My 2010 technology 66 Bug

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:54 am

After searching across the country for months on Ebay, Craigs List, etc. I found my new project car only two hours from home. We were in a second day of a three day tropical storm, and had about five inches of rain fall over this second day alone! I went and looked at the car and drove it on Saturday, but couldn't get back until the following Weds. to drive it home. I was so anxious to get it home there was no way I was going to let some rain and wind stop me.

The very first thing I noticed as soon as I hit the interstate was that there was no way those slow 6 volt wipers were going to even come close to allowing me to see where I was going. Luckily I brought some Rainex just in case and some rags, so the first exit I came across I pulled into a gas station. As I was applying the Rainex, my wife walked up and explained to me that neither the turn signals nor the brake lights were working. She had been following close behind me in our other car, just in case the bug was to break down.

The drive home was not too bad considering, except for the occasional wind gust or semi passing by that caused me to fight the steering to keep it in the road. Then about five miles from my house, three cops pull out from a parking lot and start driving beside us. I'm thinking, "Lord don't let me get a ticket now, this close to home." Well two of them turned off after about a mile, but the first guy pulled along side of me and just sort of stayed there for a couple of miles. He must have just been looking at the car, because the for sale sign was still in the side window, and after a couple of miles he just sped up and was gone. Whew! That was a nail biter!

It was dark when I pulled her into the garage and snapped a few pictures (actually a lot of pictures) to document what she looked like when I got it home and the restoration in general. This project started in early November 2009, and I have made quite a bit of progress on the restoration so far. Here are a few of the pictures from the night I brought it home. These are of the outside and engine:

Not too bad from what I can see. The body looks pretty solid in all the areas that usually go, but until I get it stripped down I won't know for sure. Once the carpet is up I will find lots of surprises.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:18 am

Ok, so here are some interior shots. It was pretty rough, and the wood paneling on the doors, well isn't that just beautiful? Ugh! Not to worry though because it is all going!

Jim I hope you like the smaller scale pictures. I think they will keep the thread from being too unwieldy. Ok, I got the car home about 6:00PM, so I had a couple of hours to start the disassembly. I started by taking off the running boards and fenders and was very pleasantly surprised. All the fender bolts and nuts came out without a problem, and there was NO rot in any of the wheel wells at all, nor was there any in the rocker panels! The more I took apart the more impressed I became. I wanted a solid unrestored bug for my project, and it looked like I got exactly that. Even when I had looked underneath the car before I bought it, I thought the floor boards looked solid other than under the battery. It had a patch under it, and I knew I would be putting a replacement panel there. So far so good.
So disassembly begins:

Here is the wiring in the car. Note the 6 volt to 12 volt converter for the radio. (which didn't work)

And the wiring removed and dash disassembled:

Interior stripped out:

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:40 am

So once the carpet was pulled up and the tar insulation removed, I discovered a floor can look really good from underneath, but unless you poke it with a screwdriver or something you don't know for sure. The paint on the underside had a very thin layer of under coating and no rusting had occurred from the outside in. The problem was that it had rusted from the inside out.

I removed the combination fiberglass/aluminum patch from underneath the battery and found the hole much larger than it appeared. The rust out even ran up between the seat rails. Also, the passenger side front floorboard was rusted through along the outer edge and into the front bulkhead and the heater channel. On the drivers side the front pan and heater channel are solid. In the rear driver side it appeared rusty but solid, until I started scraping the tar board out. My screw driver started poking holes through it. So it appears I will be needing a complete RH floor and a rear section on the left, along with a front bulkhead and a RH heater channel.

I ordered the parts from CIP1 and was happy with the quality. I went with the heavy duty orange parts which are more expensive but closer to the original thickness. Here are some shots showing the damage:

The front head and backbone were all rust free. Nasty in there though! Finally I got the engine out and on the floor and on the Sunday after I brought it home (four days) we have separation! I got a couple of neighbors to come over and lift it off for me. I have a bad back.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:27 am

Ok, so the plans for the car include updating the suspension to air ride, for both ride quality and car show badness for sitting it on the ground. Also, a brake upgrade to disc brakes all the way around is required. Complete front end rebuild using a new 4" narrowed beam will occur. A complete rewiring using all new modern technology, including electric heat, 12 volt conversion, 100 amp alternator and complete gauge package. I'm using the Woodward series beige gauges as can be seen at this site: http://www.newvintageusa.com/woodward.html

I'll be using the 4 3/8" speedo, 3 3/8" tach, and the 2 1/6" fuel, voltmeter, oil pressure, and I'm having a matching oil temperature gauge made. They are also making me some matching dual needle air gauges for my air ride. The car will also have air conditioning that I will design using off the shelf components from classic air. It gets mighty hot and humid here in eastern NC, and air is a definite requirement. I'm planning a two tone camel and tan, tweed and vinyl interior from SewFine in Texas with oatmeal carpeting. The paint will be 2010 Ford Royal Red Metallic (paint code UK). This paint is close to a dark maroon and is a base coat clear coat paint. I will be building a 2110 stroker engine from scratch (new case, etc) for the car which should have enough power to spin the AC compressor and still give me some get up and go! I do all my own work, from the mechanicals to the body, paint and interior installation.

