My 63 Ragtop

[63Ragtop NZ]

Seasons greetings handbags and faghags!

I've been doing stuff.

sanding

painting

polishing.

spent all Saturday afternoon on the end of the wire wheeled grinder of death, killed the back stooping over this thing!

found a wee bit of rot, so out came the cut off wheel.

cleaned it out as best as I could, will fill up with anti-rust stuff.

welding

other side was just starting to swell up, so I did this.

fin.

smooth.

you'd never know.

this was always the lowest point of the pan.

every bit helps!

trimmed it down, welded it up and smoothed it out.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

I've been trying to get this pan sorted ASAP so I can carry on with the bodywork/paint, so i was trying to not get carried away with getting it perfect, an't no one going to see it really, I thought about opening the tunnel, sandblasting, replacing the bung fuel line etc, but fuck it,

lets go!!

time for a bath or shower, in acid

and here it is drying off.

I duct taped all the holes it stop the metal ready getting inside where I didn't want it.

here you can see the rust turning funky and the clean metal getting etched.

but, it seams there is a leak somewhere in the weld between the frame head and the floorpan??

Darrel gave me some rustroy that will hopefully sort this shit out.

Once it was all dry, after blasting any water out of the seams with compressed air and drying the inside of the tunnel with the wife's hair dyer, I hung it up to paint.

I think is might be the source leak, right in the corner were the bottom of the tunnel meets the corner of the pan.

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[63Ragtop NZ]

right, paint.

POR15 Top Coat Gloss Black.

tried not to lay it on to thick as I read it can just peel off. Gloss Black showing up all the pitts and dents, never gunna be a show car, brushed on by hand paint job. 1st coat took about 3 hours, slow and careful.

and got busy with the seam sealer, jesus that was hard work, had to squeeze the crap out of the caulking gun to get it to work, killed my hands! not sure if I'm doing that right?

stuck heaps in here where the leak is. The technique I used was to do a section, then, wearing gloves, dip a finger in thinners and press it into the seam as you smooth the seam sealer out, took a bit of practice but got it looking tidyish

and painted over the seam sealer.

particularly happy with the top of the old frame head, this had so much surface rust and pitting from the old master cylinder line would leak brake fluid all over the place.

was a bit disappointed with all the brush marks in the POR, everything I read said how good it was at self leveling, but I found as it is quite thick and with the pan was hanging sideways if I layed it on thicker it would start to run and drip.
So...

ah better.

sexy.
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[wcfvw69]

Great job going the extra mile to treat and neutralize the rust inside the tunnel and other spots on the pan. What's the next step? Waxoil or other product to prevent a recurrence of the rust?
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

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[63Ragtop NZ]

Thanks man, was a lot of work, framehead will be drowned in the oil of a thousand fishes, actually Dinitrol.
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[HUGO bOSS]

Fantastic work!
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538182

[63Ragtop NZ]

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[joey1320]

Wow great work. As far as the caulking gun and seam sealer, how hard/thick (yeah, I know) of a material are you using? Usually if the tip of the tube is cut big enough and the plastic liner punctured properly, sealer just oozes out with not much problems.
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**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[63Ragtop NZ]

joey, you're a genius! thinking back I did just poke a small hole in the tube end, then screw on the tip, I keep cutting the end bigger and bigger but forgot about the inside opening I was not looking forward to doing the shell!


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[63Ragtop NZ]

Spent most of the last week of hoildays in the shed, cleaning and painting the beam, brakes and gearbox, so i could get it back on its wheels and get back to the shell.

