TheSamba.com :: View topic - Hicar

Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:51 am

My first car was a 1969 autostick that my dad and I restored sometime in 1987. It sadly died after a year or so and I moved on.
Then sometime in 2001 I saw a 1968 bug sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. Darn near bought it on the spot.

Going thru the car, I found the original title and copy of the original window sticker plus tons of receipts from a semi restoration back in the early 1980's.

The car was my daily driver for a few years as a rolling restoration.
So every morning, my wife (ex now) would meet me at the door every night when I would get home with my daughter. She would say, "Say Hi to daddy and say Hi to the car." My daughter's first words? Hicar. So the name stuck. Even to this day, we call Bug's Hicar.

Life got in the way and Hicar was parked in our garage. I worked on it, split the body, cut out the pans and had great hopes for it. Then a divorce, some medical issues and well, more of life, the car sat in the garage.
Fast forward to last year - The car was finally moved out of my old house and brought over to my dad's garage.

So I'll update this with pictures over the last year. Oh and I know I'll upset a few purists. So if you don't like early fenders on a late model car, that's cool. :)

Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:56 am

Parked Hicar and beginning to strip it down.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:03 am

Here I am cutting out the old pans some years ago.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:05 am

Here's a teaser to ya'll interested :)

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:09 am

This is how the car sat for maybe nine years?

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:12 am

We decided to leave the body in the garage and take home the pan to start working on it. My ex-wife was gracious enough for me to leave the car at our old house for as long as we needed.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:18 am

Pan sitting on the lift.

Why just start one project when you can have two going?

We bought a parts 1969 bug and decided to make a Dune Buggy out of it. The motor and wheels from my 1968 went to this project.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:25 am

Now to the good stuff. At this point, the new pans were welded in.

Ready for some powder coat.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:28 am

Pan back from the powder coater's.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:34 am

Yes, the pan almost fits!

Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:57 am

CSP master cylinder installed. Brake lines plumbed.

Transmission cleaned, painted and axle tubes powder coated.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:00 am

Berg shifter and e-brake installed.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:07 am

Moving to the rear....

Almost there....

Rear disks installed. These sat for a number of years and leaked badly and were replaced.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:16 am

Moving right along to the front beam

My daughter wrenching on the front end.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:18 am

My birthday gift from my dad back in July

Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:20 am

Font beam on.

Nothing too fancy. Traded out the four bolt pattern for Wide 5's. Narrowed front beam and bigger swaybar from Aircooled.

Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:33 am

All in all, the assembly went quite well. More than happy with the outcome.

And here it is with it's sister, the 1969 Dune Buggy's completed chassis. The engine was the original engine from my '68 as were the wheels.

Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:03 am

So now we're caught up on the chassis, let's move on to the body.

What a pain. The car sat up on saw horses for years. So we bought a roadside trailer who's previous life was a travel trailer. Worked out quite well.

Bringing it to the garage.

Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:12 am

Not too much major with the front end. Took of the front weatherstripping smoothed the edging and replaced the bottom of the well.

Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:14 am

Looks like at one point, new fender nuts were welded in, some were skipped and others just weren't there.

Gas door ready to be shaved.