The Beige Bomb. 56 oval resurrection

[tmb077]

First and foremost, this isn't my car. It's my brother's. He knows I'm an avid lurker here on TS and is cool with me documenting the progress of his project for him. I'm also helping him with a bit of it as we go along. The goal is to have it running and driving by June 5th for a show not far from us called the Midwest VW Jamboree in Hudson MI. Let's see how we manage...

First off, the car as bought... April of 56 chassis number that has set in a barn for who knows how long before a family friend bought it at an estate sale roughly 15 years ago, when he promptly stuffed it in a shed and forgot about it. Sam(brother) picked it up last year about this time and we have been planning ever since.

Just as a side note, this is NOT a complete proper restoration. It will be customized a little and very few accurate to model year parts aside from what we got with the car. It was a rolling shell, that's it. We're making it happen with what we have in the shop to get to the show, I have no idea what the plans are for later down the road.

As picked up...

I grabbed the decklid and had to peel off that nasty orange to see if anything cool lied beneath. Low and behold, there was original beige under the orange layer, a layer of light tan, and a layer of primer.

After some research here, I concluded it must be L378 prairie beige. Recently, I have found that it is damn near impossible to find a proper paint formula for it.
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

After unearthing the original paint, we then started hashing out what exactly to do with the car. Mind you, we both built bugs back in the 90's, so it's been a while but we are no strangers to the scene. Sam actually had a couple drag bugs back in the day as well as his first Street bug. The oval is solid, like super solid, for a Midwest car. Pans have been done years ago, and done well enough that it isn't worth splitting the body and pan to redo anyone's work. Heater channels, pillars, and front and rear bulkheads/firewalls are all solid as can be. The only real problem areas are the poorly done lower left rear quarter and a couple small scabbed in patches here and there. So parts gathering began last summer. First came a set of used crusty fenders that I blasted and primed after filling the one fender with a blinker hole.

I then learn a set of wheels has been sourced...

16" Porsche Teledials
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Aside from narrowing and lowering the front beam and rebuilding the kingpins not much else happened with it until about a month ago. Drop spindles and disc brakes were acquired for the front. The rear drums and front rotors have been drilled for the Porsche lug pattern. A long tube transaxle was sourced, cleaned and painted. Dad gave us an engine to use from his formula vee racing days and we have all of the tin ready for paint. The next pictures show the most recent progress and brings us up to date on our cram session to have it done in about 6 weeks from now.

We started sanding. A lot.

Then I polished what we found a little...

I enlisted my boy's help and he approves.

This weekend I got the wheels painted while Sam sanded his arm off trying to get the majority of the orange and tan off top of the prairie beige.

That pretty much bring us up to current on the project. A trans raise and stepped spring plates have also been done in the meantime, and installation of drivetrain components starts soon...
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Spent a bit of time at work today trying to come up with a good tint of prairie beige. The only formula from any paint manufacturer I have found yet is a PPG 21444. No one local sells ppg, and I can't cross their formula number in the Martin senour system we use at work. I sourced a closest match formula from our tech line and started tinting from there. Still have some work to do but getting close....

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Tried my sample mix against the decklid this morning...

Pretty stoked on how close it is

I'll get some more progress pics this Friday, and I apparently need to change the setting on my phone camera somehow because the samba gallery doesn't like them unless I run them through Instagram or download from a text message.
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

1 down 3 to go...

My boy and I are heading to Sam's again tonight to put some work in. I'll get a few more pictures of the overall condition of the car and where we are at progress wise.
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[Kjell Roar]

Nice 😊 Think Glasurit has The formula for Prairie beige, they delivered The original Paint back in The days, and have updated many of The old formulas 😊

My Nilbeige 56 to the left, and a Prairie beige oval on the right:

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I got a historic car, every scratch got a history...

My car, Aug. 4th, 1955 / an early 56: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=610438

[57BLITZ]

[tmb077]

57BLITZ I guess we'll find out soon enough. The thought was we'd need the long tubes for the high offset wider Porsche wheels so we didn't rub the spring plates. If all else fails, we have short tubes still sitting there we can use. I appreciate the heads up though, nice to know someone is reading this thread

We managed to get more sanding done tonight, and I'd say we are at 95% done with that task. I took a few more pics to share.

I buffed out the roof after I'd had enough wetsanding the nasty old paint off...

Dug through the stash of parts the car came with.

It's been a while since it passed PA state inspection.

All that's left of the red pillar trim...

Old service sticker still on the door.

I wish I had a few more progress photos, but sanding took the majority of the time tonight. I'm pretty eager to get some paint mixed up for the hood and fenders and get them on the car and start bolting mechanicals in.
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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Ok...Kjell Roar, you have my attention. We pulled a hood hinge off last night since they have never been painted to try and figure out better which beige we have. We're now leaning towards Nile Beige. I can only wonder if the solvents from the repaints have altered what's actually on the body to make it seem lighter...I don't know, just baffled at this point. Any and all help any sambanista could give right now is appreciated.

For reference, the hinge is much darker than the decklid:

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Well, after realizing we should be matching from the 'virgin' color of the hood hinge and not what's been buried under layers of crap for years, I went to work on the true color today. It's convenient being the paint guy at work.

This is what I ended up with and probably what we'll use to do some blending and small parts.

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tisius]

dude, get your own air (cooled)
Seems like you know what you're missing!
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drive it like you just robbed the bank
you don't have to be crazy to be into VW's, but it sure helps!!
.... if it ain't dutch, it ain't much!

[tmb077]

[Kjell Roar]

[tmb077]

[tmb077]

The weather here in northwest Ohio finally cooperated enough for me to do a little painting.

Started with the shroud. I was playing with reducer and hardener ratios to speed up the cure a little and ended up with a little peel. Nothing the buffer can't take care of though.

Sam came and got the fender I sprayed to take home and check it against the car, and took his wheels home to get tires on them. Keep in mind, the fender was painted about 3 hours before the picture was taken, and the rest of the car 60 years ago with three layers of crap taken off of it....

And finally, a shot of how well the teledials are going to fit in the fender. No adapter plates, drum was redrilled by a machinist friend.

Fender against drivers door, we're happy with the color

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[fabbe]

nice job

[tmb077]

Just a teaser pic today from checking ride height over the weekend. Suspension is pretty much done, tires are ordered, and buttoning up the engine is next on tap. Finish getting rid of the orange and a few other things and I'm onto interior next...

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[tmb077]

Shroud and alternator coming together...

Painted the super nice hinge brackets that came in from limebug in the UK...

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Brother's 56 Thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652839

[khalimadeath]

Looking good!