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Tue Jan 27, 2015 2:38 pm

Hi to everyone. My name is Platon and I'm from Greece. About a year ago I bought a 1964 beetle which was abandoned for a number of years and is in need of a full restoration. I have been reading the samba since I purchased my car and this has helped me a lot with the restoration of the car. Because I enjoy reading other peoples restoration threads, I decided to present my effort for others to enjoy! I plan to restore the car to stock specification. Here are some pictures of the car as I found it.

Tue Jan 27, 2015 2:55 pm

Welcome to The Samba, Platon. Great pics of the cobwebs in the engine bay and the seedling emerging from the rear window (a sign that your bug is ready to live again!).

You've come to the right place. Good luck and keep us posted (remember....we love pictures!).

Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:51 pm

" That will buff out " :D

Great photo of the weeds growing out of the car !!

I actually saved a roof section with Florida Leicens . It's like moss only harder.

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Welcome :D

Wed Jan 28, 2015 1:26 am

Nice find, Platon! Welcome to the Samba

Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:37 am

Hi again. These photos were taken by a good friend who came along to help at the day of the 'resque' and is a professional photographer. Here is another artistic one from the inside that is one of my favourites.

This car was abandoned outside for years and was leaking water from the back window. It has rust on many panels including both heater channels, floors, a-pillars, luggage tray and more. This is the reason why it should be completely restored.

I have been working on the car since I acquired it one year ago, and I will be posting pictures in chronological order for you to enjoy!

Fuel tank

Before

After

Hubcaps

Before

After

Wiper motor assembly

Before

After

Cleaned up well on the outside but rust hides inside

wish me luck

Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:42 am

looks like a nice original place to start! 8)

Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:26 am

I can't believe how well the exterior cleaned up! Keep us posted on the progress.

Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:15 am

Ok some more pictures of the work I've done so far:

Taking the body off

Replacing the floorpans

Drivable chassis :lol:

Old vs new passenger side heater channel

Front cross panel repair

More to come

Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:16 pm

Very very nice

Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:02 pm

Wow. Nice car. Congrats! You seem to be moving right along, have her done in no time!

Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:01 am

This is work I've done since I bought the car in January '14. I wish I was able to progress as fast as I have post these photos but I only have spare time to work on the car on weekends. The car is very complete and mostly original and no parts are missing, that's the good news. At some point in the past, some poor repairs were done to the body by welding patch panels on top of rusty sections and the car was repainted a slightly brighter white than the original L87 pearl white. The bad news is that it is very rusty (although I've seen much worse being rebuild on the samba!). Consequently, I will have to spend quite a lot of time on body repairs. This is my first attempt at bodywork restoration, it is very time consuming for me but also very rewarding when a task is completed successfully.

Here are some more pictures:

Front cross panel

Passenger side A-pillar:

Fri Feb 06, 2015 5:23 pm

Making excellent progress, keep the pics coming.

Mon Feb 09, 2015 11:10 am

Some more pictures:

This is the section between the b-post and the rear cross panel where the heater channel attaches (passenger side):

And finally the one of the two heater channels is welded

Mon Feb 09, 2015 2:39 pm

Very nice work. You are getting a lot done very quickly.

Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:30 pm

Some pictures regarding driver's side heater channel replacement:

Old heater channel

More rust

Repairs

Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:34 pm

Nice work! I had a helluva time forming the steel next to the heat outlet in the rear to look good. Looks great!

Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:15 pm

Some more photos of the progress I made on the bodywork.

This area on the drivers side was completely rusted. A new piece was formed and welded in.

Also passenger side lower quarter panel was badly rusted.

The rusted area was cut and a new piece fabricated

Then I turned my attention to one of the rear body mounts which had so much rust, it was ready to be detached!

Tue Apr 21, 2015 3:11 pm

=D> =D> =D>

Amazing work, keep it up, nearly there!

Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:02 pm

Wow, great work, congrats!!!

Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:23 am

I had the opportunity to work on the car recently, so I think it is a good time to update the thread.

Below are some photos of the passenger side rear body mount that had some rust.

Signs of rust:

So I removed it from the car to repair it:

I made replacement panels for the rusty sections:

And this is the end result that was welded to the car: