BNR 52 convertible build

[BryanNunes]

Hello everyone wanted to share the latest build that I'm starting on its a 52 convertible built on February 14 1952, I'll be doing a full stock restoration form top to bottom. For those that know me I've been into Volkswagen since I was 13 years old, I started taking auto body classes in vocational in high school, than getting my first body man job at 16 in a collision shop form there went to a hot rod shop at 22 to work for a private VW collector at 25 to start my own shop at 28 to the present day. I've worked on a lot of cars form american muscle cars to rare European coach built cars I specialize in true metal shaping and high end paint jobs. Stay tuned...

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/BNRestoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1723384

[vwhelmot]

Now that's how to start a build thread. No messing! Looking forward.

[56samba]

Wow that's a cool project! I think it's in good hands...
Do you also restore the Mercedes Gullwing in background?

[EverettB]

Cool, it looks like it's a pretty clean body and car to start with.

I noticed the car in the background too.
_________________
How to Post Photos
Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[sled]

yes PLEASE share with us as many photos as you can!



_________________
drive your split.

[BryanNunes]

Yes it is 300sl gulping a 1955 I doing for a customer, I'm shaping and making firewall forward, fenders inner and outer wheel wells, and around the grill there going to be more you see pictures on my social media pages. The body on the vert is actually clean it just has rust in the heater channel, under the back seat, and behind the body mounts above the rear axles, compared to last brown 51 vert I did this one is going to be a walk in the park.

The front pass quarter has a little tap that just needs a little pull

In the trunk compartment there some random holes that is going to be fixed

I first started by taking off all the weather strip clips or J clip off the body cause there a rust trap so when the body gets blasted it gets cleaned out.

I like starighten out the metal strips that holds the window rubber on top of the door and quarters so it makes easy to drop the side windows back in and put the rubber strips on after the car is painted

thanks for looking
_________________
https://www.facebook.com/BNRestoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1723384

[sled]

is that car grey?

_________________
drive your split.

[BryanNunes]

[sled]

fantastic
_________________
drive your split.

[Raisedup58]

[belairman]

Your work is beautiful, will be following build.

[Telephunken]

My old 50’ Cab was that “Atlantic Green” with “pastel green” sides. I remember sanding the crappy paint and finding the old green OG paint underneath. I love that color combo. I would love to see a pic of that car today......

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

So I got the car off the pan today was having a hell of a time even with the forklift, I looked underneath and found that someone had stitched welded the support rails to the pan

Once I got them cut it came right off

I cut the car in half and started by cutting out the vert front inner supports than was able to cut out the rusted heater channels.

I like to fully remove the inner panel cause they aren’t coated to prevent rust and if you see the second picture that’s a bare weld form factory by the crotch cooler that now can be coated you can see Volkswagens grey primer

On a side note when I was looking at the high beam switch area the November 51 convertible I did while back it had welded in nuts form the back and this February 52 has nut inserts it’s the little things.

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/BNRestoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1723384

[D-train]

Can’t wait for more!
_________________
shiny paint doesnt make it worth any more

[oldbusboy]

Looks great! You are really breaking this car down before you build it up.

Trevor
_________________
1968 porsche

[splitjunkie]

[BryanNunes]

[BryanNunes]

[splitjunkie]

I think for some things like weld nuts that there was not a hard cutoff date for these minor changes. I believe that they would have made these changes to the different assembly lines over a course of at least several days maybe even longer. They were functionally equivalent and no customer would ever notice that some cars had one type of threaded insert over another. I know that there are plenty of mid 50's cars with the traditional stamped weld nuts for fender mounting and fewer examples of cars from the same period with square weld nuts so they did sometimes use different looking but functionally equivalent weld nuts in those locations.

That being said, Karmann would have definitely taken much longer to complete a car than the VW factory.

Based on the '51 LIFE magazine pictures of the VW factory we do know that VW supplied these bodies to Karmann as their starting point.

As you stated earlier, they would have been dunked in primer just like every other Beetle shell but Karmann would not have so you are going to have areas with no protection behind panels added by them.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld