False Alarm

So after a few weeks of cruising around listening to tunes... my stereo stopped reading my ipod. It would charge my ipod but it would not receive any music from it. This is a problem because I can not cruise without music. It just does not feel right. I was under the impression that it was my stereo because the other problem with it is that it does not turn off. But before I sent it back I decided to check it with other ipods, good thing I did because my ipod was the problem. I just find it strange because it still charges and syncs just fine... but it just stopped working with my car stereo. So, I bought a new ipod. I like my new ipod.

Sound in Stereo

Thanks to my brother spending a day looking at my wiring diagram and rats nest of wires and a diagram on how to wire up a stereo along with an amp that I found... The stereo was installed the next day. All I did was build a wood mount for the amp that I used construction adhesive to attach to the body and then the amp to that. I also bough a underdash mount for the receiver and my friend Steve took care of mounting that. I won't say how... but it works wonderful. So basically we found the right stuff to plug into and turned it on. After we got it installed we cruised around the neighborhood with no seats for an hour. After that I sat in my garage and listened to it, and killed my battery. Good thing my brother has a charger.  I also used so dynomat under the rear interior panels.

Seats Continued

So sliding on the seat covers over the foam is a whole lot harder than the video for JBugs makes it out to be. I believe I ripped two areas on two different seat covers. With luck they are not that noticeable. Soar hands and raw fingers and uncountable hours were spent on the seats. Painting the bases, buying more burlap, and figuring out how to finish the bottom of the back of the front seats(with boot laces), all the time added up. But it got done with a ton of help from my brother. The boot laces came in where the old broken metal teeth failed. So along with missing metal wire in the bottom of the backs which I replaced with some metal dowel type things from ACE I think cut holes in the vinyl for the boot laces, then laced it up with the laces going around the outside of the metal dowel pulling everything down and tight. Tied it off and that was that. Put the seats back together and slid them into place. More seat pictures to come with the finished product pictures.

Past Due

So I really need to update but I don't want to spend time loading pictures and typing so I will say that i got it back from Karl's a while back the lights were working again and the windows were... they did an okay job but its a major workout to roll then down. So next time I post I should be totally done... or for the most part.

It's All you Karl

I guess it is up to Karl's Custom at this point.

Giving Up

So after a long break from the VW and yet another frustrating weekend of attempting to put the door window and trim back in... I called it quits. I called Karl's Custom and asked if they did it. And sure enough. They do. So come Wednesday I am taking it in for a quote to finish the windows and electrical. I figure there is probably a 2 week wait and then I am in. Then all I have to do is put the carpet and seats in and a few details to finish up and I am cruising. 

This decision was made by the help of money. Seeing how I now have no time and more money than ever.

Emissions

So the push to get the windshield in was so I could go get my emissions tested so I could order my new tags without too much trouble. 

So I had a little drama beforehand. I had got the glass in, all the lights hooked up, mirrors, seat and seat belt, everything I needed to make it legal to drive over to the test site. I got in and turned my key and nothing. Nothing except the fuse all the way on the right of the fuse box melting like a candle and smoking. Looked and my wiring diagram and that fuse I guess is for additions and so I really have no idea where those wires go. Someone on the samba told me to check the grounds first so I unplugged the wire that I thought wasn't the ground wire and the care started right up. 

Gassed up and drove down to the emissions joint and passed the test on my first try. How bout that?

Glass

All the glass is in except the door glass. All American style rubber, after we bent my chrome back into shape. Once again Smokey came to my rescue and helped me out with the glass. I should be getting my inner window scrapers today or tomorrow so hopefully by the end of the week I will have all the glass in the car and I will be able to lock it up and take it down to Karl's Custom and get the wiring taken care of. Once that is done the carpet and the seats are going back in with a stereo and I will be on the road cruising. He are my windows and Smokey.

Wrinkles

My brother making things happen. I couldn't finish this car without him. Sometimes he has more drive to get it done than I do.

Head, Liner, and Sinker

Ah the headliner. In my JBugs dvd on how to replace the headliner he mentioned that an experienced person could finish a bug headliner in 4 to 6 hours. I am not experienced, nor was my brother, and my headliner is about twice the size and has 3 times as many windows. We had a fun time... One major bump was when my brother dropped the hook/spring deal that the liner rods hook onto down in the channel above the window. So we were fishing around with magnets and wire and all sorts of thing for about an hour, when we finally figured, lets try the shop-vac. Worked like a charm. Then we glued and cut the front and realized we put it on backwards, so we had to change that... It took us a while and it doesn't look great. But we did it ourselves and it's not horrible. 

