SplitBoy

2011-02-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

Multitasking?

Both the car and its engine are getting some attention these days....still only small steps, but at least its going straight forward..... =)

2010-07-30T02:53:00.000-07:00

Steering and shock absorbers

The front suspension is finally coming together - could also mount the steering wheel when I was in the garage last week =)

The car's original lever shocks were a bit "sloppy", so new ones had to be purchased. Good ones are not exactly easy to find.....but suddenly a pair in good condition turned up - just five minutes away! Hope to get these on the car next week =)

2010-06-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

Rollin', rollin'

Last night, we had a delayed spring cleaning of the sechs volt barn, coupled with a nice barbeque served by farmer oval57 and girlfriend. After the "need to do" barn cleaning, we did the "nice to do". With some skilled help, the front drums were mounted in seconds. I couldn't resist the opportunity to trialfit one front fender to see how it all would come together... =)

When we left the barn, the car was rollin' on all four wheels - many years have passed since the last time that happened...!

2010-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

Front suspension....

Swapping the torsion leaves from the old suspension and over to the new one, is a messy thing.....grease all over....thanks to knechten for lending a pair of hands!

The front drums are repainted and new wheel bearings are inserted....the backing plates have had new brake parts mounted.on the wheels again before the summer holiday????

2010-06-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

Engine

This 30 hp engine might not get anybody excited....but it is in quite good shape, and it will serve it's purpose until some vintage speed will enter the car (next winter). I rebuilt the carb and fuel pump, just to be sure. I do not regret making the reart valance removable - it was a whole new thing to fit an engine =)

2010-02-27T22:27:00.000-08:00

Brakes?

The brakes are of course an important part of any restoration... When removing the rear drums, the rear brakes were rather dusty and full of spiderwebs....

But its coming together nicely - assembled the left side the other day =)

2010-01-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

Mating body to chassis

A beautiful evening in the 6V barn, the stars were shining....and the body joined to the pan once again for the first time in a long, long time. "Trialfitted" the tires as well, whitewall Firestones never go out of style.... ;-)

Later on, the two were mounted together with the original, renovated 14 mm "kamax" bolts. Note frame number, dating the car to July 1950.

2010-01-17T10:45:00.001-08:00

Floorpan

New floorpans had been fitted earlier. However, the correct seat rails were missing. A set of good old were purchased, and welded in place.

Sanding, cleaning and then painting the 'pan was plain joy.... =)

2010-01-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

Paint!!

Finally, I was ready to prep the car for paint. A good auto paintshop in Oslo scanned the inside of my enginelid, which still contains the original L51 Bordeaux red paint. The end result was very good indeed.

Despite heavy rainfall late summer/fall of '09, I managed to find a quiet evening to spray the car. Even though the paint was applied outside, dust contamination was absolutely minimal.

In order for the car to achieve the look I want, the paint finish is not entirely gloss....something more like satin actually.... =)

2009-11-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

Priming =)

After several hours of sanding and filling, the car was ready for priming. 2K primer was sprayed on the car out in the driveway a windless sunday evening.

A whole new appearance - and this was only the beginning... =)

2009-11-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Prepping for primer...

The summer of '09 was rather sh*t as the weather goes, but I managed to squeeze in some evenings filling, sanding and prepping for primer.

2009-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Let the sun shine in

A few years back I bought a rusty ragtop beetle. The car was a "gonner", but the ragtop was complete and salvageable. The ragtop was placed in the sechs volt barn, and the car recycled.
One sunny afternoon in August, I left work early and headed for the sechs volt barn. I thought; "I could start filling, grinding and priming for paint....but I would never be satisfied with the car if I didn't end up with a large hole in the roof..."

I had discussed the topic with Knechten the week before, and he showed me a "how to - welding in a ragtop" article in Volksworld....

The decision was made - no leaving of the premises before the ragtop was in. It took 10 hours from start to finish....didn't find my bed until 0330 that evening/morning...

The ragtop is an original "Golde" sunroof.

After the recipe from Volksworld, the ragtop clip was cut just outside the pressings, this will make the ragtop hide the welding seams when finished.

