Bugger Off

[Scott76]

OK its time to fill out an intro. I just added a new family member last night. She's a cool one. She's a 1967 Std. Bug. My buddy found her at a yard sale 4 years ago and brought her home with plans. I came along being a VW fan said I would love to have her. Wife said NO WAY IN HELL! NOT ANOTHER PROJECT CAR (I'll explain why later!).

Well I never listen to any one but me. Even ask my Pap.!!

Well enough talk heres the Pics from later night before we tore into her.
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I have lots of plans for her. I'll add more once I have time. We have to put full pans and both channels in.

[Scott76]

OK, I have a little time now.

Engine: I plan to keep it stock right now, or what ever is in it. Its a 71-72 1600cc.

Paint: Blitz Black.

Body/Window Seals: All white seals and beading.

Windows: 5 windows tinted red.

Headliner: What headliner. I ripped a nice white liner out and I'm planning to plaster it with sticker. Help the cause mail me stickers!

Seats: Seats are fine. Driver seat has a rip at the top. I'm going to sew it with BalerTwine. Seat coveres maybe. Thought about a bench, but not bench..

Door Panels: I'm going to use plexi with red tint on the inside.

Dash: Its already orig. red paint. I'm keeping it red... So everything is being painted Blitz Black but the dash. I mean everything...

Chassic: The best part is! Its already lowered. Its not even 6" under the beam..... I have to lower the rear a little.

Bumpers: Comes with overriders...... Love it!!!

Rims: Red rims with white wall tires.

Trim: What trim??

Muffler: I have a Cherry Bomb muffler for it....

THOUGHTS!!!
Cut the roof and put a rag top on it.
Do a rake chop on it.
Shave the turn signals.
Decklid: cut so theres a 2" rim around the lid and weld in the expandable metal mesh to form a decklid. (PA you have to have your engine covered).
Safari Window... I really want one, I need help on making one..
Running Boards: yes/no????

[Scott76]

Heres some more. Last night we have it almost ready to lift off the body. I have the chassis bolts out now its the pan bolts that just keep spinning with the rusted nut from the channel stuck to it. air chisel tonight!!! I want the body off by this weekend. I have to go to the Carlisle Truck show this weekend.

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I finaly got the second seat out.. You always have to use the right tool for the job!!

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Not much to the front

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Thats it for now until we get the body off.... Moving ahead.

[Scott76]

FINALLY!!!!! The body is off the chassis. We lifted it last night (8-1-07). It took us this long since we didn't have electric, so that means we couldn't weld the bracing.

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[Scott76]

It was a good weekend to work. Hot as HELL but a good long weekend of working nonstop on the car.

Finaly got my floors and channels, front chassis support and the rear wheelwell support. We had to drive 1.5 hours to meet Jake from BugStuff. Shipping cost would have KILLED the budget!!!!

Saturday (8-4-07) we cut the floors and front support off and ground them down. Cutting is fun stuff.... Something about picking up the rusted floor and throwing it. I got everything prep to sandblast it for Sunday.

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Sunday (8-5-07) we rolled it out and fired up the sandblaster. THATS LOADS OF FUN!!!!!!! I'm sorry I didn't share that job with ANYONE!!! Damn, I hate sandblasting. I'm still eating sand.... Any how. I got it sandblasted and a couple cans of primer. Whats a rat rod with out a couple of paint bombs on it? The floors should be welded in tonight or tomorrow. I hope to have the frame done this week. I got the DupliColor bedliner kit to paint the frame after the floors are in. It going on the underside and on the floors.

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NEED MORE STICKERS!!!

PLEASE HELP!!!

[Scott76]

OH YEA! I scored 2 free rims from a nieghbor down the street from the garage. Dude he has a 65 barn find that is to die for.

[Scott76]

OK I know its been a while. Time is not on my side here. I did get alot of stuff done I think. The frame is taking longer then What I planned but I'm a detailed person. The little details pay out in my opinion..

So last time I sandblasted the frame and primered it.

Since then, we welded the floor pans in and the front yoke in too.


As you can see we had to do a little work on the bottom, so why crawl under when you can just lift it up?


We painted the front axel and got that look sweet.
before


After

Now thats not a final pic. But it is finished just don't have a new pic of it.

Then we did the under coating. Man did this stuff work great.. I really love how it turned out.


I think the kit was like 55 dollars. I don't think that was bad. Now we did use 2 big cans so far and I didn't even touch the body yet. Its just like rubber tar. You WILL get a buzz painting with it.


