bigchum550 intro

[bigchum550]

After 16 years I finally purchased another Bug to play with and give myself a hobby, a 69 that is completely rotted underneath. I got it ridiculously cheap (somehow I still think I was cheated!) but it ended up being even worse than I first thought. After discovering the extent of the cancer, and after months of bouncing around ideas for it, I finally decided that would just follow my gut. Chop, cut, destroy, create, enjoy! I fell in love with the rod look at first sight, and I can't in good conscious spend the absurd amount of time I am going to need to get this thing on the road, and not have it exactly the way I think it should be. Pass the saw.
I am an aircraft mechanic by trade, so I know my way around a tool box, but cars are not my strong suit. Not for a lack of interest, just a lack of experience. I plan to change that now.
Money isn't the easiest thing to come by these days. That only motivates me to get more creative and think of new (read cheap) ways to make this car my own. I have already learned a ton here in the last week or so of trolling, and look forward to learning more and meeting a few like minded folks.

Pics coming soon!

[bigchum550]

Well after much more lurking, and very little time to do any work on the car, I decided to at least get the body ready to come off. I also wanted to get some pics up. I will probably have to ask a few questions soon about the condition of this thing and whether or not this is even worth becoming more than a parts car. The top side of the car is in really good shape, the roof especially is near perfect. The bottom side is completely rusted, I mean completely, every pan, luggage area is not even there and the surrounding area is rotted out, the heater channels obviously are beyond trash, the corners all gone, and certainly not last of all the tunnel has some rotted out area near the front head underneath. Most of this I knew about, the extent of it was hidden however by a HUGE amount of fiberglass (and poorly done) and paint/undercoat. Ahh let the good times begin. The body is now ready to lift (after breaking several bolts off, and a few more simply spinning free in the channels. I will pick it up next week when I build some sawhorses for it and I can clean the garage the rest of the way out (yeah I know it looks like crap right now). Heres the start pics:

[bigchum550]

Got the body off and took some more pics. The floors were as expected, completely gone and covered by fiberglass, the PO's must have had a death wish. The frame head is rusted through on the drivers side, and the tunnel is rusted through on the bottom. All parts that can be replaced, now I am simply adding up the cost in my head and wondering if this chassis is going to be worth hassle.I am going to have to post a question on the cutting board about the framehead there seems to be a weird deformation on the passenger side, three large "bubbles" that don't match the drivers side. Add to that the beam which has possibly the worlds worst welding done on the left side strut mount.