This Rocks...nice! You rock, Wade. It's great to see you enjoying the process. McKade is in the background admiring Wade's work, looking quite buffed I might add.

Looks like Wade has an inner artist himself, and is trying to send a message. "This...." what, Wade? This....stinks? This....ugly car?

Surprisingly, Wade was the one eager to work on the car this past weekend. Not sure why Josh wasn't interested, but he wasn't. So I put some saftey gear on Wade, put the grinder in his hand, and turned him loose. He thought it would be fun to grind paint off the "butt" of the car. Decklid, Wade. It's called the decklid. Here he is doing his thing. You can see the '59 ghia vert sitting patiently next to the ragtop. She's next.

Here's a couple close ups of the completed roof, and the front cowl. Love that bare steel!

Another side shot of the car with the roof, and front cowl all grinded down. Evidence of the ugly red and silver paint is almost gone, and a clean canvas is emerging. I also finished taking the remaining parts out of passenger door and ground the outside edges off along with the door handle area. Clean, bare steel roof looks great, except for one small area of cancer near the far right hole to secure the sunroof down. I'll have to treat that area with the sandblaster soon. Speaking of sandblasting, I've been seriously considering buying a new dual-stage air compressor. I've used my trusty, red single-stage Craftsman for 10+ years, but I think it may be time to upgrade to a unit that can better handle all my sand & media blasting, especially since I'll be restoring at least 2 more vehicles after this one is completed. I've got my eye on another Craftsman - an upright 80 gallon unit.

With warm weather quickly approaching an end, and Josh now enrolled in driver's ed, I'm feeling the pinch to move the project along. I spent several evenings over the past couple weeks grinding the passenger side quarter panel, roof, and front cowl. Here are a few shots of the work I've done while the boys were at home in Idaho.

Here are some of the products I'm currently using to treat the bare metal. I'm surprised the self etching primer is still good after several years, but it is bonding and coating well. There's barely any left anyhow, and I'll be purchasing a new batch very soon to finish the car. I'm a big fan of Eastwood coatings and cleaners and have used them for years. Not so big on their tools, however, as they are quite expensive and Harbor Freight often has the same tool for significantly less.

Before starting on the driver's side, the boys finished grinding the rear quarter panel on the passenger side. To protect the bare metal, I found some left over grease & wax remover, Eastwood surface prep, and some Sherwin Williams self etching primer from my last restoration, and used those on the passenger side metal. Once the driver side is all finished up, I'll do the same to protect that metal until I spray primer-surfacer down.

This is where the driver's side was by the time school resumed in mid-August. We found a replacement driver's door at a VW swap meet in July for $20 that's in great condition. You can see it in the background - it's oxidized red in case your eyes are still wandering around the picture. Considering most used doors run $50-$100, I was very pleased. I didn't have the heart to tell the boys they really didn't need to grind the door on the car down since we have a replacement. I'll let them figure that out when we dismount it and fit the replacement one on :)

Not sure if Wade is getting ready to snowboard, or grind paint here. The goggles throw me off. The boys took a couple weeks to vacation at the Oregon coast, attend family reunions, and go to a ropes course, so the VW had to be patient. They resumed work in early August, and began to strip paint from the driver's side.

This is where the car was as of mid-July. Josh and Wade (my 13 year old son) had ground down the door and front quarter panel.

Grinding a mural on the door is much more exciting that just grinding big, open areas down to bare metal. I wonder if he could get extra credit in art for that? You should ask your teacher Josh.

Grinding gets boring quickly. Grinding your name on the door makes the job a little more fun, doesn't it Josh?

My original intent was to send the VW off to have all the old paint and rust sandblasted away. But I quickly realized I would be robbing my sons of the precious opportunity and experience of stripping a car down to bare metal by hand. It's good for their soul, right? Plus it's much cheaper. So I armed Joshua with an angle grinder and a stripping pad, put some safety glasses on him, gave him a quick demo, and turned him loose.

Another shot of the channels, tunnel, and dash. This car was made in August of 1960, the first month of the 1961 model year. The original color of the car was L380 Turkis (turquoise). One thing about this car I particularly like is the steering wheel and shifter were painted Hydrate Green (look closely at the steering wheel - you can see the color), and the seat frames, door panels, seat upholstery were Ice Blue. An interesting color combination considering VW painted the steering wheel, shifter, and seat frames some variation of cream or silver beige, or black during most model years. Apparently, the shifter boot in a 1961 was a greenish grey color and was only available that year. I just happened to find a guy in Southern California who had an NOS (new old stock) one for sale, so I bought it. Learning the particulars about each year, then treasure hunting parts is half the fun of a restoration.

We spent the first day stripping the car clean of all gauges, wires, door panels, chrome, door components, and anything that could be easily removed. We took off the hood for easy access to the trunk area. Luckily, the car still had the original 4 tab hood. It needs a little work to the nose, a few drill holes welded up, and a crease on the side from the hood prop welded, but overall it's in decent condition. 4 tab hoods aren't cheap or easy to come by so I'm glad it was included.

