63Ragtop

So Summer has officially ended and still no red paint on this thing! But never fear, I'm on it!! I've been spending what feels like every waking moment and many when I should be sleeping working on this thing, I'm beginning to understand why car paint jobs are so flippin expensive!Time, lots and lots of time.So after giving the shed a mighty clean up and tidy, thinning out the heard of pushbikes down to a manageable number and shoving anything unneeded under the house, I began with dressing down the old welds on the sunroof graft.and then the bog.So much sanding.then decided to bare metal the dash and tidy up the rest of the inside.check out the factory spot welds.the reason for this was to remove all the shitty old glue that I had spread about holding the carpets in place, as I wanted to get a nice coat of paint every where.looking much better after some etch.I even managed to get a couple days off work as I was on a roll!moved onto the underside, which apart from the bottom corners on the front firewall, needed no bog at least!also heaps and heaps of tiny small things like bogging up the spot welds under the engine air vents, smoothing out the welds where I grafted said vent panel into the roof and the front scuttle graft aswell, the A pillars, the front wheel wells...... At this point my fingers are numb and my skin feels like 180T sandpaper, are we having fun yet?!But seeing it all coming together in one colour.that is pretty cool.fantastic motivation.You gotta keep on pushin, you gotta keep on pushin!time to crank up the beast!this side was tricky, the hood release tube is right smack in the way.got it stick in place evenchually.and then the one on the scuttle.spot welder was making a bit of a mess out of this one(it may have been the operator) so I had to MIG up a few wee holes here and there.and bog and sand and etch.....another chunk done.need to start seam sealing but it would appear that the tube I used on the chassis has seam sealed its self inside the tube, fuck it, I'd only used a quarter of the fucking thing!I cut the tube open and did the under side bits here.not very pretty, but it will keep out the weather.seams about right, I went to paint the gray primer on the inside of the trunk, got half way and ran out of air, went to finish it tonight and I'd run out of thinners, and now the seam sealer. Ah well, I've been meaning to update you guys so there you are.

amazing work there mate. Those spot welders are worth their considerable weight in gold in saving so much grinding down plug welds, keep the tips nice and clean and make sure the two parts are well stuck.

thanks man, floorpan took about two months of hard work. Paint on body next!

Thanks guys, I'll unhook the top bolt and compress it right down, pretty sure it won't hit. Just thought there might be a minimum distance thing like fuel lines etc. I've already given it a little bend.

Just wanted to check if i need to redo my rear brake lines or not? they are about 1cm away from the shock.

super clean work mate, well done.

Nah, I don't want to be looking at that ugly thing every time I open the hood, this is a custom(empi) res that plug straight into the master, so no more leaky hoses and mess, hopefully. cheers though!

Yep, pretty frigging happy with it, paint could be nicer, more stainless/polish/chrome etc would be cool, but at the end of it, no one is really going to see it are they!?Bonus shots.bolted in the shocks, painted the white front ones matt black like the rears.thought I may have a problem here. actually about 1cm away from the shock, should be okay? would be much eaier to change it now than when it's full of fluid.other random pics.this thing was super handy for bending up the brake lines.

So christmas came a little late this year.who am I kidding, this was better!Mark at the Metric Nut sent me up pretty much everything I'd need to get this thing on the road.I wasn't going to bother with the shift rod seal but after cleaning up the gearbox, I'd found one small tear in one of the axle boots, so while it's apart we might as well stick one in, never had one before, fancy!got the front brakes back together.had to get the rear oil seals pressed in by the local shop (cheers frank and co) I tried doing my self but just mangled it. nearly didn't do that either as I read the seals don't work without the drums torqued up, again, glad I did as this was inside the leaking one.took the pedals apart, cleaned, painted, greased and reassembled.pretty much every part of the throttle linkage was all bent to hell.new bumpstopstwin circuit master with fluid res on top, started running new stainless brake lines that I brought ages ago.pedals installed.ran clutch and throttle cables, forgot how much of a ass hooking up the clutch cable was who designed that fucking thing!got the rear brakes back in along with the bearing seals, handbrake cables run and hooked up.cleaned up the tie rods and installed new inner ends, the outer one have been replaced in the last decade or so.I was going to polish up those stainless brake lines but I had run out of autosol and wanted to get it done, I've also realized how little things like a tube of this, a can of that, soon adds up, I needed rubber grommets for the brake line, some else this car has never had, and bugger me if stupercheap wanted over eight bucks for two.this shit adds up man!ah, forgot the lube!never forget the lube.then I came up with this genius way of getting it inside the steering box.and paint bla bla.front drums on, with new locking tabs for the bearings.rears all jammed on.and holy shit balls! it's on it's wheels!

fuck yes. so much work, so much slam, so much brap, all the wins!

Shit, just remembered a sharn, was at a party about 10 years ago, had the red ragtop there. got talking to this cunt, talked about car/vw's with this guy, said how various engine's are stuck in the back of bugs, subys etc, then I said rotas, and he's starts telling me nah nah mate, not rotas, these gearboxs can't spin fast enough for rotas, I said well I've seen it done and I don't think the gearbox cares how fast its going?( to a point) wouldn't believe anything I said so I agreed to disagree with that dickhead. is it finished yet?

