Great Grandpa’s 1964 Sunroof Bug Full Stock Restoration

[matthew henricks]

A bit of an update. While today i cleaned off the tar from two wheel wells alot has happened in the last few weeks that i have not posted.

I may have gotten carried away a little.

Since i have decided to go through the whole car why not go all the way. Was not sure what i would find but in the end it was a good thing. My pan and heater channels are in good shape. Not too many surprises.

That was last weekend. The dolly we made is super solid and will roll that way to the body shop. (It is right around the corner) I am not doing the paint and body this time. I did that when i was 15. Let someone else do it this time.

I also popped all four hinge pins. Was going to make a tool but ended up just renting one. 15 minute and all four were out. Body shop wants doors removed at the hinges. OK..

Today was supposed to be spot sand blasting but my blaster jammed. Instead i chipped away wheel well tar and the floor boards.

A few pin holes in the frame and the accelerator peddle bolt needs to be replaced. (I broke that when i was 15 and just glued it in place. The things you do at 15.

I did find one not really surprise but worse than i thought. This is a sunroof car and VW simply emptied the front drains into the front quarter panels. Lets say they need work. I also found some rust in the rear quarters and the rear window. Nothing super bad.

Last item for the day was making new sheer bolts for the steering lock. I found some NOS ones that were WAY too long. A little work and i have new bolts.

Tomorrow i have two more wheel wells to chip away tar from. I need to get some new blast media and maybe next weekend i will try to blast away rust again.

[flyboy161]

Looks like a nice solid car! Good job, I’ll be watching with interest!
_________________
My father's 1970 Beetle-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=603879

The 1964...Diamond in the rough
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612776

My 1958 Morocco Bug-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=611483

[matthew henricks]

Finished my first part. Steering column re-painted L 466 silver beige. Easy part but a start.

Took all the seats apart. Will start to work on them and get the frames blasted and re-painted. Only major repair is re-welding on if the rail mounts. Easy.
New seat covers are on the way. I chose to go with WW Coconut fiber cushions and 63 TMI Grey with white piping covers.
There is nothing available to replace the original Cord material. Boy how I tried. Looked everywhere.

What to do with the old seat covers. They are shot but hard to throw away.

Uncovered all the damage on the front apron. Removed the horn mount and bumper bracket so it all can be straightened.
I have donor front clip if my body man thinks this is too far gone.
I must have know what i was doing when i was 15 as the Bondo and paint are super solid after 30 some years.

[matthew henricks]

Rain prevented progress this weekend. Worked on the interior removing old glue and found another surprise. Also pulled out all the headliner tabs and Engine Compartment sound board tabs. Last worked on some broken bolts.

First the surprise. Honestly as soon as i saw this i remembered filling it with Bondo back in 1988. This time we will fix it right.

Then a few broken screws. Applied lots of heat and PB blaster. Will try and extract them next weekend. Again i also seem to remember these from 1988. One is a running board bolt and the other a vent wing tab screw.

Last are the interior work. Many places the paint came off so i applied self etching primer after cleaning with Acetone.

I started working on all of the Silver Beige parts. My question. I am using the Wolfsburg West Spray paint. Should it be Glossy or matte?

Last questions is how hard is it to remove the inner support of a decklid? I have not pulled the trigger on buying a new decklid because the are sooo expensive. Thinking about repairing it. I have a spot welder but this would be new ground for me. Lousy images. Dark outside.

[mukluk]

Looks to be pretty straightforward to remove the decklid inner structure, it's only spot welded along the lip.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3743261&highlight=#3743261
_________________
1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[matthew henricks]

[matthew henricks]

Guess i am not going to be able to fix my old decklid. Looks like it has been repaired before with a large steel strap under the inner plate. The outer lip fell apart and the inner is three pieces.

Somewhere in So. Cal there has to be a solid 64 decklid for sale...

[matthew henricks]

Rain... Makes for slow progress on the weekends.

H started a spirited conversation TheSamba FB page about media blasting my shell or not. (I am already committed to doing the pan) The question i asked is if i would regret not doing it a few years down the road being that the body has 2 or 3 paint jobs on it. No paint checking on the 25 year old paint but... So far most say to blast it. Some say to dip it but i am NOT doing that.


