1937 Volkster convertible

[markh]

Finally had some time to tackle the top of the rear quarter panels where the top drops in. Used some round stock and bent it around to give me the arch of the top.

Then re-skinned up to the round stock.

Filled in the top sheetmetal.

Removed the old vert top parcel tray and inner structure. And left enough metal along the top to mount the fastners for the Miata top.

Still need to run an inner frame structure to give the top sheetmetal more support, then connect it to the side structure and sheetmetal to clean it up. Making progress.

[markh]

Got to work a little today.

Started here:

Ended up here...before I got the latches figured out:

Used the round stock and followed the top edge of the windshield then sheeted over and welded. Still have some seems to finish weld and then a little hammer/dolly action to get it just right.

Then started the latch relocation. Totally guessed here but it worked!

Still need to box it all in and relocate the front seal forward at the windshield.

Installed the latch and receiver hole for the latch pin and from the inside looking up...the driver side latches like it's suppose to.


The shop I'm working in has major water leakage so to keep everything from turning to rust, shot a quick dusting of sealer over some of the bigger bare metal areas.

With the top open, there will be some of the top still exposed or not sitting inside the body. Unless I figure out a hinge for the forward bow,otherwise it will stay like this.

Maybe I'll have a boot cover made to hide it when all done??

Need to stop goofing with the cosmetic stuff and get back to the inner frame structural stuff. That will come...sometime..

[markh]

After moving the vert latches forward, also needed to bring the inside leading edge seal thing forward. So cut and bent a piece to fill in.

A couple little things to finish but very minor.

Also finished the windshield post receivers at the top of the windshield frame. It's hard to tell the overall profile of the receiver component compared to the top edge of the frame but it's pretty minor.


A crummy shot of the top closed looking up at the seal. The forward edge needs a couple little tweaks to get it to match the line of the windshield.

It works great! Once the new top is made and a thin pad glued to the leading edge, it should look good.

Hope to tackle more of the internal frame and add the supporting rails for the body and pan this weekend. May get distracted and work on the dash..don't know what will come first. Stay tuned.

[markh]

Well I didn't work on either the dash or the internal frame structure as planned. Rather I picked up a dual quiet pack and decided to figure out the exhaust ports.

Welded in a 3-1/2" diam pipe to form the port. Hopefully the inside diam will leave me enough room around the muffler tip to allow for the torque of the motor? I guess if it hits, I can always tweak the muffler tips?

Once I add a chrome tip, it will stick out a little further. I only needed to tweak the muffler slightly to get it at this depth. The driver side exhaust tip will need a slight tweak to get it to exit the port in the center.

Finished the other side and decided to go ahead and recess the license plate.

Left enough of a recess so that I can install a license plate light above or to the side of the plate.

The top edge of the recess frame needs a little straightening and the lower edge will get a little round bar treatment to clean it up. I see that I need to move over the decklid latch assembly to center..bummer. Anyway, getting closer!

What it ultimately means is that I will need to pull the exhaust before pulling the motor.

[markh]

Following a week long Christmas vacation with the family, had a chance to spend a couple hours with the car. One of the items I have been wanting to tackle is re-designing the '37 dash. Been contemplating the gauge situation and locations so I took the stock dash...

Cut out the two gauge holes and made in to one.

To keep it a little VW, I grafted in the stock bug glove box.

Then filled the old gauge hole with some metal...

Then decided that I'll have just one instrument mounted in the center. Still to be done, just ran out of time.... Still need to finish off the lower edge of the glove box with some rolled metal that will re-attach to the underside of the footwell area of the car.

Just below the speedo, I plan on inserting the airride gauge and the two switches. I'll probably install the gas gauge inside the glove box and a couple turn indicator lights to each side of the steering column.

The headlight switch and ignition will be mounted to the left of the steering column. The center T-handle will serve as the release for the front hood. The wiper switch will be installed somwhere on the lower section of the dash but I'll get to that once I get the dash mounted in the car.

[markh]

Sorry for the interpution on the bandwidth issue, had to go pro.

Got the speedo insert added to the dash. Also completed the sheetmetal work needed under the glove box door and started to get it trimmed for installation.

Relocated the ignition to the far left, lower corner of the steering column. As you can tell in the photos, the steering column angle dictates that I will need to notch the dash above the column to give me the right angle. I've marked the dash where I need to "tunnel" the dash, just ran out of time.

Anyway...

I have a little sheetmetal work on the transition to the a-pillars on the outer edges of the dash, but that will be the easy part.

