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Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:49 am

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, let's kick it off. Car is but a shell, but I have almost all the good parts, including W decklid, 4 tab hood, OG oval front fenders and bullet assemblies, original equipment Dehne fuel gauge, real nice bat wing steering wheel. It left the VW Wolfsburg factory on February 4, 1957 destined for a Seattle, WA USA delivery. Here is the Birth Certificate:

Day I bought it --

wrong aprons, but not for long!

Front and rear clips have been replaced, not sure what's up with that, prolly accidents. VERY LITTLE RUST ON THE CAR. Pinholes in both rear quarter panels, a bit in the bottom of the decklid and hood, but not much more than that. Will post more progress photos soon....ENJOY

Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:07 am

Doesn't look bad at all, whats your plans :?:

Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:53 am

Just uploaded an avatar with how I envision the car.....at least for now :wink: Lookin' real hard at a 2110cc 150+hp stroker from CPR. But I got lotsa time LOL! 2010 is gonna see a ton of progress, time and of course $$ spent. :lol:
Rich, I seen your projects man, in HotVWs, here on the Samba, man you are one of the forces in this sport/hobby. Guys like you have defined how guys like me (Everyday Joe's) build cars. Cheers man!
How's that split vert comin'?

Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:48 pm

Thanks man for the nice words...Looking forward to your build 8)

I sold the vert ......

Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:28 pm

Few more....
some very very solid scheit

except the pans, they are getting repaired, pics to come....

enjoy,
Blake

Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:31 pm

ok, here's some more -- old pans replaced by Franklin's VW Werks .... first time the body has ever been off the chasis. One pan-half was OK, but the pass side was toast under the battery.

Nice and solid WOW:

typical greasy mess after 50+ years of accumulation:

Nice Neopolitan hat. OG brakes, beam, smoothies:

More to come.....
Thanks Franklin:

Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:06 pm

car is super solid.. looks like its gonna be a good one

Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:34 pm

Damn man you aint F-ing around :!:

Mon Apr 12, 2010 8:17 pm

Best of luck on your build. It looks like you are off to a great start. 8)

Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:52 pm

Thanks for the comments, guys. Trying to really get after it. I know you guys like pics, so here's some more
I had Franklin's replace my pans, which included drilling out several bolts that had ceased up. Here it is on their lift:

Here's the underside. Let me tell you, that undercoating saved this car's life. It's THICK under there. Was it applied at the factory do you think?

Underside of my incorrect rear apron....oily with only surface rust:

View from the top:

Thanks guys, enjoy

Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:33 pm

It's good to see another oval treated right in the NW. Good choice going to Franklin, he's awesome!
Undercoating saved my cars ass too. Get your heat gun out and get to work, it's a bitch to get off.
Did Freak blow up his motor? :wink:

Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:19 pm

I actually removed most of the undercoating from the car, including all fenders, underside of the body and pan. Yeah, you ain't kidding, it was a biotch! I used a wire wheel for most of it. Hard work, I have gone thru one and a half DeWalt wheels with my angle grinder. Face Shield is key!
More pics comin' soon, stay tuned. Thanks for lookin'!

Blake

Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:18 am

Joe H., by the way, who is Freak, and which one is his car? :wink:

Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:04 pm

left_coast*9 wrote: Joe H., by the way, who is Freak, and which one is his car? :wink:

His name is Chris, and that's his water pumper (unless he sold it)with the front end tore apart. Kinda fast car.......

Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:40 pm

more pics....
Had to do some work on the decklid. It was in very good shape considering it's age....just had a bit of rust at the very bottom edge. I drilled out the spot welds, removed the latch panel, cut out the rusty spots, replaced with fresh metal....VOILA. Ok, as many of you know, it was a bit more involved than a mere VOILA. It was very difficult and time consuming b/c I'm a newB body man and novice welder at best. Here are the early stages. The decklid was repainted red in color at some point. I have no idea if this particular decklid is original to the car, unfortunately. :cry: . Looks like under the red may have been VW coral red ? Anyway, here (like I said) I removed the inner latch panel by drilling out the spot welds. Then I sand blasted the panel. Here's an example of what it looked like after:

Here's what it looked like under there, dang that is some greasy nasty scheit. That is a couple-inch-long piece of new metal I welded in near the bottom....

Then on the "bling" side I DA'd the paint off (used a dual action air sander). The black splotch at the bottom is a welded up pin hole:

This is just a start on the decklid. The latch panel was a bear...more pics to come....
Enjoy,
Blake

Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:39 am

Sweet looking Oval! Nice seeing a local guy build!

Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:55 am

Thanks Charlie, Holy scheit, that was your first post! Welcome to the Samba! I am by no means a veteran here, as you can see. :D
Thanks for reading and posting here, cheers! :) Got any projects of your own?

Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:04 am

left_coast*9 wrote: Thanks Charlie, Holy scheit, that was your first post! Welcome to the Samba! I am by no means a veteran here, as you can see. :D
Thanks for reading and posting here, cheers! :) Got any projects of your own?

Yep first post, actualy first time in the forum part of The Samba.. As of lately I've been more into the off-road side of the world so I have a built Toyota and am trying to get some ideas for my '65 sedan. I bought the car I0 years ago when I was 14.. Seems like forever.

Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:17 pm

Nice Charlie, that 65 will make a great cruiser whatever you do. Slam it on earlies.... LOL Just kidding. To each his own, I figure build it the way you want it, as long as you build it. Don't let it sit. Even if all you do is make it a patina ride, would be SWEET. These cars are a blast.

Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:01 pm

Wow I've made LOTS of progress....hardest part is finding time to actually post pics and update this build thread!
Work continues on the decklid...had quite a bit of rust at the bottom. Looked like only pinholes, but once I removed that latch panel there was a bit of rust in there.
This is after sandblasting, check out all pinholes left over... I also primered it....

Cut out the rust, then cut a patch panel.

close up. Lots of work, mostly cuz I'm a beginner welder but slowly improving:

More on the decklid later, but here's some work I'm doing on a front bullet fender, grindin' off that nasty, thick ass undercoating.

Enjoy, LOTS and LOTS more to come....thanks for lookin'
Blake