1974 Super Beetle restoration

[Vinnems]

I'm about to head out, but here's a little taste of what Santa brought me.

By baby's back, with fresh paint, fresh welds, fresh everytthing! I'll post more pics when I get home. Quick question, the thing is soaked form getting towed in the rain. The paint was done 2 weeks ago. Should I do anything about all the water beads? I was thinking of wiping it down with some old T Shirts. It's a two stage paint if that matters.

[NONYA]

LOOKIN GOOD!

[EXJAY]

i'd wipe it down and next sunny day roll it outside to dry really good. Looks sharp!
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EXJAY

'74 Superbeetle (Family owned since new)
'73 181 Thing (sold)

[TheRedHerring]

Any updates?
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1972 Super Beetle
aka "Gunther"

If my car isn't leaking oil, then that means its out of oil.

[Vinnems]

Hold on on a sec, let me blow the cobwebs off of this thread.
So spring is here. Not that it really matters as it's been raining more now then in has in the past few months. But I decided to get off my rear and get back on the car. I was lazy all winter, just ordering parts and doing nothing with them.
But that changed last weekend. I picked up my angle grinder, and I felt a surge going through me. I was revitalized in a way only scalding pieces of metal hitting my crotch can do. Here's where I'm at:
I've had these floor pans back from the sandblasters and under Masterseries for like a year now. Still covered in little holes. Note: DON'T SPILL YOUR SODAS IN THE CAR. Previous owner's car pool buddy must've spilled his Megagulp everyday on the way to work. And the battery was acting stupid per usual. So, I cut out the bad metal after making excessive marks with a sharpie.

I really shouldn't even call this cutting, as there wasn't much holding this together.

Here's my biggest issue at the moment. The battery acid ate some of the metal going up the side. I think I might have something figured out, though.

Here's my cardboard tracing I did. I then went out half and inch on all side and cut it out. Test fit went great, so I moved on to the metal.

Half an inch was a bit much in spots. Still have some trimming to do, especially at the top corners, to get it to fit perfect. I went with 16 gauge steel, since 18 still seemed really thin to me and this was the thickest sheet metal Loews had. Excessive? Yeah, but that's just how my project has been.

So I thought the side might be a problem. Turns out, even strips of 16 gauge steel bend pretty easy. I think with a rubber mallet I can get things to fit here. Note this was a piece of scrap I was just bending with hand, not what I will use to fix.

And for fun, when I finished, I was using this magnet thing to pick up some of the metal shavings. Made some cool little fuzzy things.

I'm back to running on all cylinders for this project. Tomorrow I'm going to cut out little bits of metal to fill in the little holes throughout the passenger side of my chassis (check my photos to see my situation). Going to use the 3M Panel Adhesive for this. Hoping this weekend to finally crack open the Masterseries black and get this chassis DONE.

[Vinnems]

Man, I don't update this topic that much even though I work on this everyday. Big update:

Got the body back on! Need to align it a little better but it's pretty much ready to be bolted back on.
Since the last update, I rebuilt the entire rear suspension. I can tell I didn't do the spring plates right, because my dad was like "I didn't know these things were so high up." My cars like a foot and a half off the ground!! I'll wait until I finish the front suspension, because I know it will be lower than stock and I want to match the rear to it.
While I've blown past every deadline I set for myself, I think I have one that I can meet. Told my buddy we will be able to take this on at least one Summer cruise, and I still have all of August and some of September to meet that deadline!

[Vinnems]

ARGH I snapped a bolt on the body! Must've been a bad one, because I put barely any torque on it.

[69vduber]

Did this ever get finished ?

[19-VW-74]

I saw your body in the classifieds.


NOOOOOOOOOOOO




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-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[ryohey]

yeah what happened?
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69 bug restoration thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=387230&highlight=