TheSamba.com :: View topic - My 54 european deluxe from start to finish

Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:21 pm

Hello all, sorry haven't been around lately, I was moving to a new location, building a garage, going to the Solvang VW show and unfortunately attending my Mom's funeral. I have now been able to get my cars moved into the new garage and got the 54 running today back on its pan for the first time in 50+ years. I built a wooden mount to support the restored fuel tank, speedometer, and ignition switch on the front of the 54's pan so I can display it at shows and run it. I took some pics of the new garage with my bugs and a video of the engine running. Hope I can figure that one out. I will try and enter more now that I am back so hope you enjoy.

The new garage with carport, with "chuck" the 66, my 54 pan and the matching body in behind on another 54 pan.

My 66 bug "chuck" on the left and the 54 pan in progress on the right with the matching 54 body in behind on the second 54's pan.

The 54 pan with its new "boots" on (Coker Bias Ply) and the engine ready to run. I made a plywood mount up front for the fuel tank, speedo and ignition switch.

54 pan with engine running for the first time in 50+ years. The body for the pan is on the second 54 pan in behind. It still needs lots of work.

Sorry no sound will get that fixed up soon. :roll:

Thanks and stay tuned.

Cheers,
Mike

Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:58 pm

Outstanding! :shock: Looks great.

Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:49 pm

i'm envious of your garage :D

Sun Nov 28, 2010 4:33 am

Russ wrote: i'm envious of your garage :D

not only you... ideal size !! en very good looking :wink:

ooh... and the fridge as well :lol:

Sun Nov 28, 2010 5:29 am

Thanks guys, my budget paid for the 24 x 24 garage with attached carport, all finished but wouldn't pay for electricity or insulation. So that will be the next project to get it powered up and insulated. As for the Fridge it is a 1942 Westinghouse that I restored and painted like a Coke machine, and it works great. Will be a great beer fridge in the future.

Cheers,
Mike

Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:18 am

I was there and the engine sounded great!

Sun Nov 28, 2010 8:07 am

Great work and I also like that bahama blau 65!

Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:32 pm

Thanks Schwing, its actually a 66, but your dead on with the color. Keep up the good work with your 57 rebuild, I am watching too. :D

Cheers,
Mike

Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:22 am

So second try at recording the engine run in was more successful, with audio and all. There is a few bugs and the timing is a bit off, but other than that it was great to hear the old 36 hp spring to life again. Here is the video for your entertainment, enjoy. Oh don't mind the goofy guy in the foreground, it was bright trying to see the screen.

Love it, :D

Cheers,
Mike

Mon Nov 29, 2010 7:17 pm

Hey Mike awesome thread and thank you for all the pics and videos. Really cool. I'll be watching.

Sun Jan 02, 2011 9:57 am

Thanks Artifact, I have been watching your thread as well. I have been busy leading up to Christmas, but finally got some time to deal with a pesky generator problem. I said before that I installed a porsche 12volt 38 amp armature and coils inside my original 6 volt gen housing, but I had been having trouble getting the 3 wires hooked up properly to get the gen to put out some voltage. If you are interested you can read the following thread:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=445050

So now I have been successful and have the generator running, I took video, so take note, no generator light on the speedo. Enjoy and keep watching, more build to come in the new year. :D

Sun Jan 02, 2011 2:04 pm

Sounds/looks good,but the idle sounds super high.........are you still breaking it in? Happy new year. :D

Sun Jan 02, 2011 2:50 pm

Making some great progress there!
And nice looking air cleaner :)

When do you start on the body?

Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:59 pm

Hey OvalGreaseMonkey, still doing the break in yes, but also I had the manual choke pulled for the whole video, I had just started it and was reducing it as I took the video if you listen, its cold up hear in these northern parts you know..... :wink:

Hey Schwing, I wanted to get the pan all together so I can take it to shows this next summer as a display for people to see whats under a bug. I am almost done now, got the steering shaft installed temporarily for the display, and will put the steering wheel on as well, then just need to blast and paint one of my seats and I am ready for the summer. Once that is done I will be ready to strip the body and start on the rust repair. I have been watching your build, great job, and will be following you shortly.

Picked up the air cleaner at the Solvang show this past September, thanks Andrew, and bought the decal from Greg Armendariz, thanks Greg.

Thanks to both of you for the comments, and keep watching, more to come soon.

Cheers, Mike

Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:30 pm

Hello gents,

So as I stated earlier, I am trying to create a display of my 54's pan for shows next year, so people can see what is under the body of a bug, especially an older one. Plus for selfish reasons, and inspiration to keep building, that it will give me to drive it around my property come spring. These past few days I got my new steering coupler permanently installed and then temporarily installed the steering column, and mounted the steering wheel and restored horn button to the column permanently and checked my wiring of it. All is good. :D

So aside from getting the 2 seat frames sandblasted and painted, the pan is pretty much ready. In the spring I will adjust the valves, check the points, timing and carb adjustments to be ready for the summer. Here is a few pics of the almost complete pan.

Another item on my list is getting my original steering wheel lock out of the 54 rekeyed. I have it all restored, but I never had keys for it. I will try some of the Samba folks to see who can make some for me. I have attached some pics of the one I have.

Cheers and keep watching,
Mike 8)

Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:33 pm

Hello all, again I apologize for not writing for awhile, but I have been busy with getting my 66 daily driver bug "Chuck" ready for the driving season, needed more work than I thought, when do they not. Anyway, as a small update, I found someone to re key my steering wheel lock pictured above, and it is under way, as well I found an original 54 2-part license plate to put on the front of the 54 when it is done.

The original 2 part Nova Scotia plate I picked up for the 54 bug has a full plate which is a 52, with a 54 strip attached to the bottom. I am not sure how many years after 54 before they replaced the main plate, but for 53 and 54 it was just a strip added to the 52 plate.

I should be only another week or so, and I should be back working on the 54 with pics to come. I have been following a number of samba members who have been doing awesome restorations on their ovals and with lots of metal work to do on mine it has been very inspirational.
Cheers,
Mike

Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:46 pm

Starting to get myself back on track, my 66 is pretty much ready for spring so the build on the 54 continues. Here I have started to refurbish my front seats getting ready for the summer show season.

My 54 came without any front seats thanks to the original owners son, anyway after hunting on Thesamba I purchased 2 original front seats from 2 different sellers. I have finally started to clean them up and paint them. The one on the right was missing its fabric attach cross bar on the bottom, my friend in North Bay, (thanks Rob) sent me a later bar which I had to shorten and then welded on, missing a couple of tabs but will deal with that later.

There will be more pics to come.

Cheers,
Mike

Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:16 pm

Gabriel can get you a key and key that ignition lock for you.

[email protected]
[email protected]

Your doing a REALLY nice job. A real inspiration. I can't wait to get going on my '55. First I have to do my '62 ragtop.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:03 am

Thanks for the props Ovalteen, my 66 has been my priority the past couple of months as well, but now can get back onto the 54.

I was in touch with Gabriel as well for the lock, it is underway, will show when it is done.

Keep watching,

Thanks,
Mike

Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:39 pm

Ok folks, still working on the seats, spent a couple of hours with a wire wheel on my hand grinder and cleaned up one of the seat bottom frames. I had to straighten the rails and repair the rivets holding the seat adjuster lock rod to the frame. Then after 2 coats of paint it is ready to install.

Here are the 2 lower seat frames, from 2 different cars neither one mine, can you see which one is restored?

Close up of the 2 frames to show some of the crud I had to remove. The second frame goes under the grinder tomorrow, and have to do a couple of repairs on it as well then off to paint.

Keep watching,
Mike