56 Old Speed Euro DeVille Influenced Build

[VWGlassee]

Seeing the craftmanschip, collected parts and plans this seems like a must-follow project Good luck!

BTW: for some more inspiration: https://ardennenrennen.be/product/the-oldspeed-book-the-english-version-in-presale/
This book is really a must-have if you are into oldpseed

Yannick

[txoval]

Awesome work and thank you for documenting your build.

Your transaxle will hold up just fine. Biggest thing is do not dump the clutch at high rpms. You could fabricate a mid mount for it or utilize a Berg bar which would fit with the vintage speed look

[esde]

Top notch work. Really, every pic is a treat. The clean working environment makes me self concious about the constant state of mayhem in my own shop..
_________________
modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[TomVaughan64]

[TomVaughan64]

[TomVaughan64]

[TomVaughan64]

I am done working my way through the outer body panels with the 80-grit DA and the Gibbs. I really like the Gibbs so far. It is easy to apply and I like how it looks. I still have to do the interior, trunk, engine bay and underside of the car.

I have a long way to go but it is easier now that I have confidence in this path. The hardest part of this hobby for me so far has been putting tremendous energy into a path that you hope works but you're not sure if it will. I was wandering around in the dark with no success before I asked Travis for help. I don’t really like to ask for help. Unfortunately, this time it cost me about 100 hours of work on the wrong paths. At least, I am really getting to know every part of this body.

Here are some pictures of the progress:

When I was researching the Gibbs, I ran across this picture @foothillfab on Instagram.

Foothill Fabrication is run by Aaron Boughton, who made my favorite Diamond Green bug, which is Floyd’s birth certificate color. Here is one of the magazine covers with Aaron's car. I have collected all three issues with his car on the cover.

As far as I can tell Aaron keeps the entire car in Gibbs.

In the picture below, I think he has an entire car (sorry not a VW) assembled with Gibbs on the sheet metal. In Travis’ class, he talked about the possibility of assembling most of the car prior to doing the body filler step. This would allow you to find out any surprises and to make adjustments prior to body filler and paint. It would be even easier to make those adjustments if the car was covered in Gibbs versus Epoxy Primer. I may try this. I would imagine that you would need to recoat the car on a regular basis but It is really easy to apply and I think I could cover an entire car if needed fairly quickly.

It is great to see that Aaron is doing a custom VW. It is a pretty wild build to watch.

Next up is the interior.
_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[TomVaughan64]

I got some more work done this week. DA sanded and sealed all of the interior except the roof, which I will do when I tilt the car to work on the underside.

Working on the engine bay and trunk next.
_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[VW_Jimbo]

Just caught back up! Looking great! I love the bare sanded steel!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[TomVaughan64]

Another week of sanding with the DA and applying the Gibbs

Working on the trunk was brutal. So many angles, tight spots, and things in the way. Glad to be done with this part.

Finished the engine bay

I wanted to share my experience with the Gibbs. No rust at all so far, even with all the rain and moisture we have been having. It spreads easily. I have only used 1 1/2 cans to cover most of the body, and I can also shoot it into tight areas that I cannot get to with my shop towel. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. Once I am done with the body, I am going to re-coat the body before I put it outside under the car cover. I will continue to update on how the Gibbs works longer term.

I am using a 6-inch,3-inch and 2-inch DA sander and several wire wheels for this part of the project. One thing I found that helped was to use a 3-inch sanding disk on the 2-inch DA sander. It allows me to get into the corners really well. I found this out by accident when I temporarily ran out of 2-inch sanding disks.

I have used three types of sanding disks: Duro Gold, Empire Abrasives, and these Purple Power disks. I am trying to apply a tooth to the metal and some of these disks lost the ability to scratch the metal. They basically just start to polish the metal. I will only be ordering the Purple Power going forward. The Duro Gold only lasted a few minutes each. They are the cheapest but still not worth the money. Empire was a close second. I am sure there even better sanding disks. Anyone have a favorite?

Time to sand the bottom of the body.

_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[tehillah1]

This is a great thread. Excellent work, attention to detail and lots of really useful documentation of the processes. Thanks for taking the time to document your build...I'll be following along.
Cheers,
Jim

[TomVaughan64]

[TomVaughan64]

Finished DA Sanding and applying Gibbs to the underside of the car.

I am now done DA sanding, stripping, and applying the Gibbs to the body.

Before:

After:

This took about 250 hours to complete. Mostly because I essentially did the whole thing almost 3 times as I tried to find a successful process. Refining the steps should get this down to 100 hours on my next car.

