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!
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!
posted by Kim In Tulsa at
5:49 AM
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