Sound and Heat

So here is the dish... I bought some foil wrapped bubble wrap sound and heat insulation from home depot and started sticking it in. I used spray glue... which I went through 3 cans of it and had about half of the car done. So I then switched over to contact cement to finish it up. Here are some pictures. Well this is the only one I can load...

I Really Need to Update

I have done the headliner, a few seals, most of the heat and sound insulation, about half of the windows, and it turns out that Jbugs sucks for a lot of things and ISP West is very helpful and very expensive... I will post some pictures of me putting it back together soon.

Box & Order & Stuff

So I got another box today. In it was:

-more rubber seals

-sun visors

-other tail light cover

I also had to order the door rubber kit from Jbugs because for some reason it wasn't in the previous. So I ordered that and some burlap.

I have also been putting things back together. Things like, latches, rubber seals, and I have started to glue in the heat and sound insulation. 

Pictures to come.

PAINTED.

There are some small dimples here and there and some runs but over all it looks good. The guy at the paint store said they would buff out the runs cause they are just in the clear. 

So thats done.

Seats

Seat upholstery has arrived. Now I am waiting on just the back ordered stuff, and the car to come back from the paint shop.

Next Time

I took it in for paint yesterday.

Next time I post a photo of the entire car... it will be painted.

Paint Quotes

I suppose I should talk about this process since it took an entire day and much of my energy. The first place I check out was a place up by deer valley airport which had been referred to me by my neighbor who had some work done on his old 914 there. They were awesome and super nice but wanted $3,500, which is just a bit out of my range. If I had the money I think I would go there but it is hard to justify when I only paid $2,100 for the car. The next place I checked out only because my father made me basically. Select Auto, down on Camelback. This guy came out and said "I won't paint it because I didn't do the body work." Basically came out to look at it, calls my work crap, calls sherwin williams paint "bug spray" and talks about wet sanding at 1000 grit and using paint product that is only used on $100,000 dollar cars. I won't even mention where their bottom of the line price starts. Last place I went was back to Maaco who remembered me, and welcomed me back. He showed me a few cars that were just being finished and made a quote at $1,300, which is quite a bit better than the $2,300 that was quoted before the body work. 

And with that, Maaco it is. At this point, how could they screw it up?

More Just In:

Today I received a few more items from JBugs which included:

-new padded dash cover

-three rear interior panels

-two interior door panels

-headliner

Paint... either tomorrow or friday, at latest next week. Tomorrow I am going to check on a guy who may clean up all my wiring and make sure my harness is perfect. But I very well might take it in to get painted tomorrow.

Rear View Mirror

So I guess you just get that thing a good yank and it comes right off. Hmm.

1st Half of the Order

There was a small package at my front door yesterday. 

Rotate your head.

Glass Out

It is all out. Every single window is out. I finally went ahead a took out all the glass. The door windows and such was a little bit of a challenge but some of the pieces just took a bit of persuading. I just looked up in my book how to do it but it didn't help me much, I just sort of took out every bolt and screw I could find and ripped everything out. Under the rubber of the windows there was chipped paint and bare metal. This means I need to go buy another can of acid etching primer before I take this thing in to get painted... ugh. What a pain in the butt.

What Turn Signals? (pics)

What Turn Signals?

The holes are patched and I waiting on seals to drill new holes for the new signals. But here is what I have done so far. I put the car up on jacks and took the front wheels off just to have more room. I bent a couple of pieces of metal to the general shape, and then traced the opening on them and cut them to shape and bent them in to pretty much the right shape. Once that was done I taped them in spot with duct tape and tack welded them in the right spot, took the tape off so it wouldn't burn and welded a few more spots. After that I took my grinder and ground down the welds flush with the other metal. Hit the metal around a bit, re-welded a couple spots, same with the grindings and then applied the bondo. I taped the back of the patch so that the bondo wouldn't fall out the back, once it was set up I took that tape off. I also re-enforced the back of the patches will small bits of steel. I primered the inside of the patches with black primer. At that point I put the wheels back on and its back to sanding and filling and sanding and filling... etc... once that was done. I painted them up and this is where I am.

I DID IT!

I made the order. Jbugs had everything I needed. Ended up being a $1,300 order. Everything but the seat, panels, and headliner will be here soon, the rest will be here in 3-4 weeks. Hopefully my car will be painted by then. That means, in one month my car is going to be painted and will be in the process of being put back together. I am so excited right now. Never in my life have I been so excited about spending $1,300. Except maybe when I bought the car. 

