My First 1970 Bug

[leec]

Hi,

Where did you get the doors from?

I can't believe the two you got, I have a 70 elm green vw and those doors you bought were elm green under the silver. Bloody typical I need a drivers side in OG paint....

Lee

[chontay]

Originally Posted by leec

Hi,

Where did you get the doors from?

I can't believe the two you got, I have a 70 elm green vw and those doors you bought were elm green under the silver. Bloody typical I need a drivers side in OG paint....

Lee

Hi mate, I got them from ebay. Very lucky find. Not cheap but the condition is so good.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/stimpo51?...53.m2749.l2754

This is the fella on ebay I got them from.
Rob

[chontay]

Just had a look and he's got more in stock that would fit.

[chontay]

So we're still being illegally locked down. I don't want to politicise this in any way and maybe I'll get banned from posting if the censorship reaches this far. But have you seen this?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-con...-diseases-hcid

Specifically a few scrolls down that back up all the independent medical professionals who are trying in vain to get this message out to the UK/World. Tragic breach of our human rights. Covid is not a pandemic class illness. It's flu.

Anyway. I retired in October. In an effort to stay sane I have parked my bathroom rebuild to get the decklid, new doors and the V3.0 Engine ready. More pics to follow but as a teaser/trailer:




Last week I went to Warwick to meet Gary at the speedster clinic. What an absolute top bloke! Spent a good few hours just chewing the fat and will be placing my order next month. So the engine is a build for the coupe. The rest of this is for Gladys.



These doors continue to amaze me. I will post full pics but currently all they have is an epoxy base coat, one has had a skim of filler in the few spots it needed and the other will be done that way too. But when you see them in epoxy and see there is no other metal work required it's just nuts!

[Brownpantsracing]

Looking good mate, that engine is soooo pretty.

[chontay]

Originally Posted by Brownpantsracing

Looking good mate, that engine is soooo pretty.

Thanks mate. 1915cc. 40 Dells. Spent some time today fettling. Just trying to figure out that linkage as it has to pass through the fan shroud somehow which I don't like the look of. I'll figure it out. I think the vintagespeed linkage is better having seen one before.





Can't decide what colour to paint it either!

[Brownpantsracing]

Such a lovely setup. That'll look so nice in a speedster if you do push the button.

I want your bug interior having seen it in the flesh. It's a work of art.

[chontay]

Haha sorry Andy I'm not parting with the bug or the interior

You can have first dibs though if I ever do though ...

The Coupe should be on order start of Feb. 12 week lead time and a flat to rebuild during that time before I can start a slow build on it. Going to be a slower build to the original bug rebuild. Simply so I can take my time on it and I've no idea what the future holds at the moment. And there's no rush. But looking forward to it. Be nice to do something like this as it won't be months of body repairs it'll just be customising some stuff and build up.

Hopefully get the two doors and decklid in paint next week. I bought an old battered decklid last year for the vents. Then did this to the decklid I got last summer.






Ready for wet sanding

[Brownpantsracing]

I'll hold you to that.

Funnly enough I've got an old vented deck lid I'll be cutting vents out of to graft into my 63 lid just like this eventuality. You've done a top job as always there mate.

[chontay]

Really? One word of advice I would give on this is leave a good chunk of the donor lid around the vents and make the cuts in the target lid wider all round to accommodate them. What I found once they were in, even though when spotting them in the two pieces were absolutely perfectly flush, was I had this slight dip all the way round both inserts which I had to level with a bit of filler. Not entirely sure why as the recipient decklid didn't warp or anything so maybe the donor surface is just that much different in terms of the curve? I dunno. Either way I would take as much time as you can comparing, measuring and test fitting. I think I got mine quite nicely aligned and level, I think one is just a fraction off the other but depends how you look at it as to how noticeable it is. I also had lots of fun knocking the vent lines around to get them level with the curve and keeping the spacing right etc. Glad I persisted though as I like the end result. I nearly gave up at one point and thought sod it I'll just put the cut outs back in and smooth it off but just knuckled down and kept at it. Was a good weeks work though just to get it into primer and smooth.