The boys have been on spring break this past week, and they came last Wednesday to stay with me. Josh, Wade, and I spent a couple of hours yesterday grinding down the hood, each taking a turn. Here's Wade going at it. Looks like I've got a smear on the camera lens that I need to clean.

Time to do a quick catch up on the project. I've continued to hunt down parts for the car over the past couple months and I have most of the big items now. In January, I found an OG '61 6-wire turn signal in The Netherlands in original Hydrate Green in amazing condition. I didn't really need the signal, but the color was so well preserved, I wanted it to match the other interior pieces to. Doesn't hurt having a spare signal lying around anyhow considering it's a 1 year only part. I've bead blasted the original and posted some pics of each.

I've also blasted and cleaned the door pillar sections which you can see. After the pillar sections were blasted, I found a rust hole near the bottom fender weld nut, so I bought a replacement panel from Wolfsburg West.






During February, I located some original '61 heater channels and an intact luggage tray in Southern California that I had shipped via Greyhound. They are in great original condition except that the vent flange has been cut off. I can use the channels currently attached to the pillar cuts to weld new ones on.

I've also picked up several NOS parts for the steering wheel including bushings, pins, and the horn cancel ring. Additionally, I bought a second steering wheel for a spare that also included one pin and spring. I think the only part left to buy for the steering wheel is a '61 horn ring. That may be a tricky one to find, so I'll keep hunting.

I've also picked up an NOS front apron as well.

The holidays are behind, and 2010 is here. My goal is to have the '61 ready for the summer show schedule, so it's time to get the project rolling again. Last week, I took some of my Christmas cash and bought a stud welder from Harbor Freight to start working out the big dent on the rear driver's side. The tool did great welding the studs onto the bare steel, but the slide hammer that came with it was absolute garbage. It was the roller-wheel type and it was worn out after banging 5 studs. I ended up taking it back and getting a refund. I'm now watching ebay to pick up a package that includes a top quality slide hammer. I'll have to spend double (probably $200) to get a decent one, but it will be worth it. I don't need it immediately so I can be patient. Here's a few pictures of the studs welded on.

Wade had the largest present under the tree on Christmas morning. So big, in fact, that Santa had to leave it NEAR the tree rather than under it. Wade was virtually licking his lips to open that one, and finally the moment came to unwrap the big box that was nearly as tall as him. The paper was ripped off, the box was opened, and what did he find inside??? A VW fender. What?? Is this for real? All that anticipation for a car part?? To add insult to the injury, as he was pulling the fender out of the box to inspect it and show everyone, the sharp metal edge cut his finger open, and began to bleed a little. Surprisingly, he didn't want to spend much time playing with that present. He began to hunt down another almost immediately :)

The boys must have been good this past year as Santa left a few presents for them on Christmas including a couple of parts for their VW. Josh was the first to open his present, and he was curious to find out what was wrapped inside the large box. I think it took a few moments for him to figure out that the big metal thing was an ugly, scraped, greasy used VW rear apron. For some reason, he didn't seem terribly excited. Luckily, the PS3 saved the day. Funny, the apron seemed a lot more interesting to me.

The inside dash has an unusual rust hole just above the glove box door. Not sure why it's only concentrated in this one spot, but it is. I found another guy parting out a '58 beetle that cut this patch piece off for me. Slowly but surely, I'm collecting all the 'bones' necessary to repair the rusted areas of the body. Next on the list - rear fenders, rear apron, front apron and spare tire well. I've almost concluded that I'm going to have to buy aftermarket fenders. I can't find any good originals for the driver's side. I'll continue to be patient and will keep searching, but haven't found any in many months of hunting. If I do buy aftermarket, I'll be buying 2 so they'll match.

I've also found all the parts for the sunroof mechanism. Unfortunately, the header piece I recently picked up is a little beat up and will require some work with the hammer and dolly. Luckily, the damage isn't significant, but will require some patience to duplicate the proper curvature of the roof assembly. All of the sunroof parts will need to be bead blasted and painted or powder coated.

A couple of weeks ago, I arranged to have these lower door pillars cut from a 1960 beetle that was being parted out in Arizona. I found that repo parts only had 1 hole cut out for the door hinge screws rather than 2 as was original, so I knew I had to find a donor to maintain originality (four times the cost of repos of course - for used parts!). These pieces are in great condition for what I need, and will repair some of the worst areas of cancer on the car.

Work has been crazy busy for a couple of months now. Late nights have become the norm, and there hasn't been a lot of time to work on the ol' VW. Despite the time constraints, I have continued to hunt down parts on thesamba.com, and have picked up a few great pieces including the rest of the sunroof mechanism, and door pilar cut outs from a 1960 beetle that was being parted out in Arizona. I also picked up a dash patch to repair a rust hole just above the glove box door, and a NOS headliner rod. Related to the project, I had a 220v outlet installed in the garage last week, and the most exciting purchase of all....drum roll please.....I finally purchased the 80 gallon two stage compressor I mentioned in one of my September posts. I bought it online (they don't stock it in stores), and it was delivered to my home yesterday. It's a beautiful, black B E A S T!! Can't wait to get it all hooked up so I can fire up the sand blaster soon. I think a new bead blast cabinet is next on my list....good thing I've been saving my Harbor Freight gift cards for a couple years. Here's a couple pics of the 220v outlet and the big black beast. I'll get some pics of the parts I've recently purchased up soon.

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.