Chestnut Brown 1952 Crotchcooler, been parked since the 70s

[Mr. OGPaint]

Been in a complicated cycle with healing related to the accident, and insurance/lawyers. I believe some progress will be made soon-ish. Sorry that I haven't been able to share more.
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

We are all healed after the accident, and the complication that lead to no posting was the fact that a lawyer had to get involved on the medical stuff. Its all done now and I'm glad its behind.

The car value and repair stuff was solved quite quickly as the value of the car was well above the cost of repairs, no frame damage or etc. The door gaps are still great and etc. So, we have kept the car and it has a clean title.

I believe that if the repair is documented here that people will be able to see that this is still a fine little car, definitely preferrable to a rust bucket, and still a survivor with a relatively clean and well documented history....no secrets, just transparency. That's the world we live in now.

More posts forth coming
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

Trans had to come out, due to a terrible noise and grinding when trying to move forward or back.

On the stand, nose cone off in preparation of splitting the case. Remember, this trans was freshly overhauled and in pristine shape just a few months before the crash.

Splitting the case, I sure hope its not the ring and pinion

Unfortunatly it is the ring and pinion that damage. It's a tough part to find in North America

The rest of the gear guts, clippy things, and bearing stuff looks good at a glance...but we will give them a full NDI before reassembly
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Patrick Hall

[bally]

Great to hear you are all healed and can now update us on the car. Was that ring and pinion damaged in the accident?

Dave

[Mr. OGPaint]

I would like to briefly back up to show what was needed to do to remove the engine

Used the spot weld remover

Crunched muffler, Bent lower pulley, smashed front tin

This is the pulley tin, makes me really happy I modded 36hp tin and
converted to 25hp style instead of spending big dough on an OG piece.

Replaced the lower pulley and drove it out of the garage under its own power, this is when I discovered the broken trans

Really, got quite lucky. The custom 36hp/Okrasa Jacketed-K manifold is undamaged, the 383 distributor is still fine, no damage to the generator stand/generator or the fan shroud and lots of hard to find things made it thru unscathed. Still runs well too....except the giant exhaust leak
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

[Mr. OGPaint]

OK, back to when the trans was removed. Its a good time to show details of the engine compartment.

Before I Removed the engine tray on the right, its still very usable

Left side, a little pucker where the quarter meets the luggage area.

This dent above the trans, nearly certain it was here before the accident. The brake pipe was undamaged and the profile does not match the shape of the crashbox. I installed the trans in a dark garage last time, so I didn't notice it before.

On the lift, so here's a pan pic
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

Let's pull the carpet out and look at the boot area.

I pulled the left edge up before deciding to get a pic

This is what an original headliner looks like

A detail shot of the original insulation. I always thought the trans access panel was a good idea, but now I see I would not have wanted a greasy mechanic climbing over my rear seat, pulling up my carpet and insulation just to adjust the clutch. No way Jose.

Here's what I found, the rest of the luggage boot and interior looks unharmed.
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Patrick Hall

[johnshenry]

So fortunate that the engine received so little damage!!!
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[pastellgreen]

Really looking forward what's going on here!
Thank you for the updates!

[bally]

Sounds like your evasive action saved a whole heap of pain and really limited the damage to you and the car. Good move! The gearbox damage is easier to fix than the two of you and the front of the car plus all the extra damage the rear would have sustained had you been fully shunted into the car in front!

[Mr. OGPaint]

After a long search I found a ring and pinion here on thesamba from user: Derosse. I have to mention that the parts he sold me were pristine and when they came I found them all packed neatly in cosmoline and tagged. I couldn't have been happier.

I purchased a full set of internals in excellent condition from Derosse just in case I needed anything extra in the future. This includes a matched ring and pinion set in pristine shape.

I think this pic is of the old pinion shaft before dissassembly. Our original parts went on to the new pinion shaft from Derosse. Every clip, spring, bearing, woodruff key, pin, shaft, slider and gear was careful inspected and it all looked great.

Assembled on the stand. Notice the retaining lip the nose cone mount sets on, the bottom edge broke off and remained in the mount bushing. After talking to some experts all agreed that this in not necessary for the car to drive great. The full lip is to hold the mount bushing during trans install which this one still does. It is not visible once installed. The broken bit was kept for posterity and I've decided its fine to roll with this the way it is, no need to slow progress to go hunting for another HTF part.

