San Diego 1964 Father-Daughter Resto Project

[Lee Hedges]

This weekend Allison chose a few things to work on: replacing the horn wire down the steering tube, installing fender beading, & stripping the rust and old paint from inside the spare tire well. Since we'd pulled Ellie into the garage, it was so much nicer working in the shade!

She'd bought an NOS set of Sea Blue fender beading with the blue bead on the black plastic. She laid-out the rubber in the sun to soften-up while she loosened the fender bolts and lubricated the bolt holes to facilitate the assembly process. The NOS beading was already cut for the bolt holes, so she started at the front and quickly laid the bead into the channel. We worked together to keep the bead at the right height while tightening down the bolts. The lower edge bead was wrapped around the bottom and tightened underneath the fender lip for the proper look. The rear fender was a bit difficult to get the bead to lay flat along the angle, but it turned out OK. Sure is nice to see the Sea Blue beading against the Sea Blue body panels!

Next she removed the broken horn wire clip from the lower end of the steering column. To make it easier to replace the wire, she attached a string to the end of the brown ground wire and then pulled it out of the steering column tube at the steering wheel nut. She measured a new length of wire and tied it to the string, then pulled the string through the steering column. A new clip was attached & connected at the bottom.

[gt1953]

You have quite the tough young woman there! No finger nail polish, willing to work hard. Most youngsters have no clue what work is.
The car is taking shape.
_________________
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})

[Lee Hedges]

We had always planned to paint the inner front hood area ourselves after the body paint had been done. We'd found a paint supply company that agreed to mix L360 Sea Blue into spray cans for us at $8/can. But when we applied the spray paint it was much greener than the Sea Blue body. So I returned to the paint shop with the painted ash tray so they could redo the paint to match. Today we reapplied the new paint and it looked much closer to the exterior! By the time this evening rolled around, the paint had dried so we removed the tape over the VIN plate and prepared the other items to be installed.

This pic shows the original paint, stripped to bare metal, primered, then painted Sea Blue again.

The three black cover plates were an easy install, as we'd already stripped & painted them black several months ago. Next was to clean-up the brake fluid reservoir which had never been removed. It still had the foam buffer piece underneath the reservoir and some very brittle green brake hose. So Allison removed the metal brake pipe from the ancient hose. She measured the hose and cut a new piece using original German green fabric-braided hose. Next she sanded down the old metal pipe. Washing out the reservoir was messy but it cleaned up pretty nicely. With everything dried she reassembled the parts and installed the reservoir into the front area. We carefully filled the reservoir before putting the metal pipe into the master cylinder and when fluid came out Allison pushed it down into the rubber stopper to reduce the air getting into the brake lines.

Our windshield washer bottle was old & nasty so we'd bought one for $25 on theSamba that was nicer but it didn't have the original yellow decal. So Allison carefully used an Exacto knife to remove the decal and spray glue it onto the nicer bottle. She lined-up the three holes with the bottle tits and smacked it into position.

The last thing to do was to apply the new SEA BLUE L360 paint code decal we'd bought previously for $5. Allison looked up the original photos to see where the decal was originally installed and applied the new one in exactly the same place. Allison was very pleased with the finished spare tire area! Too bad the spare tire will hide most of it.

[vdubmyk]

Where was the paint purchased for $8???? My local paint shop does it also but they charge $25. It's a good product but $8 is very reasonable.
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64 stock bug, 12V (converted 6v unit), 40 hp, all documents even sales contract and dealer window sticker!

[Lee Hedges]

Allison turned 15 today so she got a Snoopy cake & a Sea Blue box loaded with parts for Ellie. Side trim set, front hood logo, horn grilles & blocking plate, and a new speedo cable.
She installed the parts this morning within 45 minutes and loved how fast these parts went! Now she's off to a day of shopping at the mall with her mom.

[Tim Donahoe]

When I got a local auto-paints store to match up a spray can for me, I also had them mix a little to put in a small paint can (which I transferred to a smaller glass bottle because the can was too big for the small amount of paint). In time, you'll need a little dab of paint to carefully apply to rock chips with an appropriate-size brush.

And you got your paint a lot cheaper than I did .

One last item:

Happy Birthday, Allison!

Tim

[gt1953]

Happy Birthday young lady!!
Is that a red type 34 in the backround?
_________________
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})

[grandpa pete]

$ 16 for color matched spray cans in Florida....

