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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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 Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2024 6:38 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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After driving the car around for a couple summers, I'm starting to get the itch for a new project. So, I'm getting my pictures and summary together to list this car for sale in the coming weeks. If anyone's interested, let me know! 
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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VW_Jimbo 
Samba Member
Joined: May 22, 2016
Posts: 11116
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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| Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 9:38 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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That looks amazing! Very nice job!!!
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Jimbo
There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!
| TDCTDI wrote: |
| Basically, a whole bunch of fuckery to achieve a look. |
| 67rustavenger wrote: |
| GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 9:23 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Believe it or not, I'm still around!
The car went back to the painter to fix some fairly glaring issues; he clearly phoned it in a bit and admitted as much. The good news is that I've had the car back for a couple of months now, the issues are resolved, and the car is basically complete! Apologies for not doing a good job of documenting the process, but here's the final-ish result:
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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Iowa Mark
Samba Member
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: 1072
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 4:50 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Your car is looking great! My very first car was a '57 deluxe sunroof in coral. Still love that color.  |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 3:23 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Having such a long wait gave me tons and tons of opportunity to restore every last little bolt and widget; I was so desperate to feel like I was making progress that I practice assembled a whole bunch of things just for something to do!
The upswing of all of that is that now that I've got the car back, assembly is going quickly! I got the doors put together over the past couple days and have it 95% wired. The engine's in and is just waiting on a new exhaust stud to come in the mail to finish.
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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VW_Jimbo
Samba Member
Joined: May 22, 2016
Posts: 11116
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2022 9:26 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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That was some s l o w d r y i n g paint!
Looking good! Do you have all of the bits ready to just on?
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Jimbo
There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!
| TDCTDI wrote: |
| Basically, a whole bunch of fuckery to achieve a look. |
| 67rustavenger wrote: |
| GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:07 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Well... after almost a year and a half of waiting... she's back home:
Now to start putting her back together. Hopefully in time for some mileage this summer!
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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dv8
Samba Member
Joined: March 17, 2004
Posts: 35
Location: Bucyrus Ohio
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| Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:51 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Nice job on the Oval Rag Ben. Can't wait to see it to the same level as the Ghia.
Lots of similarity to my '56 Oval project, the rust is nearly identical. Thanks for taking us along.
Chris
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VW_Jimbo
Samba Member
Joined: May 22, 2016
Posts: 11116
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2020 2:22 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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That feels so good. Dropping it off for paint!
And like you stated, it is now the time for getting everything else ready, for the cars return!!!!
Nice job!
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Jimbo
There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!
| TDCTDI wrote: |
| Basically, a whole bunch of fuckery to achieve a look. |
| 67rustavenger wrote: |
| GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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I have some other updates to try and make up for my negligence. I have been cleaning up and prepping a variety of smaller parts to get ready for paint to be finished. A couple bigger ones being the gas tank:
And the sunroof mechanism:
Then, at long last, at 5:30 last night (although it looks like the middle of the night!) I loaded the bug up to drag it to paint jail:
Waiting its turn behind the other winter project, another '56:
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:02 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| mcvw wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Sure thing. I'll grab those as soon as I get a chance! |
Cool, thank you |
My most genuine apologies that it's taken me... what, an entire month(!?) to get back to you, but here are some rough measurements.
The front from here:
to here:
The rear from here:
to here:
Note that you'd have to add a foot to that last one (so , 20 inches instead of 8...). Stupid measuring tape.
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project
Last edited by ernstben on Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mcvw
Samba Member
Joined: July 31, 2006
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:38 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| Quote: |
| Sure thing. I'll grab those as soon as I get a chance! |
Cool, thank you |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:27 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| mcvw wrote: |
| Hi, That's a lot of work so far - and all of it good Would you be able to take a couple of measurements for me please? From the centre/top of the windshield to the centre/front edge of the sunroof opening, and the same at the rear (centre/top of rear window to centre/rear edge of the sunroof opening). Thank you. Mike |
Sure thing. I'll grab those as soon as I get a chance!
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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mcvw
Samba Member
Joined: July 31, 2006
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:41 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| Hi, That's a lot of work so far - and all of it good Would you be able to take a couple of measurements for me please? From the centre/top of the windshield to the centre/front edge of the sunroof opening, and the same at the rear (centre/top of rear window to centre/rear edge of the sunroof opening). Thank you. Mike |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2020 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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I am coming to the conclusion that I've taken the body about as far as I can at this point and it might be time to call in some professionals to finish it up. I've been calling around to body/paint places to get quotes and they've been all over the place. To aid in that process, I took some current photos that I'll share here:
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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joey1320
Samba Member
Joined: September 12, 2006
Posts: 2338
Location: Cleveland, OH
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| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:41 pm Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Looking good 
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1971 Super - Sold
1984 Puma GTC - Sold
1971 Campmobile |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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Stephgm
Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:10 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| ernstben wrote: |
| Stephgm wrote: |
what modification did you make so that the front panels from Virtanen were 100% compatible with your model...I talked to Mika from Virtanen and the panels are up to 51 |
The bottom part of the rear of the panel didn't match up to the metal on my car. Apparently they enlarged the space where the beam sits on the body sheet metal at some point post-'51. I had to cut out the section that is pressed for the shock absorber mounts and basically move it up/slightly pivot it. The red line in this image is where the section I cut out used to be, the green is the stock metal that I had to meet:
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Thank you for the explanation...it's an easy fit I guess |
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ernstben
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2005
Posts: 622
Location: Manchester, Mi
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:29 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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| Stephgm wrote: |
what modification did you make so that the front panels from Virtanen were 100% compatible with your model...I talked to Mika from Virtanen and the panels are up to 51 |
The bottom part of the rear of the panel didn't match up to the metal on my car. Apparently they enlarged the space where the beam sits on the body sheet metal at some point post-'51. I had to cut out the section that is pressed for the shock absorber mounts and basically move it up/slightly pivot it. The red line in this image is where the section I cut out used to be, the green is the stock metal that I had to meet:
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Ben
'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project |
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Stephgm
Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 1:30 am Post subject: Re: Ben's '56 Ragtop Project |
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Hello,
Great work man!!!
what modification did you make so that the front panels from Virtanen were 100% compatible with your model...I talked to Mika from Virtanen and the panels are up to 51 |
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