Here is the big dent behind the rear side window. That's going to be fun to pull, pound, and smooth over.

Here's the passenger side. Look closely and you'll see the bottom center of the dog leg section of the channel has severe cancer. The door pilar looks a little better than the driver's side, but still needs to be replaced. Love that floor.

Here is the driver's side heater channel and A pillar. That pillar is toast. Also note there is no floor. The passenger side is a little better, but still needs a new pillar base and front channel.

1961 VW Ragtop Restoration

I've loved vintage Volkswagens since I was 16 years old (22 years ago...wow...that hits me like a punch to the gut just seeing that in writing!). My first car was a navy blue 1960 ragtop beater that belonged to my father and when I was ready to drive, he passed it on to me. I was less than excited at first as I dreamed of owning a Pontiac Fiero (late eighties remember), but that ugly little car opened a door in my life that has never closed.

I had to push start that bug for several months (not sure why it went on for so long - I probably couldn't afford a new starter), and I think that engine backfired once every 30 seconds. I had to push it down the street a few houses when I snuck out at night so my parents wouldn't hear the coughing, sputtering car and blow my cover :) I finally decided I had to do something about the problems, so I took that bug completely apart, fixed what a 16 year old could, had it painted turquoise green, lowered the front end, shaved the chrome, threw in a 1200 engine that my dad had in the garage, and fell deeply in love with my little german car.

Over the next 15 years, I went on to own a 1956 jungle green oval, a a 1963 turquoise 23-window deluxe microbus, a 1955 oval ragtop, a ruby red 1964 sedan, a blue 1963 ragtop, a strato silver 1956 euro oval, and a green 1960 sedan. I started VW life thinking a chopped, lowered, highly customized car was the only way to go, but owning an oval window quickly pursuaded me to a value factory originality, and I've continued to love and build stock cars since. I have a particular fancy for anything that came from the factory with a 36hp motor, with oval ragtops and lowlight verts being dearest to my heart, but I also have a soft spot for big windows up to 1963, especially ragtops.

I took a break from the VW scene for a few years, but found myself immersed again 2 years ago when my dad decided to sell one of his VW crown jewels - a pearl white 1959 Karmann Ghia convertible. He parked the car in 1997 after driving it for many years, and talked about giving it a proper restoration, but his attention turned to a 1966 bus that he picked up, and the Ghia sat under a car cover and tarp for many years. I drove that Ghia to my senior prom, and it was a savored treat to sit behind the wheel the few times I talked my dad into letting me drive it. It was the holy grail of VWs that my dad owned over the years, and all of my siblings and friends knew it. There was no question in my mind - I HAD to own that Ghia, so I shelled out the cash, and towed it from Boise to my new home in the Salt Lake area.

I've been collecting original parts since then, and am currently hunting down and buying the parts to build an original vintage Okrasa engine. Okrasa sold performance engine kits for VWs in the late 50's and 60's to increase horsepower and performance in the 36hp and 40hp engines. Original Okrasa parts are now difficult to find, and quite expensive when they do come available.

In the meantime, my oldest son (almost 15) just enrolled in driver's ed last week, and I've planned to build a VW with him for his first car since he was born. Last summer, I found a 1961 ragtop in Medford, Oregon for $600, so I took a weekend and drove 12 hours 1 way to pick it up, then turn around and tow it home. This past June, we moved the car into the garage, and began the restoration process. My plan is to detail the happenings and progress of the restoration of this VW.

The car has sufferred quite a bit of rust damage living a good part of its life in the wet part of Oregon. The floor pans are completely gone - Fred Flintstone would love this car. The front section of the heater channels are shot, and the middle sections under the doors are questionable. The spare tire tray looks like swiss cheese, the luggage tray under the rear seat area also has rust holes. There is also cancer in many areas along the top part of the dash where the front window rubber meets the metal, and there are a few other areas in a couple of the wheel wells that will require attention. The driver's door will need to be replaced, as will the rear apron, and it is missing a rear fender. In addition to all the rust, there is a sizable dent behind the drivers side rear side window. Luckily, whatever caused the dent didn't distort the body lines, so it will pull out without serious compromise to the integrity of the body. The car came with no seats, no engine, and is missing most of the ragtop parts.

You're probably wondering why I paid $600 for the car? After I got to Oregon and saw it, I wondered the same, but was NOT going home empty handed after that drive! Truthfully, the problems don't scare me. I'm excited for the challenge, and it will definately be the biggest project I've ever taken on. I intend to do the majority of the work including body patching, welding, channel replacement, body work, paint, engine, most upholstery, and overall assembly. The only parts I expect to hand over to someone else will be the transmission rebuild (if required), front end, machine work to the engine, and the headliner. Should be fun! Let's get some more pictures posted.