San Diego 1964 Father-Daughter Resto Project

chrismredsox1 · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:21 pm Post subject:

Hi Lee and Allison, Looks like you are making great progress. Did you get the windshield in or is the one that I can see in the recent pictures the cracked one (and I just can't make out the crack in the pictures?). Also, are you going to keep the existing upholstery for a while? I ask because you had the rear panels out and rear seatback out and that would have been a great time to reupholster the rear seat. Anyway it's looking great! Congrats!

chrismredsox1 · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:22 pm Post subject:

Hi Lee and Allison, Looks like you are making great progress. Did you get the windshield in or is the one that I can see in the recent pictures the cracked one (and I just can't make out the crack in the pictures?). Also, are you going to keep the existing upholstery for a while? I ask because you had the rear panels out and rear seatback out and that would have been a great time to reupholster the rear seat. Anyway it's looking great! Congrats!

Lee Hedges · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:58 pm Post subject:

Today the windshield installer came by to give it a second try with a new JBugs windshield $45. This one was a better quality glass than the first one and it took only 15 minutes to get it installed. Very nice! And the installer kept his word about replacing it for free including the cost of the windshield glass. Good guys! If you need to have glass work done in San Diego, contact Guido at 619 905 7704.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

chrismredsox1 · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:23 pm Post subject:

Awesome - let's see lights, bumpers and a few exterior trim pieces and you're just about ready to get on the road!

Lee Hedges · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:54 pm Post subject:

Allison has decided that the next step needs to be the original 1964 rims & Coker thin-whitewall radial tires. She got the date-stamped 1964 rims from our buddy in Mission Viejo but that was almost a year ago. We'd promised him the chrome rims on the car now and when I saw him at the Bob Baker VW Show in Carlsbad I was embarrassed that we had not done them yet.

Allison has already begun sanding down the old paint on the rims. I won't allow her to have them media-blasted because that's too easy. Once she's finished sanding them then we can use the VW paint code Blue-White spray paint we had put into spray cans. Black centers with Blue-White outers are what were originally fitted to her Sea Blue 1964.

When the rims are finished then we'll have the new Coker whitewall tires installed. We got a set of these in March.

NCdad · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 5:27 pm Post subject:

good to see ya'll back at it...

nothing better than seeing the trim in the window seals
_________________
ROBERT
My VWs & Projects - | - German Invasion VW Show - Sept 7, 2024 Shelby, NC

Lee Hedges · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject:

Allison got home at 4pm so I had her tackle the rim clips. Michael had given her the date-stamped 1964 rims a while ago. But some of them needed new clips.

We drilled-out the three bad clips from the backside which was easy. Then we used the donated hub cap clips (thank you, thank you!) and the special tool to hold the clip into the rim from underneath, and banged on the tip until it flared-out to secure the clip. It was much easier than I'd imagined it to be! Allison loved banging the hammer on the clip ends. Then we cut out the air filler tubes. So now we've got six date-stamped 1964 rims that need to be fully sanded-down, primered, & painted.

Chuey · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:26 pm Post subject:

Hello there. To put a picture in your mind of who is sending this message to you, I'm Chuey, the owner and restorer of the Sea Blau '64 that is pictured with Allison standing next to it at the VW show in Carlsbad.

The action of hitting the rivets is called "peening". The traditional tool for this action is the rounded end of a "ball peen" hammer. You may already know this but there's a reason I'm writing this here. If you folks ever meet me, you can pull off a fun pun by saying "Nice to meet you, how you peen?"

As far as the windshield goes, that can be a real bugaboo. I bought one from BFY Obsolete parts up in Orange, years ago. They put in two replacements in an attempt to find one that fit better. They were very practiced at doing those windshields. The owner, I forget his name, tall blonde guy, and a couple helpers did one in just a few minutes.

Your car is coming out very nice.

Chuey

Lee Hedges · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:34 pm Post subject:

Hi Chuey! Nice to hear from you again.

The regular hammer worked well, hitting at different angles, to spread the soft metal of the pin end over the hole. They're all nice & tight now.

The windshield is now IN finally, so we're very happy to have passed that phase. It wasn't fun seeing a broken windshield on Ellie!

RareAir · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:16 pm Post subject:

quest4adv · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 5:57 pm Post subject:

I had to join today after finding this thread and reading every post. All I have to say is "WOW", what a great project. I wish I had done something like this with my boys when they were younger. I told my 16 YO daughter about it and she asked if it could be a Mustang instead. Sad

Great job and I will be following along to completion! Thanks for sharing!

chrismredsox1 · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:53 pm Post subject:

Any updates - looks like you and Allison are pretty close - would be really cool if you could make the road trip to Solvang in late September! Chris

Lee Hedges · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:15 pm Post subject:

Allison's friends are beginning to get their licenses & driving their cars so today she found some time to work on Ellie, the day before she goes back to school. We pulled-out the boxes of parts and she got to choose the ones to reinstall next.