I measured once, twice, thrice....and then measured again....lost complete count of how many times I checked my measurements....

As when it came to mating the angle grinder to the car...don't think I have ever been that nervous....I cut the hole a little to small on purpose, and repeated the procedure until the car matched the ragtop clip perfectly, with about half a cm overlap.

2009-11-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

Let the sun shine in part II

Used a special kind of wrench, I lowered the outer sheet metal on the roof 1 mm, so that the ragtop would flush smoothly with the roof of the car.

Again, measuring all was right, it was time to do some welding. I clamped the ragtop onto the roof, and fired up the MIG.

Nearly finished welding, I was quite happy with the result… =)

2009-11-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

Welding of rust completed

Last but not least, the door hinges and the seam below the A-pillar on the drivers side of the car needed some serious work. I had avoided the place ever since I started to weld on the car.. I was fortunate enough to get help from a professional; Solberg Sr. took a day off and made the area nice and rock solid again =)

One night, I gathered some of the rusty sheetmetal which had been cut from the car...it was quite a few pieces....and in addition there was the front fenders, the pan halves...++
Very happy to have reached this milestone =)

2009-07-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

Rear fenders

The original rear fenders have been missing since the war, so suitable replacements had to be made. Some old replacement parts I bought on the Norwegian vw-forum two years ago, was brought in from the barn an fitted to the car.

The mounting pieces for the rear lights were purchased form wolfparts. These are excellent quality, and were a perfect fit.

Now we are getting somewhere =)

2009-07-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

A good day's work at the garage!

The rear valance is original, but rather bent, battered and rusty... Faithful reproductions are available, but too expensive for me.

Earlier this summer, I had purchased one of the standard reproduction valances for pre-67 cars. After having cut and drilled out the original one, I cut out the "best of both worlds" from the two valances

After some trialfitting and measuring, the new piece was spotwelded together.

The holes for the twin-post -55 exhaust had to be handled of course, so they were welded shut as well.

2009-06-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night, I did some surgery on the drivers side of the spare wheel well, it was kind of bent and battered and war-weary...

Thanks to Oval57, who went to his storage and once again gave me a most useful replacement part, the plastic surgery was quite straightforward. Countdown to "end of welding" can soon begin.... =)

2009-05-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

Last part of the heater channels completed! What to to now, hardly any rust left on the car.....?! =)

2009-05-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Managed to get a good start on the right heater channel this week. Lots of adjustments when one is putting it together with many individual parts....the next time, I might go for a complete channel...!

2009-05-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Not many updates lately - but I haven't been lazy...working with other parts and bits for the '50.

The other week, as the other sechs volt cars were about to emerge from the barn, we had to move the Ghia. We found out the hard way that a Ghia is a bit heavier than a beetle. We had to mount the front suspension and four wheels to move it!. Now it resides a bit more out of the way - and it looks very good with rubber on. Can't wait to start to restore it! =)

2009-03-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Finally done with the left heater channel :-)

2009-02-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

The rear quarter panel shows the typical vw-sign of wear and tear....so it had to go as well. I did not manage to finish it all up tonight, but the new part seems to align up quite nice. Some small adjustments next time, and then the lower part of the channel will be up next! =)

2009-02-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

The heater channel has been bugging me for quite some time now, and today was the time to start sorting it out. Oval57 had recently brought me an excellent piece from one of his vw-journeys, and this was carefully welded in place. I felt a bit sweaty when cutting out the rotted old metal, but the reinforcements held....and the door gap still has the same measurements as before =)

2009-01-21T14:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight there were some parts to pick up, so I only managed to finish up the welds on the channel from last time. Next up is butchering the rusted parts of the channels, so I also reinforced the body with some steel bars.

2009-01-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

With very good help from Fürsten, I managed to get a good start on the rear left heater channel/inner fender tonight. It's funny how you always have to cut out more metal than you anticipated in the first place.... The end result looked quite good, I have to say. Still some more to finish it up, but it kept me smiling all the way home :-)

2009-01-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

One of the last evenings before new years eve, I spent an fruitful afternoon in the 6v garage toghether with Oval57. After welding the rear bumber mounts, we separated the chassis and body, mounted the body in oval57's "body-roll" and tipped the -50 upside down. The welding will now be much easier....and a good thing that is, because the lower side of the heater channels looks a little "moth-eaten".....

