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Post by Volktales on Mar 4, 2018 21:14:43 GMT -8
Finished the polishing on the other side of the trunk lid, and also the top portion of the fender. Getting better. This was bugging me however. A big fat dent on the trim on the front trunk. Right where you can see it too. Reagh did not have another one of these in his stash. But I now have several in my new stash from this weekend. All had some damage, but a much better candidate was selected. This is a different one from a parts car. Has a dent in almost exactly the same place, but is much smaller. Time to experiment... Drilled a hole in the back for access to the back side of the dent. This allowed access for a small punch and dull screwdriver to carefully knock the dent out as much as possible. Then I used a file to smooth things out. When a low spot was found, then it was gently hit from behind and the whole area filed smooth. This part did not take too long with the stainless steel filing pretty well. This part did take awhile. Sanded things smooth starting with 180 grit paper, progressing through 220 and then 600. Then metal polish. If I had a buffing wheel on my bench grinder, then it probably would have been easier. But it came out well. I only have B- Level OCD, so the finish was adequate for me. Don would have made it perfect... It is not installed yet as the underside of the trim houses a separate piece of metal which is part of the handle for opening the trunk. This was repainted black like original. Things are improving at the front end... Now where are those fenders???
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Post by Volktales on Mar 8, 2018 19:58:57 GMT -8
Working away on the hood. Was able to use a different procedure this time. Unlike the rear trunk, the finish was smooth enough that I could colour sand it first with 2000 grit paper. I was not able to do this at the back, due to lots of micro-blistering in the paint. Hard to see, but this pic shows what you see when you start sanding. At least it is obvious when you have gone far enough to get the original colour back. The difference is obvious. A lot of work, but definitely worth it. I have been using some old Meguires "#8" grade compound that my Dad gave me. As usual it is designed for machine application, but this was done by hand. Gotta rest that arm tonight... Hood all done; stainless trim back on. Still have the dreaded roof to do... This picture shows the replacement windshield washer jet. The original on these cars was a cheapo looking grey plastic blob; in this case painted over by a lazy body shop. Reagh had a nicer stainless version from an earlier car and this was installed. Just so you know, these must be removed from the bottom by squeezing together the plastic retainers. This is not too bad in a Beetle or Ghia, difficult in a bus, and all but impossible in a Type 3. Lets just say I need to figure out a way to reattach the hose... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Mar 8, 2018 20:11:16 GMT -8
Remember this picture from before. That relatively recent sticker pasted over the earlier one really was bugging me. And it was starting to peel off as well. Soooo.... Looky what was hiding underneath. Surely the original sticker, applied to the back of the car when the original owner started her BCAA membership in 1970. How do I know that??? There are no shortage of stickers. This was one of ten different ones throughout the car. How about this one applied 37 years ago? Lots of history in this car. Can't wait to drive it! Also did a minor thing here. The little rubber bumpers that stop the glovebox from rattling were missing. You can see the hole where they go and the replacement sitting on the door. Easy to install, and cheap to buy. There is no excuse to be missing these small parts... Now to to some more polishing while not so patiently waiting for those new fenders to show up...
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Post by Brenticon on Mar 8, 2018 21:42:55 GMT -8
ThT thing (notch) is gonna look fantastic
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Post by Funbugz on Mar 26, 2018 12:05:18 GMT -8
Fenders arrived today!
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Post by Volktales on Mar 26, 2018 16:03:15 GMT -8
How do they look??? Do they have proper headlight bowls???
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Post by PICTUP on Mar 26, 2018 18:16:37 GMT -8
Good news!! But, who is this Funbugz person and why are they buying fenders for Reagh's car??