Yea don't think you can use a Wagner Paint sprayer with that crap. The piston heats it up to much and just turns to TAR!! I have all the parts soaking in gas for 2 weeks now. Just use the roller and a brush.

I do have to get new pics in tonight. This weekend its a rolling chassic then. We are have a 3.5 weekend to start on the body. I can't wait.

[Scott76]

Got more pics lastnight.

I was at a flea market and I was looking for STICKERS and some other stuff for the car. I found a beer can that I wanted for a coil cover for on the engine. Its great. Its all about low riders and FAT chicks.


OK... so now the floor pans. Like I said before I did undercoat everything. Here are some more pics.





I also lowered the rear 4" with the torsion bars. I move the outside splines 2 splines. Before, it cambered really really bad with no weight on it. Now its pretty much straight with no weight.


I think I'll be bottoming out ALL the time. I'm thinking about a 2 inch tranny lift to help with the camber?

Heres a side view.


I'm still waiting for tires. I have to call a guy today about them. He has some OddBall ones that I'm looking for.

Here are the Rims. I sandblasted them. They took about 45-60 min. each to get the crap off them. Labor of love. I think thay turned out great. I have 1 coat of clear in the pics. I want atleast 4 coats on them.



Heres what I'm working beside in the garage. My buddies 66 Nova. Its a really nice car.

Last week he took the Nova out and I took the wife's Coronet 500 out and had a little fun with them on 81...

My wife's 67 Dodge Coronet 500.

[Scott76]

OK.

Since I put the new pans on its time to get the frame done. My plan for the floor is to cover the whole floor with License plates, since I have a couple of them. Here is a picture of the final product of the floor cover.







I will put some of the clear floor mats down to run it and lift them for the shows. It a little different then the street signs. We held them down with Liquid Nail and weighted them down and left it in the sun to really cook it..

I did put the brake and pedal assembly back on. It looks awsome!!

[Scott76]

I finally started on the body now. ITS BAD!! I knew I had to replace the heater channels, floor pans and the right rear wheelhouse section. Then I found that I had to replace the front firewall (bulk wall). Luckly we already had the front fire wall with the car. So I started there. I cut that out and the drivers side heater channel. I did weld bracing in the car before we lifted the body off the frame. My welds aren't great looking but I thought the would hold. I did have one weld break loose. But I did save it with visegrips. That was scary since I was standing in the body when it left loose. OH WELL! Here some pics of the front fire wall. and channels before I cut them out.











Like I said I cut the fire wall out and the driver side channel.







Heres what saved my ass!!!!



As you look at the front wall you can see the bottom of both front wheelhousings are gone. They are rivited galv. metal to them. I was going to leave them slid BUT, I noticed the rear crossmembers are shot too. I was going to just bend metal into them BUT, WHY? I did a little sweet talking to the wife and she left me order some replacement metal. They will be here this week. Then there won'y be any crappy patch work on it. Thats COOL!!! So I'm replacing the whole lower part of the body that bolts to the chassis.

My plans coming together. I have always wanted a SOLID BEETLE! Theres only one way to have one of those on my budget. DO IT YOURSELF!!!! I'm so happy!

[Scott76]

I got the tires this past week. I put "used" 195/60R15 on the rear and I picked up two 145R15 for the front THANKS to UVT Mike. Great guy. Those tires took me 2 months to find. Hell they were right under my nose over in Hershey. If you even looking for odd tires just call UVT Mike. So heres how it looks as a rolling Chassic with no body yet. Its cool.





I wish it would go lower but I think it will lower with all the weight on it. Right now it sits 6" off the ground with no weight. I hope the 195's will fit under the rear fenders. Thats why I bought used one for 30 for both of them.


OK I got some toys for the car now. I went to a couple of fleamarkets and picked up some stuff.

Shift Knob:

This what I have been drinking lately. Its good beer. That and Blue Moon is good too.

I got a cooler to put on my roofrack:

You won't believe what I paid for that even if I told you. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!

Some stickers that I recieved from ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!!
Thanks guys and girls for the help. Yes I know they aren't up yet. I'm getting there. I pick some up at the fleamarket too.:



Thanks again. I still need more. Hell I'll pay postage if thats whats holding everyone back.

Oh Yea. I did get my roof rack and I put it together. It looks great. I don't have a pic of it yet. sorry about that.

I have been working on the car body alot. I have some one that in line to paint it for me. I hope it works out. There was a TON of CUTTING and WELDING. My welding is getting better with flux core mig. I wish it was true mig with gas. This flux core shit sucks but it works and the price is right.

