TheSamba.com :: View topic - Messaged the wrong person, acquired a '61 :-D

Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:58 am

I like where this is going - keep it up!

Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:14 am

sportin-wood wrote: I like where this is going - keep it up!

Thank you brother! I shall!!

Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:39 pm

108F in Utah today.

Yeah, that's pretty heavy. But I fought on...

Didn't take too long to have rear fenders and lights off.

Then I thought, why not drop the motor, I have an hour until dark...lets do it! (when I say "let's", I mean, "I'll do this")

Came out with a little wiggling to get it past the apron. Noice!

Not bad for two hours in the wretched heat, but working in the car port is 15F cooler than the garage so I'll take it.

Until tomorrow...

Tue Jul 18, 2023 8:30 pm

18th July, and a nice break from the intense heat, a couple of storms really cooled things down. I pulled the rest of the chrome, and the remaining carpet.

I removed the Peel N Stick in the luggage area so I can check everywhere for rust - you never know.

I found some rust, but not under the Peel N Stick, there's a small hole just below the luggage area on the passenger side, near the end of the heater channel...

It's smaller than a nickel, and I dug that good to make sure it has not spread...I'm ok with it. I'll hit it with some Ospho and weld it up this week. I also found a small bit of rust on the driver side carpet gripper in the doorway, about 3/4" long. For this, I am forever thankful.

I also found this terrible repair to the tunnel - somebody got lazy with the shift linkage, and even lazier with the repair on the tunnel... I've seen this on so many bugs but this is the laziest repair by far.

And then I used a combination of aircraft stripper, a metal scraper and 320g sandpaper to begin removing this red. It was a moderately relaxing time.

I'm tired - I promise more progress each evening, but for now, I must snooze.

Thanks guys be safe!

Pilch

Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:32 am

You're making some very good progress!

Wed Jul 19, 2023 6:56 am

scarabee wrote: You're making some very good progress!

Thanks man!

I am still in turmoil about a color though :-(

Wed Jul 19, 2023 8:29 am

Even though it's supposed to be 104 this weekend in SLC, I am expecting more photos and posts of your work.
One issue that may affect your color choice is cost. I had no idea (last time I checked) that red was $400/Gal. Who knew some colors were so much extra $. Nuts.
A "good" black paint job is stunning with all the chrome but I've had a black car and keeping it up is a full-time job. Hot too.
Thanks for the motivation to work on my 63 and keep up the good work!

Wed Jul 19, 2023 10:40 am

clarkster75 wrote: Even though it's supposed to be 104 this weekend in SLC, I am expecting more photos and posts of your work.
One issue that may affect your color choice is cost. I had no idea (last time I checked) that red was $400/Gal. Who knew some colors were so much extra $. Nuts.
A "good" black paint job is stunning with all the chrome but I've had a black car and keeping it up is a full-time job. Hot too.
Thanks for the motivation to work on my 63 and keep up the good work!

Haha you'll get them - I'm in the car port now, a breeze, plus my redneck sleeveless shirt gives me 15F less potential death, if potential death was measured in fahrenheit. :-D

You are right about paint - me and the Mrs painted our Vanagon last month, and two quarts of L90D Pastel White single stage was almost 400 bucks! TWO QUARTS!! That was the best price we found too (Jones in Provo), I went through Sherwin and Superior (usually my go-to) and they were past $500. Absolute madness, as a gallon of lime green I used on my 67 six years ago was $80. Sheesh.

As for black, I agree with you fully, looks amazing with chrome trim and white walls, but it's just not for me - Lotus White is winning right now. Maybe I'll sell my internal organs and I can get a gallon of it :-D

More pics to come cheers brother!

Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:10 pm

If you don't plan to stay with black, I would chose a colour that was used in the model era. In that case I would more go with pearl white than with lotus.

Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:15 pm

Lotus White is very sharp on vintage cars. It's a very classic look, especially with white walls. This is not exactly Lotus White but it's not far from it.

Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:28 pm

clarkster75 wrote: Even though it's supposed to be 104 this weekend in SLC, I am expecting more photos and posts of your work.
One issue that may affect your color choice is cost. I had no idea (last time I checked) that red was $400/Gal. Who knew some colors were so much extra $. Nuts.
A "good" black paint job is stunning with all the chrome but I've had a black car and keeping it up is a full-time job. Hot too.
Thanks for the motivation to work on my 63 and keep up the good work!
$400? Last I checked I was over $1000 from my supplier :shock:

Wed Jul 19, 2023 8:52 pm

Evening fella's.

On the way home today I braved the debacle that is Ace Hardware. It's not the slightly more expensive prices, or the tacky country music playing....it's the simpletons employed in there that really get my goat. I had a guy say "are you finding everything ok?" through the most obnoxious Homer Simpson-style yawn, loud as you like, so I could see his tonsils. It's a special place.

So, I bought this because they didn't have Ospho, of course...

seems to have good reviews so I dumped it on the little rust spot I found yesterday.

I had an idea to buy some of those paint removing wheels to attach to my angle grinder. Did Ace Hardware have those? Of course not.

I pulled the glass, successfully, and saved the rubber seals which were supple and new looking, they didn't tear so I can only assume they are quality ones. I'll take it! I didn't want to get Aircraft Stripper on the seals. I saved myself $100 or so by saving them. Excellent.

Then the heavens opened and fire, brimstone, prehistoric lightening and thunder that would set everyones car alarms off, was the soundtrack to me slopping Aircraft Stripper onto the bug.

It works pretty good but I do find this puppy works even better after the Stripper has done its job...

After an hour or so of Renaulds' Syndrome from the grinder, I got to this stopping point.

