The front end was completed disassembed today. The torsion arms, torsion bars, steering box, tie rods, and spindles have been removed. So now it is just down to the frame. It will need a lot of cleaning as it is covered in dirt, and it has some pretty severe rust damage as was seen in the previous blog.

I put in a pretty big order with one of the VW parts suppliers out there for just about everything I would need. I am going to replace: Ball Joints, Tie Rods, Seals, Spindles, Shocks & more. One kink I found while taking it all apart was in the brakes! One of the hubs is seized up or stuck pretty good.

These cars have 4 drums on all the wheels, and personally I hate the idea of having to rebuild wheel cylinders and bearings.. plus the spindles look horrible.. so disk brakes will be in the future!

With the body off, there is a ton of rust and dirt that needs to be cleaned off of the floors, frame head and front torson beam. We rolled the chassis out in to the backyard and spent some time pressure washing all of the dirt and crud off of it.

Once back in the garage we used the angle grinder and spent hours of wire brushing the rust off of the floors. It looks like the driverside floor is too far rusted to save, so it will be replaced next week.



At this point, we have the front end of the car sitting on a dolly and wood blocks so the front end can be removed and dis-assembed. Its just an easy four bolts, and two brake lines that need to be taken out to get the whole front end off.. Not Bad.



The torsion beam front end however, has some serious rust problems that will need to be cut out and patched. Luckily we have some replacement plates that will work perfectly as this type of rust is common, and replacement is common. The front end needs a complete rebuild.

We got that body off today.

I had expected it to take a ton of effort, and 4-5 people to do it. With all of the fenders, deck lid and hood off with no interior and it only weighed about 250-300 pounds. It only took 3 people to manhandle it up and over the frame. I imagine if it had more body peices on it, it might of needed more.



We finally got a chance to to look at the rust damage on the bottom plate of the heater channel, and they both should be replaced. All the replacement sheet metal should be ordered and here in the next few weeks.

I got all of the bolts out of the frame last night with sucess and an impact gun. Luckily none were stripped and none were broken. I was able to lift the body off myself for a few seconds just to make sure it was able to come off.

I hope to be able to lift it off with a few people to help.

I spent most of the day outside and working on the Beetle. 11 AM to 9 PM. I started by removing all the stuff that once again has been placed inside the car for storage. I wanted to get to work on the dash modifications that I had read about on The Samba. I tore the dash pad off carefully and forcefully to reveal a classic 60's metal dash underneath. Unfortunately VW had to place an ugly foam cover on the original dashes in the US because of DOT safety regulations. It looks a whole lot better without. The holes and radio spot will need to be welded and filled.





I got to work trying out some chemical strippers on some of the body panels to try and get it down to bare metal. I found that a combination of paint stripper and a wire brush on a grinder works really well. The rear engine decklid is now close to being bare metal and ready to paint! Now for the rest of the car.



While prepping the car to take the body off, the engine needs to be removed. That was also done today. We used a series of jacks to lift the car up, and a motorcycle jack to hold the engine. Early VW's are interesting in the fact that they drop the engines out the bottom. Its really easy.. a few wires, fuel line, throttle linkage and 4 bolts is all it takes. Now the engine is out, and removing the body from the pan can begin soon.

The fenders and gas tank came out of the car today. It totally has that rat rod look going for it now. But ofcourse that will not stay. The fenders are all in pretty good shape, and will be reused.. a few of them have some dents but are otherwise in pretty good shape!



An angle grinder was also taken to some of the undercoating and paint to see how difficult it would be to remove. Not too bad, the metal looks like its in good shape underneath. Certain areas of the car are rusted out though and need to be replaced with patch panels welded in. We will get to that once the body has been pulled from the frame, and we know what needs to be done.

I have done a bit of planning as far as what I would like the Beetle to look like when its finished. The green color will stay (albeit repainted), and it will be lowered 2-3" with white walls. Should look pretty good!

A bit of time was spent today dollying out some of the dents in the hood (or bonnet), amongst other areas on the car. Its starting to look better.. but will no doubt require a final thin layer of body filler to fill in any impurities.

Well I finally found it. I have been looking for a car like this for months and months, years and years... and I've finally found one and laid the money down for it.

The car is a 1971 Standard Beetle. Manual with a 1600cc, and not too much rust. It isn't running right now.. but that might be because of a lack of fuel, amoung other vital fluids.



Today we started to disassemble the car in the driveway into bare form. Bumpers were removed along with seats, and any remnents of the interior, and any previous owner installed amenities. We will be pulling the body from the pan in the next few days and begin restoring the chassis.

Stay tuned.