Roll-up windows

I was having lunch with some friends today and catching up on lost time with our buddy Chris Harkman. Chris asked how "the bug" was coming and I told him it was close to getting on the road.

My buddy Mike suggested that we spend a couple hours on it this afternoon and see how far we could get with it.

I really wanted to get the last of the windows in so that I could take it out of the garage and over to Tony's so that he could take a look at the motor and get it running better ... (or at all. For some reason I can't get it to run at all right now. It cranks over fine, just doesn't start. Some type of gas or spark issue.) (UPDATE ... it was a cracked gas line, starts great now)

Mike stopped over and we went right to work on the roll-up windows. They are a pain! There are lots of trim pieces and they have to get put on in a certain order. We didn't know that order so it was a lot of puting things on then taking them off again.

Mike was a huge help and we where able to get the windows done! The glass fits a bit snug, but they go up and down by the little hand crank.

Now this week I'll get ahold of Tony and see if he can take a look at "the bug" and get it running.

The Dash is in

I got some time this evening and was able to get the dash board. I have a few more things that still need to go in but most of it is back in place. One of the new things is a new radio antenna.

I also came across a set of 4 brand new bumper trim thingys. (Its like Christmas every time I go to the pile of parts). They go in the fenders and the bumper mounts slide through them. This means that I have to take the bumpers off to put these in. Easy job, just wish that I would have seen them before I put the bumpers on the first time.

Frog and Toad

What happend to the frog's car when it broke down?
...
It was "toad"

More progress

I got my vent windows installed last night. Before I put them in I replaced the window seals with new rubber. The molding went in fairly easy once I figured out how it stays in. I also got the drivers side rear view mirror installed. Brand new, chrome, looks nice.

I also have a matching passenger side mirror ... but no hole for the mirror. I'm thinking of finding a nut that will fit, and drill a hole in the passenger door so that I can put the mirror in. I think with the correct washer size it should work OK. Only problem, if it ever comes lose I'll need to take the interior panel off the door so that I can reach the nut. Not a big deal.

I was also able to get the dash cleaned up. I need to pickup some weather stripping for the vents before the dash goes in. Should happen soon.

Pictures.

I still need to get the dash and door windows in before I can drive it, but here are a few updated pictures from this weekend.

Windshield done!

Tyler and I got the front windshield in tonight. It really helps knowing what to do, we got it in the first try! Don’t get me wrong, it was still a bit of work. I was really careful because I was afraid of breaking or cracking it. No breaks or cracks ... but i did notice that it has a really small rock chip on the passengers side. I'll have to keep an eye on it for any future issues with it.

Tonight I also got both of the rear quarter windows tinted. They are totally flat which made it straight forward to do myself. I’m really happy with how they turned out. I’ll let them sit for a day and hope to put them into the car tomorrow evening.

Rear window.

Well it's never as easy as it looks on TV. I got the rear window in tonight. What a pain that was! After my 6th or 7th attempt doing it by myself (like the guy on the restoration video so easily does) I had to enlist Tyler's help. He held the top part of the window in place while I seated the molding. With a little banging and some sweat, we got the window in ... first try. Tyler was a big help.

After the window was in, we had to go around the exterior edge and make sure there wasn't any part of the molding edge rolled under. Looks nice. I want to let it sit out in the hot sun sometime soon to really let the rubber molding relax and settle in.

I also put the molding around the front windshield and set it in place. If I have time tomorrow I'll get that (with Tyler's help) window in too. And need to finish the tinting of the rear quarter windows soon so I can get those installed too.

Headliner, check. Glass next!

OK, the headliner was delivered a few weeks ago and this weekend was the first time that I had some real time to work on it.

My daugter Rachael helped me put the new pad interior padding in the car on Saturday. It was like a puzzle and kinda had to figure out where everything went. I found an image on the web where I ordered it but not quite everything lined up just right. No biggie, just trimmed the extra stuff.

Sunday I was just going to use whatever I could and see how far I got. I watched my interior restoration video again and headed out to the garage. I had to stop back in a couple times along the way to see again how they did a couple of things ... but now it's finished. Took a good 8 hours to get it done with just one person.

Now this was the first headliner I've ever done, and while it's not perfect, it's not too bad either. I'm happy with it. I think that it could have been a little tighter in a couple of places, but it will do the job.