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Post by Volktales on Apr 3, 2018 20:42:01 GMT -8
Well I tried to post a bunch of new pictures last night but the site crashes as I was half way through! Have to help wifey proof read her stuff tonight, so maybe tomorrow...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 5, 2018 19:59:57 GMT -8
Attempt number two... So at long last the new fenders finally arrived. First impressions were not so good for a couple of reasons... Firstly they were not very well packaged, shipped only in a thin cardboard box. As a result the tips of the fenders where they meet with the door/cowl area were both chipped off. But this was not as a big issue as those headlight bowls... Notice there are not any, just a flat area where the headlight goes. Reagh specifically asked the vendor about this area, who stated that the original headlights and trim rings just bolt right in. Complete BS. In reality there were two separate VERY rough headlight bowls included, but they were poorly made and featured no method of attachment short of bonding them in with more fibreglass! I figured the easiest way around this was to rescue the original bowls from the old fenders, as they feature the headlight retainer mounts, as well as the trim ring mounting points inside them. Bonding a rusting steel bowl into new fibreglass fender just seems like the wrong thing to do however... And only one of the bowls was borderline good enough to use anyway... These fenders have no cutout for the gas door either. They were supposed to be marked for easy installation, but this was BS as well. Do we really want to bond a rust prone metal piece into this fender??? They company could not have done this??? Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 5, 2018 20:13:07 GMT -8
While pondering the next step, Don came over to take a look. Within seconds he spotted a couple of much larger issues... The new fender was clamped against the old opposite side in the exact position. What do you see wrong in that picture? How about the bottom of the front not even closely following the correct contour at all... A closer shot reveals just how far out it is. And no the fender can not be "flexed" into the right position... We assume either the fender went out of shape during curing, or perhaps the company's mold has distorted over time. Regardless it does not fit on the car at all... From the backside, the degree of inaccuracy is obvious. The left side fender did not have this problem. Unfortunately it was then that another serious issue manifested itself... Don spotted that the flange where the fender must mount to the body had been trimmed off excessively, meaning it cannot even be mounted to the body properly as there is not enough material to drill the holes through in the correct locations. Basically this means it cannot be installed... If all that was not bad enough, the moldings will need a significant amount of work to smooth them out good enough for even a non-show level quality of paint... Seriously bummed out by this development... I am not a body work person, and certainly not a fibreglass craftsman, so this puts a halt on the project for the moment... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 5, 2018 20:22:50 GMT -8
I had been busy with some other things. These parts were blasted and primed and painted. Mostly front bumper related components, although the rear torsion bar access plugs were done as well. The pieces were missing from Reagh's car, but it turns out 1968 and later Beetle front apron plugs (for shift rod access) are the same part. And I just happened to have some... The bumper reinforcement was also cleaned and repainted. This heavy U-shaped tube sits behind the front bumper and the ends of the "U" sit very close to the front axle. If the car gets hit in the front, the ends contact the heavy axle and prevents further damage in MINOR collisions. Wouldn't want to try that out however... The front bumper was fixed up with replacement brackets, but is otherwise original. Don had to straighten this one out too, but it was not as bad as the original rear one was. A few more things will be done, but not much major will happen until the issue of the fenders is resolved...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 15, 2018 20:20:49 GMT -8
While pondering the issues with the front fenders, I went on to do some more polishing... This time I had bought a small dense foam sanding block, and again continued with the 2000 grit sandpaper with lots of water. Followed by the polishing compound and then wax. The top of the door responded well to this treatment. Not sure what I will do with the bottom yet as there are lots of issues there. The driver's door was up next. Same procedure, although i did the bottom section as well. You can see the difference in the rear fender yet to be done. This shows it better. Slowly but surely the faded finish is disappearing... Here the finish has been sanded, but not polished yet... Note there are lots of scratches and surface issues in the paint. The sanding will take care of most of these, and lessen the impact of those that cannot be removed completely. That is much better. This fender had seen some "dust in" repairs, and the paint match is not great, but will have to do. Still looks a lot better then it did... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 15, 2018 20:42:07 GMT -8
Next up was painting the torsion bar access plugs. Nothing special in this procedure, although I should have sanded them more to get a smoother finish. Not that it mattered that much. The colour match isn't very good, and will probably need to be resprayed later... Really not looking forward to doing that roof... This will be that last thing done before the car leaves the shop. Of course colour sanding the rest of the car means that now I am not happy with my earlier attempt at polishing the trunk lid. It is covered in hundreds of micro-blisters which look blah. Did some experimental sanding and most of them disappeared. So off the sand the whole trunk and re-polish it again. Fun. And then Reagh showed up with some more parts. The very crappy Fastback parts car that I bought recently, has been coming in handy. Reagh and Rob salvaged the gas filler pipe off the car, and it turned out to have no holes, unlike the well perforated original. This has already been blasted and painted. More importantly, the boys removed the right front fender from the Fastback as well. Although the car is well and truly rotten, surprisingly the RF fender was not too bad. It was odd to see that there is zero factory type undercoating on the inside of the panel. The undercoating always cracks, holds moisture, and causes rust. This has no coating of any kind remaining at all. Fender must have been replaced at some time in the car's life with a new one that did not have any undercoat. The LF fender was awful in comparison... Lots of surface rust of course in the headlight bowl area, but no rot through at all! Totally solid. Unheard of! It was not all sunshine and happiness however. Rust is present in the bottom corner, but not as bad as things could have been... A few pinholes up here too. Usually this area is made of Bondo... Yes there is a bit of a crease dent there, and a blob of surface rust to deal with. In reality this fender is in reasonable shape and could be fixed by someone with decent metalworking skills. It fits the car properly as well and is the correct type with the gas door cutout. The driver's side fender is off an earlier car (around 1964), and has different size trim clip holes and the signal mounting holes. Otherwise it is the same. This fender is not too bad, and could be rust repaired as well. For now both of these fenders will remain on the car until Reagh comes up with some truly nice examples... Next up is continuing with the paint polishing, and prepping the "new" fender for mounting...
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Post by PICTUP on Apr 16, 2018 12:00:56 GMT -8
Looking really good, Russ! The fender scenario you go going now is soooo much better than trying to make those fiberglass ones work! Are you gonna try to grind(have them dustless blasted perhaps?) the majority of surface rust off the backside of the fender before stabilizing it?
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Post by Volktales on Apr 16, 2018 18:46:14 GMT -8
I will be wire wheeling and using rust mort on the backside. These fenders could be just fine with the proper level of TLC. My welding skills are not up to the required level however...
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