1950 Split Restoration & Intro

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 7:09 pm Post subject:

Finally painting the body.....below are pics of the interior. Should be painting the exterior later this week.

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mdvanderploeg · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 7:20 pm Post subject:

Latest pic of the Okrasa engine (WW repro built by Mr Okrasa). Sorry about the focus....I'll get a better one this weekend.

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:10 pm Post subject:

The body was sprayed today with some nice shiny Bordeaux Red. It's still in the booth and is waiting for anther layer of clear coat. I love this part of a restoration, where all of the hard work starts paying off.....sorry about the picture quality, but I was shooting through the paint booth window.

Pope's nose is in foreground on the box.

56reddy · Samba Member Joined: October 22, 2005 Posts: 774

Looks awesome. Now the fun can begin with assembly.
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DONGKG · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 4:56 pm Post subject:

That is one stunning looking split there! Restoring a vee dub is always fun and costly. But driving one like quality finished restored spit bug is priceless. Can't wait to see you drive the split buddy!
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mdvanderploeg · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:37 pm Post subject:

They let me into the paint booth today, so I took some more pictures. I've owned the car for over 3 years, and have never seen it with paint on it, so I'm kind of smitten at the moment!

Grant Reiling · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:51 pm Post subject:

nlorntson · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 8:04 pm Post subject:

Always exciting to see a split in a fresh coat of paint. Good luck on the assembly!

tisius · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:23 am Post subject:

Very nice paint Cool

I know what you mean, when a bear bodyshell is just sitting in your garage, it doesn't quite feel like your dream car yet.... getting it into paint makes things come alive!
I have a '51 split bug body, and (I keep telling myself that) someday I will get around to work on it (although it's been sitting with me for over 10 years now Rolling Eyes

). But for now it just doesn't feel like it's a car to me, just a strange metal object which occupies the garage, it has no soul at the moment.

Good luck with assembling all the parts, it's gonna be a great ride!
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goreygoreymanunited · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:58 pm Post subject:

truly beautiful. Fantastic work!

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 6:09 pm Post subject:

Body back on pan.....starting to look like a car!

wcfvw69 · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 6:54 pm Post subject:

Beautiful!
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52HoffmanSplit · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 10:40 am Post subject:

So the engine.. isn't the numbers matching engine or tranny but you have those? Why not rebuild the numbers matching engine and tranny at half or 1/3 the price you paid Ruiz?

Car is beautiful... maybe I read wrong but just wondering.. I would use the original engine and tranny.
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mdvanderploeg · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 6:39 pm Post subject:

I'm not getting into an "Original versus Modified" debate. The 25hp motor and crashbox transmission can be easily swapped back when the time comes and both are already rebuilt. In the mean time, I'll enjoy a more city friendly powertrain that's still correct for those into hotrodding VWs in the 50s. Maybe I'm missing the point of your post, since the Okrasa engine is clearly already installed.

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:19 pm Post subject:

Today, I installed most of the new wiring harness from John Henry (Zarwerks). I was really impressed with both the quality of the harness and the thoroughness of the instructions. He even spelled out where things would go awry if you went down the wrong road (unfortunately, I went ahead and tested that out). All in all, a fairly straightforward installation, with only a little cussing when trying to get the dome light wire pulled in.

Here's the main harness laid out before pulling...

Getting ready to pull in the main harness. Unfortunately, they pulled out the old harness before painting the body, so I just had to run a fish tape from front to back, pull in some twine, and tape it to the new harness....

Main harness and both semaphore harnesses pulled into the trunk area.....

Back end of the main harness, ready for terminating. I'll hold off on that until we get the body properly centered on the pan & fastened down.....

Done for the day. Like I said, I couldn't be more pleased with the harness itself and the detailed instructions. Still need to fix the gaps on the deck lid, but it looks pretty cool installed......

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:34 pm Post subject:

Just visited the upholsterer & checked out the recently finished seats. I only unwrapped the one front seat, but the rear seat looks amazing as well (no, they're not sitting on the carpet kit for the bug). Upholstery came from West Coast Classic Restoration. The upholsterer did a great job below the surface as well..... undersides look almost better than the tops. Wish I'd have taken a before picture.....the springs looked like a bunch of random, rusty rings & now look like a weird, intertwined work of art.

Grant Reiling · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:41 pm Post subject:

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:42 am Post subject:

Looks great, who is doing the paint work?

vw7266 · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:39 am Post subject:

lovely car...that engine seal is going to be a bitch to put in now with the engine already installed. Love the okrasa though

mdvanderploeg · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 12:34 pm Post subject:

Thanks all!

Regarding the engine seal.....The body's not actually bolted to the pan yet. The pan's basically acting as a fancy body stand, just to free up some shop space. As soon as I get a day off, I'll get together with the shop guys to pull the body, install all of the seals, & get things permanently mated back up.

The body and paint work was done by a restoration shop in Raleigh called B-Mac's (Bill MacDonald is the owner). They primarily do 1960s American muscle, but will take on other jobs as well. They do amazing work and are a great bunch to work with. They pretty much let me have the run of the shop (within reason), so I've been doing all of the work on the pan & mechanicals while they're doing the body. I'm really going to miss hanging out there once the car is finished.


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1950 Split Restoration & Intro
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