Off to the Paintshop

Well the body has started on its final stage as it was collected and taken off to the paint shop today.

I will be calling in tomorrow to chat through the various things that need doing and find out what the timescales are now for completion.

New arrival

Just received a silver beige sun visor from Paul Colbert over in the US. This solves the problem of the broken hinge on the existing one but creates a new problem of where do I get a matching one for the other side in such good condition!

Also just got from the US a couple of the larger format heater cable end clamps.

Count down - fingers crossed

Well, next weekend the body should be off to the paint shop. Not 100% sure just incase another project has gone over time or something urgent drops in before me but keeping my fingers crossed.

Only progress in the meantime has been final work on hoovering our grit from blasting and drilling a few remaining holes here and there.

In the meantime here are a couple of photos of an early right hand drive car that we owned, chassis number 355327 built in the first half of 1964. having had a couple of other type 34s that ended up going for scrap i swapped our 62 beetle with a friend for this one. He had rescued it from a ditch and put a total new front end on it. We ran it for a number of years before selling it on to another friend.

Spot the early T3 saloon bumper fitted to this car whilst i was looking for a T34 one. For those looking at the C registration on this car it is similar to a lot of 64 models that came into the UK and remained unsold for a considerable period of time, being registered after some 65 models had found first owners on an 'earlier' B registration plate.

The black paint scheme and early features on this 64, such as the push button dash and built in rust, were partially inspirational in the desire to have another early car.

Internationales Karmann Ghia Treffen Georgsmarienhuette

We have just registered for the above event between 24 and 26 August at the same site as the 5o years of the KG coupe celebrations held in 2005.

It is a far smaller club affair without any trips to Karmann and a maximum of about 100 cars but celebrating 50 years of the KG cabriolet. here is a link to the website for the event.

http://home01.htp-tel.de/buehring/TreffenGMH/

Long gone and living in Ireland but here is a photo of our 1967 model.

Small stuff

No exciting photos of progress on the 62 so here is a photo of the 65 taken at the Stanford Hall event earlier this month.
This weekend I have been doing little tasks to the body including drilling the missing drain holes in the bottom of the front valance, marking out where the sill trim holes should be and removing the rear boot lock barrel, well I almost removed it. I have managed to remove the jammed in internals but the securing ring won't budge despite loads of releasing fluid. I will resort to the method I have used before which is a 3/4" drill down the centre of it to weaken the sides and then strong pliers to crush it.

Bits & Bobs

I spent the day looking through the various boxes of parts from the car and identifying bits that still need work on them.

I have put together a range of parts that need passive plating to give them back their original silver finish and some parts that need re-chroming. The parts for re-chroming include the front quarter light frames which will need some repairs first as they were drilled all the way through for later non VW mirrors to be fitted. I do have frames from scrapped cars but these from the 62 are slightly different to later cars so I want to keep them.

I have also stripped the car jack and will be taking parts from it, along with the wiper arms, for gentle blasting during the next few weeks.

Start of the final phase

I have a date of 4 of June for the paintwork to be started on the car. This means I need to push on with seam sealing all panel joints, completing the drilling of holes for trim and then removing the body once again from the chassis. Can't wait to see it back in its original all black colour scheme like in the works press photo.
In the meantime I had contacted Newton Commercial here in the UK who, a few years ago, were willing to make up a set of carpets for me in the correct German square weave. they have now agreed a sole concession on all Type 3 carpet sales with T3D which will push the cost way past what i am willing to pay.
So bearing in mind that I made the carpet set for our 65 I have contacted the supplier of the square weave material used in the restoration of our Mercedes 190SL - they have an even better match to the original light/medium grey that was in the car when built.
So I am going to order MB10 Gray from them and use templates from other cars to make up the carpet set. I can do most of this from my 65, allowing for RHD to LHD conversion but will need to take templates from an early 62 for the carpeting around and below the rear seat area.

Instruments

I was sorting through my stash of instruments this morning, here are a couple of photos showing some of the various small differences over the years.

Rear end fit up

Got round to trial fitting the rear bumper and rear lights, just need to made the side mounting holes for the bumpers this weekend. Will also remove the old broken rear lock.

She has eyes

Well a little trial fitting up completed, all the bumper mounts were correct as were those for the head & fog lights and indicator & repeaters. I had to drill the holes for the early 62 badge and it looks more like a car with all this lot fitted back on.

The bumpers need to be rechromed but that will have to wait for a while. next will be the fitting up of the rear end.

Work planned for April

The major activity for April is going to be trial fitting back up of all the lights, bumpers and external fittings in advance of the car going off for its paintwork. I hope the car will go in for its paintwork at the end of this month at a local paintshop, the body will be removed from the chassis again to mave the paint process easier.

I also need to make the various holes for badges, sill trims and bumper side mounts that have been lost due to panel replacement but have templates for all of these made up.

The NOS generator which had been on the 65 for a few months was put back today after I fitted the reconditioned one to the 65.

I received a NOS horn through the post this morning, boght off the Samba and shipped from the US, should look good, not sure if I will put it on the 65 instead of the 62 as it will be more visible on that car.