Alrighty...back for a rather lengthy post.
First off, remember that rare sport wheel from the post above? Yeah...this one, not so valuable any more.
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Basically, I F***ed up on the tire machine. Rally car tires are super, super, super stiff. And while I have mounted hundreds on alloy wheels, I've only ever mounted one a onto a steel wheel four times before. If you don't get the bead down enough on an alloy wheel, the machine just stops. On a steel wheel, apparently, it bends the *&$#!!! out of the wheel. Took two of us to eventually get the second bead on, and then my buddy Gord got the rim as round as he could with the hammer. Guess I know which one will be my spare! (sigh)
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But you have to put these things behind you...I mean, yes I destroyed a rare wheel, but this is a race car project...quite frankly I'm more then likely to bend all four in the first 100km of an event anyways. Such is life, move on. And with that, I had an incredibly productive day today out in the garage. I finally managed to get the '69 out of the shop, which meant I could pull the new '71 into the shop. I started on the rear, pulling each fender, the running boards, glass and finally the front fenders. This particular car has a pretty heavy (for a Bug) application of undercoating, and I spent much of today scraping it away to see what surprises lay underneath. Let me tell you, this was a TREAT compared to doing the same thing to an Audi. May I never have to scrape one down again!
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Right-side rear quarter...rust FREE. Not a mark in the whole thing.
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Engine Bay, some light surface rust on the right 'shelf'. Nothing a wire-wheel won't remove.
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Right-side front quarter...rust FREE. Not a mark, except for some transfer from the rusting bumper mount.
Now, I haven't scraped off the undercoat on the passenger side heater channel, but I did spot-check the usual rust locations and found nothing but solid German Steel. I can't actually be
this lucky could I!?!
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Well, not quite. The Left front quarter shows some very minor damage on the front by the apron (there's minor bondo in there), but three of the fender bolt nuts pulled out, which me a little wary for the rest of this side.
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There are a couple of odd holes behind the front strut. The lower hole looked like it was punched through and then seam-sealed over, and there's no rust. Very odd. Above this spot, but not visible in the photos, are two rust holes that are coming from the other side. They originate somewhere under the fuel tank (which I haven't pulled yet) so there is a surprise or two needing some attention. The photo on the right, however, shows the lower seam at the rear of the front fender. This is a well known rust spot, and I usually assume a beetle is rusty here. This car has some minor surface rust, which I believe is from me scraping the spot when I went to buy it a month ago!
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Oh, here's the two rust spots coming through from the fuel tank area.
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Moving back, it starts to get worse. The bottom of the heater channel has some holes, and some surface rust. Rust here, though, doesn't start from the outside...it comes from within. One of the running board mounting holes has significant rot around it...but the worst is in the rear. Even if the mid section can be patched, the rear most 8" of the heater channel needs complete replacement. I've asked one of my buddies who builds show-winning and magazine bugs whether or not I should patch or replace the entire heater channel.
Other then that, no surprises so far. A bit of bondo in the rear fender, and the underside shows the hammer marks where it was pounded out. Not quite sure what the damage was (it's very odd to damage a fender inboard of the tail lamp but nowhere else)...but no worries, it's fully reusable.
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I've also started planning out the various items I need to cut the body for before paint. My buddy Gord, who builds the Subaru Canada rally cars, came over to discuss the roll bar options with me. Neither of us were fans of the rear-stays that came with my bolt-in roll bar, so we've agreed that he'll need to make some new ones for me. He also figured out a way to move it back another few inches to give me some more room. We'll add a cross bar and a harness bar into the main hoop. Fortunately, though, the main hoop in my kit is quite tight and will be useable.
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I've also started to mock up the Accusump, Dry-Sump Tank and Oil Cooler. I think I'm going to set the car up with a "summer mount" and a "winter mount" for the oil-cooler. The winter mount will actually double as a heater for the inside of the bug. Packaging space for everything, as always, is a problem. Originally the drysump tank was going to go on the passenger side, but it needs to be sunk into the luggage floor. You can't do that, as the starter is in the way...so now it goes on the left. Then, since it's on the left, there is no longer any room for the Oil Cooler under the car...which means moving it into the car. Now the space where the Accusump was going is taken, so the musical chairs continue. Hopefully I don't get kicked out of the car before everything finds a space!
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-Dave