We'd bought three pair of original padded sun visors and took them apart to select the best parts of each to make one good set. She guessed that the longer visor was for the driver & the shorter one for the passenger and it appears to be the correct way to set it up. She made the adjustments to the screws keeping the tension on the pads so they're easy to move up & down but don't flop.

Next was to install the restored speedometer. She needed to pull the warning light bulbs to replace them with 12V ones and then installed it quickly. She found the nicely labelled wires and reconnected them in-place. Since the fuel gauge hole looked lonely she decided to install the restored fuel gauge as well. One clamp on the backside and presto, done!

Next was the install the restored speaker bracket into the dash. The paper gasket snugged up nicely to the grille and the four screws held it into place.

Last was a big step for us ... pulling-out the Ruby Red T34 Cabriolet and pulling her Ellie into its place in the garage! It's been too hot in San Diego to work outside in the sun, so having it in the garage will allow us to not have any excuses.

gt1953 · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:59 pm Post subject:

What is nice is she does know every nut and bolt on the car.
_________________
Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

Tim Donahoe · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:22 pm Post subject:

Hm?

It may sound sexist, but I have to wonder how many teen-age girls know how to re-build a vintage car? Not many, I'm sure.

I've read about half the pages in this thread (I just found it late last night), and it was very exciting.

One post bothered me, however; it showed a wrecked VW that had been hit by a drunk driver in a large white truck. Some posters seemed to worry about Allison driving her bug because of that--safety issues, freeway driving, etc.

I looked at that huge truck and the extent of damage and realized that unless the victim was driving a similar truck, the outcome would have been as tragic. At the supermarket today, I saw a Mini-Cooper, and it would have faired no better, nor would a great many other modern "safer" cars.

We should all remember that years ago, there were millions of these bugs on the roads, and the vast majority of them did not end up like the one in that tragic picture. Sometimes terrible things happen. That's all.

I've personally been in two car wrecks. One in 1967 in a bug. The wreck was terrible and I got a scar on my back and a broken collarbone. But I lived. The last was in my first VW, a new 1969 Karmann Ghia. The car was totaled (ended up on its top). But I walked away with a single drop of blood in the palm of my left hand--and not a broken egg in the dozen I had just bought at the grocery store. Both of these accidents were on the freeway--a type of road that I consider to be far safer than city streets, due to the lack of cross traffic, etc.

Install good, retractable seatbelts and teach Allison to drive very, very defensively--and get that bug out on the road Surprised

This thread rocks,

Tim

AZ66Bug · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:29 pm Post subject:

Great stuff! My 17 year old son and I are doing something very similar with another 66. But we have a sand blaster and use it Very Happy

I had a question about your outside mirrors. It looks like you have the correct matching set with the passenger side having a longer neck. Could you tell me how far out the edge of the mirror extends on both sides? These look a little more balanced that those I have seen with the pear-shaped mirror, which appears to have a much longer neck on the passenger side.
_________________
66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

Lee Hedges · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:41 pm Post subject:

We bought this set from Wolfsburg West, I recall. The driver's side mirror outer edge is 6.5" from the rain gutter edge. The passenger's side mirror outer edge is 9.0" from the rain gutter edge.

AZ66Bug · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:01 pm Post subject:

Thanks. As I remember the passenger mirror was about twice the price of the driver on WW. 9 inches is a lot, but on the car it looks OK. Appreciate you taking the time to measure them - and good luck on finishing up your project!
_________________
66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

Tim Donahoe · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:36 pm Post subject:

I was looking for alternative door hinge-removal tools and I Googled: VW Hinge Removal Tool and got a list of sites. One of the sites was a bunch (a lot) of different photos of hinge-removal tools.

About halfway down, I noticed a picture of Allison and Ellie in this group of pictures. A little further on, there were more pictures of Allison working on the bug.

Apparently, this story is being absorbed into other areas of VW interest.

P.S. I got through another ten pages today, so I'm just about caught up.

P.P.S. I had such a hard time, trying to adjust the shifter in my bug--after installing a similar Wolfsburg West shift lock, that I finally gave up and re-installed my original shift housing. It took me two minutes to adjust that. The WW shift-lock housing would not adjust out to keep my reverse lock-out from working. So, I'm glad you guys had a different experience.

Tim

6Kabrio7 · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:07 pm Post subject:


Hello! Log in or Register \| Help \| Donate \| Buy Shirts	See all banner ads \| Advertise on TheSamba.com

San Diego 1964 Father-Daughter Resto Project
Page: Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 23, 24, 25 ... 33, 34, 35 Next Jump to:

	Forum Index -> Beetle - 1958-1967	All times are Mountain Standard Time/Pacific Daylight Savings Time Page: Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 23, 24, 25 ... 33, 34, 35 Next Jump to:
Page 24 of 35