This is the Beetle when it first showed up at the house. No worries… change the oil, quick Krylon paint job and start driving this thing around.
A little surface rust, I thought. Hey! It’s still got the original luggage rack! How cool is that?
Here’s where the trouble starts. It appears the floor is completely rusted through.
First step: Lift the body off and see where we’re at. This car is covered in a thick layer of grease, grime, pine needles, and dirt. Time to start cleaning it up.
Floor pans cut out. Time to start stripping this down. I realize at this point that this has turned into a bigger project than I meant for it to be.
Almost all stripped down. Just need to pull those spring plates off. I would have pulled more bolts out, but I honestly couldn’t find anymore to pull. May as well start from scratch.
All stripped down and sandblasted. This is the starting point for greatness.
Time to sandblast the rest. Unfortunately, winter has arrived. So I must make a sandblasting tent in the shop. This was my home for the next few days.
New floor pans welded in and sandblasted. Notice Joshy, the highly-qualified assistant.
Chassis, transmission, all the small parts… Blasted! Joshy’s cleaning sand out of all the crevices.
Sprayed the chassis with POR15. POR15 is awesome stuff, but the instructions say to brush it on. Spraying worked well, but it floated into every nook and cranny of the shop. For the rest of time, there will be outlines of whatever was sitting on the floor that day.
Top side painted with POR15. Reassembly is about to begin!
All the suspension and steering components were painted with POR15 as well.
…as were the pedals, hand brake, shifter, brake back plates, and whatever else I could find.
Front end sprayed with POR15 and ready for install.
The original condition of the front end for comparison. It went from this…
…to this. Steering knuckles also reinstalled.
Shifter, heat controls, pedals, and hand brake reinstalled. Linkages and new control cables have all been pulled through the tunnel.
The original brakes (just for comparison).
New brakes all put together.
Front brakes assembled.
Wheels assembled.
The transmission was also sandblasted and brushed with POR15. Even when you brush it on, the POR15 lays down almost as nice as when it’s sprayed. And with a lot less mess. Differential and axles were removed and blinds were made to keep sand out.
Nicely painted transmission mounted in the nicely painted chassis.
Body is all stripped down and ready to start the bodywork.
Inside is going to get painted, too. I never took the doors off, but everything else that wasn’t part of the body steel got removed.
Finally ready to bolt some wheels on and set it on the floor. Notice the old seats sitting on the floor. They’ll get reupholstered.
Frame is ready for the body to be set on. I wasn’t sure how high to set the rear suspension. I didn’t know how much the weight of the body and engine will end up pushing it down.
The body in Ryan Straatsma’s paint booth. Ryan did so much work on this body. The finished product is amazing. That guy is an artist.
Safely transported the body back from Ryan’s. Need to invite a few friends over to lift it onto the frame. I actually built a big gantry crane just for the purpose, but I couldn’t figure out how to pick the body without scuffing the new paint.
Set the body down on the frame. Yep, rear suspension definitely set way too high.
New headliner is in. Also got most of the dash assembled.
Lowered the suspension to something a little more reasonable. Windows installed. Fenders and running boards mounted. Most of the outside chrome and lights are attached at this point. Still need to mount the rear bumper and some miscellaneous hardware.
On to the engine… I don’t actually know when this engine last ran, but it’s got a good amount grease build-up.
The grease was thick enough in some places to hide the bolts. I eventually found them all and got the engine disassembled.
After hours and hours of power washing, wire brushing, and repainting pulleys and tin.
You can’t see much of the actual engine once it’s installed. The entire thing is shrouded in freshly cleaned and repainted engine tin.
New padding in all the seats and new vinyl covers and door panels from TMI installed.
Finished interior with new headliner, visors, seat vinyl, door panels, and carpet.
Ryan at Second Skin painted the interior as well as the exterior.
Ryan painted the center of the steering wheel to match the rest of the interior accents, but he only clear-coated the outside in order to keep the patina.
The finished product. Only took 11 years and an amount of money that my wife is only vaguely aware of.
