Aircooled VW South Africa

Page 6 woohoo lol ok will wait "good things come for those who wait"

Here we are at Episode 7 already

It was time to repair the left hand side (lhs) heater channel. You all saw the amount of work that went into the right hand side (rhs) channel, so I was expecting an update maybe on thursday/friday that the left hand side was almost done. Then next week the front would be tackled, and first week october the REAR of the notch (that will be a series on its own!).

MUCH to my surprise and (delight), I received an email yesterday, with some pictures attached from a certain Bugoff.

Now to keep honest people honest, I try not to check my ACVW email when I am working, as it might just distract me from the job at hand, but I just couldn't resist

But wait, let the pictures do the talking:

Front joints:







(The poor blue donor bug - wait till you see the fasty!)

Rear joints:





Left channel replacement done!



But WAIT, there's more!

Anyone notice anything missing in this picture (besides the spare wheel smartasses !)



maybe this picture will help:



YES, this notch was cut to be watercooled by the previous owner, so the spare wheel front valance was cut out to make way for the radiator. But no radiators here . So we had to fix it!

The donor fasty also did not have a useable front valance, so what to do, what to do ?

Ferdi measured and checked , and checked again, and noticed that the fasty roof had a similar curve to the front of the Notch - who knew!

And, as they say, waste not want not, so out with the grinder, weld, and weld some more:







We have somewhere to put the spare!

I did receive the bolt-on part of the spare wheel well, will go back in when the time is right.

Now obviously I was quite happy with the progress thus far, but , again, as they say in the infomercials, if you call now, we will add another extra! And so it was :

This notch was rust powered before:



Chant with me: Cut it, cut it, cut it

Visualize the grinder:



In with a bit of fasty metal (anyone watch Star Trek ? We are the Borg, you have been assimilated )



Ready for Primer



MR Austin Powers put it best : YEAH BABY!

Think you will agree that was quite an episode of Wreck Rescue ! Well done to Ferdi so far. Look out for Episode 8, it might be sooner than you think!

******* sa katapusan ********

WOW that is alot of work for the time it was done in good work and cant wait for the next update. weird that the fasty's roof curve was the same as the wheel well lol i would never have seen that or even have tried it but bloody damn good work

Hats off to you Buggoff.Fantastic work!

Wow Karma it looks great

Thanks for the compliments guys, it means alot to me.

Ferdi.................

















Speechless.......... Well except for the fact that you seem to really excell at what ever you do! Keep it going!

Hijack this here a bit, but your first creation seems to be popping up everywhere, now seen on the Piston Ring newsletter about Ferdies Swop meet, also have some good info that it would also get a spot in the Motorheads Diary for 2010, and a few other places, but that's a secret!
End Hijack!

Keep up that excellent, brilliant work of yours! Now what about your EAGLE! I want a ride in it mister, and soon!

Cheers

Karma,

You have a master there looking after you car, good job!

Satisfaction guaranteed!

Neil

I'm speechless......this is like watch discovery where they do a full rebuild in a 1 hour programme.

HUGE RESPECT!

The Q's

I am his biggest fan.
After the notch, my beetle is booked for surgery, then a friends classic non ACVW car, I convinced him there is no-one better to respray it!

Oh, and Hijacks will cost you at least a lift in Herbie!

No problem, but one lift deserves another, when the notch is done, I hope you will return the favour!

Cheers

Episode 8

Ferdi worked on the notch some more today, Yes, even on a public holiday! Respect

I also went past there today to take a quick look see, and the sheetmetal work looks GOOD.

The one that stood out for me was this one from the previous episode:



Once that front spare valence is primered and sprayed you will NEVER EVER know that the panel was welded in!

Some of the work done is also very finicky and with lots of details you don't see on the pics. For example, the fasty heater channels ARE NOT the same as the notch. So it's not just cut out and replace, it's carefully cut out, trial fit, modify, shape, trial fit again, borrow some sheetmetal from the organ donors (fasty and blue bug), tack weld, shape some more and then complete the welding.

One thing I noticed when I dropped off the Notch originally was how loose the front bumper was. Thought it was a loose bolt or two, but saw the real reason today:



There was no more metal left to hold the bumper mount!

So back to our motto, find it, grind it, fit it, weld it.





inside as well




and then the other side:





Some NS1 on the inside:



and the outside:



With the above done, the Sheetmetal work is about 2/3rds complete on the Notch. But, that last rear 1/3rd. Eish. At least judging by the work done so far, I am positive we'll be all good.

Some pics of the start of the rear rust repair.

Ferdi cut out some rust, or what looked like rust - turned out to be rust, bitumen and fibreglass!

How do you fix that?



You make a bigger cut till you find some steel to weld the replacement sheetmetal to! This is under the rear wheel arches.



Looks the same in the boot and engine compartment.

then complete the motto: fit it and weld it:



Progress has been fantastic this week.

We are starting to discuss sound deadening. Dynamat is nice but too @#@% expensive. I checked some of the history on the forum and there has been suggestions of vibraseal, sound seal, etc. Which methods have you used, what were the costs, and most importantly the results! I have also heard that we could paint with something like a sealer, put thin and hard carpet over and then do another coat. Just don't know if I like the idea of painting it on ?

As always advise will be appreciated.

******** El final ********

Karma looks great...BUGGOFF you are dong a great job it is going to be one top notch notch.

damn thats good work he really knows what he is doing big up to Ferdi

Just finished going through all 420 pages of The Samba's notchback gallery (That took a couple of weeks!). Still happy with the colour I chose. Wheels will work well too. Saw plenty of nice accessories for Notches...