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Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
owdlvr:
I suppose it's time to start a project thread for my 1971 1302. The project has been called the "not so secret, secret project" for the past six months inside my circle of friends who have known about it. It's taken a while to get going, more then a couple of cars to find the right one, but I wanted to ensure I had a project thread which was moving forward at a rapid rate instead of sliding down the thread list for months at a time. Initially this thread will move at lightning pace, as I get the Airspeed forum caught up to where my build is actually at...and then it will slow down to a daily update pace. I'm committed to a minimum of one hour a day on it, and progress is incredibly rapid.
One of the biggest issues with my '69 project car was the fact that I essentially daily-drive the car, and thus could never set it aside for the time needed to really do it up properly. True, we had a tonne of fun with the car, but to get it to "the next stage" would have required taking it off the road for at least 6 months. Six months without driving an air-cooled? No way!!
So, the hunt for a new model began. For reasons which will eventually become obvious, I needed to get a Super Beetle for the next step in my bug evolution. The 1303 had quite a number of positive elements which should have put it in the lead as "the car" to buy…and indeed I looked a number of them…but the truth is I cannot STAND that dashboard. I almost went for one of the fiberglass 911-style dashboards to make it passable, but in the end it just wouldn't work for me. It had to be flat dash, and thus a 1302…preferably a 1971 model!
Since finding a solid example of a single year of beetle isn't the easiest of things to do, I naturally started by simply finding a floor pan. While re-doing the pan I figured I could look for a solid body. And hey, having a spare pan (if you can store it) is never a bad thing!
One spare '73 pan, ready to go under the knife.
-Dave
owdlvr:
I truly hate spot welds…but everyone likes photos. So while I complain about the detail work…here's some photos :)
owdlvr:
Well, that's a heck of lot easier! Sandblasting won't pull up the seam sealer unless you really work at it...thus, I simply took off the stuff I have to and left the seam sealer I don't _need_ to remove.
Four hours of blasting, 200lbs of crushed glass, and it's not quite finished yet! Pretty funny sweeping up an inch-thick layer of sand off the shop floor at the end of the night though.
...just in case, no I wasn't blasting it in the same garage as the '66 mini!
-Dave
owdlvr:
Grinding and Sandblasting on the spine are now complete. I've started welding up the various holes and spots that require attention, but in doing so discovered a more significant problem. I knew the tow-hook area was rough when I started on the pan, but blasting and grinding revealed that the problem is deeper then I first thought.
To the right of the tow hook you can see two nut inserts, with a channel between them. For non Super people, those nut inserts are for the sway-bar brace, the channel for the sway bar. Simply patching the holes isn't enough, not to mention the channel should look straight, like the other side:
…No photos, yet, but I managed to source out a complete frame head. I think I'm going to section in just the corner/parts I need. If I was going to swap the full frame head I would likely go with a reproduction unit, but would still have to Jig the whole assembly before cutting it apart. In the meantime though, I couldn't resist doing a test fit...
Well, further progress on the pan. I gather this looks incredibly boring, but there is 4-8 hours of work between posts! haha. No photos of the various welded bits, but I did get around to cleaning the paint of the pans.
Started doing some fitting to get them to sit where they need to be. I'm actually quite happy, the front portion of each side is within 1/4" of where it needs to be, and the rear is within 1/2". A bit of trimming and tapping with the body hammers tomorrow and I should be welding them in. Once that's done, I have a few more tricks I need to worry about and then I will be able to paint the pan.
-Dave
owdlvr:
I love Cleco's...mind you, I should have bought 10 more and it would have been perfect.
Pans are now welded to the chassis...onto the next item! Only 64-billion more items to go :P
(Pan was flipped upside down for the final weld points)
-Dave
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