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.....