Everything was covered in grease,rust,dirt and paint, so the process was dowse in turps, scrape and wipe as much grease and muck off, wire wheel, degrease, brake cleaner, sand, acid etch and or paint. Filthy work.
I ended up getting two cans of POR15 in rattlecans, which saved a bit of time painting.

trying to keep track of all the parts

when I first got the car the front was sitting pretty high, and the front bump stops were under the rear seat with the battery, when I installed them I found out why. One side went on fine, the other fowled the shock.
Whoever build this beam, had cut and turned the bump stop horns and had welded on crooked, so all I had to do was cut and reweld, matching it to the good side, easy! except when I removed the rubber off the good one, the horn came off in my hand, that's some good welding!

you can see the gap were the weld missed.

also found this tiny blob of weld on the edge of the beam bearing, as not made friends with the trailing arm over the years, I'm sure someone will be posting up all my mistakes on this car one day.

like the shitty huge welds that now hold the horns on.

acid is a hell of a drug!

but it sure does make POR stick well.

cleaned up my oddball drums.

smashed on some matt black

First part installed on the pan.
Filled the tunnel up with Rustroy, that shit stinks!

Darrell helped me bolt up the gearbag and beam.

matty b on the box.

Now I bought these grease seals for the beam about 15 years ago and never got around to installing them.

until now.

gearbox is matt black, axle tubes are Gloss Black POR, backing plates are grey with matt black inside.

I've started cleaning up the brake parts, shoes etc, just need new cylinders (wheel and master) reinstall cables and paint pedals and steering stuff, feels like a major milestone!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

So christmas came a little late this year.

who am I kidding, this was better!

Mark at the Metric Nut sent me up pretty much everything I'd need to get this thing on the road.

I wasn't going to bother with the shift rod seal but after cleaning up the gearbox, I'd found one small tear in one of the axle boots, so while it's apart we might as well stick one in, never had one before, fancy!

got the front brakes back together.

had to get the rear oil seals pressed in by the local shop (cheers frank and co) I tried doing my self but just mangled it.

nearly didn't do that either as I read the seals don't work without the drums torqued up, again, glad I did as this was inside the leaking one.

took the pedals apart, cleaned, painted, greased and reassembled.

pretty much every part of the throttle linkage was all bent to hell.

new bumpstops

twin circuit master with fluid res on top, started running new stainless brake lines that I bought ages ago.

pedals installed.

ran clutch and throttle cables, forgot how much of a ass hooking up the clutch cable was who designed that fucking thing!

got the rear brakes back in along with the bearing seals, handbrake cables run and hooked up

cleaned up the tie rods and installed new inner ends, the outer one have been replaced in the last decade or so.

I was going to polish up those stainless brake lines but I had run out of autosol and wanted to get it done, I've also realized how little things like a tube of this, a can of that, soon adds up, I needed rubber grommets for the brake line, some else this car has never had, and bugger me if stupercheap wanted over eight bucks for two.

this shit adds up man!

ah, forgot the lube!

never forget the lube.

then I came up with this genius way of getting it inside the steering box.

and paint bla bla.

front drums on, with new locking tabs for the bearings.

rears all jammed on.

and holy shit balls! it's on it's wheels!

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[63Ragtop NZ]

Yep, pretty frigging happy with it, paint could be nicer, more stainless/polish/chrome etc would be cool, but at the end of it, no one is really going to see it are they!?

Bonus shots.

bolted in the shocks, painted the white front ones matt black like the rears.

thought I may have a problem here.

actually about 1cm away from the shock, should be okay? would be much eaier to change it now than when it's full of fluid.

other random pics.

this thing was super handy for bending up the brake lines.

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[EMPIImp69]

Looking good man, you painting the body yourself too?
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1963 Ragtop Bug

[63Ragtop NZ]

cheers, I'm going to try and paint myself.

will see how it goes!

your project is looking good mate.
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[AZOffTheWall]

Your Bowden tube is installed wrong, that's why you had so much trouble with the clutch cable, I cant believe nobody has pointed this out to you yet. This is how it should look:

[63Ragtop NZ]

Thanks for that AZ! that looks better.

but the problem I had was at the other end, getting that stupid hook though the loop on the end of the cable, got it in the end.
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[AZOffTheWall]

Think it's hard to do now? try it with the body on and carpet in.

[TheDon]

those red urethane transmission mounts will crumble in about a year. Might want to go with oem rubber mounts.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

[63Ragtop NZ]