TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:10 pm

I've been lurking long enough now and am starting my own build thread. I'm definitely going to need some help getting this car back together right.

I bought the car last year in San Jose and it's my first VW; my wife has bought a Ghia since. There's really not too much rust other than the pan. The pan had rusted through in the battery area and the passenger side under the seat had been replaced with a (Ghia?) pan. There was about 40 rivets holding that section together. I drilled them all out and started welding all the holes shut, but the metal was still too thin. When I started sandblasting the rest of pan I just found more pinholes. So, I just bit the bullet and ordered the Gerson pans on Monday and am going to do it right.

The rear fenders had some major rust hiding under 1/4" of bondo in some areas. I found 2 good replacements and will use them instead. All the other body parts are already blasted and primed.

I've blasted most of the body and just have a little left under the rear wheels and the engine compartment. I'll be using Masterseries silver on the body so I can get it primed while I get the pan built back up. I used that paint on the beam and all the front end stuff and really liked it. I'll use it on the pan too.

The FI was removed and converted to carbs. I'm going to stick with carbs and have some DCNF's I'll use for the engine build. Chico is rebuilding my longblock for me now. It's going to be a 1904, I'm keeping the heater boxes so I figured that's about a big as I could get away with.

Well that's the brief history on it. This past weekend I built a dolly so I could move it around and now I can push it to 'my' side of the garage. I separated the body and pan yesterday. Initially I was going to keep it together, but with the condition of the pan I separated it. Broke 1 bolt in the process. I'm glad I went to body off, sandblast media gets everywhere, I was surprise how much was hiding still. Now I'll have a chance to really get it all out before I prime it.

Now for the pics. Today I used my needle gun to get off an enormous amount of black rubberized, old and hard undercoating. The underside of the car had an insane amount of this stuff. I only got one of the rear wheel wells done and will give the neighbors a break until tomorrow!

I'll be keeping this updated frequently and look forward to comments and advice on my project!

-Brent

After the needle gun, the factory stuff is still on there good and I'm going to leave it.

The rust holes I found. Will get it welded up soon.

Looking at the holes from the top.

The aftermath.

On wheels.

Put away for tonight.

Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:15 pm

Ah! thats what I need, one of those wheely things, perhaps with rotisserie too.

Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:18 am

looks like you've got a pretty solid project on your hands.

what are your plans?

Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:04 pm

That was my thought. Pretty clean and solid looking. 8)

Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:08 pm

Another busy afternoon with the needle gun. I got all the black undercoating off! That stuff is nasty. I think I'll have enough time to setup for blasting on Friday and finish blasting the body.

Has anyone used 3M Body Schutz? There's a couple spots in the wheel wells were the factory undercoat peeled away (with minor rust holes) and I want to fix it before priming. Seems like a better product than the stuff in a can.

As far as my plans for the car:
Body - I have an early gas tank and already cut a hole for it. No flap on the right fender.
Paint - I leaning toward L469 Anthracite, I know it wasn't a color offered on these cars then but it's not going to be stock anyway and I like that color.
Wheels - I have a set of 5 polished 2 Liters, they're my favorite! Will the spare fit? Seems to wide.
Engine - CPR built 1904, OTT exhaust, DCNF's, Bosch 019
Lowered - I'm going to use BerT3's drop spindles when they're ready. I would like it to sit like this car:

I would like to know what size tires those are. 185/55?

The pics this time are more of the same. Spray can undercoating removal and a couple shots of the heater channels after I peeled off all the remaining gasket.

What about the last picture? Any idea what that's from? Seems like a strange place to need to pound out a dent or something.

Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:46 pm

As for the dent in the last pic, no idea. The tires on the red/orange Fastback look like either 195-50's, or 195-60's, or like you're thinking 185-55's. I'd rather go with big and littles, running 205-65's in back, and 195-60's up front. This way you put some tread on the road, and the large rear tires keep the gearing close to stock. This is just my take on it, but my 65 Notch road great on a 2000 mile road trip with that combo. 8)

Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:16 am

Thanks Bob. I just ordered the tires today. I decided to go a size smaller on the profile, 205/60 and 195/55. It won't be lowered too much, so from what I've been reading I think they'll fit.

Thu Apr 07, 2011 1:07 pm

Lookin' great so far Brent!