This was going to be the biggest hurtle to getting back on the road ... I dreaded it ever since I got the car, and even more over the last few weeks. So happy to be done and moving onto the next step.

Next steps ... putting in the glass. The front and read windows are ready to go but I still need to tint the 2 side rear windows. Then dash can go back in ... and the door windows ... and seats ... and a little more trim ... then its drivable! Which I'll probably drive right to Main Street Auto and have Tony fix the timing and carb. Then more driving.

The next few weekends are going to be busy so finding any block of real time is going to be hard. I'm going to just have to see how far I get by doing 1 thing an evening... Man I want to drive it!

Lights ...

Tonight I was able to get the headlights in, and the front bumper on. The bumper looks kinda junky compaired to the body and paint job ... but that is fine for now. More then ever I just want to get everything put together and on the road! I started it up and let it run for about 10 minutes. It's been a while since its ran.

I found a great image that helped me get the wiring correct on the headlights.

I also ordered the headliner, padding, glue and an interior restoration CD tonight from jbugs.com. Not sure how long it will take to get the parts because it didn't give me an option when I ordered. I'm assuming about a week or so.

Happy Father's Day ...

My kids asked what I wanted for Father's day a couple of weeks ago and I said "an afternoon to work on the bug would be great". We'll I got just what I wanted. Thanks family!

Tyler helped me a lot today. First thing we did was put the new little moon shaped vents by the rear windows in. Easy and quick and on to the next thing. While I was putting the rear fenders and running boards on he put the rear tail lights in. I installed the door handles and closing hardware. Tyler put the front turn signels on and played around with the headlights. We didn't get that finished and will pick up there tomorrow.

Tyler helped me with the wiring of the rear tail lights by pressing the brakes, turning on and of the running lights, flipping the blinkers and hazzard lights. Really make the process easier when there are two people.

Other noteable events this weekend ... we camped in the backyard on Friday and Saturday nights in our new (1989) StarCraft pop-up camper. My dad joined Tyler and I for most a day at the "Back to the 50's" car show. For not being a "car guy" my dad really knew a lot of stuff about 40's and 50's cars. It was a great time.

Great weekend, thanks to everyone!

Happy Birthday ... kinda

Well its been one year since I picked up the bug. I've made a lot of progress but wish that I was farther along and had it back on the road and drivable. Soon. A little more money and a lot more time and she'll be making the rounds.

Whats new ...

Well I had a chance to work on the bug today. The weather was great so I rolled it out of the garage to some color sanding in a few areas that were still a bit rough. I spent most of the afternoon sanding, buffing and polishing. Not perfect but coming along. I also put the rear license plate thingy on. Now I can saw that I'm actually puting things back together.

Mike Cummings stopped by this evening and he helped me put the front fenders and beading on. We also put the driver and passenger door seals in. The doors are going to need a little adusting so they close right with the seals in place. The seals still need some tweaking too.

Mike and I where talking about lower the rear. He told me about a tool that is built for compressing the rear spring so that it can be removed. I'll start looking around for it.

Pre-release pictures of the new paint job

Well the painting is done. Just a but more polishing tonight. I'll be picking it up this coming Saturday morning. I'm super stoked to be getting it back. The quality of the pictures aren't the best, they where taken from my phone camera.



I also have the rear window in being tinted today. I tried doing it myself, but there was just too much curve to the window for my limited skills and tools to get done right. I think that I can do the others myself.

Next is the roof headliner, then I can get the glass put in. Bumpers, lights, running boards, trim, dash, seats, carpet, rims, lower, tune up ... Lots of things to still do before I can drive.

YEAH!!!

Car is at the painter ...

Yeah! The car made it to the painter today. He should have it for a couple of weeks. I'm so stoked!

Coll thing ... the car is running good enough that I was able to drive it up the driveway and onto the trailer. Then back off the trailer and into the paint shop. I was getting a little worried the last couple weeks that it wasn't going to be running and I was going to have to push it onto the trailer.

Paint and a carb rebuild ...

I picked up my paint last night on my way home from work. Cost for the paint and materials ... $281.66. I went with the with the Omni line of paint from PPG.

The order process was made smooth by the great help from Dave at the local CarQuest. When I placed the order I had John (the painter) on speaker phone, and he and Dave could make sure that I picked up everything needed. John was also able to select the products that he's had experiance with.