I am always trying to figure the best steps to take for each part of the project.

Last night I was reading Jason Wrenn's (WrennMetallWorks) latest thread 59 Karmann Kab. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=787915

Reading Jason's build threads are really educational. His work is incredible.

Here is a quote, from Jason, that caught my attention:

"My goal with every restoration that comes to me is to open up as many blind cavities as possible/justifiable and remove all collision damage, rust and subpar repairs before the blasting and primer is achieved."

Here are some pictures from his build thread showing some of the cavities that he opened up prior to media blasting and primer:

At this point of my learning curve, here are the steps I would take with my next car:

1. As per Jason, I would open up as many blind cavities as possible and remove all collision damage, rust and subpar repairs. Looking at Floyd, I would have roughly straightened the doors, fenders, hood, and decklid and mounted them with the running boards, Hopefully, this would have allowed me to fix the three bumper mounts that have accident damage. Next, I would have taken out the front firewall and spare tire tray. Also, I would have removed the outer skin of the rear driver's quarter panel and heater channels (after bracing) prior to mechanical stripping and media blasting. I missed this step. I will do all of these things and media blast the cavities before taking down my plastic booth. This is one of the disadvantages of the Gibbs. All of the dust from the media blasting is going to stick to the oily car. I will have to wipe it down with Gibbs again to remove all of the dust. This will cost me 3 to 5 hours because I did the steps out of order. Not too bad considering the overall hours of the project.

2. Mechanically strip the body. Get an 80-grit texture on everything possible.

3. Media blast everything that I could not mechanically strip.

4. Apply Gibbs to all of the bare metal.

My next step, in this project, will be to strip the doors, fenders, hood, deck lid, chassis, front beam, gas tank, and everything that is too big to blast in my blasting cabinet. Then I will remove all other rusted parts from the body (as mentioned above) and media blast the exposed body cavities.

Starting on the door now:

_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[TomVaughan64]

This week I was able to mechanically strip and coat all of the outside pieces except for the hood.

I had a problem with the rust inside the door, in areas I could not reach. I could try to media blast but there were areas that I could not reach with with the blasting nozzle.

Here are some pictures of the rusted area inside the door. This is the inside area below the bottom of window:

I decided to try to soak these parts. Wray Schelin talks a lot about Rust911 in his videos.

Here is a link to their site: https://www.rust911.com

I bought a 70-Gallon storage container. I will try to use this container to soak as many body, suspension parts, and fasteners, in Rust911, as possible. I will let you know how this goes.

Here is a video by Wray Schelin with one of his more creative uses of Rust911. I am working on plans to do something similar with my chassis.


Link

_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[VW_Jimbo]

I use Ospho in a commercial sprayer. It has a 24 inch long wand that allows me to stick it into everything. I was able to stick it up into the roof members, to about the half way point with the help of patience! Lots of it!!! I then pressed a button and flooded the interior cavity with Ospho. Then as I continued to pull the trigger, I pulled the spray head out. The result is an Ospho’d interior channel. The snake camera shows that it was effective. The plus side to this method was that the Ospho was able to weep into the more open weld joints. There were a few random streaks of Ospho that found its way out. It turned all the rusty spots, black! Next step for me, on the body is to pour some epoxy primer into those cavities and roll it around in circles, hopefully covering those interior channels with epoxy primer!

Just food for thought! I am looking forward to your next installment! Looks great!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[TomVaughan64]

Jimbo - Thanks for the advice.

I do not yet have a solution on how to deal with the body cavities and seams. I like your ideas and I look forward to your next steps with this hidden rust problem.
_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[TomVaughan64]

Here is a post that I really like about attacking the rust in the seams and sealing them off for the longer term:

_________________
Tom

"Begin with the end in mind"
Stephen Covey

"Keep focused and seeking knowledge, you will never find disappointed, only small hiccups!"
Jimbo

56 Old Speed Euro Deville Influenced Build

[esde]

Tom, the post you quoted is my exact experience with POR15, but don't try to tell the followers. Guys that love POR just won't listen..
Soaking will do the job, I watched a YouTube video where a guy literally dunked an entire car in a tub he made from plastic and pallets. Afterwards when he was getting into some places he missed, he found the rust in the blind cavities was well treated. I'll try to find the link, as I forget what brand sauce he used. I haven't tried the Rust911, though I have used the Evaporust and Ospho, and I have a tank set up for electrolytic rust removal. Thats another fun rabbit hole to go down, though your family will panic that you're about to blow the house up..
Great work so far
_________________
modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[j-sou]

[TomVaughan64]