Things included in the order:

-interior kit, seats, padding, panels, headliner, carpet

-all new rubber, all windows, hood and hatch seals, turn signal seals

-new side mirrors

-wiper blades

-sun visors w/ mirror

-dashboard

-fender beading

-tail light lenses

and I also just bought heat and sound insulation

Tail Lights

I removed the tail lights for paint today. I think I am going to arrange one more day for me and my friends to get the final stuff done before paint. I am working on the the front turn signals but they aren't quite done yet so hopefully that will be the next post. But that won't be totally finished until i get the rubber seals for the turn signals and I am not going to order those until I make my big order of everything including interior and new rubber. So it is still going to be a while. Maybe I should just order the rubber seals now and deal with the few extra dollars shipping. I think i may do that. Anyway.

I took off the tail lights. labeled all the wire and took note of where they go. I also took the windshield wipers off. So close. Once again the picture won't post vertical, deal with it I guess.

Samples

I just put in an order for interior samples from Jbugs. I had emailed them a couple weeks ago and never heard back from them. So today I finally called and they said sure thing and they are sending the samples out. So once they get here I will decide what is what when it comes to the colors of the interior. 

Here is the Deal

So I emailed the guy and he said send one back, he thinks he has a right laying around... It better be in good shape cause thats what I paid for. So I couldn't decide which one to keep because the one that the electrical workings looked good had some small defects in the chrome, but the one with the ugly looking electrical stuff had really nice chrome on the outside. I settled this by hooking them up to a battery. The results being that the one that I thought would work with the really nice electrical set up, did not work. So that one is going back. Glad I am not stuck with one that doesn't work.

Today I am going to take a fender off and try to start patching the hole of the old turn signal. This is going to be interesting. 

Dumb

So I received the OG turn assemblies in the mail today and I took them out to take a look. I then realized that this guy sold me two signals for the same side. Perfect, since I never turn right! So now I don't know what to do. I sent him a check and he has responded to my email. Granted he usually takes two days to respond to emails. I am not pleased.

Waiting

So I am waiting on my new turn signals to come. It's been like 3 weeks almost since I sent the check. I feel like this is taking forever and I wish they would just come. Once they arrive I will place the order for all my new rubber and interior and a few other things. I am going to order from Jbugs. I am worried that I will forget something. But hopefully I can get a bunch of it on friday given that my signals show up in the next two days, and then once its all painted and I start putting everything back together I determine what else needs to be replaced. I just want to drive it around again.

Playlist

I will be honest. I am so excited and looking forward to getting my car done and my stereo in that I have already created numerous playlists specifically for cruising in my volkswagen. Depending on my mood I will determine what I want to listen to. I have five playlists. Just can't wait.  

Caps of Hubs

So today I was sitting around and thinking, I should do something with my car. I started sanding the interior and was quickly bored of it seeing how I just finished the sanding on the exterior. I looked around and realized that I have two cans of paint that I should play with. I painted the inside of the door and the underneath area of the back seat. I was pretty excited about it. I then felt my nearly empty can and realized that I should save some for my rims. My brother and I a while back thought about painting the VW on the hub cap with the white and blue colors of the body paint. So from there I went with it cause I was on a roll. I first sanded it a bit so the paint would stick to the chrome, then painted it white, didn't wait long enough, taped the white off, painted the blue, and then took the tape off along with some white paint (oh well, it is just practice). Thats that. I like the way it looks. I figure I will take a bit more time and try a bit harder and do my 4 nice hub caps for a finishing touch. What do you think?

Battery Pan

The battery pan was rusty. Probably the worst on the car, but that isn't saying much seeing how there is practically no rust. It wasn't rusted through or anything. I just took a grinder to it and painted it. A few months ago I bough a sealed battery so I don't see myself having any more rust issues. As long as I stay in Arizona that is. 

New Colour

I am 95% sure that this will be my new color combo. L-282 Lotus White, which was used on classic type-1s and type-2s, and L-50A Bahia Blue. Now this color I am not as sure about. At Sherwin-Williams it was on an old book, they had the paint chip on an old VW/Audi page. Maybe it was more of an Audi color but I haven't been able to find it online. I don't care too much. I had two cans of paint mixed up to make sure these are the colors I want. My original color was L-50B Diamond Blue, so they are fairly close. Bahia is a bit darker which I think fits better with the late, "fatty" body style such as mine. So here is a little sample I sprayed on a piece of wood. Tell me your thoughts. I am thinking about maybe just going with the original two tone paint scheme, instead of bringing it down lower. I don't know, but I will figure it out soon. At least I have the colors picked. Sorry the picture is a little dark, I took a picture in the sun but it was just shinny and you couldn't see any colors, it just blinded the observer.

