Picking up the Pace!

We're getting ready for the Tulsa VW Car Show...only a month away! We work on the car almost every evening now.

After we got the body back down onto the chassis, Steve fine-tuned the areas that had been repaired so that they fit perfectly. Finally, when everything fit back together just right, he held it all securely in place using self-tapping screws. This is just a temporary step, till he can get everything welded into place.

Then we rolled the car out into the driveway for the first time in months!

Steve took the driveway blower and blew out all the dust and debris that had accumulated over time inside.

I took a couple of jugs of water and very carefully washed the car and then waxed it.



Steve got a sliver of metal in his thumb.



Once we got the car spiffed up, we lifted the body back up onto the sawhorses and rolled the chassis back out.



It will be easier for Steve to weld the chassis support beam into place and the floor pans as well, with the body off.

Ok, Steve got the chassis support beam welded into place. If you recall, the beam was only spot welded to the bottom but was solidly welded across the top of the tunnel. Remember how much trouble we had getting it apart? Well, Steve just has it spot welded at this time. He's going to lower the body back down, re-check the alignment, put the floor pans back into proper position, then lift the body back up and weld the chassis support solidly in across the tunnel.



Here is the lip where the floor pans will be welded. The steady march of time had begun to show where we had removed the other pans...it had a fine sheen of rust forming on the metal. Tom Imes from the VW Club told us about a zinc product that you can spray on and weld through that will keep this from occuring, so Steve cleaned up the area again with the brush on his drill, then I sprayed the zinc spray on. It's all ready now for the floor pans to be welded into place.



We also worked on cleaning up the seat tracks. The ones that came with the new pans are just awful. A real hassle to deal with, so Steve is going to remove them and weld the old ones into place. Here he is, cleaning up those old rusty seat tracks. See how a little wire brush can work wonders??!!



I sprayed them with the zinc spray on the surfaces that will be welded and then rust converter into the crevices and then with just plain Rustoleum on the rest. They look great now. Like new.

Off the Sawhorses!

For the first time in months, my old car is back together and off the sawhorses!

First, Steve had to drills some holes where he patched over the existing bolt holes in the passenger side firewall...



Then he bolted the car back together and very carefully we lowered the car down. We did it a bit differently than Rick Higgins showed in the Bug Me video, mostly because we didn't have the big jack our neighbor let us borrow. But we managed, even with our small jacks.











Down!



Here it what it looks like on the inside...doesn't it look GREAT??



We kept the boys out of the shop because I was worried the car might slip, but after it was safe on the ground, they came in and looked.

Here's Joshua checking it out with me...Matthew took this picture.



Steve is planning on getting the front chassis support and the floor pans securely welded into place, then we move on to the next big thing...the actual replacement of the driver's side heater channel.

That was it for the day...we were hot and tired. The temperature had gotten up to 98 degrees F (that's 37 degrees C for my European friends) so we came in and got cleaned up then sat down and watched Mr. Higgins change his heater channel again.



I bet we've watched him do this fifty times.

Before I go, I have to tell you this...you know how I'm always going on and on about how the people in Oklahoma are so nice? They drive by and wave and smile, sometimes they stop and visit, many times reminiscing fondly about a Bug in their past. They've helped us by lending us tools and sometimes giving us helpful items, like the manual my Sunday school teacher's wife gave us that belonged to her father who has passed away...and the man down the street that gave us some old authentic VW tools.

Well, late Saturday evening a man walked up to our shop. He walked up behind me and nearly startled me out of my skin! He had a couple of hubcaps from a Beetle he once owned...a couple that matched our two good ones perfectly. He introduced himself, told us where he lived in the neighborhood and then just gave us the hubcaps! He said he'd been watching us work on the Bug for a long time and thought we might could use them. What a nice thing for him to do! He said he had other stuff too, and would keep an eye out for anything we might could use.

Once again, I was just astounded by the generosity of the people of this state.