All painted and ready for rebuilding

So everything is now painted, all the wings, bonnet, boot, inside and out and the wheels painted body colour to. So pleased with the finished result. I love the colour and the standard of paint is amazing.

Also while the body was off to paint i got some of the suspension and breaking system powder coated in black and started to build it up ready for assembly. Brakes and suspension all built up and all the main parts are the original with just the usual brake pads etc bought new,

The the last prep job was putting a good coat of underseal onto the bottom of the floorpan to add extra protection and keeping it going for many more years.

Then it was time to pick up the body from the paint shop, looks amazing and now the rebuild can begin. Most the parts are ready to go back on. Rich has been working on getting all the engine parts ready and i have completed the reupholstery of the seats and covering of the door cards which are looking really good. Haven't taken any photos yet so will save that for another day.

Painting!!!!

So now it is starting to get really exciting! I have chosen the colour VW denim blue, a modern beetle stonewash denim blue.

The colour!

Fully undercoated

Fully undercoated

The paint going on, such a shiny fantastic job

 I decided from the beginning that i didn't want any of the original colour to show. Inside and out i wanted every bit of the car painted and Adam is doing a great job.

 I am so pleased with how it is coming on, The colour looks different in different lights, sometimes it has a more grey colour in it but either way it looks great and the shine is amazing.

Engine cleaning and thoughts move to the interior

Another few months have passed but things have been happening, quite a lot of cleaning up of lots of parts and painting of bits and pieces going on. Most of the engine parts are clean, We have checked we have everything together and in good conditions. Need to measure up and order the shells, get the head machined and then start to put it together.

Cleaning and painting

Cleaning up the engine casing

Lots of cleaned engine parts

Also started looking at the interior part which is really exciting. I am going to retrim the door cards and seats myself, Been practicing with a vintage hand wound sewing machine. Started to take a part to seat, measure it up and look at the workings. The insides of the seats are looking good and not really flat or saggy which is good news. Luckily living near Birmingham with its Rag market and great fabric stalls I had plenty of choice for fabric so fabric has been bought, just need to take a deep breathe and start cutting it!

Things are moving on

So it has been a while since i last posted. In fact 6 months have passed some how. Along with finishing the garden and garages i have been getting on with some beetle stuff.

I tested a wing back on to make sure all was ok before it goes off to the paint shop.

Been doing a bit of stripping down and cleaning up of parts over winter. 

Christmas saw me get a unique gift, a box of my car parts powder coated. Dark grey for the engine tinware and black for some of the standard chassis parts etc. 

Finally 2016 saw my car go off to paint shop. Custom built frame to take it on and so they can move it around in the paint shop. 

So Adam at the paint shop has been working on sanding and filling, there isn't anything major needed for filling but it is amazing to see when sanding starts all the little dinks that show up. Not really surprised after over 40 years.

So things are getting moving now, I think i have made my final decision on the colour!
So the garden, garages, workshop are all finished so hopefully time to crack on with the beetle again, need to start thinking about the engine and interior.

Garden from this ...

to this, spot the double garage.

Body prep complete

Over the last few months i have been doing bits and pieces with lots of seam sealing and some more cleaning up and painting up of some  bits of the window winder. Also got the doors cleaned up a bit and one of the old front wings. Took the side skirt rubber off and started to clean them up to.

Today we have made a bit more progress on the body today, getting it all preped up and ready to go. Cleaned up the last little bits and then went around the car to check it all over and clean up a few more bits from the first side we did now that i have improved on grinding down welds and rust and cleaning it up. Helps that i got my fancy little tool to get into the corners. Then came the true test of all the welding and replacing the few bits on the body that sits onto the floor pan. We lay the floor pan down and tested the body on top. Fitted great :-) Feeling really pleased with all the hard work and although i know there are loads of other bits to clean up and loads on interior stuff to do etc it is nice to see it coming a long and hopefully before the end of the year it will be off to the paint shop to get the body painted up.

Some other things we have been getting done over the summer while the beetle has been on hold is the workshop and the base of the double garage we are building at ours so one day it might move out of mums garage. Here is the workshop walls going up and the base of the double garage that we dug out.

Thanks for keeping watching and hopefully some more updates soon

Over a year has past! 2015 and back on with the bug!!

Wow, looking back at when i last wrote was over a year ago, and what a year it was.

Christmas 2013 saw me and Rich get engaged. 2014 saw the house project continue. We blitzed through the house doing all the rooms in the big renovation, all while organizing a wedding! October 2014 we got married, of course the beetle and mini were a part of the day! What a year, here are a couple of photos before getting back to the Beetle

 So just after Christmas I started to get back on with my project. It has been cold and so not getting on quite as quick as hoped and still doing it just one day a week as have the garden to tackle in the new house and we want to get on with building the garages.

Rich spent a day doing a little more welding and i have spent a day starting to clean up the welds. just a little bit of welding left now. There were some really difficult bits in this with it being on the body rather then just underneath.

I got a bit of cleaning done on the gear box and some of the greasy parts and some of the other engine parts.

Then i have spent a couple of days under the car cleaning off the grime from the bottom. Looks pretty good for its age. lots of cleaning up, a bit of rust to treat and a quick coat of paint to keep it looking good.

While waiting for a few bits to dry i got a cleaning up some of the glue from the carpet on the inside.

it has been really good to be back on with it an progressing it again. How fast it will go we will have to see but hopefully as it gets warmer and longer evenings with the light i can start to crack back on with it and get it back on the road. Will it be ready in 2015? We will just have to wait and see

Slow Progress

Thought it was time for another update. Also thanks to my follower Margaret for contacting me to see how things are going. I haven't been doing much on the car lately but i haven't given in or stopped the project (i'm too stubborn for that). Life has just got a bit busy the last few months. We have just moved house to somewhere more ideal for our love of cars. With the moving the beetle project has been put on hold. The house needs a lot of work and we have just fitted a new kitchen so have been busy. Also Rich has just had an operation on his slipped disc so can't do anything on cars etc this side of Christmas so the last bit of welding has to wait.

The project is just on hold for a few more months and but in that time hopefully i can do some little bits and pieces too and then the project can get back on track.

Thanks for following and there will be more soon.