[Scott76]

I have the driver side heater channel tacked in. Both front wheel houseing have been cut out and new metal welded in. The right rear wheel housing and frame mount cut out and welded new metal in there too. The front bulk wall has been cut out and new metal welded in. The rear cross members have been cut out and new ones tacked in. The rear crossmembers just don't look right. I want to sit it down on the frame to line everything up and do finish welding on everything.

Tonight i will have the passenger side heater channel cut out and hopefully tack in the new channel.

I did get hoses for the defrosters. Thanks to HomeDepot and Lowes. They have tons of different hoses and sizes. Yea it cost more then the paper shit but I think the plastic will last longer then the paper hoses. I'll write more about the hoses later if I remember.

[Scott76]

I put the body down on the chassis for a test fit. I finished cutting out the passenger side heater channel and tacked in the new channel. I just couldn't wait to see how it fit. Heres some test fit pics.







tonight we have to square up the channels, body and chassis and finish welding the channels in.

The rear shock bumper stops are already sitting on the plate stops (or what ever thier called). I have 8" clearance along the side of the floor pans and 6" at the lowest point of the pans (battery tray). It looks great.

Next is the body work (paint prep)

I'll get better pics this evening in day light.

[Scott76]

OK. I have been busy and live was giving my a headache. Well since the test fit, I finish welding everything in to place and solid (solid for my welds??). We started to sand everything down to prep for paint. I'm hoping to have it ready in 2 weeks for paint. Heres a pic of the front hood before I started to sand it.





Then some pics of after sanding with 180 drit to get it to a point we could start finish sanding for paint.



The front has a ton of wrinkles. It must have been in a wreck of something.







Heres the front left fender that had a BAD problem around the headlight bucket. Someone tried to hammer it out and braze it up a little. We got it straighten out as best as we could.




I got some more stuff for the car. Went to the Carlisle Car Show and picked up some stuff there.

I picked up some white wall paint. So I had to try it out. The front tires are new tires so it had or still has a lot of oils still in it. I used "goo gone" and "lacqu. thinner". It worked for the rears tires but it seems to be peeling off the front and cracking. So I'll have to re do them again.





I got new pedal covers to match the gas pedal.



I also got:
The 3 chamber headlights.
Red window tint.

Plus i have been working on the engine. Just cleaning and painting all the tins and I cut the beer can for the coil.

[Scott76]

Well I have been off on the timing of this project since day day!! I still haven't had paint of the car. I was to have the fenders and doors painted this past weekend but plans fell through. I been still busy as hell to get the body work done. I FREAKING HATE BODY WORK!!!!! I have it all under control now I think!?!? Here are some new pics lately.











I cut up a great looking 67 deck lid to make it my own. 1 year only deck lid...ha ha ha...






Heres the semi "W" lid that I got from Carlisle Fall Show for a song and a dance. I did some work on it (welded holes shut & striped the paint & puddy off)




My WONDERFUL WIFE got me the club plate for my B-day and it came over the weekend. I can't wait to drag that on the road!!!

[Scott76]

Finally got primer on the parts last night.... I'm SO HAPPY! They look great for work that I have no idea how to do body work. Take notice there is no trim holes. I welded them all closed and had to grind and puddy it all smooth. Also the turn signals on the front fenders are shaved.


My buddy Dan shot it all and and helped me set it all up for paint. This guy is great. Well heres some pics from last night.

Setup.


Painting.


Drying.








I took all the parts home last night to get them out of the shop.


So tonight we have to sand with 600 grit and get everything ready for Friday. The paint shop is having a X-mas party and my fee for using the booth is to bring the beer!?!?! Plus I get to eat and drink all I want at the party. The down fall is that we are going to do the final paint on the parts. I just hope to get the parts painted before we all get drunk......

I just can't believe this is all happening. It my first car project and seeing it all get painted is just so unreal!!! I think I did a great job. I very proud of myself..

[Scott76]

I busted my butt to get everything sanded down Thursday night to get them painted Friday. I took the parts in Friday at noon and got everything setup around 4:00. The body shop have their X-mas party from 2:00 to ?:?? I'll tell you what! they had one hell of a party!! Anyhow here are some pics of the parts. They didn't dry completely so there is a shine to them but it is very close to the shine that is finished too.











There are some touch-ups that have to be done. The shop owner just can't believe that I would paint my car with "JOHN DEERE PAINT?" then he saw the end ressaults. He couldn't believe the price either. He kept asking "How much was that paint" I would tell him and he would just shake his head and walk away.

