More Progress

Spent some time on the Beetle this evening. Tried some different cleaning and prepping methods to the engine bay area to see what works best. This car has been painted once over the original color and whoever did it, didn’t take time to prep the car properly, therefore, they just painted over years and years of grime and dirt. But at least it’s coming clean, just takes a lot of elbow grease. Moved on to separating the tie rods which was the last step to lift the body from the chassis. A couple of hours later, the body was lifted enough for me to get a very good look at the bottom of the heat channels, behind the spare tire cavity and other places where rust likes to hide. I did this by myself, not impossible, but not recommended, I’m sure my back will remind me of that tomorrow. Happy to report that the heat channels are solid, front clip of the body is excellent, no rust. It’ll just need some minor prep, primer and paint. Like I had mentioned before, the floor pans have been replaced some time in the past. I was excited about this when I first purchased the car because looking underneath, they looked perfect. And for the most part, they are, there is some minor surface rust inside, but nothing to be concerned about. However, it’s apparent that these are 20 gauge replacement pans. They feel cheap and flimsy. I’ll have to give it some thought as to whether or not I’ll replace them with 18 gauge pans. Having the car torn down this far, it’d be a shame not to go ahead and replace them with the thicker pans. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I also started breaking down the engine. I don’t plan on a total rebuild. Pull the heads and jugs, clean it up, replace the missing tins and go from there. The first head that I pulled is missing part of a cooling fin closest to the block. Just a small portion, but enough to bug me. Other than that, the head looks to be in excellent condition, just needs cleaned up. Not sure if I’ll replace it or not. Same with the 2 jugs that I pulled. They’re in excellent condition, just need cleaned up. I hope to get the other head pulled tomorrow. Lots of good progress this evening.

Liked it? Take a second to support John Boyd on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

Posted

in

, , , ,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.