More tomorrow. Sorry there's no exciting pics, this is the "Spadework" as I call it, I have to trudge through this, with my friends coincidentally really busy during the boring processes, and totally available when the cool parts happen, like finishing. I call them "Blisters", because they pop up after all the hard work is done :-D

Ta Tah for now. Be safe.

Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:41 pm

This evening, I couldn't stand it any longer so I had to clear up, and reorganize the working areas and the parts...

Felt like a good thing to do and I'm less stressed now. While doing the clean up, this little guy broke down outside my house...

I was about to go help, but it fired back up and buzzed off. What a funny little creature the Isetta is.

Then, this happened to my 6V/12V battery charger. I laughed my ass off so loud my neighbor came over to see what was up

BACK ON TOPIC!!!!

I did strip a fender to bare metal. I painted the Aircraft Stripper on last night and left it all day. Worked well, however, it's still a bit of a chore to get it all off with a wire wheel.

That's all for today - I have a feeling there won't be much more than paint stripping pics so with that in mind I'll try and mix it up a bit, in the interests of keeping this thread alive.

Cheers!

Fri Jul 21, 2023 8:05 pm

My weapon of choice, the cup-shaped wire brush round thing from Harbor Fright, has been firing it's wire strands into my skin for far too long, so I stopped on the way home and spent $23 on a DeWalt one. Verdict - worse than the HF one. So, tog-up and wear goggles.

Just another 4hrs of this. But it looks like progress made today, so I am enthused.

This bit is a fiddle. Took about an hour with a drill-mounted wire wheel to get in and out of every slot, both sides, top and bottom. However, the mystery of how to get inside here and remove that red paint remains... yikes.

Sat Jul 22, 2023 9:50 am

Howdy ...

Am loving following your progress.

Somewhere in the vast Samba is a thread about removing the spot welds from under those intake vents. They'll of course have to be welded back in. Lots of work.
I've never learned to weld but respect those that can/do.

One guy in my car club used wipes on dowels then sprayed the paint in there best he could & had to wipe the runs off the vents before doing the rest of the car. It came out acceptable.

Best to you ... stay safe

jinx

Sat Jul 22, 2023 6:50 pm

jinx758 wrote: Howdy ...

Am loving following your progress.

Somewhere in the vast Samba is a thread about removing the spot welds from under those intake vents. They'll of course have to be welded back in. Lots of work.
I've never learned to weld but respect those that can/do.

One guy in my car club used wipes on dowels then sprayed the paint in there best he could & had to wipe the runs off the vents before doing the rest of the car. It came out acceptable.

Best to you ... stay safe

jinx

Whats up Jinx - thanks for looking at my progress and thanks for the info about the rear vents - I think I'll do what your friend did and just spray it in as best I can, I don't fancy drilling out the spot welds, like you say, lots of work. Thanks brother.

Speaking of lots of work, this body is getting there, however, I put 9hrs in today, and it felt like 29hrs....it really is a drag but one has to do it. There's no magic pill, or spell, or wand.

I started to clean up the second set of rims that came with the car...that didn't last long, it's more of a bear than the body. I have some of those hub cap clips missing on my smoothies so I'll have to do a search and see how new clips are best riveted on.

I removed all the precious stuff on the dash again, boxed it and labeled it. Took an hour to drill out the stripped screws on the glove box door.

Then I was going to weld up the hole in the dash, the little hole in the back and
the antenna hole in the front quarter panel. Humphries Welding closed on a saturday?? WFT? I need 75/25 gas, I cannot bear what my welds look like with flux core...so that will have to wait.

Anyone ever have days like this where it feels you are paddling upstream, or walking through treacle? Yikes.

More tomorrow, thanks fella's.

Sun Jul 23, 2023 5:13 am

The Pilch wrote: Then I was going to weld up the hole in the dash, the little hole in the back and the antenna hole in the front quarter panel.

Thank you! The same things I would do, hating all those holes that are not factory.

Sun Jul 23, 2023 7:43 pm

Another day of stripping.

I've a few repairs to make, as I've mentioned before, this is a new one, passenger front wheel area, some questionable welding...

Having gone around the body a few times now, I've been finding stuff out.

The VIN stamp on the tunnel, and the front tag match as does the title. I'm not sure if it has the original motor and trans, I could research that if I was inclined but I'm not that bothered - I guess it would be interesting to find out at some point. All four fenders are repops - very heavy and very good ones though. Deck lid could be original, but the hood has Java Green on the under side. It's had a rear apron, rear bumper brackets, heater channels, the front clip straightened, the pans replaced and the battery area redone. Seeing as this is a 62yr old car, I am assuming it's been restored once or twice in its long life, and I must say, it's been repaired very well for the most part, hence why it's still so dry and solid. Generally, it's a very stout, solid dry 61, but is by no means original, so I feel good about doing exactly what I want with it, which is a nice stock looking car, a nice color, with maybe a 12V upgrade. Classy is the name of the game. Feeling very grateful still.

Mon Jul 24, 2023 10:20 am

Such a neat car. My top 5 favorite beetles, given a choice of any year and color, include '61 black/ red interior cars. I owned one many years ago and my close buddy has one now. Best year in one of the best colors. There's no way you could get me to repaint your car any other way.

Mon Jul 24, 2023 6:53 pm

The Pilch wrote: ....This bit is a fiddle. Took about an hour with a drill-mounted wire wheel to get in and out of every slot, both sides, top and bottom. However, the mystery of how to get inside here and remove that red paint remains... yikes.

I'm not *saying* you shouldn't worry about the interior area of the air intake..................... buuuuut...... :lol: