[V8 Super Beetle]

Well, I didn't get the body work finished. I kind of needed a break from it so I tackled some other things and cooling issues that needed to be worked out.

I made brackets for my locking hood pins. Everything was lining up great. The passenger side was slightly off after welding up everything. I tried to bend it a little and the pin broke. > I figured, no problem, I can weld it on. Little did I know it's made out of aluminum. Figures why it broke so easily. So I have to buy a whole new kit just so I can redo the passenger side. Oh well.

The locking units mocked up.




The good pin.




And the jacked up one that'll need redoing.





My new replacement radiator. I had to replace it cause when the guys welded up my exhaust / plumbing, some slag put pin holes in it.




Here you can see where the water was leaking out. See the rust from the leak. If you look at the inlet, you'll see it was leaking there too cause I had the wrong size hose. So I replaced it with the correct size.




You can see just how much the hose was pinched and it still didn't seal. No more leaks here.




I also moved the overflow outlet to the radiator in the rear and I capped off the inline water neck. Now hot rusty water doesn't spew on my engine. I also installed a 20 psi can on the inline neck. The radiator has 18 psi cap. I might go a little lower, just incase.




Having replaced the radiator, fixed the hose leak, all the water gets back to the radiator, and not on my engine. I also installed a high flow 160º thermostat and I finally put in a 50/50 mix of coolant / water. The engine runs a constant 160-190º. I'll never have overheating issues again, I hope.


Onto body work. I just need to finished sanding down a few skim coats I put down the make her as flat as I can possibly get at this stage. These are the problem areas I'm still working on.







If I'm not too tired from our Saturday night gig I'll get a temporary booth setup and I'll spray some high build primer.

More updates soon.

[tommytone]

Looking forward to the paint part of this project. By the way, how does it ride?

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

Looking forward to the paint part of this project. By the way, how does it ride?

Me too! The body work seems to be dragging on.

It rides great. The rear springs I selected are perfect. The ride is nice and cushy, not too soft, but it's not bouncy either. I still need to get an alignment though. It's plenty fast too. I'm still getting used to it, but is scary when I mash it.

Quick little update. I'm closing in on the body work. I put down a guide coat of black primer and sanded it all down and it's looking good. There were a couple low spots I missed but I have found them. My main problem area as of now is still the roof. I'm working on putting a skim coat of body filler and sanding away.

I didn't get too much time to work on it this weekend cause I had a gig so that pretty much takes up my Saturday and Sunday since I'm recovering the next day. I'll get some photos this week. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record but I'm finally pretty happy with the body work, for the most part. I'm 85% sure I'll get primer down this weekend.

[tommytone]

Just kidding. Maybe you could find a friend with the same roof and make a template out of construction board going from front to back. You would have to make three of them. Front section, middle and back. And by the way that's width wise and not length. LOL. That may help you gauge the right arc of the roof line. It also might be to your advantage to just find a roof and cut it. You do seem to weld good.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

Just kidding. Maybe you could find a friend with the same roof and make a template out of construction board going from front to back. You would have to make three of them. Front section, middle and back. And by the way that's width wise and not length. LOL. That may help you gauge the right arc of the roof line. It also might be to your advantage to just find a roof and cut it. You do seem to weld good.

Thanks for the advice. I had though about just getting a whole new roof at one point, but I'm so close as it is. I really just need the right sanding block. The flat blocks I'm using are just flowing with the flat spot in the roof. I like your idea of the roof templates.

I'm going to give making a sanding board like this a try.






My problem has been the whole car is one big round bubble and all the board I have are flat. I'm going to see if I can't get some plexiglass or something along those lines to make a flexible block.