Daddy O's67 Pm'd me suggesting I use a newer speedo with the built-in gas gauge, which is exactly what I had in mind. Thanks Daddy 0!
Hope to get some time over the New Year holiday to complete the dash and get it finished.

[markh]

Before I could get to finishing the dash or the tunnel for the column, I needed to figure out the angle of the steering and the amount of extension through the firewall.

Recruited Mundo and another friend on New Year's Eve to help pull off the front end, swap out the beam extender to Dbugs and get the front all bolted back in place.

Finish welding the inner structural supports...still need grinding.
While the front end is off, I plan to relocate the air tank and compressor to below the upper "luggage" area but needed to address the steering u-joints linkage.

It works but I realized in my "do-it twice" fashion, I should have shorten the steering rod and lengthened the connecting rod between the u-joints. Oh well, something else to do this week. I also plan to install a carrier bearing to keep everything from flexing. Thinking a heim joint will do the job.

There should be plenty of room under the luggage floor, just above the tunnel. The plan is to weld in a couple framehead braces and mount the tank to that.


Plenty of room up front for whatever else needs to be done.

Boring stuff but necessary.

[markh]

Had a productive day today. Nothing with a wow factor, but a lot of little things thank to Mundo who came over to give me a hand.
First we tackled the old door handles and cut them out and filled them.

Other side done.

While Mundo was working on the lower framehead brace...that will also double as the new mounting location for the air tank...

I went ahead and started boxing in the vert top latches. Mundo to a terrific job getting the square tubing to fit the top of the framehead. Willl make final welding cake!.

Anyway, got the driver side done vert latch boxed. Still have the other to complete.

This is what it looked like before boxing:

The chrome channel with the screws will be extended the full length thereby giving the window at the leading edge a seal.

Back to the steering, picked up a heim joint and extended the rod between the u-joints. This also required shortening the stock steering rod first. The heim picks up all of the movement between the two joints. Using a heim allows adjustment of the angle of the connecting shaft, so if I ever need to change column angle or steering box angle, just give it a turn or two.

Will come back in and clean up the nut welded to the square tubing so it looks better.
SO much more to go!

[markh]

Ok, back to the dash. Had to notch out the lower section of the '37 dash to allow for the angle of the steering column. Almost done.

The round stock tacked to the dash, is the same shape as the glove box opening, just flipped over. I like it.

Will need to pull the dash off one more time and add tabs to mount the speedo and trim up the footwell area. Finish grinding work as well. Worked on a couple little things but nothing worth showing at this point.

[markh]

Welded in the framehead brace and cut a thick piece of steel plate for the top which will hold the relocated airtank. The compressor will sit below on the pan next to the tunnel.


The tank is just sitting on the plate. Needed to ensure there will be plenty of clearance side to side. The trunk floor will be notched around the shape of the tank enough to look down in the floor and see the pressure gauge. Made some access holes in the sheet steel to allow access to the M/C, run lines and electrical if needed.

In the process of relocating the tank, it required snipping a couple of the 1/4" air lines at the fittings. IN the process of moving stuff, also went ahead and pulled out the old wiring harness. Got a few other little things done, but nothing exciting...like another center brace that runs verticle just behind the '37 grill. . Until next time...

[markh]

Got the air tank and compressor moved. Then started in on the paneling for the luggage or trunk area under the front hood.

Made a floorpan (still need to add a couple supports) and a 3 panel insert. All of which will be removeable to access below.

On with photos:

Here you can see through to the tank gauge. The old rear apron panel was cut to mount the hood latch. Just need to figure out how to make it work.

From the other side:

Have a few mounting tabs to make and tabs for the hood side panels, but it's progress! Will also need to notch the side panels for the supports for the front tilt hood strutts. Again, just need to figure out how it will work first.

[markh]

Been working on a few things. Got the speedo mounting tabs in and the speedo in. Also started welding in the dash swap.

After a few nips and tuck, the ends of the dash are molded in.

Passenger side:

Still need to finish welding the bottom seam...welding upside down, not going to be fun. In welding the bottom seam, the center will pull in just enough to correct the glovebox.

The '37 hood had a really bad rear corner that I cut out and replaced. Probably my best patch and blend work yet! Still need to hammer it a little, but I'm happy.


Worked on getting the dual queit pack to exit the exhaust ports properly. That was a little more difficult than expected but it's done!

I wanted the tips to stick out a little beyond the fenders. The tips can be extended later if needed.

Other side:


The cooling vent in front of the decklid has not ever sat properly, so I cut a couple things and modified the hinge supports. The vents will eventually be the only removeable part so I have access to the top engine bolts.

