Multitasking?

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

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 =) 

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...!

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????

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 =)

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 =)

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.

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.... =)

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.... =)

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... =)

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.

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.

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… =)

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 =)

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 =)

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.

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.... =)

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

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...!

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! =)