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Post by stude on Feb 2, 2018 11:13:42 GMT -8
That dented bumper needs to be dealt with. Don is going to have a try at straightening it out. It has been removed in anticipation... One of those shop presses would work good on this. T
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Post by CrazyBrit on Feb 2, 2018 20:33:17 GMT -8
I'm looking forward to seeing this car on the road.
There weren't any KG dashpads in that stash were there?? 😉
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Post by Volktales on Feb 3, 2018 9:30:06 GMT -8
Sorry, that stash was Type 3 only. Eventually I ended up with the rest of the parts that were saved at the shop. This included extra gauges, lights, handles, trim, etc., and all have been put to good use between my Fastback, and Reagh's Notchback. Nothing went to waste...
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Post by Volktales on Feb 9, 2018 21:53:00 GMT -8
Sooo, what have we been doing this week??? I started off by cleaning up the filthy door panels... It is amazing how much dirt collects on these. Used my favourite purple cleaner as usual, rinsed well after the scrubbing was complete. Started on the other door and intended to replace the damaged window winder handle with a better one that Reagh supplied. The fancier chrome and plastic handle is the correct one for this car. Note that the plastic "washers" that go under the handle are different between the chrome handles, and the plainer all plastic design used later. Do NOT leave out those plastic washers! The driver's side one was missing on Reagh's car, and the result is the handle chews into the door panel as it is rotated. Unfortunately the otherwise mint door panel is damaged because some lazy "mechanic" forgot to reinstall it. Hope Reagh has one of these in his stash... Then it was time to fiddle with the back bumper. The original was badly bent, and Don made a valiant effort at trying to fix it, but he was unhappy with the results. One of the bumper brackets was bent, cracked, and rusty as well. Reagh had a look through his parts and supplied another rear bumper that was nice and straight, but too rusty and crusty to reuse... Or was it??? A polishing experiment revealed that maybe it was savable after all. Time to do some disassembly... First was to find a way to hold it securely while fighting with rusty bolts. Don will like my Mickey Mouse vice/stool setup... I had to fight a thick layer of dried out mud sealed in with gobs of tar! The car this bumper came off must have been absolutely plastered in the stuff! Getting it apart was not fun, and unsurprisingly most of the bolts happily snapped off... The backside was flaky with heavy surface rust. Once again the usual wire wheel, Rust Mort, primer, and silver paint... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Feb 9, 2018 22:33:05 GMT -8
While cleaning, I discovered this stamp on the bottom. I think that is a January 1969 date code which is appropriate for this car. Half way there... In reality I used the back up lights and right bumper guard from Reagh's original bumper. Otherwise all the rest of the spare bumper including brackets was used. The brackets were rusty enough to require a bead blasting, along with the backs of the bumper guards. The bumper is all polished up, assembled, and ready to be installed. Final pic is not ready yet because... This was a problem. When the old bumper was hit, it scraped up the rear valance deeply. Some of this is hidden behind the bumper, but given the replacement is now straight, more of the valance will be visible. What to do? The way forward was to sand this area smooth with 220 grit paper. Then lay on some filler primer that I had lying around. Just like this. A few coats were applied, sanding between coats to try and smooth this rough area. The valance will be repainted with some fresh L 60 B Peru Green. I had a spray can mixed up at Rondex today. The car was once this colour, but severe fading has changed it considerably. I got this paint to do areas in the inner fenders that were unfaded (next picture). The rear valance had been resprayed multiple times, and was closer to the original colour then other parts of the car. We will see how it looks once painted. If not satisfactory, then it can be resprayed when the front fenders are done... I painted over the primed areas in the front inner fender area. The colour looks brighter here, but is actually a good match for the original shiny paint still under the hood... Tomorrow the valance will be painted, then the back bumper reinstalled... Things are moving well...
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Post by PICTUP on Feb 10, 2018 13:34:11 GMT -8
That dented bumper needs to be dealt with. Don is going to have a try at straightening it out. It has been removed in anticipation... One of those shop presses would work good on this. T Before Reagh came up with another bumper I did give straightening it a try. I didn't have a shop press to start so initially it was just clamping, and it got a bit better. But then I borrowed Russ' dad's tubing bender and was getting pretty close to it being usable...