2008-11-12T05:07:00.000-08:00

Not much to report lately - have been using the last several evenings in the garage to make some kind of order in all my parts and junk...Ordnung muB sein, right?

The preparation of the -68 1300 "F" engine from 12V to 6V as a spare engine is also nearly finished. After a thorough cleanup, painting, some new gaskets and fittings, a power pulley and a bugpack muffler, it should provide a good daily driver for a 6V car. =)

Before and after pictures tells it all....?

2008-09-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Not much progress to report on the '50 lately....

But time is spent weekly in the garage on other things though.

This week we primed Oval57's 52 split. I had consultant help in the garage also, she brought out freshly baked buns, jam and also a white table-cloth "to make things around here a bit cosy" as she put it... =)

The priming went okay - and we look forward to the final coats next week!

2008-07-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Mid-july....and the rainiest day ever this summer....

Hitting the wet roads with the -56 is quite okay, though.....larger engine, big tires and wet "tarmac" makes driving both funny and challenging....especially in roundabouts =)

2008-07-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky that my old man also enjoys driving vw's - he drives '63 1200 - converted to a american roadster cab.

Earlier this summer, he shod the cab with new whitewall biasply tires - drove up to the vintage race "flåklypa grand prix" in Gudbrandsdalen and back again - a hefty 1000 kilometers in olny 36 hours.

With only a original 1200 engine and no cab - I call that hard core. He finished 5. in his class also, by the way.

RESPECT =)

2008-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

All sun and summer at the 6V garage.... I want to have the wheels and rims ready when I start to work on the '50 chassis this winter. So yesterday I spent some hours in the sun grinding and prepping the wheels for paint. I'm going for original wide-5 wheels, just had the rears widened to 5,5". The new, 5.5" rim parts are of course original Kronprinz stuff.... =)

Started to prime them as well... =)

Thanks to oval57 for giving me two "NOS" spare wheels!

2008-06-25T02:36:00.000-07:00

The summer has so far left little time in the garage – this is anyway the time for driving…
Let the kid handle the steering wheel on an empty parking lot the other day – he was thrilled.
We might have a future vw-nerd here =)

2008-05-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

A little check with both fenders, decklid and bumpers on....the parts seem to fit together good :-)

2008-05-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Celebrated part of the national holiday in the garage this year :-)

Replaced some sheetmetal behind the left rear bumpemounts - and trialfitted mounts itself and "the dolly". Looks good so far - next time I will trialfit the rear fenders and the correct split bumper. That's gonna be fun! :-)

2008-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday service... =)

I'm going to lend Oval57's "garage-dolly" in order to weld my heater channels....but before I can attach the body to the dolly, I have to repair the rear bumper mounts...they are completely missing!

Managed to get a good start today - the mounts itself will be added next time - I need some further reference points before I weld it in place...

2008-04-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

Collecting more parts...

The other low-voltage boys are starting to get their rides together, and I kinda start longing for getting there myself...especially as spring are coming these days.

Yesterday in the garage, I swapped these little guys with Oval57 - correct parts for the old -50... He got a well used pair to match the captain instead.

2008-02-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Not being able to do welding in the garage this last week because of winter vacation at school, I just had to do some shopping....

I try to not shop things for my split before I need them, but just had to have this when I saw it advertized by a fellow vw nut here in Oslo...

A NOS Indy Hurst gear shifter for VW =) Looking at the box will make my soul be at rest until the car is finished and my right hand can work on this beautiful piece of vw history!

2008-02-07T04:13:00.000-08:00

Report from last night in the garage!
My first shot at welding the heater channels....
This side required some small pieces welded in, it now appears to solid and strong. Some grinding will make it look a bit prettier as well....I hope... ;-)

2008-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

And on the more "fun" side.... Yesterday I completed welding on the left inner front fender. Also started to work on the heater channel, as it is kinda moth-eaten... Will continue this later this week, I hope.

