Cleaning up the metal and the garage....

Ran out of welding gas so I thought it was a good moment to clean the garagebox up a bit. Pushed the bug outside and test fitted some stuff. It all kind of fitted but I'm still a bit iffy about everything. I really need an adapterplate for my subaru engine so I can test fit everything correctly. The cup-brace isn't finished eather because of the lack of welding gas but thus far it looks ok. So nothing really important to show but... well, it's progress anyway.

Had the other stuff on too but It looks really silly without an engine, so I am not going to show those pics. But at least you can see how the closed holes look (still without bondo) Now to make some holes in other places for cooling stuff, weird hu...

The cup-brace is in, still need to weld to lower brackets to the gearbox horns but then it's ready. Guess if the parts are strong enough for a boat they are strong enough for my bug. Let's hope I am right.

Bye bye half moons.....

Decided to delete the little half moons behind the rear windows. They were going to blow air behind my roofcovering... so they had to go. It all looks really rough, guess I should start to use some bondo after I grind it all down. Time to start to make it look it all a bit more decent... Little note: If you are ever going to do this, do not forget to take the isolating strip out that is in the groove right behind the skin. I forgot it with the first side which resulted in lots of fire, smoke and funky smell. I can still smell it....

After that I cut a square out of the fire wall, just big enough for a 21 inch monitor. Haha, just kiding, it's going to be a 19 inch..... Nooo, it's to give the intake of the subaru engine a bit more space. And it also gives me a lot more room to get to the engine/gearbox bolts which I hadn't even thought about. I'm going to make a box of it which will also house my speakers. Also put a aluminium cover where the vents where (it's gray, probably the color I am going to paint the entire car) and I am working on a cup brace, but I'll show that one when it's finished... because I kind of screwed it up... :(

Some cornerspieces

Welded in some cornerpieces, makes it all look a bit more original again... well, a little bit. Still trying to figure out where to put the bonnetpins (and also if I'm going to make them myself or buy some) That's pretty much all there is to tell for now.

Less cooling = more welding

Yes, I deleted the cooling slots under the rear window. Ok, don't ask if it's a good idea or not. I've got pro's and con's, but in the end it's just because I saw the rear of the bugster and wanted mine to be kind of like that too. And because I haven't got the money yet for the adapterplate for the engine I am just looking for things to do on my bug. Well.... it turned out to be a little more work then expected. Which in hindsight wasen't that bad. Found some nasty rust I had never found if I hadn't done this.

Cut the the slots out and was figuring out how I was going to remove the plate where the bonnet is connected to. Well, it almost did it by itself. It was rusted bad. Good thing I took it out.

Welded a plate in and some brackets.

And this is how it looks now. (looks almost like it's photoshoped) Next I'll start making a little spoiler.

Also checked how the decklid looked with the bumper on. Of course it wouldn't open the normal way but I'll use hood pins.

Cleaning up the decklid

Nothing really important to tell, just took the paint and bondo of the decklid. Used a powerdrill so not to make to much noise but I did take a while because... well I couldn't do big patches at ones. It was almost like coloring with a marker.... if that makes any sence :D

It came of really easy but it was just such a big surface... also made a big mess.

Well, not to bad. But not nearly done.

New rear deck lid... a bit weird.

Today the mailman delivered my decklid. The guy really knows me and my heavy and/or big packages. He didn't even bother to bring it al the way to my door :D So after finishing some stuff I went to my garagebox to test fit it. Well, 2 things were pretty obvious. First of course, it's the wrong model. Couldn't really see it on the pic in the ad if it was the longer model or not but I didn't care eather way. Well turns out it's a '67 model (right...?) but it's a lot longer then I had anticipated. My bug isn't stock anyway, and I've got some other plans that make the back even less stock but I'm not sure if I am going with this deck lid. It does however have some advantages but I need to see it with the rear bumper on... Secondly, the ad said a plastic (which in my book means fiberglass) bonnet. None of that of course. The thing had a bit of rust on it and after inspecting it more carefully I noticed the inside wasn't fiberglass but thick latex paint. Funny. After taking that gunk off, the inside wasn't that bad. The outside however has had a real lousy paintjob. I'll put the grinder to it to see how it's underneath, wont take that much time I think because I could take the paint and primer of it with my fingernail.... We'll see how this unfolds.

