Hi All

anyone thats been on here for a while now will know me after my biuld thread about Gerry ... so be warned I CAN'T SPELL FOR S888T ... but you'll get to know that and desiffer my written sentences into sense ....if that makes sense

I know its not a bus so dont shoot me as I know this is a bus forum but I wanted to share this will you all as I did with Gerry

Well its been five years since I picked up a hammer and I'm missing it so it was time to look for a new project

Tap Tap on ebay and a quick phone call .... new project purchased !

LHD beetle vert 1966 from USA

Never worked on a beetle so it will be another fun journey I'm hoping

yes looks good from 10 yards but his a mess and lots will need replacing ( good times ahead )

I've just taken delivery of just over 2k in panels and also just picked up the metal to brace the vert as its flexing like and plastic ruler .

PLANS FOR THIS ONE

it will be staying red
it will be LOW !!!!.... on air ... ( so any advice on body modes that I need to do to go low will be greatly received )
it will have fuchs on it
hood maybe black
interior will NOT be black

It will be for sunny fun days and to enjoy just as much as we still enjoy Gerry...too the max

Name .... there is no name yet .... but it will come to me in time

Vert is fighting me all the way so far as most bolts have snapped off and he is revealing some nasty bodges from over the years but I'm not bothered about that as I always expected the worst and a full body off resto

Any way here he his

David Haywood is repairing a vert beetle and did remove the body from pan etc.
I was impressed with how he braced across the doors to maintain the door gaps whist he did this..
He fabricated a bolt in frame.
I may have pictures somewhere..but sure others will have done this.
I use tapatalk as said before for ease of adding pictures and on my samsung this has predictive text as well so my spelling is much improved but it does predict some weird things and when I deliberately want to spell something wrong it keeps correcting..
G

Hi Mark,

Grea that you have another project !

I really enjoyed your thread on Gerry and I really looking forward to learning about beetles now.

I learned so much about splitscreens for your posts on Gerry ,I can't thank you enough, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Good luck with the new project and remember, pics or it didn't happen

Jason

Cool. Nice sequel coming.

Some of the low cars have flattened out the floorpan where the battery sits.

If it was me, I'd do a steering rack conversion. I've removed several air ride systems when owners get fed up with the ride quality / steering etc so try go for a drive in an air ride vehicle of you can before committing to it.

I'm going Porsche 5 speed, one day, though at my speed vs your speed you'll be on your 8th sequel....

Limebug do bolt on kits, if you’re definitely going air ride then their 4” narrowed jawbreaker saves a lots of hassle and work. The rear doesn’t require any mods to the car but if you don’t mind chopping and welding then look at the airkweld kits and fabricate it yourself obviously you can’t go back to standard though. Demon motorsports do hydraulic kits that look the nuts but they are in the USA so shipping may be steep(one of the barndoor builds on here uses this system). Depending how low you want to drive it you maybe better doing an irs conversion and bolting bags to the arms and dogleg them for an extra 2.5” (this is my route on my air ride 70) straight axels don’t like driving too low for too long as it buggers up the bearings but you could do a transmission raise to get a safe couple of inches extra(easy to do, just use a bus nose cone and modified trans cradle to suit). You can get quite low on the rear using red 9 dogleg plates/spline drop and coilovers then match the front that is static but you can still get a nice looking stance. Keep up the great work and remember pics or it didn’t happen.
Mick.

Great that you are posting here, FB just doesn’t do it for me for build threads so thanks for that. Will be watching with interest!

1966, wearing red, got to be Bobby!!
Looking forward to updates Mark.

So had a free saturday normaly on the vert

Got a few jobs done

Just trying to get it stronger to stop it flexing so much before I split the pan and the body

I'll brace the body with metal bars after I fit a new front end

Heres a little pic'y update for the pervs

ENJOY

so the pics below bring up up today ..... I'm using my old camera now as its a smaller frame size and this site seams tolike it ..... body off soon I hope so those of you that leave near by ... watch out you WILL be called for the body life xxxx

Beer can be provided on evening of life off .....

Unfortunatly my Bar that I made in the summer for my 50th is closed for the minter

Still struggerling with photos as I just uploaded 30 of them but only 10 odd show gggrrrr

PICS

One thing I will say is a buses panels are amazing quality compaired to a beetles

I've spent the day fighting with the front panel / front clip

it just does'nt fit so I'm going to be fighting with it until i'm happy .... It's disapointing I thought as there is lots of beetles they would of got the panels right ....but I'm so wrong about that



I have tomorrow off work so I'll be bagging my head tomorrow about how to get this panel fitting correctly


Knote to self ....Get a bus next time !!!!

Bring it on ... Never been beaten bafore so not going to start now ......... LETS GET THIS FRONT SORTED


Over and out


Mark p

The usual problem with the front section is the position of the two under tank reinforcement sections they seem to be about an inch out, the spare wheel well is usually pretty good although on my 66 I had to reposition the chassis pick ups as well to get them snug with the rubber packers, hookeys also do great quality rear repair panels. Body off when fully stripped will only take two people.good start mark,keep up the good work.
Mick.

mik+nik wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:35 pm The usual problem with the front section is the position of the two under tank reinforcement sections they seem to be about an inch out, the spare wheel well is usually pretty good although on my 66 I had to reposition the chassis pick ups as well to get them snug with the rubber packers, hookeys also do great quality rear repair panels. Body off when fully stripped will only take two people.good start mark,keep up the good work.
Mick.

Thanks Mick
Good to read this as that was my conclution about the front panel ...... I have the day off today so lets see if I can sort it



Mark p

Long time away Mark, but when you are rebuilding it, the two body mounts by the beam effect the door gaps. So look into that before bolting the body back on.

vwJim wrote: ↑Mon Nov 26, 2018 9:15 am Long time away Mark, but when you are rebuilding it, the two body mounts by the beam effect the door gaps. So look into that before bolting the body back on.

I'll be packing it all up and getting those gaps as good as I can mate ... Thanks for the heads up .... Its a real flexable car when its un-bolted ..... I'll be deffo bracing it before I remove the body as there not any heater channels as they have all rusted away so theres NOt strength in this beast

Cheers

mark

there are 6 bolts that influence the door gaps x2 front clip, x2 through rear seat floor and the 2 in the rear arches, set your gaps using the rubber spacers then measure the distance and manufacture steel spacers to suit that way when you re-bolt it they are good and solid and unlike rubber won't degrade over time(i generally just use stainless washer stacked up to suit as i pick em up off the floor here at work)