I've made arrangements to take the car over to the painter this coming Sunday afternoon. Eric will be helping me by taking it over with his trailer. Thanks Eric!

Lastly, I rebuilt my carb last night. This is the first time that I've re-built a 34 PICT 3 carb, but it was rather straight forward. It took me about 3 hours total. I took it apart, clean everything with cleaner and an air compressor. Put everything back together, and mounted it back on the car. I will still have to make a couple of carb adjustments, but that will have to wait until I have the ignition put back together and timed (statically).

Thats all for one night...

Update. I have the ignition put back together and statically timed for 5 deg before TDC. Put the battery in the car to test everything out ... nothing. Switched batteries and the lights come on and the fan blows, but the starter isn't spinning. I've got it hooked up to a charger for the night, we'll see what happens tomorrow after work.

Update. Ended up replacing the ground battery cable, fired right up ... after a few cranks. The original one was just too worn out.

Todays progress

Stopped by Car Quest (Lakeville) today and ordered my paint and supplies. They will have it mixed up and reay for pickup on Tuesday afternoon. Dave at Car Quest has been a huge help in getting all of the needed items together for me.

When I got home today, there was a package from jBugs for me ... my carb rebuild kit. I spent a few minutes this evening and pulled the 34 PICT 3 carb off the car. I'm hoping to start the rebuild Tuesday evening. I need to get it re-built and back into the car by the end of the week so that I can drive it on the trailer this weekend. I'll also need to look at the timing again, I think that I've got it messed up good! I'm a little worried about the carb because there are a few things rusted on carb and I don't think that is a good thing. I hope that I can get through this season with this carb and maybe look at something better next year.

A couple of days ago I started pulling the dash out, and tonight I finished it. I'm really glad that I took it out. Not only will it make it easier to paint, but it had all kinds of crap behind it. Stuff like little peices of glass and pine needles and deteriorated gaskets and hoses. The glass makes me think that at some point the windshield has been broken.

I also took out the winshield wiper assembly. Originally I took it our to make it easier to prep and paint, but now I'm glad that I took it out. Inside the wiper housing, there was dirt, leaves, pine needles, small twigs ... It was a mess and the drain pipe was almost clogged. The blower fan was also only hanging on with one rubber mount and the hose from the fan to the vents was falling apart. Looks like I have a few more things that are going to need fixing ... later.

Right now I'm just looking to getting the car painted, fenders, doors and hoods on. That will be huge progress.

Hidden tresures

Last night I spent some more time in the shed. I wanted to get the fenders, doors and hoods wrapped up in foam for next weekend to protect them from scratches while traveling, but after I had the first door wrapped up I thought about the mess it was going to make when it got to the painter. And since we are going to put the parts on the body after everything is painted, I would have to bring it all back home ... blah blah. Forget it. I'm not going to wrap them.

I did need to see how many (if any) fender bolts that I have so that I can buy what I need to finish. Door screws. I needed to find those too. The screws should really get painted so they match.

All of my parts in boxes that are laying across a couple wooden palets to keep them off the floor. I started my bolt/screw search on the lefthand side and this is where the fun started. I found that I have a bunch of new motor tin, like an entire new fan housing. Found some new window moldings, a new speedo cable and new hood lid molding.

I thought that I had came across the jackpot when I opened a battery box and found ... all of the original fender bolts and washers! There was also a set of new chrome valve covers in there as well, plus a bunch of other bolts and things.

Then came the next couple of boxes ... super cool ... where I found 2 brand new running boards! 2 new mirrors, entire tail light assemblies, new front turn signals, new fender molding , and a bag of all NEW fender bolts and washers! I need to keep the fender bolts and molding out when I start putting things together.

I knew I had some new things but I didn't know that I had all of this. Sweet!

I came across a few other things that I needed and totally forgot about. The little part that goes over the real license that has a little light in it. That would have been a bummer if I forgot to have that painted. I also came across the original tail lights, turn signals and mirrors. They where all sun damaged, cracked and faded. Now I see why the new parts where ordered.

A found a few other things as well. All in all, some nice surprises.

