I'm not going to pretend to be a wordy kinda guy, but I do want to document the restoration of my 1965 vw beetle. So, if you are looking for something witty, this may not be your cup o' tea. However, I do try to be a least readable, so thanks for stopping by...
I started resto a few weeks back (bout the time the first cool front came through). I think the cool weather inspires me to work outside a lot more (I'd rather shiver than sweat).
Here is a few of my initial pics:
Here is the pan after I scrapped off what was left of the tarboard on the tunnel (hence the charcoal-looking stuff). I really seriously thought about leaving these pans in, because they only have a little bit of rust in the rear. I removed the pedal cluster, master cylinder and brake lines. The lines all looked good, so I just sanded them down and painted them with some cheapo primer to keep them from rusting.In case you are wondering, I am only replacing parts that are completely unusable. If it can be restored cheaply, I'm going to keep it. The german stuff is ALWAYS better.
A few weeks later (!@*&$^% Jeep needed some TLC that required my attention), I brought out big daddy sawzall (I love that tool) and hacked the drivers pan out. This is the best tool for the job, but you hafta control it, or it will eat up too much of your tunnel lip if you're not careful. Thankfully, I have done a pan replace before on an old ghia, so I knew what to watch out for... Oh, I also went back and peeled off all the old pan pieces still tacked on to the tunnel (if you have never done this, it is tedious but necessary). This leaves little tack-weld bit on the lip of the tunnel that will need to be ground down with a grinder.
And finally, today, 10/31/09, I ground down all the old spot welds along the old tunnel lip, tacked in the new driver pan, stripped every last bit of the shipping paint off of the new pan (yeah grinder and wire wheel!) and gave it a coat of Masterseries Rust Sealer (AWESOME STUFF!). I plan to pick up a new pan for the passenger side this week. (cross your fingers for me!) Once I get the passenger pan in, I will strip all the rust and gunk off the rest of the top of the chassis and slap on some more Masterseries. BTW, I used clecos to hold the pan in place as I hammered it down to the lip. This helps hold it in place, and helps the weld to be nice and tight between the pan and tunnel lip.
Until next time!
Volkswatson