I do prefere the longer deck lid because it makes the line of the back run on longer but it's so not stock... (maybe I should run a W-deck lid :D)

In the end I did find some little pieces of fiberglass under all that latex junk. But that gray stuff really has metal under it. Still it doesn't look all that bad actually.... the other side I'll leavy for another time.

Front is done, for now... again

Well... turned out that my Tig welding skills weren't up for it. I just couldn't get it to work so I had to switch to Mig. Sadly that thing only has one setting when welding aluminium (that works) and that's full blast. Which resluted in a 1cm thick blob. After grinding it down it didn't look to bad, hopefully it won't leak.

Also made some gussets to make the front bracing look a bit beefier. After that I put everything together again. Also put the bonnet on, which somehow doesn't really want to fit. Weird.... Anyway, I rolled the bug out and turned it around again. For now I have had enough of working on the front and I also just bought a plastic rear bonnet which should be here tommorow or the day after. Interested if it fits and all.

Always nice to have a look at the car when it's outside. It just looks like nothing changed though.....

Some more bracing

Welded 2 extra stainless tubes in the front. Of course I would have prefered to cross the 2 but then the spare wouldn't fit anymore. Oh and the water bottle got deleted. Will have to think of another system for that. After that I cut one of the bongs of my radiator, because it didn't fit anymore. Scarry. Need to weld it together again, hope my tig welding is good enough.

Spare tire

Got the spare in and locked. I will show you how I made the bracket another time. The black stuff (no idea what it's called) is in too but I am not totally happy with it. Hope to change it to carbon sheet someday. Next I want to fit 2 brace pipes from the shock towers to the front and then I need to figure out how i am going to make that waterbottle work without a airfilled spare.

De-anodizing my amp

Got a bit side tracked. Was working out how I was going to fit stuff in the trunk and then remembered the amp I had. I need it to make my ipod work as a stereo so it's probably going in the trunk. It's purple (or lilac) and eventough I've got all sorts of colors in and on the car, purple was not going to be one of those colors. I was going to de-anodize some wheels for my motorbike with sink declogger but haven't found a bucket big enough to fit a wheel in. However, the amp was a good object to test the de-anodizing. I have seen it online that it works but wanted to see it with my own eyes. So I started on this little project.

The amp. Just a few euro on a flee market but it works. Eventhough they had left it out in the rain....

Took it apart and cleaned it with soap. It's a perfect fit for my sink.

Filled the sink with warm water en de-clogger.

Half an hour later, a lot of foam which started to turn purple.

One hour and I took it out. Had turned it upside down ones during the proces. Well guess it really does work. One hour might have been a bit long because it got a bit pitted. After a good rinse I saw some brown spots....

Not really sure what those spots were (heat or something) but I decided to sand them down. Well, not a good idea but the spots were gone. After that I gave it a glassbeat to get rid of the shine...

The plastic strip was purple-ish too so I made a black one. Just a sony badge from an old reciever to make it not to bland. All ready to fit in the bug. But I might put it in the back......

Fuel pumps

Had some minutes to spend so I started on the second part of the trunk cover. And then I realized that the fuelpumps were getting in the way. So I relocated them. Made some brackets, welded them in and now the pumps are lower. They were where those little holes are. Cover on top and you don't see them. Not really important but.. hey. So, low presure pumps on a injected engine...? Well, I don't want high presure lines going through the car, so I'll put a swirltank in the back. And this way I can always put a carburated engine in the back if I blow up the EJ20 :D
Almost done with the front so I can paint it.

