Body off!

This past weekend we had a four-day holiday because of Thanksgiving. The weather was just great all weekend and we took the opportunity to get a lot done!

We got the sawhorses finished and were just about ready to put the body up on them when Steve decided that the brace that he'd put in the driver's side door was inadequate. So he cut a piece of t-post (that was used to fence in our chicken run, before the dog killed all our chickens) and shaped it just right to fit inside the driver's side door.

Here he is, cutting the t-post...



And welding it into place...



After making sure we got everything unbolted, we proceeded to lift the body up in the back, just like Rick Higgins and his boys showed in the Bug Me videos...thanks to Tom, a fellow member of the Tulsa VW Club, for letting us borrow the Bug Me videos! They are fantastic, extremely helpful and I highly recommend them.

Here I am, slowly jacking up the back end of the car...first we jacked the entire car up...



Once we got the back of the car on the sawhorse, we slowly lowered the chassis down...



Down!





The back down, from the back...



As we were lowering down the back of the chassis, we heard the car make the loudest noises it's ever made since we got it. It really creaked! Heh!

Ok, here's the front being lifted up. The goal was to set it up on the bumper brackets, just like Mr. Higgins did.



Then the chassis was lowered down in the front. As we were lowering it, we realized we forgot to undo the brake lights from the master cylinder. We caught it before any harm was done, because we were watching it very closely. It wasn't Mr. Higgins' fault! His son *told* us to disconnect those brake lights! Heh!



Then, we just rolled that chassis out!



The next day, we set to cleaning up the chassis, getting it ready for a new front support beam (Napoleon's Cap) and new floor pans. Steve had already removed the driver's side floor pan, so he started on the passenger side pan, using a Sawzall that my friend Lisa let us borrow.



It's off!



Our neighbor came over and lent us his little air compressor to help keep things clean.



As we were winding down for the day, a neighbor named Ron drove up in his newly purchased 1963 Type 1.



It was nice to meet a fellow enthusiast and he was kind enough to let me beep the horn. I loved the beep-beep it made! Then! He actually let me drive the car around in the neighborhood!!! I'd only ever just ridden briefly in a Beetle twice in my life, and this kind fellow let me drive his! I drove it around my neighborhood and beep-beeped the horn at everyone I saw. I even saw the lady in the maroon Passat that always smiles and waves at me when I'm working in the shop driveway...she got a great big smile on her face when she saw me and I beep-beeped at her! Ha!

The next day, the boys really got to work helping us clean up the chassis. I think they were both pretty impressed with seeing that body come off the chassis. It was filthy, just like the rest of the car...had an inch or so of mud and oil caked on it in some spots.

Here is Joshua, my eight-year-old, removing a dirtdobber nest.



Got it!



Here, Steve is showing Matthew, my eleven-year-old, how to apply vice grips to a part he wants cleaned with the wire-brush attachment on the drill.



Steve worked on getting that Napoleon's Hat off. He used a special drill bit to drill out the spot welds without damaging the front frame plate underneath the support beam.

Here's Joshua, helping keep the metal shavings cleaned up...



See the drilled-out spot welds?



The spot welds were the easy part...removing the beam where it attached to chassis tunnel took an act of Congress. It was solidly welded.



I thought maybe if I banged on it...



That was fun, but didn't help much...

Steve finally got it though...here it is, almost out.

Sawhorses

This past weekend, we worked on the sawhorses that will be holding the Beetle body up in the air while we work on that rotten heater channel. The chassis will be stored underneath and we can roll it out into the shop driveway to work on it when the weather is good.

The sawhorses are massive. So heavy-duty that they don't even wiggle. They're 8 feet long and will likely last forever. When we get the body up on them, we'll chain the body into place so it doesn't fall on anyone.

Here I am securing a strap into place on one end.



Here are the (almost) finished sawhorses...



The car is so easy to roll now that it's got the Hobbit Hole tires on it that Matthew and I frequently roll it out into the shop driveway to clean it and also to clean the shop. Here's Matthew...I think he believes that by the time we finish restoring this old Bug, I'll be driving it like this...like an elderly driver! Ha!



