A bit about the 1303 I'm Restoring...

[superbeetle91]

Ok,
In mid December I started lookign for A VW bug... The car i've wanted for along while. On ebay I found a Tax free vw 1303 which looked ok-ish, so i got the details of it and aranged to view the vehicle where it was parked up in Sporle near Swafham. We turned up to find a rather solidish and stock looking 1303 with some rot appearing on the wings door bottoms and all the usual places on beetles..........( how wrong could i be!?) It was looking like a good project come first car.
I bought it off ebay for 400 if i could collect the car before boxing day... We lept into action trying to source a trailer..... Thanks to a good freind Mary who gave me Vic felgates number i found a trailer to bring my baby home on....... all was going to be ok...

We set off on Christmas eve to get the trailer which wasn't too far away from sporle where the beetle was.all was ok... we go the trailer from vic and gave him 20 sheets for the loan of the trailer and continued....We had impatient twats overtaking in the most retarded places. finally we got to the driveway which the bug was in and drove down to collect our catch. the people were already there so i handed the fourhundred sheets over signed the logbook and got the keys. it fired up ok with a genuine 27000 mile reconditioned engine in it which is very impressive especially running a nice fourpipe monza it sounds sweet. we loaded it onto the trailer no sweat and wet off home. the first stop for checking was unscheduled due to one of the straps breaking allowing my bug to get very close to the side of the trailer, we pulled up in a layby and resecured our prescious( read as bodged up junk) cargo..... driving along an A road at 40 m.p.h was irritating people tremendously, the amount of people waving weird gestures as they overtook was getting silly.


We got to the turn off for my road fine with no real problems. dad manuevered the cars into the drive and we went in for lunch, my wallet 400 sheets lighter and gained a vehicle. After a quick cuppa and a flick thru VOLKSWORLD i returned to get the car off the trailer.... by this time our next door neighbours( incidently into classic cars too but Triumph Staggs etc) had seen my wreck and came round for a see...Wonder what they thought lol



It reversed off no trouble and i set to work taking it apart to find the extent of the damage while dad took the trailer back. I took the carpets, seats and all the trim off to find a well rotted heater channel on the passanger side and went inside for tea and to do more Xmassy things... and went to sleep feeling satisfied....

Christmas day came and excitement for a few hours... around eleven oclock i got itchy feet and went out for a look and a tinker with the old bug... whoever thought id end up cutting out a sill on christmas day?!
Before pic..




after a week of hard graft we had the channel out and found we needed a rear quarter repair section and some other bits.......

took all the wings off etc and been cutting away to good metal:
or finding what metal there is under filler in this case??





Ok, The other sill was much the same except someone had put an over-sill on it and welded it to the floor, made the rear end from fiberglass and used underseal to make a floor

[adamjamesdavies]

Looking good, can't wait to see it in Yellow. Love Yellow bugs!

[Scotty_B]

Nice work so far, good to see another 1303 being saved!

[superbeetle91]

Originally Posted by Scott-16v!

Nice work so far, good to see another 1303 being saved!

cheers man...
shame that they get scrapped so readily... mine would have if i hadn't bought it!
tidied the wiring up today and it now has a hooter and matching bulbs in the front

here we go:
had a play with the grinder, got abit muckier than i first thought and ended up playing about with the new sill after removing the front inner wing due to rot!
: nasty business, there was alott of pop rivets used here with tins and shite

so off it all came
and then more cutting and faffing about, with the welder etc
:


all was going well...




Now with both the sills fitted and the floorpan outers seamed in i started looking for other little bits to weld up. With it beng high up on some landrover axel stands i had a bash at the framehead bottomplate which needed some major fabrication work, with that and the bulkhead welded up i moved onto silly things like door pillars.

The framehead has maybe 2 years life in it( this is ok because i'm having the body off then to do new front and rear bulkheads, full floorpans ( the thicker heritage ones) framehead, and some other goodies

I origanally thought it'd be MOT'd by now but due to people welding with seamsealer and underseal and bits of tin i've been mending bodges!
( more time went by)
I've now fitted all the following panels(or payed out for them)

2 sills, 2 pan outers, rear quarterpanel, front and rear bumpermounts, pasanger side full arch, 3 new wings, about 4 sheets of tin, front and rear aprons. some bumpers and a door, a whaletail etc ( cheers to Dale for these and all his support with the project)

It is now on it's feet with all working lights and brakes, the repairs are all primed and the wings are blown in blue untill i can get the yellow paint for it.


I will update this more at some point if it gets views



All the things that i've fitted are to an "ok" standard i think but we'l see... There's no more coke can+ seamsealer repairs!


The joys of being aircooled and tax free
What does everyone think? I probably missed some stuff out so sorry in advancee

[Scotty_B]

Nice one. It is a shame, saved mine from it's demise last October too, from an unfinished project to my daily driver. Long live the '03! Keep up the good work

[superbeetle91]

Another update.....welded the bootfloor to the new inner arch ( was tacked), fitted 2 new rear brake cylinders, blead and tested... working... sanding filling etc..... started to fit passangerside door pillar from mr hook! last weling for a while unless the mot man don't like my style!oh and tried to fit furflux to drivers side....... what a chore

[chrisradioman]

Great storry M8. I too am restoring a 1303 and love to see other restos.

[superbeetle91]

Originally Posted by chrisradioman

Great storry M8. I too am restoring a 1303 and love to see other restos.

people don't seem to rate them as much as the beam types....
well i was cursing as i mended the bulkhead.. what a joy! NOT
it's done now... and in next doors garden

[superbeetle91]

MOT on the third..... i'm not sure how it'l be though... did the brakes, lights, etc...... all work now........ no rot to speak of .... we can hope.

[Scotty_B]

Good luck!