Other side:

NOw I can finish welding the firewall. Worked on a few other little things but little steps to make big changes later. Lots of grinding in my future.

[markh]

Major improvement to the rear quarter, top fender area thanks to Fernon.

Otherside



There were a few other things, just forgot to take the photos.

[markh]

Made a correction to the top body line.





Time to go finish the front of the rear fenders and get them molded in to the body.

[markh]

Wrapping up the front edges of the rear fenders.

Started the other side but ran out of wire.

All these close up shots, and no full shots lately, so here are a few for fun:

[markh]

Been working on the front hood tilt system. What I needed to do was narrow the rear edge of the '37 hood 1". Took two long pie cuts out of each side and re-welded.


Now that the width of the hood is at least correct, (still need to correct the trailing edge at the cowl, and re-shape the arches on the rear corners.) I can get started on the forward tilt. One step forwward kind of thing..



Heim joints rule!!


Hood mounts:

Most of the forward tilt hoods I've seen have two strutts per side. I'm trying two long strutts and a center strut, hence the square tubing in the lower center of the hood.

Work in progress.

The center strutt (when the hood is open) will rest on the top of the grill and latch. ....in theory.

For some reason after all this work, the hood grew in height. It's sitting about an 1" higher than the cowl. One of those things that left me scratching my head trying to figure out what happend? Nothing that cannot be fixed but, COME ON ALREADY!! Trying to get some stuff done here!

Stupid hood is going to be the death of me. Pretty sure that when I re-arch the outer rear edges and do rust repair, it will flatten out or lay down along the cowl like it's suppose to, but still...come on!

[markh]

Was determined to figure out the forward tilt hood ifit was the last thing I did today.
Well, figured the center pivot 3-point idea was not going to work, so I built two more struts and some heavy duty web-like mounts on the hood. Needless to say they are sturdy.

On the hood end of the trusts is a threaded insert which will allow fine tuning when everything is together.

Replicated one and bingo bango...looks a little wonky in the photo but it stands up straight.

The hood side mounts ares not going anywhere! They needed to be as they carry the weight of the hood when it is open and leaning against the top of the grill. I'll need to install some bushings so the struts slide on the hood and lower frame mounting rods.

Hood open:

From the front


Also spent time cleaning up the cowl and getting the wiper holes relocated.

Made sure the wiper assembly fit.

Look at all those welds! One would think I'd be a better welder. One would be so wrong.

Speaking of welding. After the 100th time walking around the front fenders, the pass fender had a rip on the top fender edge at the lip that jumped out at me and tore a hole in my pants. So, cut it out and welded in a patch from a bug fender.

Good as new. No more holes in my pants!


Was about to mount the hood latch pin but it has gone missing...I have no idea. Had it a week or so ago... Hmmm..

Anyway, heading to Hawaii so next update won't be for a couple of weeks. Maybe by the time I return, I'll remember where I put the dumb pin?

[markh]

Finally back home from vacation and back at it. Since the Volkster was exiled while my uncle buttoned up his truck, I pulled the doors and worked on the door releases and the window tracks. Will 67 style window guides work in 72/73 vert doors? Yes, if you cut out the inner sheet metal and weld in the new cranks...you can also see the tracks inside the doors. They are mounted and ready to receive glass (I think).

The other challenge was how to get the '67 door pulls to work on suicide doors without the handles being backwards. A simple pivot works great with two connecting rods.

Also did some patch work on the doors and filled in the old hinge locations. Also stripped the doors and getting them ready for some bodywork...since I have the time until the car gets back in the shop.

Still a little filler and paint to remove before, but getting close to sling some filler on the doors at least.

With the panels on, you can see what amount of the rear suicide hinges will be exposed on the rear edge of the doors.

I can live with it..

[markh]

Finally made it back in the shop. Took the opportunity to button up the engine bay paneling.

Here is before:

And after:

Other side:

There are more photos on my phone but the camera died so I'll post more tomorrow. To add support to the square tubing, I used conduit to follow the inside arch of the decklid skin. The panels are welded to the conduit and now solid.

[markh]

Couple more photos of the engine bay.

You can see in the above photo the arch of the conduit that connects the square tubing below.

A shot from under the fender, driver side. Hard to see but the paneling really cleans up the inside of the fenderwell.

Back when I realized I had two different rear fenders, where one was longer so I trimed it. Now I need to go back and finish the radius lip at the bottom of the fender.

During the volksters hiatus out of the shop, also got the suicide door lock solenoids installed.

