1964 Chop Top Build

[banana split]

Now for some major surgery. It was a mess under the yellow paint and Bondo. When the oval clip was originally gas welded in place, the welds were rough and the seams & surrounding metal were warped. Geoff decided to cut it all out and fab up some new roof sections around the oval to clean it up. Didn't expect all of this :

Rear window turned out great!

Here Geoff has replaced the section where the inside mirror mounts, added the sunroof corner supports and started applying a little body filler to smooth things out.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

February of 2018 : Geoff thinks he removed a gallon of old bondo and body filler from the original roof. Now that it's all ground away and all of the welding is completed, Geoff was anxious to see how well it would look finished. The roof is a patchwork quilt of metal so fingers crossed it will come out looking good.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

Now for a coat of grey primer... much nicer!

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[Stephan Schmidt]

[toxicavenger70]

Geoff does some killer work. Keep us posted on it.

[Busstom]

[banana split]

Mini vent windows would be cool, I agree. We talked about it but it would be another large added cost with fabrication, glass, chroming etc... Normally I hate one piece windows on a Bug but I think they are acceptable on a chop top.

March 27 20218 - Geoff sends me a few more photos. All of the old yellow paint has been stripped off. He cut a few wood templates for glass. Since the car was already a driver 30 years ago, I already have the glass quarter windows. I can use the door template though. Soon the metal work will be done & it'll be time to bolt it up to the pan.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[slayer61]

Your project is very cool. Keep up the great work.

I'm an old man & I remember when the 1 piece window kits were popular in the Cal Look crowd. I still like them.
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[banana split]

March 31 2018 - time to mate the body back to the pan. I came out to Geoff's shop and spent the whole day from 8-5 working with him to finish things up. The holes in the pan needed to be opened up in a few places to that everything would bolt together again. Kind of a pain when you are healing with 1 original German heater channel, a Kolkkerholm heater channel and 2 new Brazilian floor pans. Not everything fits and lines up perfect.

Don't remember why we took the front fenders off. I think we noticed a few more holes in the fender wells that needed welding up.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

We rolled it back into the shop and Geoff welded up a few more misc holes in the trunk area. We also decided to re-index the spring plates to get the desired stance.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

Finally finished !! Dropped it off September 19 2017 and Geoff's last day working on it was March 31 2018 - just over 6 full months.

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[Busstom]

By "finished," you mean bodywork/prep is finished, and you have more updates with paint and assembly coming, right? Please don't say the story ends here!

Chops don't usually get much love, but to echo some earlier comments, this car has absolutely perfect proportions and angles, it's pretty remarkable.

[Bruce]

[banana split]

April 7 2018 : Back home and safe in my garage again. A long ways to go with this project!

I disassembled the sunroof mechanism for my car… what a mess. The front and rear header bows were SUPER rusty. Corn flake sized pieces falling off. I’m sure if the pieces were blasted they’d be covered in pin holes all over the place.
I found a guy on Ebay in California with a couple of sunroof parts. He thought he had the whole assembly but could only find the front and back pieces. No worries, those are 2 major pieces that I need anyways.
Won the auction for $75 + $45 shipping = $120.00 USD
Picked up the package on Saturday. The pieces are really nice. Just some light surface rust. This should clean up nicely :

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[sportin-wood]

Holy crap! Just stumbled upon your thread and the progress just kept getting more & more radical! Nice work! I'll be following along.
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Paused 66 project bug
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"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman. He's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." --- Jeff Spicoli

[banana split]

At this point I'm on the waiting list for a body shop that I've used a few times in the past. The owner came out to my place to see the project in person and try and give me an estimate for body and paint. He recommended that I have the whole car blasted - it'll make their job that much easier starting out with clean metal.
I emailed the blaster photos of my Bug and they said that I should try and remove as much of the glue residue and old foam that was glued to the underside of the roof etc. He said the sand would just bounce off of it and it would save me a little money if I cleaned it up first. So, with razor blades and scrapers, I start removing what I can...

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

September 2018 : Sunday morning. The weather couldn’t have been worse… pouring rain !! Can't catch a break with the weather. Always raining when the car needs to get transported. It's now headed to the blasters.

They will chemically strip some areas first, then power wash, dry and then completely blast the whole car inside and out.
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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

September 25 2018 : The Bug is now totally blasted inside and out and the car will be dropped off at the body shop. The body shop owner insisted that they be the ones to put it into epoxy primer. The blaster wanted to do this but the body shop told me they wouldn't guarantee their work if someone else laid down the primer. OK, fair enough, that's understandable. That's Russ, the owner of Rust Blasters standing beside the Bug (not me!). They did an excellent job - everything you see is total bare metal :

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

Scored a few goodies that I can use off a Craigslist ad :

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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top

[banana split]

Well I got screwed by the body shop I had lined up! The Bug was delivered to them the same day I picked it up from the blasters. The shop owner originally quoted me a cost to do the body & paint and he was the one who asked me to get the car blasted.
Well 3 weeks later they email me a written estimate which was double what I was verbally quoted. We're talking BIG bucks here! I freaked and said I'm pulling the car from the shop. I certainly don't have a money tree growing in my backyard.
I asked them what I owed for putting the car into epoxy primer and they said they hadn't gotten around to that yet. What the heck? Now the car has been sitting for 3 weeks in bare metal and it's starting to rust flash. Son of a bit*h. Needless to say, I wasn't happy about any of this
I called another body shop friend and he said that I'd have to get it re-blasted and put into epoxy by the blasters. Damn!
The 1st time it was at the blasters, they claimed they spent 21 hours blasting and chemically stripping it back to bare metal absolutely everywhere… to the tune of $3000 !!!! Ouch !!
So back it goes again... and remember, I'm also paying towing fees to get it transported everywhere.
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My Beetles :
1951 Crotch Cooler 11G Split Ragtop
1953 Zwitter
1964 Chop Top