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Old January 13th 2010, 06:17
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62 RHD Vintage German Look

Hi guys
Thought it time I started a thread on my next ride. This project is on the back burner as I have a major project on the go at the moment which has to be finished first and that is taking up all of the time and £££'s!

Anyway, I've always been a fan of the GL but prefer the style of the older Bug's so I went out and found a good base for the project which I'm calling Vintage German Look.

It's a 1962 RHD Ragtop which needs most of the bottom six inches replacing (and I mean six inches!). The good news is that the car was fairly original and had not received too much welding before. God knows how it got through its MOT's though! The car has been off the road for 3-4 years and was partly stripped by a previous owner.

Plan is for the shell to stay stock with running gear as follows: IRS 944 rear, Porsche 5-speed box (prob 915), 944 master cylinder, hydraulic clutch, Boxster S brakes, 17" Turbo Cup 3 wheels and fuel injected big type 4 engine. Not planning to do much to the interior with the exception of changing the front seats and steering wheel.

Here's some photos of how the car looked when I acquired it:



At some point in its life it has received a bump in the rear so it doesn't have its original decklid (nor its original number plate! ). No problem as this one is rusted out and I've already acquired a replacement:



Bonnet is original and can luckily be saved with a bit of remedial work here and there:





Front valance is good as is the panel below the fuel tank but it needs a spare wheel well:





Needs a rear valance and rear bumper hangers:



Doors are original and at least one of them can be saved. Not sure about the other one yet:



Dash is reasonably good:



Ragtop is all there and open and closes perfectly:





Needs both pan halves. You can see in this photo where a previous owner cut out the nearside heater channel in readiness for replacement:



The offside channel needs replacing too as does the front of the inner wings:



Lower bulkhead panel needs just some minor repairs to the bottom edge:



Rear is nasty. Need both lower quarters, closing panels, inner rear wings and both cross members:



So that's about it. I'll post some more pics in a while but in advance of that, all comments and suggestions welcome!

Last edited by F-22A; January 16th 2010 at 09:23.
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Old January 13th 2010, 09:20
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Hi

I admire the dedication you have to restoring a car after being on salt infested roads, most people in Australia would pass on this one.

Good luck with it, it will be a nice car when its done.

Steve
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Old January 13th 2010, 22:28
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The rust doesn't look that bad (I've seen alot worse repaired) all the sheet metal you need is available. when your done with the rust repairs you will have a good foundation to start with for the GL. Good luck and keep at it.
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Old January 16th 2010, 08:00
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve C View Post
Hi

I admire the dedication you have to restoring a car after being on salt infested roads, most people in Australia would pass on this one.

Good luck with it, it will be a nice car when its done.

Steve
I know what you mean Steve, it's the main reason why the vast majority of vintage VW's, well perhaps any old VW, in the UK have gone to the great scrapyard in the sky.

However, being an original RHD UK dealer supplied car it carries some provenance and is not bad enough to pass on, but is not good or early enough not to worry about carrying out some serious modifications to!

Last edited by F-22A; January 16th 2010 at 08:38.
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Old January 16th 2010, 08:01
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Originally Posted by wrenchnride247 View Post
The rust doesn't look that bad (I've seen alot worse repaired) all the sheet metal you need is available. when your done with the rust repairs you will have a good foundation to start with for the GL. Good luck and keep at it.
Tks for the comments. It'll take a little while to do but I hope it'll be worth it.
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Old January 16th 2010, 12:13
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Few more pics of the corrosion. The bottom's of the front inner wings where they meet the valance look ok:





Original Ruby Red paint in the inner wings:



Typical 70/80/90's plate welding to get it through MOT's:



Similar length of patchwork metal covered the outer sill cover on the offside:



Bodged and missing rear bumper hangers:



Note the creased inner wing from the bump it's had at some point:



Gutter's pretty good:



With just a little bit or work required here and there:



Metal around the sunroof opening pretty good:



Corners of the windscreen will need looking at:





As will the corners of the rear window:



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Old January 16th 2010, 12:30
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Here are some pics of the car taken not long after it had been purchased by a previous owner, presumably just after it had stopped being used:







And here's a pic of the fantastic Bug built by Alan Agyik which has provided the inspiration to build this car:



As I'd always intended on giving the finished item to the wife to pootle around in, she first said she wanted the car finished in a creamy colour, so I got my good friend Tonser to change the colour of Alan's car in PS:



However, we decided that colour made it somehow look a little too vintage or even, dare I say it here, Resto-Cal! As I'm looking for the style to be a fushion of old meets modern and given the current desire for the top German performace cars to mix white with black wheels, Tonz changed the colour again to white and we decided this is how it's going to look (although with a black leather an alcantara interior):



What do you think? I think the gun metal wheels against the white really make it stand out.

Last edited by F-22A; January 16th 2010 at 14:03.
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Old January 16th 2010, 12:46
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So although I'd been given strick instructions by 'er indoors not to buy anything until the current project is finished I haven't been able to resist collecting a few parts. So far I've acquired:

A cheap repro heater channel:



Pair of Heritage floorpan halves. I've actually since sold these as I discovered via my other project these are a bit thin. So I went out and bought some of the grey WW ones:



Rot free decklid which I think came from Sweden:





A pair of NOS 56-61 tail-lights. Not correct for the car but I prefer them to the 62 on units:



Boxster S front discs and calipers, a steal from ebay:



1985 year 2.5 944 master cylinder:



One 944 S2 wheel hub from ebay. Need to find another now!



And complete IRS (steel) rear end from the same 85 2.5 944:



Managed to track down four never fitted 17" Cup 3's all with the required ET52:



All in pretty good shape with light scuff marks from storage but only one centre cap so if anyone has any please let me know. In fact I'm looking for another couple of wheels so again, let me know if you have any or know of any:



And finally a pair of 80's Recaro's from I think an RS Turbo Escort. Not sure though about these as I' m thinking a pair of 911 highback's or more race like Recaro's would look better:

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Old January 16th 2010, 13:32
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Nice car! Definately worth doing all the investments on because of it being an original UK car as you mentioned and having a soft top.
Good luck man!
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Old January 16th 2010, 14:04
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Tks Wally. Love your car, especially the 1/4 times you post at the Pod!
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Old January 16th 2010, 14:18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F-22A View Post
So although I'd been given strick instructions by 'er indoors not to buy anything until the current project is finished I haven't been able to resist collecting a few parts. So far I've acquired:
That's not alot of parts...she will understand.
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Old January 16th 2010, 15:38
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Originally Posted by wrenchnride247 View Post
That's not alot of parts...she will understand.
Well I actually also bought all the other panels needed to carry out the metalwork repairs!

Also made a start on the welding. Not being done by me, I've entrusted the work to Gavin Jones at Trailer Queen Restos as not only is Gav one of the best VW painters in the scene he's also fantastically gifted when it comes to metal and bodywork. Here's what's been done so far, not much but it's a start:

First job is to replace both pan halves and channels so with the nearside channel already cut out Gav decided to start on that side first. Before actually starting on the pan he decided to replace the cross member. Factory spot welds drilled out to remove the corroded lower inner quarter metal:





And inner rear cleaned up to see how bad it was. Not too bad really considering the extent of corrosion elsewhere:



Factory spot welds exposed along the top of the old cross member ready to drill out and remove the metal:



New cross member bolted and welded into place. As you can see, being a new type panel it doesn't match the shape of the original but with so many modifications being done on the car I wasn't worried about not having the correct shape cross members!



Small closing panel Gav fabbed up in order to reconnect the inner lower quarter to the cross member:



With the repro heater channel's being made for a later Bug Gav modified both the heater outlet and the inner skin in order for it to look like a 60's item:





And that's as far as she's got.....but will update as soon as some more is done.

Last edited by F-22A; January 18th 2010 at 14:17.
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Old January 16th 2010, 16:51
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Go for it man! Just don't tell your wife real cost of the parts...

It hurts less
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Old January 16th 2010, 17:00
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That's a hell of a project you started but it'll be all the more rewarding when you're finished. Keep the progress pics coming
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Old January 16th 2010, 18:09
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Nice...
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