I was trying to figure out how the painter was going to paint the areas around the dash. Since the current color is light powdery blue and the new color is going to be a much darker blue, I think there would have been an obvious line ... so I also stated to take the dash out. The dash has been hacked up and has paint on the drivers side and is kinda a mess. Plus I need to replace the speedo because the needle on the current one is broken. The dash isn't out yet, but its close to coming out. I need to find out how to disconnect the vent and fan dials ...

Went to bed stoked about my new finds.

Paint color ...

OK. I've got it down to 3 different paint options. I decided that I wanted to go with a color that was available from VW from that time period. I looked up the paint codes from PPG's website that where available in 1973 from VW and I found a sample page that had the colors. The original color of the car is L-54D Marina Blue. The current shade of blue is just a little too ... light and powdery for my liking. Anyway, using GIMP I used the color picker tool, selected the colors from the sample page, used the RGB values to customize the color on Bug Selecta, exported the image into GIMP and tinted the windows to 40%. Here is what I came up with ...

This is the color that I'm going to go with. L-52B Biscay Blue 2580. It should complement the existing blue interior nicely.



No tint, with tint, painted bumpers and no bumpers

L-61B Sumatra Green, 2480

L-64K Zambezi Green, 2582

PPG color samples from Volkswagen 1973

Car show events for summer.

I know it sounds like a long ways off, but summer will be here before we know it. Here are events that I enjoy attending.

Twin Cities bug-In car show and swap meet.
Sunday June 6th.
Its a small show, but VW's only!
http://www.twincitiesvwclub.com/

Minnesota Street Rod Association (MSRA) Back to the 50's Car Show
June 18 - 20th, 2010
Over 12,000 cars, 3 days long and held at the MN State Fair Gounds in St. Paul
http://www.msra.com/

Lakeville MN, Cruise Night (Pan-o-Prog)
July 9th, 2010 starting at 6:30
Over 500 cars that parade through downtown Lakeville. After the parade a couple hundred fill up the downtown streets for an evening car show. Food vendors, music and beer!
http://www.panoprog.org/category.cfm?category_id=54

Northfeild MN, Car Show (Jesse James Days)
September 11, 2010 9 am - 3 pm
Usually 2 - 300 cars at this show
http://www.djjd.org/lmth/events/carshow.html

New Prague MN, Cruise Night (Dozinky Days)
September 17, 2010 6:30
The cruise night takes place on the Friday evening before the Once a year, 400 plus classic cars and trucks take over main street in New Prague.
http://www.newprague.com/dozinky/

Farmington ussually has a car show during the summer as well. I don't have any information on that yet but I'll post an update when I figure it out.

Time for the painter ...

I met a friend or a friend during a Super Bowl party, and he knows how to paint cars and does body work. He's been in the business for a number of years and has complete facilities at his home. Nice!

We talked for a little while and he was interested in my bug project. So a couple of weeks ago he stopped by and took a good look at the current state of the car. He was happy to see how solid the body is and how very little rust the car had. He agreed that now would be the right time to paint the car, before putting all of the peices back on.

I feel confident about his experiance and quality and I've been open to his suggestions and recommendations. He's been doing it for a lot of years, and what do I really know ... not much. The extent of my body work experiance started with my friend Chris's 73 Camaro in high school and has only been a couple of other small scratches and dents. Not much experiance ... and it shows. I try to do a good job, but it never looks as good as it could.

Anyway, now its up me to pick a color. I have to do it soon so that it can get mixed up and into his hands before he gets the car ... which will be at the end of the month. Yep, in only a couple weeks the bug will be taking a MAJOR step forward in the process of getting back onto the road. He's going to fix up the small rust patches at the lower corners of the back window, prep and paint the car. He thinks that it will take him about a week or two from start to finish.

Once everything is painted, we're going to hang the bumpers, doors, hood and rear deck lid while its at his place. that way we can do any quick touch-ups if we need to, but more importantly, I don't have to worry about scratching the parts when I bring them home or have them get scratched sitting around before it gets warm enough in my shed to get them put back on.

Things to do:

• Picking a color
• Get the paint
• Find the fender molding
• Order fender fasteners and hardware
• Find or order bolts for the hood and rear deck lid
• Find or order screws for the doors.

I don't need to put the molding for the hood and deck lid on right now. I can place something temporary between the lids and body until I get home. Same goes for the door hardware and latches.

Today I was thinking of a green ... I feel like Brett Farve ... I can't make up my mind!