Friday, October 31, 2014

Day 108

Welp, today was an interesting day.  I really didn't get much done but it took a few hours to do it...if that makes sense?

I needed to remove the front apron which required the drilling out of probably 50 spot welds.  I have a special tool called a spot weld cutter that is like a miniature hole saw.  It makes easy work of this job.

Tool.

Results.
Nose job!

Left side has some accident damage, discussed in earlier posts?

This piece needed to be removed so I could replace the rusted bottom seen here.


I still have to drill out the spot welds seen at the top of this piece.  The front apron and spare tire well are two different pieces entirely.
Unfortunately, about half way through I had the biggest accident I've had with this entire project involving myself.  I've had cuts, scrapes, bruises, 6 month long splinters, weld burns, etc. etc.

But none bled as badly as this and had me as worried.  The spot weld cutter slipped and started working its magic on my left thumb.  Blood on the bug body, so now I can say I have blood, sweat, money, and it freakin' hurt... so tears into this car!


What was left of my thumb stuck in the drill bit, it was white, but weird lighting in this picture.

So needless to say, off to urgent care I went for a tetanus booster (probably will need that in the future anyway) and some antibiotics 4 times daily.

I actually cut my thumb about half way through the project and decided to finish it so I could get the front apron off :)

Here's the pictures of the driver's side A pillar.  Will need some filler work, but not too bad.




And a nice picture from work.

This front apron is going to take quite a while.  I need to replace the master cylinder shelf, repair the accident damage on the left side of the car, prep the front area, and then mount the new spare tire well and re-attach the front apron.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Day 107

Today I finished the driver's side A pillar.  It took quite a bit longer than the passenger side because it was a full wrap-around piece.  But, it's done!  Pictures later.

Front tire well and master cylinder shelf next.  :)

Monday, October 6, 2014

Day 106

Alright, so long awaited...here are the pictures I promised in the last post.  The repaired trunk area and pop out windows.


No rust!

Front driver's side tire well repair.

Can you feel the breeze?
Today, I worked on the passenger side A pillar area.  This one was the one that had the least amount of damage.  In case you don't remember, here's what it looked like before.

Swiss cheese.

More holes.

And some minor patch areas.
Well, I can say that after 8 hours (!!) I finally got this area repaired.  Of course it was a bit more taxing than I expected...but so has everything else!

Cut and replace.

Had to remove the carpet hold down rail in order to get to the A pillar.

Not too bad inside.

Repaired!

Good as new! (sort of)

Turned out well.
So, that was the A pillar.  I still have the driver's side to go.  Will do that next.  Then I'll move onto the nose and will remove the front apron and repair the spare tire well and master cylinder reservoir shelf.

BONUS MATERIAL!
Vegas has an annual Bug show and I went to check it out this past weekend.  Saw some cool cars, got some ideas, what to do and not!

I think this is Diamond Grey. The license plate is funny too ;)

What a very original engine should look like.  The spark plug wires are not stock but a nice vintage touch.

This was a '59 convertible that was in excellent shape.  BUT, I was mainly interested in the interior which I think is from a vendor I am looking at.  The color match isn't exact but the fit and finish is very good.


See ya next time!