My UK RHD '66 - owned for 3 years now.
My UK RHD '66 - owned for 3 years now.
Hi all,
Another UK member here
This is my '66. I bought it when I was 16 as my first car.
This is the day it was delivered, I won it on eBay and only saw it in the dark before it was delivered. No MOT or tax (so not road legal) when I bought it, but it wasn't very expensive.
In the UK, we can't drive til the age of 17, but I thought we should take it to an MOT so my dad could drive it until I was able to.
Of course, it broke down on the way to the MOT station at the end of my road (with my dad driving)...
So we got a tow truck, and got it to the garage.
A few days later, the garage called to let us know it wasn't going to pass an MOT any time soon.
They reckoned it would need more than £1000 (~$2000) worth of welding just to let it see the road, and a few parts too.
Anyway, being a stubborn person, a friend and I did a bit of this:
New framehead:
Old axle beam:
new axle beam:
And a few other small sections to repair:
And mended:
There were LOTS of other small bits of welding, new headlamps, indicator switch etc were fitted.
A whole year later, I drove it back to the MOT station for a retest. Except the car broke down on the way there again.
After a bit of persuasion, I got it there without the use of a towtruck.
After a few more fiddly bits were done, it had an MOT about 2 weeks after I passed my driving test
To be continued...
Another UK member here
This is my '66. I bought it when I was 16 as my first car.
This is the day it was delivered, I won it on eBay and only saw it in the dark before it was delivered. No MOT or tax (so not road legal) when I bought it, but it wasn't very expensive.
In the UK, we can't drive til the age of 17, but I thought we should take it to an MOT so my dad could drive it until I was able to.
Of course, it broke down on the way to the MOT station at the end of my road (with my dad driving)...
So we got a tow truck, and got it to the garage.
A few days later, the garage called to let us know it wasn't going to pass an MOT any time soon.
They reckoned it would need more than £1000 (~$2000) worth of welding just to let it see the road, and a few parts too.
Anyway, being a stubborn person, a friend and I did a bit of this:
New framehead:
Old axle beam:
new axle beam:
And a few other small sections to repair:
And mended:
There were LOTS of other small bits of welding, new headlamps, indicator switch etc were fitted.
A whole year later, I drove it back to the MOT station for a retest. Except the car broke down on the way there again.
After a bit of persuasion, I got it there without the use of a towtruck.
After a few more fiddly bits were done, it had an MOT about 2 weeks after I passed my driving test
To be continued...
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- Senior Member
- Posts: 512
- Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:05 am
- Location: The 480
Thanks guys
After the first MOT pass (2 years ago), I fitted a new front clip
From:
To
to:
This now needs tidying up a bit as I never got it past the primer stage.
Also, I repaired the front bonnet edge by welding on the bottom few inches from a damaged repro bonnet.
from:
chopped:
to:
Then, a whole year had passed, so it had to pass another MOT.
This one (A year ago) it passed first time
More recently, following a lot of faffing around with the 1300TP engine it had before, I decided to fit a bit of a power upgrade.
From:
To:
This engine bay has been tidied up a LOT since this pic ^^ - all tinware fitted, piping etc tidied and so on.
It is now a 1641 with dual Kadrons.
This is how it looks now:
It is now MOT time again. I've had to take it off the road for a few weeks as I don't have the time to MOT it at the moment.
After the first MOT pass (2 years ago), I fitted a new front clip
From:
To
to:
This now needs tidying up a bit as I never got it past the primer stage.
Also, I repaired the front bonnet edge by welding on the bottom few inches from a damaged repro bonnet.
from:
chopped:
to:
Then, a whole year had passed, so it had to pass another MOT.
This one (A year ago) it passed first time
More recently, following a lot of faffing around with the 1300TP engine it had before, I decided to fit a bit of a power upgrade.
From:
To:
This engine bay has been tidied up a LOT since this pic ^^ - all tinware fitted, piping etc tidied and so on.
It is now a 1641 with dual Kadrons.
This is how it looks now:
It is now MOT time again. I've had to take it off the road for a few weeks as I don't have the time to MOT it at the moment.
Thanks.
It needs a paint job, but there are a fair few other things to do first...
Just a few of the bits I have tucked away waiting for a sunny day.
(Genuine VW mexican heater channels + outriggers, the superb Wolfsberg West floors, bumper mounts etc are made by a small company over here called Hookeys
In the end it will all be L360 sea blue. This is my inspiration:
It needs a paint job, but there are a fair few other things to do first...
Just a few of the bits I have tucked away waiting for a sunny day.
(Genuine VW mexican heater channels + outriggers, the superb Wolfsberg West floors, bumper mounts etc are made by a small company over here called Hookeys
In the end it will all be L360 sea blue. This is my inspiration:
Now I'm home from uni, I'll have a lot more time to work on the bug.
This is what I have done so far today:
Rear inner wing on the drivers side looks quite good really. It has had a large repair panel put in to the body mount already.
The bumper mount has been replaced with a universal one, and was a bit rotten.
So off that came...
And something shiny to go in it's place.
The other side was not so pretty.