My Dorothy is 72 today !
happy birthday to ALL
_________________
63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569619&highlight=sedan+delivery

[briansandiego]

[DadsOld74]

This thread is an inspiration. I should really do this with one of my three daughters.

Happy Birthday, Allison!
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--Brian ('74 standard bug)

"If one does not fail at times, then one has not challenged himself." - Ferdinand Porsche

[Lee Hedges]

We found that several auto paint stores would not put paint into spray cans. So we kept searching locally and found TCP in San Diego CA. They were willing to do spray cans but had a stipulation that the colors may change a bit due to the solvents inside the spray cans, so they wouldn't accept returns.

We needed spray cans for Sea Blue L360 for the front & rear compartments. And we needed spray cans for Blue-White for the rims. We got eight cans of each, not knowing how much we'd actually need, but better to get more than not have enough, right? We paid $128 for 16 spray cans plus tax. They had the paint ready for us within 2-3 days of ordering it.

We experienced the color change issue that TCP had warned us about when we first used the Sea Blue L360 spray paint. The color was much greener than the Sea Blue on the body. So I returned to TCP and brought the ash tray cover to color-match the paint vs using a paint code. They mixed the paint two days later and I tested it and found a much better match. Still not 100% perfect, but acceptable. Although I said I'd pay for the additional cans of Sea Blue, the shop manager said it would be no charge and wished Allison & I luck with the restoration.

And yes, that's our Cherry Red & Black 1965 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, right-hand-drive with Electric Sunroof. I bought it in 2004 from England, had it shipped to Port Hueneme, then drove it home to San Diego. I disassembled it in mid-2004 and it spent seven years at the body & paint shops getting the lower 6" of the lower body rust replaced. It returned home in 2009 and I built a custom wood platform for the body in the garage. The chassis components still need to be restored. Running the T34 World organization, raising five kids, and selling biotechnology drug discovery instrumentation has kept me busy and the Cherry Red 1965 T34 has been put on hold. Maybe when Allison's Beetle is finished then I'll find time to get the T34 finished. I really wish it was as easy as a Beetle to restore ...

Here's what it looks like now:

[chrismredsox1]

Happy birthday Allison! Looks like you'll be on the road soon.

[chrismredsox1]

Happy birthday Allison! Looks like you'll be on the road soon.

[bit_boy]

Awesome project! Keep up the great work Allison, and happy birthday.

[F.BOUTIER]

Great job Allisson and Lee !!!

Franck.

[briansandiego]

Great, thank you very much for the information on the spray cans!!!
_________________
Stock'ish 1968 Beetle

[2T2-Crash]

Thanks to your thread and you and your Daughter's project I am inspired... My son is 8 and very much in love with my Bug. If he is still into VWs when he hits 13 I am going to do the same thing you are doing.

The great thing about a project like this is it is a ton of time spent with your kids, it builds their confidence to step outside of comfort zones to achieve something and it ends up being a vehicle you know they wont take for granted when they start driving.

[Lee Hedges]

Sunday morning (before the 1pm Chargers game) Allison & I worked on her 1964 again. She really wanted to get the right side fender beading installed and get the new running boards fitted. So we ordered the running boards (with stainless trim & bolt package) from Wolfsburg West and the long box was delivered on Friday.

We got the front fender beading installed pretty quickly. But the rear fender bolt holes didn't line-up with the body bolt holes for three of the holes. The Beetle had been hit on the right-rear side, so the repairs were not as good as they should have been. We opened-up the holes in the fender and the bolts went in fine.

The running boards took a bit of effort to get the front rubber lip to go down into the gap of the fender, but eventually we got it installed & looking good.

Tomorrow the left side running board should get installed.

[Tim Donahoe]

I have those same running boards from Wolfsburg West.

During installation, I found it much easier to loosen the two lowest fender bolts (fore and aft of the running board). This gave me room to set the running boards so that the running-board bolts would line up easier.

I also had to push down on the boards when tightening the board bolts, because the bottom of my door seal would rub when opening and closing the doors.

I re-tightened the fender bolts, last.

The car is looking great, by the way.

Tim

[57BLITZ]

The Bug is lookin' real good!!
So is the Ghia!
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Jesucristo es mi Señor y Salvador!