[tommytone]

The flex board will work out fine. Remember that once you get it close with a final sand of 600 or so, use a high build primer then finish sand and it will be close enough. With a beetle roof it doesn't have to be perfect cause the way the roof flows no one will notice anything. Can you imagine someone with protractor eye balls. Or slide rules coming out of pockets etc. LOL Unless those spots are flat as ironing boards. he he he

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

The flex board will work out fine. Remember that once you get it close with a final sand of 600 or so, use a high build primer then finish sand and it will be close enough. With a beetle roof it doesn't have to be perfect cause the way the roof flows no one will notice anything. Can you imagine someone with protractor eye balls. Or slide rules coming out of pockets etc. LOL Unless those spots are flat as ironing boards. he he he

Thanks for the advice. As of now my plan is to get the body straight as possible with filler. I'm blocking with 36, 80, then 100. I'll spray a couple coats of epoxy primer, a couple coats of high build 2K primer, and mist a black guide coat. Block sand dry with 180 / wet 220. Fix any imperfections. Spray another coat or two (depending on how straight the body came out) of high build primer to get a uniform color. Possibly another mist coat and wet sand with 400 then 600 all in one direction until guide coat is gone and the body as perfect as I can get it. Then will come two coats of S/S paint and two coats of clear for an extra shine. The I'll sand away the orange peal with 400-600 grit and then lay a wet coat of clear.

I've never done this before, well I've done spot repairs and took cars into Maaco, but never a full job from start to finish myself. This seems like a good plan, to me at least.

If this doesn't get the roof straight I don't know what will. I made a flexible sanding block out of some scrap plexiglass and wood. I glued the pieces on and voila.






As you can see I put down a skim coat on the entire hood. Im noticing where I was having my problems the filler was sanded flat. It didn't have that nice curve the vw roof has.

The rest of the body is pretty much ready except for sanding down a couple spots the needed a little filler, which you can see as the darker shade of bondo. Pin holes and grooves.








Crossing my fingers and hoping to get the roof ready in time for the weekend.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

The flex board will work out fine. Remember that once you get it close with a final sand of 600 or so, use a high build primer then finish sand and it will be close enough. With a beetle roof it doesn't have to be perfect cause the way the roof flows no one will notice anything. Can you imagine someone with protractor eye balls. Or slide rules coming out of pockets etc. LOL Unless those spots are flat as ironing boards. he he he

Almost forgot. You're right about the body lines. I just trying to get it as perfect as I can cause the top half of the car will be black. Black shows imperfects all too well.

[tommytone]

Well you are right about the black. Mine is Guards Red(the whole car). It's been painted about twenty three years ago and still in good shape. I'll post pictures soon. I've been watching your progress from the beginning of time as it seems. Going to maybe do another one like yours using another body. I like the idea of no vents or cutouts in the hood for a stock look. Right now I'm still trying to figure out what frame layout to use. I'm looking at a Chevy ll sub frame(pre-fabbed ) with a manual rack. Then a Rear sub pro street and just tie the frames together for the length. Cage it etc. Use shorty headers that use clamps and Nascar style rectangular oval exhaust. I think over all I may use the S-10 frame and narrow it in the rear(Pro Street).

[V8 Super Beetle]

Nice! Post some pics when you get the chance. All of those sound like great options. If I more $$$ for my project, and did do it while I had to pay for a down payment on a new home, wedding, and now a baby , I would've gone the S10 prostreet / pro-touring route.

Something like so.

[tommytone]

Do you have anymore pics of that frame? Looks like a S-10 with Sub. Just the way I would do it. Wonder if your idea with the rad in the back would still work with it? And I wonder how low I could get the body on it. I would still put a cage in it. I'm so excited and I haven't even done anything. LOL

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

Do you have anymore pics of that frame? Looks like a S-10 with Sub. Just the way I would do it. Wonder if your idea with the rad in the back would still work with it? And I wonder how low I could get the body on it. I would still put a cage in it. I'm so excited and I haven't even done anything. LOL

LOL, nice. I don't have any more of that particular frame but here a shot of another just like it.




No as big size wise though. Yup, S10 back halved! You could do a body drop. That's what I did. The bottom of my bug body sits flush with the bottom of the frame. Only problem is I lost 6" of interior floor space so my head is about 5-6" away from the roof.

[tommytone]

The frame we are looking at is for a 41 Willis with S-10 front, shortened, with sub. Same concept though. The sub frame in the back would have to be changed a bit. Don't know the cost of the rear sub frame either. Will let you know during my research.

[tommytone]

Here are some pics of mine. Got a lot of dust on it..LOL

[V8 Super Beetle]

Originally Posted by tommytone

Here are some pics of mine. Got a lot of dust on it..LOL

Beautiful looking car. I hope mine comes out looking that nice.