63Ragtop

Shit man, that's all black magic to me! but you look like you know what you're doing. I am in awe.

Apart from being slow as fuck, what's wrong with the stock engine? anything?

I like this car also.

looks like this is being done the right way, good shit son!

no sleeve needed inside the welds? looking very tidy, like the willwoods!

cheers bro, gotta just keep going! kids keep asking the wife who that strange man in the garage is!

thanks for the pep talk uncle, I'm at that shitty part of my build where it looks a bit hopeless, but parts are starting to look better. need some more pics of this sweet ol german lady. I love that pic of the rear door jam/quarter, in naked steel. oh er!

bit more of a update, patched the last two holes in the left rear fender bolting on side of car area thing(?) so except of the huge holes at the very bottom, those are sorted. Also did this the other night to check everything was where it should be, all seemed to work okay. the main reason was to check the bonnet release tube was working/in the right place etc. so I could weld thing back together, seemed to crack at some point. welded while I was at it I mocked the rest of the front up, had to adjust the bumper mount holes so the rubber seals would fit. looks like a car! nearly made it out the shed. I've pulled it all apart again, took about 5mins, and nearly finished welding the valance back on. more news at 11! talk here - //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/33947-63ragtops-63ragtop/page-2

very nice, any more plans?

got the fender looking like a fender needs a good smashing with the hammers and dollys lit this so you can see the wonkyness, i have since spent some time time hammering it, and it looks much better. ( no pic of that yet) happy with the overall shape also plugged up some rust pin holes, thought this might be better than patching, dunno now? still lots of work/fuckingabout.

So I scanned some old pics of the rag the other day, the first 2 where just after I first got it. The front was wound right up, with very old zx whereveryoucallem michelins,fucked shocks, stock seats(drivers side also shagged) nasty old 1200cc something something, one windscreen wiper But it was shiney, red and had mags! and this is the new engine being installed by my brother and myself at the VW shoppe in Hamilton.

My cuzzy in devonport installed one of those, just got in days before they changed the regs on the north shore, it cranks out the heat. good work on the boxhouse.

well that looks like a fuck load of fun! good luck with the dogbox!

you're a sick sick man.

that is an incredible amount of work bro, will be very nice once done.

Fast work on the grinder! looks good man.

fuck. that is all.

been bustin my ass on this thing this last week, sleep when you're dead bitches! I think I blew a hole in every single one of these, I think when I drilled the spot welds out all that time ago, I had drilled though about half the bottom layer as well, making the metal very thin, very well stuck together now. the frankenfender is taking shape this is the difference between the two fenders. this is me trying to hold things together, in the correct place. it's alive! it's alive! might just pull this off go everything ground down on sunday, gave the fender some hammering, starting to look good. chur

Got this thing sorted on the weekend pretty happy to be sticking things back together somewhere. smoothed out the tack on the fender while I was at it see the dent to the right side of the weld, bog fixes erthang! more tacks inside thought I was so fucking clever so i chopped the back of the fender off as well part of the 60's fender not full of holes like the 50's one. may have bitten off more than i can weld it would seem that the oval fender is about 15mm wider than the later one, hhmmmmmmm....

block looking sweeeeet!

The saga continues.... Finished up the grinding on the rear mount and the inside, come out a bit better than the first side so i must be learning sumfing. smoothed out the bottle tray started welding it back in that fucker is never going to move again! decided to start working on the fenders. on the left is the old fender that was on the bug, the middle one is the holey oval fender and the right on is a 60's fender that I first practiced welding on , filling the horn grill hole and the indicator hole. lace work on the oval fenders, the plan is to use the 60's fenders to patch the 50's ones. chopped out the shit getting there tacked in place not a bad start, needs alot more work, there is a small ding where the two parts meet on the edge of the fender, after I get a few more tacks done hopefully I can smash it into shape. I also pulled the carpet holder downer thingy off, I will remove the passenger side one, but the drivers side really had to go, was krusty as no holes in the sill, should be sweet after a blast.

Good work getting the ol girl back on the road bro, always had fords growing up, olds had a dark red Mk3 wagon, the a sweet met green Mk4 or 5, and a very spaceship white serria giha wagon after.

New rims do fill the arches well, but I really like the 5 spokes.

I needed some more panel steel for patch making, found a workshop just down the road from home, got this bit for 5 bucks, seemed like a good deal. thought I'd show how I make this patch template, I made this when I did the other side, so i knew it was pretty good. trace template cut out, then hammered flat as the tin snips twist the edges looks about right file down the edges and start shaping/hammering as with most things it's harder than it looks, the panel is concave, so the curve goes side to side and up and down, which means the steel needs to be stretched/beaten into submission. kinda hard to show in pics. this is the hole from above, tricky. starting to rough in the return lip, always amazes me how simple things like this strengthen the thin panels steel and how clever the people how made this seemingly simple cars where. and bending up the bottom edge, using the mount panel to get the fit as close as possible. and this is where i cocked up. That bottom fold is actually alot straighter than that, guess the old template wasn't as accurate as i thought. And that is where the problem is with this shit sometimes, It's not until you actually get the patch to fit ALL the edges and the side of the floor, can you see if they fit correctly. Because I had already cut the shape of the edge when I moved the fold back where it should have been, I had run out of metal, doh! not a problem, just stick some more on! welds be gone that's better, trimmed to fit fits pretty good too, pop rivets like a pro! weldy weldy inside looking good different angle nearly done. tiz slow going, got to be disciplined and only do two tacks at a time, then cool with air gun on the compressor. As I do most of this at night once the tank is empty that's it as I try to not keep the whole hood awake. So I was looking for something else to do the other night, opened the hood and thought hhmmmmm.... When I had the sandblaster out last I finally blasted the back of the area the water bottle panels attaches to under where the beam sits. This will allow me to weld the spare wheel well back together and I'll be able to mount the shell onto a spit of some kind so I can attack the rust in the sills. but back to the water bottle panel, I'm not planing on using this for the brake fluid res, whether I go duel or not I'll use one of those tanks on top of the MC, also I don't think I bother will the screen washer either and if i do I actually have a brand new tank with built in electric pump off a ford lazer or something, only problem is it's so ugly! anyway more welding all done just needs grinding this sits up the front behind the spare wheel, the plan is to mount a fuel pump and filter in here. think I need to get me some stock steel rims no life like the low life!

Small update, while the body mount was getting blasted I patched up some small holes that old bugs tend to develop between where the fenders bolt onto the shell patched up the tinworm cut out crap make patch and tack in carefully and slowly weld up grind weld down and because I'm a bit silly I like to smooth it out with a sanding disc and prime. body mount looking a bit better. check out those pits getting there.