Scooter's '68' Restoration

[bobnorman]

So... three+ years later. Lovin this thread, but an abrupt end? Any updates?
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Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[John Miller]

Good to see you back at it. I cleaned up the garage last weekend and plan on sneaking out there for a little while this weekend.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[scooter8]

Good grief, it's been over a year since I updated this Sorry boys & girls.

Well I had some metal cut-in several months ago. I found a donor '69' at the pull-n-pay, got a front quarter for $30

Mine was crunched pretty good and had several tears in it so I switched it out

Fit like a glove right over the original body

We put in the fresh air grill before welding to check the fit

Head lamps were in typical Ghia style, had to go

Replaced the metal where the turn signal was too

Right side behind the mud sill had a hole

replaced

I knew the left side was worse, it was scary bad

um...yeah

We dug out the rust and treated it real good, put my friends skills to the test. Had to cut more metal than expected, didn't have replacement pieces so he had to fab-up some metal. Turned out great as always

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Tired Arms...Achy Knees...Greasy, Bloody Knuckles
Nothing Says Weekend Fun Like A Full Restoration

[Z+9]

Subcribed.
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1956 Buick Century Coupe
1951 Ford F1
1974 VW Super Conv.

[EPETREA]

Thanks for the info... and welcome back. I havent done anything as far as the blasting yet due to an emergency kitchen project that has my car sidelined since july. I found a shop that will finish up the blasting in the areas for about 200 but I still am considering it. I have yet to get my compressor so the info helps.. thanks again.

[scooter8]

WOW, where has the time gone. Many apologies for letting this thread slip off the charts and to keep you guys hanging on so long. Not too much real progress over the past 6-8 months, just been collecting, cleaning & blasting parts. Well that and I bought a '60' Single Cab that I've been playing with too

[EPETREA]

Hey scott,, was eyeballing your blaster and was wondering what size of compressor you were using with it and overall how well did it perform? I need to do some blasting in the tight spots before painting the pan. how is your car coming along?

[scooter8]

[John Miller]

It's spring now, any updates?
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[scooter8]

[EPETREA]

Nothing new?? c'mon I need my fix.....

[NOVA Airhead]

spectre6000 wrote:

[scooter8]

[Scooter 60]

Wow Scott, I really enjoyed your thread I somehow missed it over the past months my bad i am not a patient man with the www. a few things we have in common great first name, great Samba ID and soon to be great cars both in progress. I have a 1960 KG Vert in process. I wish i was more hands on like so many in the VW community. I have a few pictures posted but I really need to post more. I will share all my pain I have had a few bout with the cancer also.
Anyway great car and i will follow your update closely.

Cheers,
Scott AKA Scooter

[/img]
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Anyone with NEW OEM lenses for a 1960 KG?

[scooter8]

[spectre6000]

Your house is probably made of 2X4s. I'll bet your roof weighs a bit more than a vw. My fiance and I have moved the body of my Ghia around a few times between us. It was a bit of a strain and she refuses to do it again. The Beetle is like a feather. 2X4s are more than up to that kind of load if you think like a bridge. If 4X4s make you feel better though, go for it. It's not going to hurt; just be bulkier, weigh more, and use more wood.
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Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[scooter8]

[John Miller]

My garage door clearance is exactly 74". This could get interesting. The only thing now is trying to guess how much suspension lift I'll get when the body is off. Thanks again for the measurements.