Someone had welded a sheet of steel over some of the original rot, and it wasn't very strong. Hence I had a wonky rear bumper.
Ooops..
My new Day Mouldings wing:
Seems to fit pretty well.
Bumper mount panel welded mostly into place. I stopped welding here to check fitment...
Seems OK...
And with a valence (will be being made removable with no obvious fixings...)
Even lines up great at the bottom.
And with a bumper fitted.
This is what I have done so far today:
Rear inner wing on the drivers side looks quite good really. It has had a large repair panel put in to the body mount already.
The bumper mount has been replaced with a universal one, and was a bit rotten.
So off that came...
And something shiny to go in it's place.
The other side was not so pretty.
Someone had welded a sheet of steel over some of the original rot, and it wasn't very strong. Hence I had a wonky rear bumper.
Ooops..
My new Day Mouldings wing:
Seems to fit pretty well.
Bumper mount panel welded mostly into place. I stopped welding here to check fitment...
Seems OK...
And with a valence (will be being made removable with no obvious fixings...)
Even lines up great at the bottom.
And with a bumper fitted.
Thanks
This is what I've done today...
I've been trimming down the Hookeys panels, just in case I ever need to replace the repairs I'm doing now. (I intend on keeping this car a long long time!)
A lot of trimming and trial fitting later, and it is tacked into place.
And with the valence (removable mods in progress...) fitted:
And again, it lines up well with the wing.
This day Mouldings wing doesn't fit at the front yet, due to some slightly misshapen repair work beforehand..
Even the bumper mounts line up right
And with the bumper fitted, too.
Despite only being tacked in at present, the rear bumper takes my whole weight easily. Much better than before, when I was scared to touch it in case it fell off...
I pushed the beetle forwards out the garage to check alignment. The bumper overriders are exactly the same height As is the bottom of the valence on both sides. I must be doing something OK. Even the decklid seal meets the decklid spot on now.
I then spent the next two hours aligning my decklid properly. It took a lot of persuasion with a rubber mallet.
After all the aligning, I've got no clearance issues with the rear bumper - it has almost 1mm clearance
I then did some more welding, and got the panel fully welded in.
I'll be replacing the engine side trays after Bristol Volksfest, for my shiny new Hookeys ones
Mmmm...
Just gotta tidy up the other side and finish the removable valence tomorrow - Then it is off to Bristol Volksfest on Sunday.
This is what I've done today...
I've been trimming down the Hookeys panels, just in case I ever need to replace the repairs I'm doing now. (I intend on keeping this car a long long time!)
A lot of trimming and trial fitting later, and it is tacked into place.
And with the valence (removable mods in progress...) fitted:
And again, it lines up well with the wing.
This day Mouldings wing doesn't fit at the front yet, due to some slightly misshapen repair work beforehand..
Even the bumper mounts line up right
And with the bumper fitted, too.
Despite only being tacked in at present, the rear bumper takes my whole weight easily. Much better than before, when I was scared to touch it in case it fell off...
I pushed the beetle forwards out the garage to check alignment. The bumper overriders are exactly the same height As is the bottom of the valence on both sides. I must be doing something OK. Even the decklid seal meets the decklid spot on now.
I then spent the next two hours aligning my decklid properly. It took a lot of persuasion with a rubber mallet.
After all the aligning, I've got no clearance issues with the rear bumper - it has almost 1mm clearance
I then did some more welding, and got the panel fully welded in.
I'll be replacing the engine side trays after Bristol Volksfest, for my shiny new Hookeys ones
Mmmm...
Just gotta tidy up the other side and finish the removable valence tomorrow - Then it is off to Bristol Volksfest on Sunday.
Wow!
Been a while since I updated this thread...
As well as not being happy with the bumper mounts, I knew there was a lot more rot hidden in it.
I kept on promising my MOT man I would do a bit of restoration work on it.
So this summer, with 9 months MOT still on it, I got cracking...
It started with a total stripdown...
This doesn't look promising.
Definitely not.
A bit more off:
This isn't looking good either (floor/sill join)
Remember this still has 9 months MOT in these pics
Beetles are meant to have separate body and floorpans, so of course someone had welded the two of mine together rather comprehensively.
Eventually, with a lot of help from my friends, off comes the body
My friend Sara removing a floorpan...
All gone!
At this stage, it gets a bit daunting ::)
More to follow, I've got a fair bit further in this job than this - those pics were taken 5 months ago now.
Been a while since I updated this thread...
As well as not being happy with the bumper mounts, I knew there was a lot more rot hidden in it.
I kept on promising my MOT man I would do a bit of restoration work on it.
So this summer, with 9 months MOT still on it, I got cracking...
It started with a total stripdown...
This doesn't look promising.
Definitely not.
A bit more off:
This isn't looking good either (floor/sill join)
Remember this still has 9 months MOT in these pics
Beetles are meant to have separate body and floorpans, so of course someone had welded the two of mine together rather comprehensively.
Eventually, with a lot of help from my friends, off comes the body
My friend Sara removing a floorpan...
All gone!
At this stage, it gets a bit daunting ::)
More to follow, I've got a fair bit further in this job than this - those pics were taken 5 months ago now.