Great progress man, putting me to shame! Axles got longer about 67, I put a 1500 gearbox in my car years back and swapped the axles so everything would fit back together the same. found this on the samba I think there may even be another size for different models/years etc.

Is this thing done yet??

Spent most of the last week of holidays in the shed, cleaning and painting the beam, brakes and gearbox, so i could get it back on its wheels and get back to the shell.Everything was covered in grease,rust,dirt and paint, so the process was dowse in turps, scrape and wipe as much grease and muck off, wire wheel, degrease, brake cleaner, sand, acid etch and or paint. Filthy work.I ended up getting two cans of POR15 in rattlecans, which saved a bit of time painting.trying to keep track of all the partswhen I first got the car the front was sitting pretty high, and the front bump stops were under the rear seat with the battery, when I installed them I found out why. One side went on fine, the other fowled the shock.Whoever build this beam, had cut and turned the bump stop horns and had welded on crooked, so all I had to do was cut and reweld, matching it to the good side, easy! except when I removed the rubber off the good one, the horn came off in my hand, that's some good welding!you can see the gap were the weld missed.also found this tiny blob of weld on the edge of the beam bearing, has not made friends with the trailing arm over the years, I'm sure someone will be posting up all my mistakes on this car one day.like the shitty huge welds that now hold the horns on. acid is a hell of a drug!but it sure does make POR stick well.cleaned up my oddball drums.smashed on some matt blackFirst part installed on the pan.Filled the tunnel up with Rustroy, that shit stinks!Darrell helped me bolt up the gearbag and beam.matty b on the box.Now I bought these grease seals for the beam about 15 years ago and never got around to installing them.until now.gearbox is matt black, axle tubes are Gloss Black POR, backing plates are grey.I've started cleaning up the brake parts, shoes etc, just need new cylinders (wheel and master) reinstall cables and paint pedals and steering stuff, feels like a major milestone!

Cheers mate, after a good Google I think it should have 90 weight gear oil in it, as grease can be pushed around and leave gaps. problem is this will just leave out again, one idea is to mix similar oil and grease and hopefully it'll stay inside.

well that's nearly the end of another year in the projects life, opened up the steering box last night, errrr? whats this shit? I think it's actually been rusting/corroding in there. are rebuild kits even available for these things? Might just pack it with grease and be done.

mint car, that paint!

Mow ya lawn hippie!

Damn! Going deep.

That's pretty fucking cool man.

right, paint. POR15 Top Coat Gloss Black. tried not to lay it on to thick as I read it can just peel off. Gloss Black showing up all the pitts and dents, never gunna be a show car, brushed on by hand paint job. 1st coat took about 3 hours, slow and careful. and got busy with the seam sealer, jesus that was hard work, had to squeeze the crap out of the caulking gun to get it to work, killed my hands! not sure if I'm doing that right? stuck heaps in here where the leak is. The technique I used was to do a section, then, wearing gloves, dip a finger in thinners and press it into the seam as you smooth the seam sealer out, took a bit of practice but got it looking tidyish. and painted over the seam sealer. particularly happy with the top of the old frame head, this had so much surface rust and pitting from the old master cylinder line would leak brake fluid all over the place. was a bit disappointed with all the brush marks in the POR, everything I read said how good it was at self leveling, but I found as it is quite thick and with the pan was hanging sideways if I layed it on thicker it would start to run and drip. So... ah better. sexy.

I've been trying to get this pan sorted ASAP so I can carry on with the bodywork/paint, so i was trying to not get carried away with getting it perfect, an't no one going to see it really, I thought about opening the tunnel, sandblasting, replacing the bung fuel line etc, but fuck it, lets go!! time for a bath or shower, in acid. and here it is drying off. I duct taped all the holes it stop the metal ready getting inside where I didn't want it. here you can see the rust turning funky and the clean metal getting etched. but, it seams there is a leak somewhere in the weld between the frame head and the floorpan?? Darrel gave me some rustroy that will hopefully sort this shit out. Once it was all dry, after blasting any water out of the seams with compressed air and drying the inside of the tunnel with the wife's hair dyer, I hung it up to paint. I think is might be the source leak, right in the corner were the bottom of the tunnel meets the corner of the pan.

Seasons greetings handbags and faghags! I've been doing stuff. sanding painting polishing. spent all Saturday afternoon on the end of the wire wheeled grinder of death, killed the back stooping over this thing! found a wee bit of rot, so out came the cut off wheel. cleaned it out as best as I could, will fill up with anti-rust stuff. welding other side was just starting to swell up, so I did this. fin. smooth. you'd never know. this was always the lowest point of the pan. every bit helps! trimmed it down, welded it up and smoothed it out.

I carjammed the plate, says 63 and red, guess that's the bumper that came with the doors and fenders etc. you're fucked now mate!

wow man, that has turned out beautiful, the paint, the dash, amazing! as I was looking for this thread I went back to the start, what a transformation, my hat is off to you sir.