Author Topic: the '55 Ragtop.....are we done yet?  (Read 101081 times)

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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #90 on: September 16, 2008, 08:45:05 PM »
oh that does look killer O0 (what ever happened to the rock-on smiley?)
55 ragtop T1
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #91 on: October 09, 2008, 09:08:11 PM »
been a while, but still pluggin away....... the latest on this saga.......

Finished my speedo tonight


 
Idea was obviously to match the other gauges I already had including a tach that was MIA for the photo



all in all i'm happy with the outcome although the silver paint I used doesn't exactly match they'll be 2' apart and not as obvious as side by side.

Other than that I cut up a semi-farked 59 to rape some parts from. cut the front drivers quarter and crusty heater channels out of it in my quest to have a 98% german metal (2% swedish (wolfe) close enough right?) frankenstien ;D





Will be removing what's left of the bottom plates, removing the 56up inner heat duct, grafting in a few sections of metal and por15 coat the insides before installing these.....

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=542271

Wolfe makes some killer replacement metal (check out his bumper brackets a couple pages back) and is very cool to deal with.



Headlight buckets powdercoated and rings rechromed.........





and a few other odds and ends powdercoated



Idea is to have all the little shit ready to go and stashed away......once and if I ever get the body finished, assembly should go really quick ::)


55 ragtop T1
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Offline OldnShitty

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #92 on: October 31, 2008, 12:35:58 PM »
I sold Steve this car a while back.  Looks like your doing an amazing job fixing it up.  Sounds like you have some unanswered questions about it, so maybe I can help you out a bit.
you can call me if you like at 250-764-7763 in the evening or on weekends.

Johnny

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #93 on: October 31, 2008, 12:50:11 PM »
why yes I do Johnny :o i'll give ya a shout sometime soon.......thanks
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Offline vanBoven

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #94 on: November 04, 2008, 10:43:37 PM »
Josh ya got only ten months left till gcvw 09 :) better get on this thing. we need some updates ;D

Offline surgerypending

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #95 on: March 08, 2009, 09:25:08 PM »
Update please!
Life isn't like a bowl of cherries or peaches, it's more like a jar of Jalapenos--what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #96 on: March 09, 2009, 08:26:33 PM »
hmmmmmmmmm yeah, I've been lame on the progress the past few months. Cut up a 59 a while back thinking I could save the heater channels out of it ( just replace the bottom plates with wolf parts) but they turned out to be toast. So since then i've been hoping i'd be able to source some dry OG ones.
Posted a wanted add on thesamba and found some minty ones from a 54, guy wants an arm and a leg for them but I may just bite the bullet.
Other than that I have started to fix the door hinges, they were too worn for second oversize pins so I really reamed them out and am machining up some bronze bushings to press in. I'll post some pics of that soon.

Got these fog lights from a dude in the netherlands, I think they're pretty cool, made by Notek from France. gonna modify some bumper gaurds and mount these ontop.



I just sold my house so I have to get crackin' on this to be able to move the car at the end of April. We are looking at acreage to build a new home and have room to build a big ass shop......... WITH HEAT!!
« Last Edit: March 09, 2009, 09:30:52 PM by josh »
55 ragtop T1
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #97 on: March 14, 2009, 04:25:34 PM »
So I got over my procrastination and hopped back on the POS this week.

Got a bunch of welds all ground down and smoothed out on the panel splices. For those who are interested here's a bit of a how to on the process I have been using.

Obviously cut out the offending hunk of panel to be replaced (I use a cut off wheel in an electric angle grinder) nice and straight.



 Trim your replacement panel to fit while taking precise measurements and trial fittings (the blue transparent paint is called dykem (sp) machinists use it a lot for scribing precise lines). And end up something like this......





Then start tacking it in jumping around so you don't put too muck heat into the thin sheet metal and burn though. The trick that i've found is to have a max gap of say .020" if not closer. If you can use a copper heatsink to back your weld, i've made up an assortment of shapes and sizes some brazed to the end of a bar for leverage. It's not fun to blaze a hole through where you can't get to the backside.
Here's what it looks like connecting the dots......





Then using a mini 3" X 1/8" cutoff wheel in the air grinder take the tops off the welds very slowly making sure not to hit the panel surface then using these puppies........





They come in a bunch of different grits and blending pads, twist off of the arbor and work SHIT HOT!!! they don't last long tho.
End product is something like this....



And with a quick squirt of black spray bomb to protect the bare metal......











You can barely feel the seams when you run your hand over, they are all just a bit indented (maybey .010") so I will only need a super thin feather of filler once I get that far. A far cry from what I started with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



 ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)


One more thing these bone heads forgot was to fix the super sloppy door hinges before they put it in primer.
The lower passenger and upper drivers were so worn not even a 3rd oversize hinge pin would work plus they don't make an oversized mirror mount pin for the 101 style Hagus mirror that I have. Since ribbed doors don't grow on trees I machined up some bushings out of phosphorus bronze, reamed the middle of the hinge out to 10mm (stock pin is 8mm) and pressed the bushings in.

