My 1954 build thread "Beatrix"

[Bruce]

[TheLadyBug]

Thanks! This is good info.
Mika has been my go-to for anything custom, I have yet to be disappointed.


Upon going through parts today and organizing etc. I found that my husband had ground off the nut on this piece to get the bolt out that was stubborn as hell. Trevor says to have a new nut welded on. So I'm hoping I can convince someone to do a good job for me we'll see what my friend says tomorrow.

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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[slalombuggy]

I just threw out the door glass and channels you needed. I could never even give windows away so I tossed all my glass including a bunch of early door and vent glass. The windows were out of a 54 I scrapped and shipped the bare doors. The car was parked in a shed in '62 after a bad front end collision and everything was in mint shape. Too bad.......

[joshbuchan]

I'm 99% sure I have one of those, message me tomorrow to remind my forgetful ass

[TheLadyBug]

Brad... Noooooooooo!

Josh... Yessssssss!
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[janerick3]

[TheLadyBug]

I think my body guy has a good handle on all the damage; he's done a few bugs before. I trust him 100% to ensure its done right.

Some progress today - coil is painted and turned out well. Just need my new decal so I can clear it.

This color turned out well.

The custom color for these looks fantastic and pretty bang on.

Ricardo messaged me back regarding lenses, and I placed my WW order for all the seals etc to assemble them. I'll just need to get that chroming sent out for the rings.

Since I want my chroming to go out as soon as my mom gets home, I went through my parts to make sure I had everything. I disassembled the mirror. I'm hoping I can paint the seal and get new glass cut, the repro ones don't look the same at all so I really want to use the original.

So now on my list is drilling out the rivets and getting the vent windows apart. I have one door handle yet to disassemble.
Sending gas tank/wheels/semaphore arms to body shop, getting extra vent window trim from body guy.
Pick up my air cleaner tomorrow, and then paint it.
Give batch of parts I found this weekend that need plating, to the plater.
And wait for my mom to get home
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[TheLadyBug]

A couple small updates.

My WW order should be arriving this weekend; my moms friends are bringing it home from the US. That means all the seals, bulbs etc will come, so I can assemble more of the headlights. The lenses are en route as I've gotten in touch with Ricardo.

I looked at the parts manual and I can't seem to determine how many little spacers actually belong on the bucket. Of the 3 buckets I have, all only had 2. However, WW sells them in sets of 6.

The Jack turned out great. Got it back together this morning after wrecking my manicure getting those snap rings back in place.

Been doing some research on etching of windows as my glass isn't perfect enough to put back in the car. I went into the attic and dragged down my rear quarter glass so I'll inspect and clean that this week. I saw a great idea here on the samba about getting a shower door place to cut the glass for me since they apparently have metric 5mm glass. I will call the guy who made my custom shower glass a call this week.

Body guy is picking up semaphores, tank and wheels today. I'm going to see if he can pound out the dents in my side rear view mirror before it gets sent out.
I also brought down my front fenders to go to the body shop as it doesn't appear Gerson is going to do another run anytime soon; I've been waiting 1.5 years. So that means peeling off more undercoat. I hope to get that done this afternoon.
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[Trevor P]

Have the chrome shop rework your mirror. That's what they do. You should have seen the headlight ring they fixed for my barndoor. It was flat from being driven over. You would be hard pressed to guess which one.
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53 Canadian standard oval
56 Wolfsburg PG/SG
57 Oval, 2332 & Berg 5
70 911T
91 Westy

[TheLadyBug]

Thanks Trev. I've just heard stories of stuff being chromed and sent back without any proper prep being done... After the whole horn bezel thing, I was trying to be careful lol.
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[sunroof]

[janerick3]

Three rubber spacers per side, which explains why WW sells them in sets of six.
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Thanks,
Jan K.

[Eric&Barb]

Headlight assemblies look silver in some images and grey in the others. Pre-1961 headlight assemblies should be metallic silver on inside and black on the outside.

Here is a close up of the oval paint stamp.

From the June and Nov 56 owner manuals, shows non-sealed beam, but paint is same:

Two rubber pieces for the sleeve adjusters and one pivot sleeve, for each headlight.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=594300&highlight=headlight+rebuild
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[TheLadyBug]

Eric&barb
I had my paint color matched from the actual headlights, they are bang on. Silver inside, black outside.