Thanksgiving holidays are coming up and the weather is going to be beautiful! I imagine we'll get a lot done! See, even our local weather is telling us to get out and work in the Shop!



I usually get pretty grumpy if Steve turns the TV on in the shop while I'm out there. But I probably won't gripe during Bedlam on Saturday.

New Bumper and Radio Cleaning

Here's a mid-week post...

You know I went to the salvage yard this past week and got a bumper...probably paid too much for it, but it is original stock for a 1970 and it's in pretty good shape and the guy did throw in a couple of other things for free...so I figure I did ok.

Well, I decided to try to clean it up with that chrome polish that Steve used on the ashtray. It was pretty warm out, so I sat out behind the shop and worked on it.



It worked great! This is the underneath side of the bumper, where water had dripped and caused shallow rusty spots...I've cleaned half of it and you can see where I haven't cleaned yet!





Amazing results.

Then, I went in the shop and took out the radio. It's a Sapphire XIV AM/FM Town and Country. It was just absolutely filthy, just like everything in the car. I got some Q-tips and some water and an old sock and started cleaning the pull-out buttons. Carefully carefully, I'd dip the Q-tip in some water, dab it on the sock, then scrub the button. Then I took the damp sock and cleaned in between the buttons.



Eventually I got everything on the front cleaned off and put it back together.



See, it appears to be missing some things...it should have a bar that goes across the front, I think that switches it from AM to FM. And a control that goes behind the volume button? I don't know what that control would be for though...I just saw it in some other pictures of T and C radios and mine doesn't have one. Would it be for balance? That doesn't make sense, though...since there's only one speaker...hmmm. Well, it's all cleaned up, and put away in a box with instructions on how to re-install it back into the car. I sure hope it works!

Anyhow, here's Steve drilling out some bumper bolts that broke off.

Three-Day Weekend

My husband had the day off on Friday for Veteran's Day...so we were able to go to the salvage yard and pick up some things. I got a pretty nice front bumper off a 03/70 (March of 1970) Beetle, a nice driver's-side mirror off a 1969 Beetle and one of those passenger-side floor plates that goes under the carpeting for a friend on The Samba. We went to S & S Foreign Cars and it was so much fun! We scrounged around all out in there, looking for just the right stuff off just the right cars.

So now, except for things that have to be bought new, like the floor pans and upholstery, and various items needed for the mechanical part of the car that will have to be bought new...I believe we have replaced everything that was missing off this car. Everything has been replaced with original 1970 or comparable items.

So then, on Saturday, we got to really working on the car again. Found something very unusual...

Steve and I have been watching the Bug Me video...volume 7...that talks about removing the heater channel. The Higgins's talk about drilling out spot welds all along the side of the heater channel. Well, Steve couldn't find any on our car. Upon closer inspection, he found that a plate had been pop riveted into place along the outside of our heater channel. Just an occasional pop rivet held the plate in place. He peeled a bit of the plate back and found this!



An open heater channel with a small bead of sealant. It was full of acorns and mouse-nest stuff! ACK!

See, here's the other side. See the pop rivets at the bottom of the black plate?



The top of the plate was just tucked in up under the carpet retaining strip.

So, we are getting ready to lift the body off the chassis. We took some measurements and realized that the car wouldn't go up high enough to get the chassis out from under it due to the angle of the shop ceiling. We'd need to turn it around. So for the first time in a long time, we put the wheels on the car and lowered it down off the blocks.

The last time we rolled this car, it had four flat tires. It rolled, but mostly we had to drag it! It was quite a thrill to lower this car down and roll it out into the driveway of the shop. The boys and I got up in the car...the boys sat in the luggage compartment area and I balanced on the chassis support down the middle. Then Steve pushed us all out into the driveway with no effort at all...woohooo! Then we got out and he pushed it out into the street...I stood by to direct traffic if needed. He turned the car around and pushed it back into the shop. Now, once we get the car up on sawhorses...it'll fit!







We started making the sawhorses. Part of the support will be using these pieces of scrap metal strips. At first we used a grinder to cut them, but realized the big Skil saw a friend of mine let me borrow worked much better.





That saw cut the metal like butter!