 



Nice and snug now ;D
55 ragtop T1
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Offline silas

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #98 on: March 14, 2009, 11:16:46 PM »
good times josh!!! keep up the good work & the pics!

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #99 on: April 04, 2009, 01:04:12 AM »
been picking away at stuff. made some good progress on the pan.... I ended up scrapping the idea of welding a new panhead on the 57 pan (didn't want to risk ending up with shitty alignment on a built pan) and drilled the mint pans out and installed on a 59 spine I had.











New early flat seat tracks welded in



Mocking up with cage making sure seats fit



mid mount done.....no more solid mounts!!!!! :lol: 57 was LOUD!!



more mock up with kafer brace, will be tying this into the package tray mounts of the cage to stiffen things up even more.



Broke down and coughed up too much money for a pair of original dry heater channels form down south......came today :D









This was the last piece to this mega puzzle and I figured I was going this far and deep, I may as well do it right!!
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Offline Jeremy

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #100 on: April 04, 2009, 10:14:19 PM »
From the looks of that pic with roll cage mounted you are running a pretty narrow front end. What is it about a 12" narrowed beam. :laugh:
'59 Beetle
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #101 on: April 05, 2009, 10:05:53 AM »
12?..........try 20" :o gonna have shock towers with no body mods :laugh:
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Offline Jeremy

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #102 on: April 05, 2009, 02:10:10 PM »
HAHAHA. Your doing some good looking work there.
'59 Beetle
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Offline Geoff

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #103 on: April 05, 2009, 04:05:15 PM »
This is a great thread! Keep up the great work!

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #104 on: April 12, 2009, 11:41:56 AM »
Thanks Geoff, may be a good thread to read but it sure sucks ass doing all the work :-\ just kidding, i'm having fun......at times

Heater channels had a couple issues of course, nothings as it appears. Shitpiles of work grinding, drilling and welding fixing some areas and had them dipped. acid etched the outsides and then thinned some por 15 and completely coated the insides before welding into the car......no chance these things will be a problem again.
I read somewhere of someone bolting the channels, rear crossmembers and front bulkhead to the pan to get the alignment right and welding them together then droping the body on and mating the 2.....so that's what i'm doing.

















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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #105 on: April 15, 2009, 12:43:15 AM »
so today I gave up and descided to baja this thing...........








     :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o







































well not really, but that's the last of the scabbynes to come off. I've got 2 good quarters that aren't clipped crooked to go on and clean up the spare tire/shelf and front apron.




also picked up an NOS ::) Airspeed dragbar from Russ for it






Also couple shots of the 1"x1" square bracing I put in to keep it all aligned





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Offline Jeremy

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #106 on: April 15, 2009, 09:20:31 AM »
Man, you are doing a ton of quality work to this thing. I would like to post some pics of the '59 but would be embarrased compared to your work. One thing. When I did the heater channels i put a couple of braces across two corners of my bracing just to make sure it didn't tweak out of square when I was fitting and welding them in. Might be an idea. Keep up the pics.

Jeremy

 src="http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x55/brodie59/more%20pan%20picks/bracing.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">[/url]
« Last Edit: April 15, 2009, 09:33:49 AM by brodie »
'59 Beetle
'59 Single Cab

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #107 on: April 15, 2009, 03:07:35 PM »
thanks man, I had thought about diagonal braces but this thing was so squiwiffed to start with it wasn't square.....surprise surprise  ::)
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #108 on: July 09, 2009, 01:00:43 AM »
I'm not dead.....haven't updated in a while but have been picking away slowly. we recently sold our house and are renting until we build, car is crammed in a buddies single bay but at least I can still work on it here and there.

I picked up a new MIG ...Miller 180, its a 230v machine that is way more forgiving (than the monster Lincoln 255) on the tinfoil body metal but can still crank it up and do some decent thicknesses, so far really  happy with it! I've have been building a cart for it since the store bought ones are pretty hokey 





made it out of 1" sq steel tubing and some sweet ($2) sealed bearing wheels I picked up at the swap at Tradex a couple months ago.