The headlights you posted look nothing like mine.

This is what mine look like, and are original.

So, you say two spacers? Or 3? I'm confused.


Don - thanks! I think they turned out well.

Here's what I mean by spacers... I think if I put one in there it would get chewed up. I amfairly certain that these early buckets only used two.
You can see the one on the left, and perhaps another could go on the right pivot? Although the edges would get caught in the opening of the bucket, which is why I'm leaning to two. I don't doubt that WW likely supplies 6 as later buckets require 6?

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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[Eric&Barb]

You can not use the 1956 and later rubber sleeves for your earlier headlights. Not really seeing the spacer in the image.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[TheLadyBug]

The rubber grommet as pictured...

And I'm guessing that it's a good thing I reused them as WW doesn't actually sell them and I'm right that there's just two, lol. I had confused WW set of 6 'spacers' for this part.
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[TheLadyBug]

Got my coil refinished after the peeling paint incident.

And got a photo of my window lifters after they got tanked... And are Swiss cheese.

Anyone got some extras laying around? ugh. I asked Mika to hand make me some and he's too busy! Best case he sells the channel and then I'd have to have the bottom portion from my originals welded on.

My WW order should arrive today, headlight glass is shipped and I should be picking up my aircleaner and plated parts on Monday. I hope to stop at the local paint shop and get a match for the arm rest braces and speedo brace as these appear to be the same color. Then I'll refinish those parts. I'll also buy a plastic paint to match the rear part of the glove box as I bought the plastic one from WW (my original cardboard one is falling apart). I also ordered some custom coloured flocking so the inside of the box looks and feels original.

My tank, wheels and semaphore arms went to the body shop this week, and are hopefully primered now. I gave him the paint codes I had chosen when I matched the tank before it was cleaned.

I opened up my rear quarter glass and it's just as scratched as the rest - but original. I think I have come up with a plan for etching new glass to look correct. But now I have a question... Does the etching go on the inside or outside? Drivers side in, passenger side out? It appears all the glass was etched the same and just flipped?
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily

[janerick3]

[TheLadyBug]

[TheLadyBug]

Made a bit of progress.
The transmission should be done in a months time. The guy called me to explain his plans so I hope to have it home before the pan needs to move.

Much to my husband's dismay, I got the air cleaner refinished after the paint peeled last time (he hates when I paint in the house ). I'll let them dry for a good week before I mate top and bottom together. I think it turned out. New straps from Mika.

I also painted the glovebox the correct color with flexible plastic paint. Still waiting on my flocking to arrive, can't wait to see how the inside turns out. My dad pointed out that I have no idea where the strap is to hold the glove box in place so I'm going to try and find that later today, hopefully. I'll refinish it, too, if I can find it; I'm fairly organized with all the parts in the house... I have everything in categorized boxes according to old, new and refinished, and it's not where it should be

Just waiting on the speedo brace and arm rest braces back from being stripped and I'll paint them the same color.

I contacted the local glass shop and they are willing to cut me new glass in a 5mm, and temper it. I was happy to hear they have low iron glass that doesn't turn green when tempered.
They are currently looking into also ordering special 5mm laminated glass for the windshield. I'm waiting to hear back what they are able to do. My dad has got a sample stencil made for me so I need to get that, as well as the etch cream (found at a local hobby store) and begin practicing. I'm really looking forward to doing this myself. The glass shop will give me some extra tempered glass pieces to practice on.

I'm going to etch the driver's side all inside with a reverse stencil, and all passenger side on the outside with a normal stencil. I'll do the oval outside, and the windscreen inside reverse, as I believe this was correct for my car. I assume I can etch the laminated windscreen as the laminating is between layers?

I got my door handle apart today and have the original so soaking; I can't get the bottom pin out. I had totally forgotten I didn't get it apart before; good thing I discovered that now instead of when I went to send my stuff out for Chrome. I'm going to get the non-visible pieces zinc plated.

Next up, I think I'm going to begin delving into the wiper motor, and restoring the taillights while I wait for everything else.
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Charmaine
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1954 Beetle - because I can
2016 Golf highline - hubby’s daily
2016 Golf R - my daily