[Scott76]

We haven't had power in the garage for a couple of weeks and the Holidays just killed me. I have been working around the house. I finally got the tins painted for my engine. I had to throw a screw ball into the car onca again. I'm going to have a fairly nice paint job and the car is going to look be well known in the area (not many bug around) and the engine is going to be visiable. Everyone goes out of their way to have a shiny clean paint for the engine. SCREW THAT!!! Heres mine.



The paint system is REAL RUST!!! The base coat is a real iron dust paint. Then you paint a acid on it to rust it. It is real rust!! Heres the iron dust paint:

[Scott76]

Its time again ladies and gentlemen. Another post of my maddness!!

I was having a little painter problem but hopefully are are back on track. I took a month off from the car because of holidays and blah, blah. I get back to it and in a week I was ready for paint. What the hell!!! Got the car prep and off we went. We were going to try to primer friday afternoon and come back in Sunday morning (primer needed 36 hrs to set) but after 4 hrs just to prep and primer we desides to wait a week for finish paint. Heres some pics of my weekend.

Trailered the body to the paint booth:


We carried it in and set it on 4 jack stands:


After a couple of hrs of painting the final coat of primer was on and just waiting to setup:



We left it setup for a little over 36 hrs and came back Sunday morning and picked it up and trailered it back down to the garage. We set it on the chassis for right now to hand sand with 600 to prep it for final paint. Look really good. The color isn't bad at all either. If it would last I would roll this color. Anyhow heres some pic on the chassis:



Since I wanted another 24 hrs to really set the primer (it's freaking cool out right now) I wanted to work on my muffler. I scored a Empi quit muffler about a year back and it was all rusty and muddy. Yea I know the rust would have matched my engine, BUT it looked like an old Cherry Bomb to me. So I took off with my idea again. I got some 1200 degree header paint and painteds like the cherry bomb!! I like it!!!!


So what do you all think now? Its coming alone quite well now. I can really see the body with a solid color on it. If you look close you can see the pin bubbles where we used the puddy and we didn't use any spot glaze either. That doesn't bother me at all. Its all not bad for my first every car project. I am very proud of this car and the work that I have put into it and learned from it.

[Scott76]

Now I'm happy. I got the body painted the final color.

I was sick all week and I had this date to get the body painted but I was going to be damned if I delayed this date. I wanted it paint to bad. We took the body in Friday afternoon and preped it for the final coat. We left it sit until Sunday morning then we picked it up. Heres the Flat Black Bastard!





Heres my dash. Its the only orig. paint that I left on the car. It has a great color to it. It need buffed out but this is it!


I started to tint my windows yesterday. I got the white window seals to set these windows off from the black paint.


Let me know what you guys think.

[Scott76]

OK. Since my last post here I have done a ton of stuff. I got my last pieces painted and more details taken care of. Heres one little detail, is the luggage tray area/firewall. I bedlined a lot of stuff. I put a truck bed mat in the luggage tray area over the bedliner. This will help quiet it down a little.


I put my headliner in. It didn't take that long!


And my wife and I did the underside of the trunk hood.



I painted my gas tank. I have always wanted to do a checker design. I really liked doing it. Its my first one and there is some flaws but I DID IT!:


I put some more license plates on the car.


On the kick panels under the back seat.


Since it was a great day outside I was sick yesterday (cough, cough). I put all the parts back on the car and was getting everything lined up. I also test fit the door glass. Check out the red tint.

[Scott76]

I installed the all the windows with the white window seals. I think it really sets off the car now.



I put the muffler on the engine.


Last night we installed the engine. Now I need to get everything setup on the engine. (sorry for the bad pics)

[Scott76]

Well Yesterday I got it tagged and insured!!! I have to get the wipers and horn to work and I'm off and running. I'm legal now but I don't have the seatbelt ring in yet, which I'm picking that up today (hoping). I'll be doing some longer test runs with it tonight and tomorrow. It still needs the little details yet but I'm going to run it.... I can't wait..

[Scott76]

OK. These are just quick pics of it this morning at work.




The front whitewalls were flaking off so I just tookthem off then. The rear axle seal went so now there is grease/oil all over my rim. Its getting parked till I fit that. My tall shifter was made lastnight. I just have to finish some of the handles for it. Its not completely finished yet. I still have the details to do yet. BUT its HOME now, in MY garage (once I clean it out tomorrow).

[Scott76]

OK. I have been driving it for over a month now. I'm still working out the little bug in it! No cops have bothered me yet. I have had to put Gabriel HI-Jacker shocks in the back to level it out. I had it down to 1" off the road for a weekend. That was fun!! I have some more pic but not recent. Have been to several car shows and one vw show. People love this car.

My shifter: