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.

Busy

I am too busy working on my car to blog about it. I will blog soon. With new pictures and hopefully all the way up to date.

Friends A.K.A. The Producers

My pals, Phil and Steve (left to right). When we get together and sometimes along with my brother we can get an awful lot accomplished. As Rob & Big, from the popular MTV TV show, Rob & Big would say, "we do work."

As you can see this picture was taken before everything was ripped out as seen in the previous photo.

That Was Easy.

This, if you couldn't tell is where the back seat once sat. Side panels, out, back seat, out, arm rests, out, heat and sound "insulation," out. All that is left is crusty old glue, which comes off very nicely with that spray I used for my door rubber. Many thanks to my friends who come and get work done. I had a plan to tear out the back, it took like 15 minutes. Saturday I plan on taking the rest of the interior out and running a check on my electrical system, cleaning more crusty glue, and as always sanding. I feel as though I am getting close to paint. I would post another picture of my friends but for an unknown reason it is not allowing me to do so. So... maybe I will post it later.

Tuh-da

Nice and clean. I found this amazing product at Sherwin Williams. It worked fairly well and the can was enough for everything I needed it for and then more. It took everything off but the paint. Well, back to sanding.

Not So Much Fun

Removing the door rubber, is not so much fun. Once the challenging experience of pulling the majority of the rubber out, you are left with all sorts of rubber and glue residue. I believe this is now a job for some goof off.

Chicken Pox

Can cars get chicken pox? Cause it sure does look like my car has some sort of rash, and when you sit in the seats, they make you itch like crazy.

This is what my car looks like as of about a week ago. The paint had tiny little chips everywhere. I hope I am feathering the chips enough, I am a little scared of ripples in the paint when I get a new paint job done. I guess I will keep sanding and hope for the best.

There were a few chips up on top and also on the back hatch.

Body Work and Paint Prep

This was taken early on on the body work, I was working on the the body damage thought to be caused by loose snow chains. The molding is also still on, I shaved that, the top molding that is. I am keeping the bottom molding so that along with the bumpers and wheels the entire bottom of the car is wrapped in chrome. The two tone paint will come down to the bottom of the windows and I thought that with the paint line and the body line a few inches below that, that the chrome trim was too many breaks in the body. If I has decided to paint it one color I very well might have kept the trim.

The Exchange

Soon after the buy, the first fill, just before the drive up to Phoenix. 

Up to Speed 2

The charm of a falling apart but maintained volkswagen is something that not a lot of people understand. I like the idea, but not for this car. I drove the squareback for quite a while as it was, and I suppose I still am, seeing how I haven't gotten the new paint or the new interior yet and the interior that was in there is now ripped out. It probably looks worse than before, not to mention the feather sanding and bondo spots.

A few weeks ago I figured it was about time that I start working on it. the first thing I wanted to do was get the body straightened out. Not knowing much about body work other than how much it costs to get it done at Maaco I looked to a friend for some help. He had all the tools, experience and know how to get the job done. After about five hours one afternoon we had the body banged out to where we wanted it and started with the first layer of bondo. I took the car home and figured I could manage the rest. Somethings I learned on my own, use proper bondo tools, be careful not to sand the bondo down too far, and the process, depending on the dent, can take many layers. 

Time I have, money I don't. So even if maaco could have done it faster, me doing the work will be better and cheaper.

After I started on sanding all the chips, dents, and bondo I began to tear out the interior. This has been extremely easy, a few snaps, clips, and a hand full of bolts and the inside of my car is naked and cold. Along with that process I began to rip out all of the dry rotted door rubber which will be replaced after the paint job. 

Everything, I have discovered, just like everything else in life, (paying of school loans) takes more time than you thought. 

This is where I am at now. Majority of the interior is out, sanding is almost done and a decision of what color to paint it is at hand.