Did some work on the seat frames. Blasted, primed and painted most of them.

Found i was missing three of the seat back pivot screws. Learned today these are the same as the oil strainer bolts. Cool

On the lookout for a clean decklid now without spending a fortune. Must be patient...

Starting rebuilding my steering wheel. Was going to buy one but at $100 i though it would try and fix mine. The front of the hub is the part that bothers me. 70% gone so getting it right so the horn works is the concern.

A spray can cap stands in quite nice for the 65mm diameter you need. I am building it up with an aluminum rib JB welded to the hub and then JB putty to build up the structure. Bondo after that to make the contour match. We will see....

Separated out all my hardware for Zinc plating. Took pictures of every part and screw to match them back up to the assembly. Fun!

Was hoping to barrel plate everything shown but the larger parts need to be racked meaning more $$ I will likely just plate the fasteners. I will blast and paint the other parts.

So, What is your opinion on media blasting? Am i being penny wise and pound foolish?

[matthew henricks]

Good progress this week and weekend. Chipping away at small stuff over the week and tackle the big things on the weekend.

Steering wheel is coming along nice. Super pleased with the results. Contours looks right and all the evidence of repair is hidden. Last thing to do besides paint is install a threaded insert into the hub for the horn screws.

Speaking of paint. I have been using the WW L466 rattle can paint to finish my interior pieces. Happy with the color but not the toughness. Looking high and low for the PPG code for L466. Have searched every thread on TheSamba with no luck. Time to visit the paint store.

OCTO this weekend was great. Was able to pick up a replacement 64 only decklid. Super clean. Will get image later. I also scored and original pop-out latch too. (Forshadowing...)
I was not able to find the last options i am looking for though. A Sperrwolf shift locker. Oh well. I have time.

Pulled out my engine this week and took all the tin off. I want to get it all powder coated but i think the budget will prevent that. Pretty sure it will be a scuff and re-paint instead.
Asking myself also if i should install the original thermostat assy. I think i have it here somewhere...

This weekend was sandblasting part 1. Using 60 grit Aluminum Oxide and building a nice enclosure made it super easy and not a total mess. (Below is after taking enclosure apart. )
Blasted out all the known rusty areas back to bare metal. No new surprises. Hit them all with self etching primer after cleaning up. Very pleased.

Sandblast weekend 2 coming up where i will hit the underside front and rear. No rust there but i want some fresh undercoating down there so i will remove the years of grime.

Last bit of news is i pulled out this little gem. Bought this probably 10 years ago. Time for it to find a new dash to sit in. Just need to get that darn reset knob off. It is fighting me right now.

[flyboy161]

You are making great progress! Good job on the steering wheel. Mine still needs to be repaired, but I have a co-worker who makes surf boards so....

I like what your doing with the sandblaster. Keep it up.
_________________
My father's 1970 Beetle-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=603879

The 1964...Diamond in the rough
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612776

My 1958 Morocco Bug-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=611483

[matthew henricks]

An update.

Trip Speedo is back together. Cleaned up the chrome ring, Re-painted the black inside ring, bead blasted the housing and vinegar soaked some of the parts. Happy with the results.

Only thing i am not satisfied with is this is a 61/62 speedo so it does not have the shift markers. May have to make a new faceplate or trade someone.

Pan had some welding done. We repaired the brake peddle stop that had torn out 35 years ago. (I glued it back in place when i was a young lad ) Shown here is before i ground the welds flat and primered the area.

We also welded in some outer seat belt attachment points. Thank you @TYPE4$YNDYKAT for the hook-up of the original plates.

Got some funky green metal to repair this area.

Cleaned up my rear kick panels. Warm water, soap and a good pad got all the mold of paint off.

Finished painting my steering wheel, seat frames, steering lock and column and almost all of my Silver Beige Parts. Very happy with the results.

This is actually a re-paint for most of these parts. I was not happy with the quality of the rattle can Silver Beige paint readily available. I wanted something of better quality. I had my paint shop mix up some single stage quality German paint for the re-do. Very pleased.

That is all for now.