Thu Apr 07, 2011 1:37 pm

We really enjoyed seeing the pictures and comments.
It's a nice weekend project! Maybe the wheels are a bit small but maybe you can get Jennifer to push you around the block on it anyway. We are looking forward to seeing it look as good as the red car or even better. It's a lot of work but very rewarding. Hope you remember where all the parts go to make the car whole again, no left over pieces please. We'll keep checking this site for updates.
Peter & Karen

Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:56 pm

I didn't work on the car today.

But, I did recycle a bus 002 bell housing. The tubing and bolts came to $30. It will be nice for when I get the engine back.

Sat Apr 09, 2011 7:57 pm

Got a lot done the last couple days. I finally finished sandblasting the body. I use a low silica product called Black Diamond which is crushed coal slag. It cheap, works well and I can sweep, sift, and reuse a couple times before it turns to dust. There's a couple small spots of grime here and there, but I'll just hit them with a wire wheel. Took a shot of my bent apron I'll need to get straightened out.

There's a little bit of surface rust on in the trunk area from letting it sit too long before I prime. I'll use some Ospho to take care of that area.

I had a few tins left to sandblast and got them done today too. The cylinder tins have some cracks in the corners and one big one in the back that I'll need to weld up before I paint.

After I cleaned up, I painted my homemade engine stand with some thinned out blue rustoleum using my HFT purple gun.

Next step is to weld up all the random holes that are drilled up under the dash and under the rear window (probably drilled for speakers). Then I'll seam seal everything.

Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:13 pm

I salvaged my original ball joints and rebooted them today. The lowers seem tough to find and really expensive, so I'll just reuse these. I picked up the donors for about $11 each from rockauto. They only have uppers, but the boots seem to fit both upper and lower ok. $50 total, much cheaper finding NOS ones.

I cleaned them really well, wire wheeled, then greased with moly grease and then swapped the boots. Thought I'd share the pics of the process.

Before

The donor; the grease was pretty hard, must have been sitting awhile.

All cleaned up.

Greased from the bottom.

Wired boot on. Installed plug.

Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:59 pm

those last pictures looked like they cleaned up like new. You did great work. Peter

Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:01 pm

Bought some Picklex20 for the body while I get the pan together, and also had tires mounted on my 2 liters last weekend.

Fri Apr 22, 2011 8:05 pm

Removed some incorrect pan half photos. :(

Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:00 pm

good welding takes time and practice. Perhaps you should of practiced on scrap metal of the same thickness and scenarios.

They'll clean up with a 2nd pass and some grinding :)

Good job though. :D

Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:51 pm

vlad01 wrote: good welding takes time and practice. Perhaps you should of practiced on scrap metal of the same thickness and scenarios.:D

I probably should have before I got started. MIG is new to me; I went to a Navy welding school years ago but we were only taught TIG and stick welding. I'm getting the hang of it now, and will grind out that spot and fix it. :)

Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:47 am

yeah I only know stick and the theory of TIG.

I have a TIG just haven't got around to renting a gas bottle and need to fork out a few hundred for a decent mask. I want to get a 3M speedglas 9002V mask so I can go right down to 5-10A for body sheet metal work.

My first agenda is to get concrete floor in my shed :lol: then I'll worry about completing my TIG set.

Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:09 pm

This update is a bit tough to write. I had welded in my KF pan halves and measured them incorrectly. Once it was all done, I bolted the pan to the underside of the body just to check if everything lined up. The right side was off by about 3/16" and the holes didn't line up right. I guess I just got a little over ambitious and hurried though it. So what I learned: bolt tunnel to body first, align pan-halves , tack in place, then remove and finish.

I had to walk away from it for a few weeks due to my frustration. There was another local pan with almost no rush I picked up for cheap and cleaned it up. I got my first coat of Masterseries on it tonight. The bottom and the 2nd coat will be over the next few days. I still have the other pan but haven't motivated myself to undo my botched work.

In other news, I received my transaxle back from Daryl at AATransaxle with a 3.88 R/P. And, yesterday my longblock came from CPR. I'll get pictures up of both this weekend when I unpack them. But here's the build spec sheet and pics of my mad purple gun painting skills (sorry the before shots are blurry, must have been something on the lens):

Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:55 pm

Nice save on the pan, looks awesome dude. This whole build looks awesome. Thats going to be a very healthy motor. What are you doing for carbs and exhaust?