TheSamba.com :: View topic - Aust delivered '66 RHD T34 Razor "Teak" restoration

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:08 am

Well i thought i'd start a thread on my T34 restoration.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:13 am

This is how i bought it, looks fantastic doesn't it! Stupid me, I bought it sight unseen from another state and had it trucked to me in Sydney.

pigalle possibly??

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:19 am

As sonn as I saw it something was wrong. I measured all the diagonals and they were all out. Must have had a massive accident, so we stripped some panels back to bare metal to check it out. What a f^%king disappointment

plenty of bog
plenty of bog
plenty of bog, these guys were excellent sculpturers.
look at the gap of the quarter window to the rubber, it doesn't even touch it!
front of the 1/4 is really bad, not a good photo
creases in the dash WTF
that's not too bad
boot floor still badly creased
cant see it in the photo, paint craked, very wavey, and a magnet does not hold very well, oh oh, more bog!

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:22 am

We also stripped the interior out

Hang on, the car was white originally with a brown interior

At least its a teak, the rarest of the rare. Maybe the only RHD one around!

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:30 am

After waiting more than a year, off to the body shop we go

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:32 am

At the body shop (Sydney Vintage Car Restorations) Bad old damage not repaired on the LH front & RH rear, badly done rust repairs on the RH & LH fron pillars.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:35 am

Either we repair the current body at a great cost or get a better body.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:37 am

Another body found, no accident damage, very little rust, yee haa. But that would be too easy. Previous owner put some bullshit taillights in, flared the guards slightly and had a porsche motor in it. Sorry if i offend some custom guys, i don't mind if its custom, just do a good job!

F^&k!!!! Why do people do such shit!!!!!!!!! Also came with a T34 sunroof turret. Now that's pretty rare.

you have got to be kidding me
these guys should have worked in an abottoir!
at least the front is good

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:45 am

Good stuff. Car came from Adelaide? I think I am either dreaming or I saw it the day it was photographed outside that location 10 minutes from my house.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:50 am

Yep from Adelaide, must have been the one, how many red T34's are there in adelaide?

Wed Jul 20, 2016 7:50 am

WHooHooo!!!

Right ON, my man - way to dig in and do it!

Thanks for making me feel better about my own car.
Thought I was fixing the most crooked wreck on the planet;
Will concede now that you have me beat! :)

At least yours will be worth something once done, :oops:
RHD Teak T34 is hen's teeth for sure.

:popcorn:

Going as far as you will with it,
Keeping it stock,
Even getting the birth certificate,
Are you sure that you are going to install that sunroof?

FWIW,
I fought long and hard to find a sunroof car,
And now am paying my price for restoring the car I have,
and,
well,
after actually using the thing for a while,
I don't really like it much.
Having it open on a sunny day zorches your dome, and you need a hat.
The wind buffeting is annoying on the highway.
What with fiddling and fuscking with it, just for bragging rights it seems..

If you are going birth-certificate correct with yours,
I'd be selling that sunroof on to someone else.

JMHO - from someone who's been there.

But look at me - a guy like me,
Your best off taking their advice, and doing the exact opposite! :D

Can't wait to see this one move forward.
Thanks for taking the time to share.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:27 pm

Hi Clatter thanks for the encouraging words.

I will definitely be bringing it back to stock, Arcona white with teak interior. The turret on the body is perfect, so I'm with you, i will definitely not be cutting a perfect turret to install a sunroof.

So I'll probably sell it. Probably more hassle than its worth. I have a Passat R36 with a sunroof and hardly open it.

Moving forward maybe slow, but i'll post as we go.

Fri Jul 22, 2016 3:04 pm

You are a brave man and a tolerant one also.

Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:48 am

unfortunately theres no turning back, I know of so many projects started but not completed. I am determined to finish it to a very high standard.

Sun Jul 24, 2016 10:25 am

Personally -I'd go for the sunroof graft!

I love the sunroofs I have and have had. I don't do a whole lot of big freeway driving, and if I have to, I just close the top. With the effort you are going through it makes sense to me to add it. Sunroof cars do have more value.

I think when you are doing as much work as you are to SAVE a car, let alone restore it, then you get some license to make it what you want. What colors you like and the sunroof (of course keep the teak). If on the other hand it was a completely original paint, super solid low mile car - it should be "restored".

two cents from an old guy...

Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:26 pm

Hey Walter, if you're going down the 'extra body' path, don't you feel that while you have the birth certificate for your car confirming it's a teak, then by bolting a different body on rather than grafting the bits you need is somehow not being true to the original car? Dunno, maybe I'm just a bit romantic about the whole thing.... :)

Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:54 pm

Er, uh, what's with the tail light sections on the stripped body? Looks like they were trying to graft in Porsche 914 taillights!

Good luck with yours. I have a 1964 and just love the way it rides compared to my Type 1s.

Sun Jul 31, 2016 5:33 am

Don't know what tail lights they were trying to graft in, thats how it came to me, we'll overcome that to be back to original.

Hi Gavs, yeah, i'm trying to be practical rather than romantic. But it's still early days yet!

I feel bad copping into a perfect turret, still considering.

Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:36 pm

So back in June dropped off the body to the body shop, "Sydney Vintage Car Restorations". I was excited. Then when we put the new body next to the teak Karmann T34-1, I could see the following extra issues needing rectification:

* The front and rear guards were flared. I am not interested in custom stuff, it's got to be a stock body. Shit more work.
* Out in broad daylight I could also see the engine inner guards were also really butchered to fit custom brackets for the porsche motor More work again. F@#k!$g Hell!
* the rear engine tray was gone, ok we could use the the tray from T34-3, problem was when the cut the tray from the car they must have used an air chisel and damaged the rest of the body.

I did realise these needed fixing
* The dash was removed, I can live with that, I can swap the dash from T34-1
* Front blinker lights welded up, minor work, cut out back to original
* Rear apron butchered to fit some sort of custom taillights, not too bad because the T34-3 has a rear apron that seams OK, we could use and weld in.
* LH & RH rear quarter panels modified for the custom taillights, not too bad this can be repaired with some new metal, oxy welding and hammer and dolly work

However
* The front guard had a petrol filler neck cut into it. I thought this was part of a stock volkswagen model change just like on the 1969 type 3's. I thought this was possible a '69 body. Boy was I wrong.

This project is going from bad to worse.

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Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:42 pm

Man, i need to see a psychiatrist for some counselling. They are too expensive. What can I do? I go see Greg who sold me the body, how can he help me? Well he has another really, really rusty T34, which he says I can use for spares. Great! So one Sunday morning in September he organises his friends Dick & Brad to help strip the rusty T34 down, I ask my mate Joe the my specialist VW mechanic who knows all these guys as well to help as well. So we pull it apart. All the boys help, given Brad's trade experience, best he gets the coffees and bbqs the bacon and eggs.

I am a panel beater and haven't picked up tools since 1992, so back on the tools which feels really good.

So now I'll call the rust bucket T34-3.

A very very very special thanks to Greg Jones.