It's been 9 months since the body has left the building. Like most things with this car, it has taken longer than we all anticipated. We surely thought it would be done by now. Not so lucky. I've been patiently waiting to get the body back and the first estimate of July came and went......the second in September came and went......the third before Christmas came and went.......but I was assured that definitely in March I'll get the body back. NOPE. Not going to happen and I'm not happy at all. It's been 9 months and there has been some great progress. But then again, after 9 months you'd expect some great progress, right? Chris works his tail off during the week and I think this project is just more than he can handle. So it's time that I go bring the lady home and call it a day. Stay tuned for the next blog post to see how that turns out. In the mean time, here's what has happened during that time where yin has been missing its yang.
The chassis is done and looks awesome! She is ready to receive her other half and boy I can't wait for that day. I'm seriously having a hard time being patient but what the heck can you do? The wheels were sandblasted and painted by Chris. I took them to Hick's VW to have them mounted and man.....they look awesome. It looks like a car now....or a really cool go cart, I suppose. I had to put one moon hubcap on just to get a glimpse of the future. These are the little things that keep you going. I had to clean out the carburetor, attach the accelerator linkage, put new clamps on the axle boots to stop the leaking, reattach the air cleaner, and weld in the j-tubes so they don't leak exhaust. It's all done now except for the heater boxes. I realized much later after I had finished the engine that I didn't have those. Found some good ones used that I can restore later. I might have said that in an earlier post.....too much time passing on this thing!
Here's what Christ has been able to do so far. He has the body on a rotisserie so that he can work on it easier. Everyone needs this in their garage. You can see where he replaced the heater channels. It wasn't what we planned on doing but after pulling off the bottom plate, we found the tube was Swiss cheese along the right side. Then, the right side was fine but the bottom plate didn't match. So it was easier and would match better if we just replaced the heater channel. I was nervous that when we brought the car back it wouldn't fit right on the chassis pan. This way we have a much better chance. The cross bars are tacked on to prevent a twist in the car. Think of it like insurance.
You can see here where the radio slot has been filled in. It was fit with sheet metal and topped with filler. (not too sure what to think about that surface rust.....mmmmmm)
You can see here where Chris repaired areas that were not problematic but had little perforations. I had intended to fill them with Bondo-Glass but Chris wanted to patch them with sheet metal. Long term, I'm thrilled with his plan. He also rebuilt the front passenger side door bottom corner. It was mangled and rusted out. he reshaped and fabricated new metal to fix it. It looks great and matches the other side quite well. Nice work indeed. He also blasted and painted the gas tank, and seats.
Alas......I want to give Chris the time to finish this. But he's expecting a baby any day the first week of March. He won't surface for another 6 months and I just don't want to wait that long. I'm going to have to finish this myself or take it to someone like Transporter Werks. What frustrates me a bit is that there seems to be a lot of surface rust that I had removed before. In some respects, I feel like I'm a bit further behind than I was before. Although they say you shouldn't cry over spilled surface rust......or something like that. Time to buck up and get this thing back and done. Summer will be here soon and we will all need to go for a ride!