Car is starting to resemble a beetle again ::) body is on heater channel assembly, bolted to the pan as a jig.













plug welding all the drilled out spot welds........ shat loads of fun :P
working on the A pillar bottoms now so I can cut the braces out and pull the pan and put body on the rotisserie


Should be done and on the road by the GCVWS :laugh:

55 ragtop T1
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Offline vanBoven

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #109 on: July 09, 2009, 11:18:10 PM »
Should be done and on the road by the GCVWS :laugh:[/quote]

GCVWS....2015

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #110 on: September 14, 2009, 08:47:38 PM »
bit of an update.....ordered a pair of Jamar front disks to match the rears, already gave them some "treatment" ;D




 front apron is done...started with a decent quality aftermarket skin, overrider holes got filled and 4finger section grafted in...





also have my front quarters, rear apron,front tire tray etc all finished and ready for blasting and epoxy but no pics yet

some goodies powdercoated.... check out the speed holes in my intermediate mount 8) lost 8 oz :P



adj springplates....gave the adjusters a little lovin' so slicks wouldn't scrub them this time





bought some new drop spindles and some stuff for the aluminum 4" beam i'm working on too.....pics of that soon


55 ragtop T1
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #111 on: September 17, 2009, 12:53:48 AM »
FRESH PAINT! :D

apron and tire shelf....




had to make a new reinforcement plate, tricky little chunk being heavier gauge and some strange contours.




lots of work went into these pricks, one is a 59 and other a 60. '60 had the  wheel arch grafted from a 54 to make right and the antenna holes welded
59 had some cancer in the bottom corner by door hinge and the front 10" was munched and rusty so it got a section up there.



This is me being overly anal and changing all the fender nuts from the long snout ones to the square ones.....what a pain in the ass. I saw a pic somewhere where they grafted a clip on mid tank and the nuts didn't match....looked super cheezemuff. my car came with the sq. ones so....



has to be the cleanest big spring W lid i've seen.....



Non cutout H apron removeable.....only way to go!




and together....

55 ragtop T1
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Offline Geoff

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #112 on: September 24, 2009, 03:17:17 PM »
Dude your crazy! Great work, keep up the posts.

Offline Bruce

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #113 on: September 24, 2009, 09:22:25 PM »
Do you have pics of the problem with the 1960 quarter panel?

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #114 on: September 25, 2009, 12:52:37 AM »
Dude your crazy! Great work, keep up the posts.

Crazy, stupid, insane......i'm in deep!

Bruce I didn't have the cam with me this afternoon but next time I go to the shop i'll snap a few of the problem area.
Finding it wouldn't work on my car was like a kick in the seeds.....I was really stoked to get the front clip done and finally be done with the metalwork, now I can't do jack until I find a new quarter :'(
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #115 on: March 21, 2010, 01:12:26 PM »
I'M BACK!!!!!!!!  :P

We broke ground on our house last July and have finally moved in the begining of February. 3500 sq ft with all the fixins' to keep the wife happy and then a 700 sq ft shop for me to play in. Ended up with 11' ceilings,35' deep on one side, shit loads of HO flourescent fixtures and to top it off a urinal  ;D
I did all the HVAC (obviously), gas work, wired the whole house, laid the hardwood floor, painted the interior (that sucked big hairy nutz :huh:) and all that's left is landscaping.  So to say I've been a little busy is a huge understatement!!!!!!
Anywho now that the fam is settled I am dialing in my shop with work benches and organizing the mess. Car came home last weekend. It fit in my buddies 4x8 trailer (barely) because the front clip is still off.
1am lastnight I had enough organizing and couldn't resist hanging some panels. Everything is lining up mint and the car is as complete as it has been for a long long time.

Goddammit can't figure out how to upload pics from the phone, I'll chuck some pics up later......
 
edit: pics







« Last Edit: March 21, 2010, 11:57:13 PM by josh »
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Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #116 on: March 22, 2010, 12:21:05 AM »
I'm hooked again.....kickin ass on this POS

my little gearhead was out with me today, we fixed the boogered driver door skin mess I made over a year ago.





she was telling me how much she wants to ride back there PDT_Armataz_01_37





missing wire tube welded back on





nasty hood gaps were one of the deciding factors into ripping so deep into this car and now they are 1/4" all around  :D



I NEED ONE OF THESE BEFORE I'M ABLE TO WELD ANY OF THIS CLIP ON!!!!!!!!! (actually only ned half or around a foot) heater pipe from a pre 59?? between dash vent and heater channel. Anyone got one for me??

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56 kombi T2

Offline josh

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #117 on: May 02, 2010, 05:43:33 PM »
got a couple hrs. on this pig today, metal worked the shit out of this quarter panel area where it wasn't lining up.....






whole bunch-o bumping and hammer/dolly work to stretch the pressing inwards. I may bug my buddy into running it through an english wheel to make it perfect but at least the flanges meet up now :cool:
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Offline Bruce

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #118 on: May 02, 2010, 06:14:23 PM »
So that's the difference with a 1960 quarter you talked about earlier?

Offline HotSauce

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Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #119 on: September 15, 2010, 09:56:30 PM »
We need some updates on this bad boy  PDT_Armataz_01_37
Luke I had your father