Back on the front

Made some little brackets on the back. Don't look like much but they make a big difference.


After that I turned the car around again and started to clean up the trunk. Still trying to figure out how to lock the spare in one place.....

Removable rear valance part 2

After a few days of other stuff to do, weird weather and a neighbourhood swarming with cops because of a double homicide (wow) 1 block from my home (I was not going to risk atrackting a bored cop with my noise making endevours) today I finally started on the other side of the rear. Also testfitted the rear bonnet. It all needs a lot of tweaking but I am ok with how it came out.

Brrrr, that hideous green keeps popping up everywhere....

Removable rear valance part 1

Started on the removable rear valance. Since the rear is already in 2 parts I first did the drivers side. Will do the other side in a few days. Oh, and I got the idea from Hebster52.

So easy now to get to the gearbox and stuff.

Let's see if I can get this a bit cleaner.

4 bolts and it's on, just need to make a little bracket on top.
(at this moment I am going to ingnore the rust)

Front is 'done' back to the back....

It was such a nice sunny sunday I decided to finish the little brackets on the front and after that take my bug outside. There's still a lot to do on the front but I need to buy stuff for it and also need to think about what I am going to do (bonnet clamps, radiator fans, bumper brackets, etc) so for now it's done. So up next is the back. I'm going to make the rear valance removable but not just the exhaust gard but the entire part up to the fire wall.... Going to be interesting. But first, boring normal life stuff. Juck!!!

If you look carefully you can see the little bracket on the bottom of the front. Just 4 bolts and the radiator is exposed

All the junk in the trunck....

Bonnet on and you can't even see it's going to be watercooled.

So next up, cutting up all of the back...

Cutting corners (me and my silly titles)

Seeing as my replacement dash came with the window corners, I decided to switch those corners too. So I cut the ugly patched stuff out I had made before and replaced it with the somewhat better looking pieces. Ok, I had not used the grinder on those corners so they could of ended up a lot neater but this was a much easier solution....

First the drivers side....

Then the passenger side, look at what I replaced... juck.

Some grinding and primer makes it all look kind of decent. Started on the front too, 4 bolts and it's off.

Dashing

Taddaaa....
Yes, that's right. Got my dashboard fitted. Took a lot of figuring out 'how to' tho. Stil needs a lot of work and bondo and stuff but for that I need to get the rolecage out of the way. So, want to know how I did it...?

First I cut the left over piece of the dash up so it was close to what I wanted...

Then welded everything together again....

And then cut it again, holes this time and after that welded rings in it...

Then drilled holes in it so I could weld threaded studs in it (also checked if the gauge ring fitted)

Used a piece of wood for now to hold the gauges but I don't like wood in my car. Still it has to be something that doesn't conducts electricity. Thinking of PE.

And finally welded everything together.... Next up, the front.

Finally back at it.... for now.

It feels like forever since I've worked on my bug. After the cold and rain and snow, the weather finally started to get better. But somehow I found myself working behind my computer for about 2 weeks now while watching the sun shine and thinking it was such beautiful weather to work on the bug. So today I couldn't take it anymore and went at it. I had picked up a dash a few weeks ago and had been contemplating on how I was going to fit the 944 gauches in it and today I decided I had thought about it long enough. So I took my grinder and my welding machine and had some fun. My snot is black now and one welding spark landed way to close to my crotch but I haven't felt this content about myself in ages. Even the stupid police ticket I got in the mail today didn't phase me. I really need to find a way to make a living from tinkering on beetles...... Here are some pics.

Because I need to change the tacho hole I decided to do this in steps.

First I cut a piece out the new dash...

Then I cut the same size out of the old dash.
All that metal is really wobly without a dash.

Weld weld, grind grind and we're done. For now anyway, the rolcage is in the way so I can't weld everything. To bad I need to lift the body to take the rollcage out...

And here is part 2, changing 1 hole into 2. Hmmm......