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Post by Volktales on Feb 14, 2018 21:50:47 GMT -8
Sooo, while waiting for the front fenders to arrive, I decided to do some experimenting with the faded paint finish on the car. The colour was so far off the original Peru Green, I initially thought it had been repainted the wrong shade. Don figured it was much closer to Velvet Green; a bus colour so naturally he liked it. To me it was more like military drab, and did nothing for the car. But what if the paint had just badly faded??? Yes it had. Removing the rear emblems showed that the paint in fact was once the right colour. Could that shade return with some elbow grease??? A whole lot of hand polishing with cutting compound showed it could come back... Bit of a sneak peek... Once again, I just couldn't help myself. What a difference! Doing this by hand will make your arm fall off, so a powered buffer will be required to finish this. It really needs to be done to better colour match the new fenders when they are painted... And this shot shows the completed bumper assembly reinstalled. I was very happy that this turned out decent. That rear panel will likely get another coat of paint to better match the rest however. And finally a different angle to show the faded appearance. This will look SOOO much better when everything is all shiny again...
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Post by PICTUP on Feb 15, 2018 7:51:10 GMT -8
Doing this by hand will make your arm fall off, so a powered buffer will be required to finish this. Like I said, eh? You can use mine, just remember to tape the edges to avoid the pad from removing paint I have a wool pad, but I saw a different type last time I was at Rondex which could be better and easier to use. I just had no need to buy it at the time...
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Post by tony on Feb 15, 2018 8:16:18 GMT -8
LUCKY CAR !
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Post by Brenticon on Feb 15, 2018 15:04:55 GMT -8
WOW
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Post by CrazyBrit on Feb 15, 2018 21:12:08 GMT -8
Looks great Russ. And I'll bet it goes better than my Tacoma right now!
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Post by Volktales on Feb 16, 2018 23:06:14 GMT -8
So last night I rested my arm and did some interior cleaning. The headliner looked pretty clean, but the amount of dirt that came off of it was surprising. The door panels cleaned up well too, but what to do about the seats? They featured poor fitting covers that were faded and filthy with lots of gross stains. But wait till you see what happened next!!!
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Post by Volktales on Feb 18, 2018 18:22:57 GMT -8
So I thought I should remove the set covers from the seats before attempting to clean them, as I didn't want dirty water penetrating into the underlying seat structure. The covers came off easily... Too many stains to deal with in place... But look what was underneath. All original and undamaged. And the extremely rare cloth option too! I did not want to get too excited at this stage, because this was the rear seat bottom and they often survive quite well. Removing the rear seat back cover revealed the same thing. All original and completely undamaged! Surely the front seats would be nasty under their covers (which were slightly different then the rears)... Or not... In fact all seats were in excellent condition, especially considering they are almost 50 years old. Just a bit of sun fading, which the original owner must have noticed, and then elected to cover them up before they deteriorated worse. VW seat material in this era was notorious for premature rotting. This car is a very rare survivor... And there it is reinstalled. In reality I did not even clean these seats, as they were not even dirty under those covers! The interior is now complete, and completely original! Now onto more polishing...
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Post by CrazyBrit on Feb 18, 2018 19:52:26 GMT -8
Where does Reagh find these cars???
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Post by Volktales on Mar 1, 2018 20:35:41 GMT -8
No pretty pictures yet, as I have been doing some boring but necessary things such as replacing missing grommets around wiring and fuel lines, a bit more electrical repairs (fixing ground wire through steering column for horn, getting front bumper and associated parts ready. And more polishing and waxing. I am still doing it by hand, as power polishers tend to be messy, and this would be no good in my tiny workshop. The polishing is progressing nicely however. Once Reagh finally receives the new fenders, then things will shift into high gear to complete this project. I am definitely looking forward to getting back to my own Type 3 as well as helping Don with his Squareback. It will be cool to see them all together on the road again...
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