Joy... of Building and Driving

[Humble]

After a week off, I got Joy stripped down, painted, and reassembled. I didn't get many pics because I was trying to make the most of the nice weather, and I got a bad enough sun burn to prove it.

It took most of an afternoon to strip the car down and mask off the windows.


A couple things first, while the body and paint weren't perfect they weren't terrible either. The bug had a maaco respray sometime in the mid 80's and it was peeling in a few places. I sanded down the areas were the paint was peeling to level the surface, and on the fenders where i had rolled the lips. I hammered out the dents on the fenders as best I could and sanded the top side to level the paint. Even though theres still minor dents and creases you don't want any steps that could peel up later on.

It took about 16-17 rattle cans of plastidip to get on a nice thick coat. The first couple coats should be just a light dusting, then you can lay on thicker coats for coverage. You'll get different textures in the paint based on how wet you lay down your last coat. A wet lay up will run easier but will leave a smooth finish, while a lighter final coat will leave a rougher but more consistent finish. I used white plastidip which looks like a semigloss than a flat matte.


Here's the finished pics, minus the running boards and antenna.








I'll see if I can get a few pics of the blemishes but it's hard to get a good shot of a bright white paint job. The is one spot on the hood that started to peel up and I'm going to see it I can repair it by remelting the paint with solvent and leveling it out, then hitting it with a light layer of plastidip once its dried.

[Humble]

I thought I had updated this build, but doesn't look that way... So here goes!

Here's the last time the car was in my posesion, that's right I had to sell Joy to make room for the GSR. She went to a very happy, eager, and over protective teenage girl who put more miles on her in 3 weeks than I had in a year.





Rowan cared for Joy obsessively, and poured love into the bug right from the start. She installed a new stereo and took care of a front brake issue in the first couple weeks. But one afternoon on a trip down to LA Joy's motor made a few knocks and seized up. I got Joy back up to the house and got a hand from a friend to pull the motor. We were hoping for a cheap rebuild but the pictures say otherwise.

Back in the driveway with the GSR and the race bug (under the canopy)


Got the motor out in short order and started digging to see what went wrong.


Pulled the fan shroud and intake only to find a pentroof case... that wasn't previously, not good.


Started pulling cylinders and pistons, only to find banana'd wrist pins and a mangled connecting rod without a cap.


It's hard to see in the pic but we found the cap... stuck through the right side of the case. Oddly without a nut on it...




When pulling the motor apart it had all the hallmarks of a bad rebuild, missing nuts/bolts, loose nuts/bolts, half-assed wiring and so on. On top of all that, the rear main seal was well on it's way out, and the clutch disk was soaked in oil. My best guess is the connecting rod cap for #2 had one of it's nuts come off which eventually led to the rod getting loose. The crank took the loose big end through the cam breaking it into 3 pieces, and popped the cap through the right side of the case. That wedged the crank stopping it dead but only after it beat the hell out of #2 and #4 pistons and cylinders.

The end result is the carb and intake is salvageable along with the tin and maybe the heads, but even those are suspect. At any rate a new long block is on order and here's hoping it gets here sooner than later.