2008-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

When the engine was finally dismantled and cleaned and ready to fit the 1600 ccm set....it would'nt fit!! Turned out that the engine was in fact a D-engine...which translates to a 1200 ccm 34 HP Sparkäfer engine....bad luck really - as we pulled it out from a -69 deluxe, and Sparkäfers aren't that common i Norway... So i had to start all over with a 1300 "F"-engine, pictured here. Boring, boring....!!

2008-01-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

12 V Adultery……
I plan to sell a car in the summer of 2008, so a new engine have to be built. This engine was pulled out of a -69 1300 some years ago, I bought it from Oval57. I thoroughly cleaned and dismantled it, and was just going to install a good used set of 1600 pistons, cylinders and heads…. (everything will of course be converted to 6V!!)
But then suddenly, D-day came…. :-(

2007-12-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

*STOLEN* Last night someone broke into SplitBoys car and stole an original Blaupunkt radio. It looks like the thiefs in this case were unfamiliar with opening a beetle, and finding the fastening screws for the radio. If anyone have any tips about the Blaupunkt radio, make sure to mail SplitBoy at outlavws@hotmail.com.

2007-12-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

One could wonder if the 6V house cat should be taken to the wet and castrated soon. This morning the cat left another "dead mouse" on our doorstep. If this don't stop, we have to build another barn. The cat keeps on dragging in.... and we keep on saving. And this for sure is a saver =) Something to do with the roof?

2007-11-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

Funny thing...... Both Knechten's -52 and my -50 are repainted in some kind of horizon blue around the time they were imported from Sweden nearly 40 years ago. The other night in the garage, we desided to check the colours up against each other. As you can see from Knechten's tail-light....the colour is exactly the same... Have they been to the same place at one point of time? do they share a common history? If only they could tell the tale....

2007-11-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

Last week in the garage saw some massaging of the left inne front fender. This was missing already when I bought the car, so it was good to get it back on - makes the car a bit more "whole" =)

Had to make a new lower mounting for the door as well - the driver door looks to have been bent/torn/cut off the car rather than being screwed off at one time in the past. A new door will be needed, but that will be in 2008...

I allowed myself one little "shortcut" - I used "kjemisk metall" - a polyesterbased metal-alloy to cover up some holes i the hot air-vent to the front screen...but please don't tell anybody... =)

The "VENG" part acutally did fit quite ok. It will need some more welds to be finished, but it sure make the owner get in better mood already!

2007-11-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

Mantorp in 1995. "Betty" are marked as you can see:-)

2007-11-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

SplitBoy has`nt always been into splits and ovals. He is the one of us that had a new VW. This 1973 model 1300 S was a great 90`s cal-looker. Living close to HotShop the parts was easy to get, and hard to pay. We drove it to Mantorp in 1995, first time at Mantorp for us!

Where is Betty now?

2007-11-01T07:31:00.001-07:00

A whole new beginning =)

2007-11-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Quite a good day in the garage yesterday =)
Filled in three small holes in the out back, and also managed to come a long way in repairing the right front inner fender. With a very good help from Knechten, it turned out really nice as Wednesday evening turned into Thursday morning… =)
As for the welding, we followed the instructions from Gunde Swan’s "Lär att svetsa som en proffs"

2007-10-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

Solid (?) but ugly?

Yesterday I welded on the chassis-mount on the right side of the car, as it was completely missing. I spent a great deal of time making it fit to the car, and also to try to weld it on properly. I have to admit - I am not a welder of excellence....not yet, anyway.. the chassismount appears to be rock solid now, but I will still have to practise a bit more to get it to look a little better... =)

2007-10-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Polishing chrome-parts is not the thing I should be doing at this stage, but I can't help myself.....

The new front bumper turned out quite ok after one hour polish with Autosol.. =)

2007-10-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Collecting parts....

Last night, on our way to the garage, we drove by another vw-fellow's place and picked up this front fender.

It's pretty rough, but with a litttle hard work and a few tubes of autosol, it might work out just fine on the split - so far, this is the crome part for this car with the most crome on.... ;-)

2007-08-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

When stored in the previous owner's barn, a cat decided to take a leak in the rear seat of my split. Quite a nasty smell...and an ugly spot on the fabric as well...