Just my opinion, those 4x4's are not overkill they are the minimum. If me, or in Scooter8's case, his daughter are going to be around or under it I don't want to have to worry about it collapsing.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[scooter8]

Hey Jason
Thanks for the input. Yeah I thought the 4x4's were overkill too but oh vell

Scott
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Tired Arms...Achy Knees...Greasy, Bloody Knuckles
Nothing Says Weekend Fun Like A Full Restoration

[spectre6000]

A swing axle with no load but the chassis itself stands 25". That is with 51 year old suspension under it of course, newer springs might make it taller. If you add in an engine with cooling system in place you're looking at a total of about 37" clearance needed to be able to go completely over the chassis. That said, if you run the cross member directly under the cross member instead of through the wheel wells, the rear apron may give you a bit more to play with. My Beetle with no weight in it on the above mentioned chassis is about 10" high at the rockers and 14" high at the rear apron (mine is anyway... it's got a few dents back there that may be throwing off my measurements), so there appears to be a 4" difference between the two. Cross member to cross member on either a Beetle or a Ghia seems to be about 69" from center to center. That was a tough measurement to get by myself in the crowded garage, so it may not be the most accurate. From outside of a positive camber swing axle with 5 1/2" wheels (same mentioned above) it is 65". The height of a Beetle body from rocker to roof appears to be 50", while a Ghia is about 44"-45". My garage door seems fairly average and is only about 70" tall. Do the math and you'll see that everything isn't really going to add up if you intend to be able to wheel the body out of the garage as well as the chassis (if you don't need to roll it, obviously loose the casters). The casters I just got are 3" tall, one set of locking swivel casters, one set of just straight fixed casters. I bought 2 12' 2X6s and 1 10' 2X6, and an 8' 4X4. That was enough for all of the major dimensions and plenty of wiggle room for bracing, mistakes, and maybe a hump in the cross member to go over the bell housing of the transaxle if I need a bit more clearance than I'm otherwise afforded.

A bit of constructive criticism for the next guy that tries to build a body dolly like this: I noticed that Scooter used all 4X4s and butt joints (end grain to side grain). 4X4s are overkill, and you could easily get away with 2X4s if you use them on end as opposed to flat (4" of wood is 4" of wood if you keep it from twisting). I went with 2X6s for no reason other than they looked to be generally better quality (2X4s get picked over pretty quick at the big box hardware stores). Also, butt joints (where the end of one piece is connected to the side of another piece) is rarely a good idea outside of marquetry. I picked up 4X4s for the vertical pieces for the sole purpose of having 4" worth of side grain to screw my 2X6s to on both sides, and again the 2X4s were sorry looking (an alternative would be to stack a smaller piece of 2X4 at the end where the cross members meet so that there are two of the 2" faces together to create a 4" face). Another point of note for those shopping for materials, take into account that a 2X4/2X6/4X4 is rarely that; you can usually subtract about a quarter inch from those measurements.

Also, for those without the "luxury" of powered woodworking tools I've done a fair amount of wood working (guitars mostly) and I prefer a Japanese pull saw to any other type of saw on the market powered or otherwise. There is a cheap-o version of a Japanese pull saw available at most Home Depot/Lowes for around $20 that will save you a lot of trouble. The difference between this method of cutting and the traditional Western wood saw is the direction of the cut. A Western saw cuts on the push stroke and a Japanese saw cuts on the pull. If you think about the muscles involved in each of the motions, you'll realize that the larger muscle by far (bicep) is responsible for the pull stroke and the smaller, more easily fatigued muscle (tricep) is responsible for the push stroke. Traditional Japanese saws are also made of a much stronger alloy and are much sharper than their Western counterparts, but you're not likely to find such things at the hardware store. Also when compared to power tools, hand tools give you MUCH more control and accuracy in your cuts, they're safer, and it's very relaxing compared to the loud high pitched teeth clenching screams of most power tools. The only reason power tools are preferred is when cutting huge quantities of identical pieces. Most of my tools are rosewood and cast iron and are about 100 years old (a well tuned hand plane can cut a piece of wood to almost a mirror finish; needless to say I rarely use sandpaper). Enough of that though...

This is what I mean by Japanese style saw (start the cut on the fine toothed side, switch to the coarse side when you're not likely to skip out of the cut, it cuts a lot faster than you'd think):
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=88288-414-BS250D&lpage=none

This is a Western style saw (sheer brute strength):
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=88359-355-20-065&lpage=none

Probably more than anyone cared to know, but maybe that will help someone.
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Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me