Pan Pics

Before, this first picture is after the rust was worked out and right before I painted it.

This second picture is after I painted. Looks pretty good to me.

Cleaned Pan

I am done cleaning the pan. I figure I ground and sanded down all the rust I could without grinding through the metal, and I painted it with some rust eliminating black primer. I am going to cover it all with new heat and sound insulation anyway so what is the point of making it perfect and I think its basically there anyway. But you tell me. Notice the rust on the passenger side. The driver side had already been worker on in this picture. 

Expectations and Update

I just made the order for some NOS bullet front turn signals. My hope is that they fit perfectly. I have seen it done in pictures but never in person. I also got some scrap metal to patch my old holes from my old turn signals. Once this is done I will take it to the paint shop to get it painted, hopefully by the end of March or beginning of April. The interior is completely ripped out, the trim is shaved, and the body is ready to go. I need to get rid of the surface rust where they battery is sitting and paint the floor pan and some things in the inside. I feel as soon as I get my lights, an order will be placed for my interior kit, rubber kits, and other little things that I need to get. As soon as I get it back from the paint shop, I will slam it, and put everything back together and be on my way. Sounds easy but I am sure there are going to be a number of hold ups.

Wet Sand

No, we weren't on a beach. The body work and sand is basically done. After months of work I am finished. My brother and I hit it hard this weekend and finished it up. After the 400 grit wet sanding we wiped the car down and took it out in the sun to try and find any imperfections that I may have missed. We found a few, hence I am not totally finished. We found one on the drivers side fender, very small, one little ripple in the hood, also very small, and 6 ripples on top. The ripples on top were so hard to see that I don't think I am going to mess with them. This, I have multiple reasons for.

1. You could only see them when it was wet and at just the right angle and look extremely hard. 

2. If I bondo it, I very well will make them worse. 

3. I am going to be painting the top an off white which is a color that does not show dents very easily. 

Yesterday I filled the dent on the hood and the fender. Today I will spot sand them and take them all the way down to 400 grit wet, take it back out in the sun and make sure its perfect. I have to say, I am fairly impressed with myself, being my first time. 

Also I am not done because I just bought some bullet turn signals from the earlier type-3s. Meaning that I need to buy some sheet metal and weld in a patch over the old holes, grind and bondo, sand, finish sand, and install the new signals. This will take some time I guessing, see how I have never done it before. Wish me luck. 

Here is my brother working and wet sanding while I stood around. This happened a lot because I am tired of sanding.

All Heat/Sound

All the heat and sound insulation is now out. Everything is out. Just the other day I tore the last of it out on the engine deck lid. As I did this I noticed a large bump coming up from the engine on the deck lid, from further investigation I determined that whoever hooked up the carbs when the conversion from FI was done jimmy rigged the throttle set up and in order for it to fit, had to dent the lib upward. Now I am faced with another situation, do I leave it as is, or do I purchase the correct set up and pound the bump back down? Something to think about I suppose. In the mean time I have a bit more work to do. 

Headliner

Beginning, middle, and end.

 I basically took out the middle windows and cut around the others and undid the headliner ribs and hooks and moved forward through the vehicle, taking out the mole hair as I went. Once everything was out I again was left with the all too familiar yellow crusty old glue. I first wiped it down with a wet rag and then with course blue scrub sponge and water I scrubbed it down. Then everything and anything that was left I used my ever faithful decal remover to turn spots of still crusty glue into a manageable goop. Once that was wiped away the headliner business was done. That is until I put the new one in.

Pre-cleaning and post cleaning. Glue residue everywhere, more cleaning pictures to come, a lot of before and after pics. The wheel wells had black crusty plastic on it which was chipped off and away and then I cleaned up the dried glue. For some reason my computer won't post a vertical picture, so here it is horizontal. Deal with it.

Cleaning the Door

So here is what the door looked like after the rubber was pulled and the panel is off. Inside the torn plastic is old crusty heat/sound insulation. I figured I would rip that out and put new insulation in, this turned out to be a decision of many hours. After I pulled all of the insulation that I could by hand I grabbed my 5 in 1 tool and started scrapping. This I did for a few hours and finally, with a number of skinned knuckles later, it was all off. The passenger side was not as big of a pain in the butt. After all the black insulation was scrapped out, I used my decal remover to take off the rest of the glue and grime. What I am left with is a completely clean door, a clean surface to glue to when I put in my new sound insulation. Was it worth all the hours? Maybe, maybe not, but at least it is done right.

Congrats

Mr. Phil, welcome to the VW club. I welcome your bug to our community.