[gt1953]

OMG the steering wheel looks like Koch quality restore.
A pristine VW coming.
_________________
Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[matthew henricks]

If i do a little every day then i will get done. Right??? Where to start.

Zinc Plating. This has been fun. Started out frustrating but once i adjusted my amps up to 1A for the larger parts things turned out beautiful.

See here for details.
http://www.southsandia.com/forum/website/zincplating.html

Body work. Fenders, hood and decklid are done and ready for paint. Found some surprises in the rear fenders. I may have done that as a 15 year old. That or Earl Sheib. Probably laying down some color next week on them. Body stripping has also started

More sand blasting. The pan this time to find the pin holes to weld up before powder coating. Nothing too bad.

New (to me) gas tank. Very clean after blasting it. Replacing the reproduction i installed 30 years ago with a correct one.

And piece parts. Lots of piece parts. Just a few shown here but i have alot of black painting to do... I plan to use Vintage Flatz Satin Black for most of it. (Acrylic Urethane)

Lots to do...

[viiking]

I used to do the zinc plating like you do but found it works much better if you use multiple anodes.

I use six boat anodes daisy chained around the drum evenly spaced.
This greatly reduces the direct line of site “plating shadow” you get when only using two. It saves having to turn the parts often to get even coverage.

I also bought a variable power source to apply the current. It’s worth the money as you can tune the power supplied based on the square inches/cm that you are plating.
_________________
1968 1500 RHD Lotus White Beetle since birth. In the hospital for major surgery
1966 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina Coupe - in the waiting room
Discharged: 1983 Vanagon, 1974 1800 Microbus,1968 Low Light,1968 Type 3

[matthew henricks]

Thank you Viiking. I was running 4 but in my troubleshooting went to two. Now that i have a variable PWS i will try more anodes as you suggest.

Thank you.

[Adriel Rowley]

Glad to have read through it, a lot of work is being done.

Dad and I were to restore his '64, however, refused as no garage and didn't want to put all that work in and loose her (stolen twice and had head lights and tail lights stolen). So maybe could say he lost motivation? My concern I think is similar, as 34, no children, and not sure if any of my nephews be interested.

I think it shows a lot doing this for your Sister. My Sister means a lot to me too, far more than my Brother (who never really had an interest in a relationship). I look forward to seeing her accept the Beetle, bet smile ear to ear. And all the work along the way.

Oh, interesting about photography, I had a different perspective as both Maternal and Paternal Grandmothers took a lot of photographs, plus Dad. Now I feel very fortunate to have them, thank you.
_________________
Please consider I am Autistic, so I process information differently and still working on social skills. Thanks.

Dad's 1964 Beetle purchased September 1968.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9252810#9252810

1971 Sunroof Squareback with Fuel Injection
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=219811&highlight=squareback+rejuvenation

[matthew henricks]

Thank you Adriel. I really wish my boys would have embraced it but i am enjoying the journey and the old bug will live one for many more years.

[Adriel Rowley]

[Kthomas]

What product did you use for undercoating your fenders ? Did you put it over primer or straight to the metal or ? I’m trying to figure out what I want to use. My local store just has a rubberized product in aerosol cans.

[matthew henricks]

Kthomas,

We are using Raptor.

https://www.raptorcoatings.com/us/en/product/rapto...EbGE9yIZEY

Some more work today.

Body passenger side quarter panel stripped and epoxy coated.

Trans and front beam are being taken apart, cleaned and re-painted. Both have less than 10K miles so cosmetic only.

Gas Tank gauge is shot. The repairs of a 15 year old. Will be replacing it.

Lots of parts to paint satin black.

Ordered paint today. Had to dig in and figure out L360. Sea Blue & Sea Blue #2. Bus vs. Bug vs. different years and all that. Fortunately i have a near perfect inner glove box door that we can use to match the shade.

Some good threads on that.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Last order of business was L289 and L91 paint. I again want to use a little better paint just like my Silver Beige so went off to match them. L289 was easy. (Blue White) L91 not so easy. After reading alot on that in both the Bug and Bay Bus area i ended up with something close. Silver Metallic from 1970 VW wheel. BASF stock number 8407. only need a small amount so some 2K spray cans coming.