Here is the transaxle reassembled, with the mount bushing installed and ready for reinstallation
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

A quick distraction from the larger more important repairs.

I live near Salem Oregon and still interact with members of the Eyerly family. Eyerly VW started as Eyerly Aircraft Company at Salem Airport (where I've worked for many years). In the early 50s the Eyerly's business making fair equipment was booming and the family was successfully campaigning a Crosley racecar on the west coast when they were approached about starting a VW franchise.
They opened Eyerly VW on some South Salem farm land in late 1954, the same time that VW of America distribution started on the west coast. Max Hoffman was no longer the only game in USA VW distribution. The Eyerly's claim to have invested in Riviera VW's cost of opening their distributorship in Portland that eventually covered Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Western Montana, and most of Washington.

So, my Eyerly frame getting smooshed in the accident was tragic to me. It was one of the nicer originals I've been able to collect.

As Removed

Screwed to a board to hold down while I carefully using a heat gun and low level propane. This is definitely the worst bent frame I've ever worked with, I have no idea if it's gonna return to shape. Also notice the splintered pot metal near the edge of the brake

After heating and carefully working back to shape I soldered the pieces with a special product for "welding" pot metal called Muggyweld (its actually solder). Its not especially strong on pieces like this no matter what the manufacturer says, but I have not experienced breakage on repaired license frames if you bolt down all 4 license plate bolts. This could be rechromed. If you do send one with this level of repair out for rechrome you'll want to talk to your shop about about supporting the repaired areas otherwise it'll probably break in all the handling a chrome shop does. I'm gonna leave this one as it is now, I like the story the repair tells and I don't want to chrome that away.

Partially straightened plate reinstalled in the repaired frame. It's not perfect, but it's alot better than I thought it might be. This frame will be going on my 53 bus with patina. This frame now has a good "back from the dead" story so hopefully it will be with me for many years.
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

On the farm we use the tractor. In the background you'll see my equipment shed that got squished by a huge oak tree in an ice storm just before this pic. Good condition used muffler was found, 25hp lower pulley installed. You'll see some heat marks on the cylinder 2-4 muffler tubes, I like to heat this up to get a very good fit at the cylinder heads. That way if you have to remove the muffler in the future it won't give you a big fight. Remember, this engine is a stroker with a 69mm Okrasa crank.

Before install I removed the right side engine tray at the spot welds. This part will be an easy hammer and dolly fix and will be reused.

Engine goes in QUICK with no rear bumper! I apologize for the messy garage, but with a squished shed and a barn construction project underway at the same time things go out of hand this spring.
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

Had to get a brand new battery after 3.5 years of not driving. Here she is running again, time for a test drive. Wired the taillight wiring out of the way. Thankfully the local sheriff doesn't mind a quick drive without taillights as long as you have insurance.

Drives awesome!!! Goes straight down the road too. Idle is a little finicky now, so I'll have a peak inside the carb.

When I got home from the drive I decided to lay out the parts for one final pic of the damage
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Patrick Hall

[Mr. OGPaint]

Original driver rear fender with damage. I don't have the time today for a full metal finish repair, but lets see if we can get this one back into basic shape

After hammer and dolley

Not too bad, probably have about 30 minutes into it at this point. I'm confident this fender can be reused with some more work.
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Patrick Hall

[Erik G]

so glad to see yall are healed and keep the fix pics coming

[Two Glove Boxes]

Sorry for your situation, glad you guys are ok. I plan on driving my split when its done so it is a tough thing especially with cellphones now and people are only getting worse at driving. But I'm glad your getting back on it and great work from rebuilding the crash and dolleying that fender back to shape.
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1951 Split Standard Hoffman Build

1960 Dove Blue Double Cab Patina Build

Two Glove Boxes

DLK

[pastellgreen]

[Mr. OGPaint]

Closeup of the right inner quarter

The bottom bumper is the rear OG to Chestnut, note the guard brackets are still on it.

The car from behind came above the bumper and just barely touched the top of the guards. It actually broke them off their mounts with minimal damage. A friend picked the guards up off the freeway after the accidents

Here's the door gap. Lines up nice, wasn't shut in an earlier photo

Original to the car dealer badges

These final photos bring us upto date on the progress of chestnut.
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Patrick Hall