Retrovans 1952 Split Beetle -Lady Phoenix

[Jdt1976]

If you fancy red.....





I was allways under the impression our Uitenhagen assembled splits had the beige "vinyl" type material till I got this one. This car was original Azure blue as you can see in the pics but came with this red "vinyl" type material.

Will take some time to get used to the red in a split.

[retrovan]

Hey, Great find there, Lot better condition then mine was, , yes, also can not think of a split with red interior.

was it not changed at some time...???

Herman

[Jdt1976]

Thanks Herman.

No, it was never changed. Exactly the same patern and outly than the original beige ones I got. Underneath it still have got the factory's paper tag inside by the springs.

I can send you a sample of the beige and red. You can check if you find something in PE thats similar like the "vinyl" type they used.

[retrovan]

Red no thank you but the Beige ... Yes Please, maybe have a small patch of the carpet pile.??

Herman

[freddiebooysen]

I think it will look good the honey brown not so sure of

[retrovan]

So just a short update, got some more parts today, and there are a number of shipments still coming in within the next few days.

Finally the "triple rowed hens teeth" are here, them being the tail light body's,







And just for good measure some pic's of the door window regulators that were rebuilt.

Note how primitive they were in the late 40's



Well till next time,

Herman

[retrovan]

So the work on the 52 Split is going slow, this is not due to my lack of trying, but the fact that I am waiting for the new wiring harness to arrive from John Henry.

Yes You are correct, I could make one up myself, for a tenth of the price, but then it would not look original.

Correctly you all shouted that i was going to make it a drivers car, but, the harness is the 1st thing that needs to go in, and will be difficult to replace once the car is assembled.

That would make the conversion back to original in the future virtually impossible, so thats why its getting done now, even it its going to cost the price of a Beetle.

So what have I done so far, well the Doors are hung, with the door opining mechanisms, ice-pick door handles, rubber buffers, door rubbers, and window regulators. The new Glass has arrived and is also ready to be fitted.

Just waiting for the sashes to fix the glass to the slide of the regulators.

That I still have to make, as the ones on the WWW is not exactly true to original.

Jdt1976 has most graciously offer his original for me to copy, so I hope I can get it done. Thanks Jaco.

The Latest of HENS TEETH have been secured, and they look like a million dollars





Will be taking some photo's of the progress tomorrow, so till then.

thanks for looking

Herman

[freddiebooysen]

Starting to get together nicely. Thank you for the update.



Freddie Booysen
72 lowlight
74 beetle

[Jdt1976]

Thanks. Those bumpers are nice.

Looking forward for those photos.

[Denny]

Enjoying this thread! Thanks!


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[fourier]

Herman, those bumpers look awesome! Are they new, or something you've had reworked locally?

Can't wait to see those update photos!

[retrovan]

Thanks guys, much appreciate the feed back,

So as I am still waiting for the Wiring harness, which could still take weeks, I am getting the small things done.

Started with the Sound proofing, and YES the 1952 did not originally come out with sound proofing. but as said a number of times, this is not a trailer queen, but a daily driver.

So here we go, the Back seat area got 1st treatment.....





Here you see it all done,....



Now you do not .....

The engine fire wall also got the same treatment ...



So now we will do the back wheel humps and the doors.....

But in the meen time I had to hang them 1st, and get the hardware into the doors as well....





Well till next time

Herman

[Edmond]

Looking good, is that the super laykold tape you used on the firewall

[retrovan]

Looking good, is that the super laykold tape you used on the firewall

Thanks,

Yes, thats right, makes a very affordable sound proofing without causing condensation build up under the normal carpet type sound proofing.

You can now fit the "under-veld" type on top of this, and it will not promote rust.

Well as you can see, I have added sound proofing to the back side panels as well as both doors, so the door now has a nice quality sound when closing.





Also made up some seat rails, as the pan sections for the replacement true 1952 did not have them on.

Thanks again Jaco, for letting me copy your old rails, Think I managed to get a very near perfect rail together.

Here are the parts before assembly......





And here is the driver side in place, fixed to the pan.....





Not very clear, but better photo's when I do the passengers seat.

Still waiting for the Harness from John Henry, so we will carry on with the small things till it gets here.

Still getting the window sashes as well, so you can see that this is a slow process to get all parts needed for such a project when you start with only a shell.

thanks for looking

Herman

[freddiebooysen]

Looking good !


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