This weekend, I flushed the seats with cold water and washed them all thoroghly with "MILO" ( a detergent especially made for wool and silk). they are quite wet right now, but they smell quite good - and some of the foul spots disappeared as well... :-)

2007-08-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

A hard day's work at an end.... I know this won't get me a job at Boyd's hot rod shop, but it will hopefully get the old gal through the Norwegian MOT-equvialent...
And yes, I know that the black piece of metal come from "VENG". I can live with that fact! My spilt has not been on the road for nearly 30 years....and to get her back there is the major issue, after all... :-)

2007-08-04T15:00:00.001-07:00

So far in my spli-prosject, I have had halp with the welding. When starting on my own, i wanted to find som "easy" areas to begin with. The rear leaft inner fender was found suitable. ( I have a lot of places to work with..) It is quite fun when you start working!

2007-06-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

After the trips to both Mantorp and Bad Camberg, some of the missing parts for my split are starting to come together. Although my cabinet of goodies is rather small... it feels good to look at =)
My spare time the following weeks will be spent in the garage though, time to do some welding again!

2007-06-13T05:17:00.001-07:00

Looking better than ever, the Jungle green draw a lot of attention at this years Bug Run.

With all the right details in place, the glaspack muffler and the black Talbot mirror made the finishing touches to the car. With perfect parking spot in the "Norwegian-corner" among some of the best cal-lookers attending the show, a lot of of people stopped to have a closer look at the clean 356 engine and this nice car. Splitboy sure did find the right recipie for this timemachine.

A very good ambassador for the Outlavws-look.

2007-04-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

As the snow slowly vanishes, it's time to start thinking of summer activities again - bug cruz'in..

Toghether with oval57, I recently fired up my -56 and took her out for a little trip. It was so good to hear the flat four rumbling again... :-)

Almost ready for summer now - just have to wash off some dust and make some small adjustments..

2007-02-09T01:38:00.000-08:00

One of the previous owners dismantled much of the front of the car - we can not quite see why.... so we welded both the front clip and the left inner fender back in place. They were too good to be thrown away. It felt very good - somehow, it now looks like it will become a car again :-)

2007-02-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

With very good help from knechten, the first replacement panel was spot-welded in place. The two thin panels wanted to go everywhere but together, but we managed to get them toghether quite ok. Additional spotwelds will be made next time, but the fit is now as good as it gets...

2007-02-09T01:31:00.000-08:00

A lot of air and missing panels was the deal when I bought this car. Although I have been giving it considerably thought whether this could be possible to sort out, it always helps to take one thing at a time.

2006-12-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

The car came complete with it's 25 hp enginge, matcing numbers.
The engine is stored away in a place were the sun never shines......

"If there's something I want, then there's something I need,
I wasn't built for comfort, I was built for speed" (Meatloaf)

Needless to say, I need a more potent heart for this baby. Time and size of wallet will show how far I will be able to go. But both the car end the engine will be built outlavws style..

2006-12-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

I have never welded before in my life... the other aircooled vw's i have owned, were either welded by somebody else or were bought after welding was done.
But I guess I will have to learn - it is now about the only thing I haven't done restoring a vw...
Some new panels will be needed, though, getting this baby on the road again.

2006-12-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

The start of a blog for å new project....
earlier this fall, I bought a VW 1950 project car - and it is really a big project....
The car was first imported into Norway from Sweden in the late fifties, as Norway had restrictions for buying new cars at that time. Several owners have dismantled the car more and more over the last 20 years or so - so I imagine I like puzzles...
The car lacks bumpers, windows, trim, wheels and door panels, but otherwise all the good and expensive parts are there.
And it has already been sandblasted and primed! Ready for me to start welding in..

2006-11-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

To get this blog started, Mr. Junglegreen needs a little help. As a first posting, what is better than a picture of the car featured in this blog. To my standards, a very nice looking 56 oval, with a very clean 356 engine.

In recent time he has also purchased a nice project car, of course he couldn resist the pressure in the Outlavws... he went for a split as well, a nice 50 model tracked down by Oval 57.