I hope that I can get them to work off the shaved door kit remotes with an internal warning light that tells me...doors are locked and will not fly off going down the road.

That little pin going into the chassis will hopefull keep the doors from commiting "suicide!"

[markh]

Decided to move to the front of the car and finish up some loose ends.
Mounted the hood latch just below the plain of the top of the 37 grill. I then cut a sheet of 20ga. to cover the mechanism to fill the void. The top skin will be removable to access the latch mechanism as needed.



Took a couple of measurements and installed the hood pin. Without making any adjustments, the pin lined up with the latch. Didn't latch properly but I'm sure it will after some alignment. Have plenty of wiggle room to adjust as needed.


The rear engine decklid was a mess so decided to start over. Built an internal skeleton to mount the new roof skin.

Tried to replicate the arch top to bottom and side to side. When the skin gets applied, it will follow the tubing contour...in theory. The hinge points and internal skin will get swapped over as well as the decklid latch.

Still working on doors, B-pillar lateral supports for the suicide hinges and a number of other things. My to do list is about two pages long and that's before bodywork!

[markh]

As I was saying, the rear deck skin was a mess. Must have read the instructions wrong the first time?? Here's proof:

The outside..YIKES!


Took the newly made frame and skinned it. Now we have...this:

Welded in the decklid latch mount.

Notice the lower body radius needed corrected. The lower edge of the body will also need straightened, but expected. The actual decklid opening was a half inch off to the driver side so I needed a vertical relief cut, notch, nudge and re-weld. It's starting to square up finally.

The new roof metal helps follow the contour across the rear side-to-side and top to bottom. Wish I would have thought of the frame idea before. Oh well.
I'm really happy to have a solid skin. The top edge of the decklid is not sitting down where it should and throws off the arch. Now that I'm on my second attempt, it should work out fine when properly seated.

Left the top sheet metal long to allow fitment and impending builder error when mounting the hinges. You can see the weld tacks where the frame runs. Still need to flip it over and connect the hinges, then figure out the vents for fresh air cooling.

[markh]

After much debate about tail lights, finally decided on 1956 Chevy L.E.D bullet lights.

Rather than mount them flush and have them pointing up at the moon, decided the best approach was to french them. Figured why not.

So I needed to make a couple of buckets or tubes. Took some 18ga sheetmetal, measured the diam of the light, multiply by 3.14 (PI) and wrapped it in to a tube.

Then welded a plate to one end and drilled for wire and bolt holes.

Then made a smaller diam circle with the same bolt pattern, and welded a 20" length of rod to it. (it'll make sense in a minute).

Took a sheet of paper and rolled it up about the same diam of the tube and then cut it at an angle relational to the slope of the deck This was my template to cut the hole in the fenders.

Pulled some measurements and found where to cut the otherside hole and then used a template to mark it.

The smaller diam circle with the rod was bolted to the bucket and then pushed the tube in to the fender.

The rod sticking out allowed me to line up the tube to the body and also gives me a place to put a level to make sure they weren't pointing too far up or down.

Welded in the tubes.


And slide in the bullet tail light. That's it!





Ok, they were a pain in the ass, but once they are all grinded down, and the bodywork is done, I think they will be really nice. Tail lights DONE!

[markh]

Quick update. Got the lower edge under the decklid straightened out.

Going to remove the gas tank door and reskin the top deck to better flow and the decklid is (once again) re-done and hinged. A smaller gas tank door will replace the compartment idea.
I'll figure out the fresh air vents once I have the new skin in place. The vents might be going in the decklid? Don't know yet.

Will relocate the iniside receiver for the decklid latch now that everything is squared and centered.

[markh]

Finished the B-pillars. Here you can see the before (the yellow metal):

And after:

They are super strong now! Still need to weld in panels that will replace the rear interior panels to give the rear quarters even more strength and clean up between the b-pillars and the wheel well area.


Re-skined the rear deck. here it is tacked. Still needs final fitment and of course, fresh air vents installed. Probably put them in the decklid. Still need some shaping at the top edge but you get the idea.


Heading back up front, I needed to re-fit the interior luggage panels to allow for the forward tilting hood struts; got that done.


Also needed to figure out how to mount the front '37 bumper... so made a few internal struts to connect to the bumper brackets.

Have a few more mounts to make for the front end, then I'll pull the grill and fenders and finish up some lower panel work. The punch list is getting shorter by the day. Hopefully I'll get the firewall opening cleaned up and the rest of the front end sheetmetal work done this coming weekend.