So after 68 weeks the beetle is finally done, its took some doing and without my master mechanic (Dad) it wouldnt have got finished but now that its done it was all worth it, I will still update on whats happening to the beetle and here it is.

08/08/2012

Just a small update but I had a fuel leak coming out of the two breather pipes, but I have replaced them and there does seem to be a leak any more.

11/08/2012

Managed to sort a parcel shelf out, made from some Mdf. I have also put 2 5x7 speakers in it but it is all hidden, also I created a radio blank for the dash so I no longer have a hole in the dash.

18/10/2012

The time has eventually come to take the beetle off the road, there hasn’t been many updates apart from the car now has a full sound system. I have just been enjoying the car and taking it to a couple of shows in the summer, and way there is no photos of it all wrapped up but I do have some of the shows it has been to over the last half of the summer.

The first show that it went to was Barnsley Vw Show

Next up was Vw festival in Leeds

Next up was hull motor show

I also popped down to the local meet

Next up was trax

And the last show that it attended was Viking show

I do intend to keep this up to date with the changes that are going to happen over the winter time.

19/10/2012

I decided to tidy up the steering wheel today so first of all I took the steering wheel off the car.

I then removed the little pieces of leather on the spokes, this meant drilling the rivets. I then scraped the entire white power coat that was on the steering wheel which left me with this.

I then sanded the spokes with 800 grid sand paper mask the wheel up and cleaned it with thinners.

I then coated with primer and let it dry then with white paint

I also sprayed the metal clips that went on the back

Once the paint had dried on the steering wheel I could peel the masking tape off.

I will carry this on tomorrow when I have got some leather dye and new rivets.

20/10/2012

Didn’t manage to source any leather dye for the steering wheel so I have ordered some off the good old eBay, which should be here shortly, however I did manage to get the car on axle stands so the wheels can be refurbished. But first I wanted to clean under the wings and check for anything that should be how it is.

It isn’t dirty but I like things to be clean.

I also noticed that there is a few little bits that have chipped with used so I am going to touch them up o they look tidy. I also removed the front anti role bar so that I can ream the bushes out and fit the heavy duty one that I’ve had lying about.

26/11/2012

After having a break from working on the beetle and with it been rubbish weather I’ve decided to bring the work inside where I have heating. I have started with the wheel refurb which will take forever as they were in a bad way and it’s bugged me since I’ve put them on the beetle. With them been so corroded I’ve started at 240 grid sand paper to get them all smooth and I’ve nearly managed one wheel so far which looks like this.

Hopefully I will then go round them with 320 grit, 600, 800, 1200 and finally 2000 and then a polish which should bring them up nice. It is then on with spraying them back white.

27/11/2012

I have been sanding again, made some good process though I got up to 600 grit but I think I will need to have the tyres removed as round the valve is very hard to get to.

13/12/2012

I am still working on the wheels but I don’t think there is a need to keep updating until I get somewhere with the wheels. I am still trying to work on the beetle at the same time, so first things first was to put my spare set of wheels on it. then I decided to put a freshly charged battery on it and start it up, 3 or 4 turns of the engine and it was going, I let it warm up and then pulled it out of the tent and turned it round so that I could take the engine out tomorrow.

30/12/2012

Now that Christmas is out of the way I can to work on the beetle again, now that the engine is out the first thing to do is to strip the engine back to a long block so that all the tin wear can be prepped and painted. So here it is to start with

I managed to strip it to a long block and I also test fitted the new exhaust and carbs.

That’s all I got done today as it took forever to strip the engine back, hope I can start of the prep of the tin wear.

11/01/2013

Cracking on with the beetle I have been ordering and mocking up a lot of parts to find I need more, and with the lack of effort nothing much has happened but then I work out its less than 50 days till I want the beetle back on the road so I thought it would be best to do some work. I eventually got the crank pulley off the engine with the use of a hammer; also put the engine back in the car so I could drain the oil ready to install the new oil cooler and deep sump.