 5 roof trims lately from Lee Hedges and Sam Manis in the US. Unfortunately my anodiser says he cannot get a good result on any of them due to various dents, twists and deep scratches on individual ones.

Does any one have a really good pair, without dents, bends, twists or really deep scratches that they could sell to me? post me a comment on the site if you do and I will reply.

A few new mechanical pieces sourced

Doug Gray has kindly donated a pair of the oil throwers fitted to the rear drums to my restoration - thanks Doug! Does anyone have any photos of these fitted, with the car away at the body shop I am wondering how they fit in.

Just bought a set of the 62/63 early ball joints with greas nipples from BerT3 for the car. I can't detect any great play in the existing ones, one of which is an original nippled one, and will decide if to replace them all when the car comes back from the bodyshop and I start stripping down the torsion bars, it would probably be daft not to replace them at that stage.

Work for December

A major activity for December is over as soon as the month has begun. The car has gone off this morning to the body shop to have the remaining bodywork done. This involves fitting of headlight bowls, removal of various dents exposed by the blasting of the body, repair to the body where the blaster got carried away and loads of lead loading and other final adjustments.

Next activity is to sit down and think about what needs doing next as I am beginning to run out of tasks until a repaint can be undertaken. I have in mind a rebuild of the horns and looking into getting some plates with captive bolts made up to enable me to repair the padded top dash which has lost 2 of its mounting bolts through rust.

Work completed in November

November was more eventful than I expected with the body going back on the chassis for the first time in over 2 years; to do this I took the engine out. After speaking to a few friends recently I realised how lucky I was to get this replacement 62 engine. I don't have loads of photos of the internals of my engine from when I restored it but for a great detailed account of the restoration on a 62 engine click on the link to Scott Taylor's blog (VW & VW1500).

I completed the soldering back up of the connections on the steering column unit, nothing worth a photo of and have had new sill treads folded up in aluminium, again not much to see at the moment but I will post a photo when I have finished them and had them anodised.