So without further adieu, lets continue with the floor pan repairs. I forgot to take pictures on the RH side pan replacement, but it went so well I decided rather than do a rear pan replacement on the left, I would just replace the entire side. So I ordered another full panel, and I did document its replacement! First some shots of the pan with the body off showing the front and rear suspensions.

Now here are the pan replacement shots. First you have to drill all those spot welds out!

And the pan comes off pretty easily.

Here's a shot of the front head and the pan waiting for the new side to come in from CIP1. I pulled the trans and rear suspension while I was waiting.

And the end result after welding it in. I also welded in the air ride suspension mounts and nut plates for the seat belts and air tank. Then I sand blasted it both top and bottom and sealed all the seams with seam sealer and painted it all with Chassis Black from Eastwood.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:49 am

Now the fun stuff happens. I get to start installing all the new stuff! I sand blasted and painted the axle tubes and the torsion arms for the front. I installed all new ball joints, narrowed tie rods with new ends, new steering damper, new steering box and coupler, and of course the new narrowed front beam and air shocks. The beam, air ride and brakes all came from Airkewld at http://airkewld.com/

I installed a new Pro-street transmission with new heavy duty axles and bearings, seals, nuts, etc. New urethane mounts, trans strap, boots, stainless steel brake lines, air bags and associated suspension parts, and new spring plates modified to go LOW. New dual circuit master cylinder, air tank and compressor. Badd brake rotors with 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern, Wilwood calpers in front and Ghia calipers in the rear. All new cables, boots etc. New Empi shifter and chrome e-brake. Here are the pictures. I have some new Rattle Trap Fatt Matt sound deadner I'm starting to install today, and the new Foose Legend wheels will go on Weds. I'll post new pics of the sound deadner and wheels later this week.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:56 am

Here's some pictures of the brakes, front end, and air compressor mounting.

New Powder Coated dropped spindles!

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:16 pm

So ok, as promised here are the pictures of the new FattMat Rattle Trap Extreme sound deadener after I finished the installation today. I also got the new Foose Legends installed. 18" in back and 17" in front. The Rattle trap is like Dynamat except thicker and stickier. The Dynamat is 30 mil and the Rattle trap is 80 mil thick and extremely sticky. It conforms really good, but beware it is stuck once it is stuck! It is like contact cement, no moving it around once it is stuck down. All and all the installation went pretty well. I plan to go back with some aluminum tape and hit any of the seams. I still plan to install the carpet sound deadening as well, so this should be one quiet ride inside! I bought 100 square feet and still have about 2/3 left, which should be more than enough for the inside of the body.

So this just about completes the chassis, so now I will move on to the body, but first I need to build a raised trolley for it. I plan to roll the chassis outside when I work on the body, roll the body over to the center of the garage to work on it, then move the chassis back in for the night. I will start the body trolley probably week after next.

Until next time, I'll see you guys later!

rokemester · Post by **rokemester** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:37 pm

Wow you are really coming along. Thanks for sharing the progress on your Bug. It's going to be very COOL.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:00 am

I went ahead and got the body trolley/cart built this weekend. I'm having four friends come over this evening to lift the body up onto the cart. I took plenty of measurements off the car when I built this thing, so I'm hopeful that when they sit it up there it, that it fits like a glove. If it does not fit correctly, that will not be good, because they are swinging by on their way home from work and won't want to hang around for me to make any modifications. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Anyway, I built it so that the bottom of the heater channels will be about 27" off the floor. This will put replacing the RH side at a height where I can comfortably sit on my stool and replace the RH channel. The front fire wall should be easier too. I decided to change the front apron as well, as the previous owner did a bondo job on it. He also tried to do some welding on the RH front bumper mount and burned a bunch of holes in there, so I'll be getting a replacement panel for that too. This cart should make all the lower work much easier, plus allow me to roll it around the garage and outside if I need to do any sand blasting of areas. Also it will give me headroom to stand up inside the car to restore any of the areas inside, much more easily. Painting everything inside and underneath should be easier too. I will however need to use a step ladder to do the work on the top.

I'll add some pictures with the body in place after I get it on there tonight.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:23 am

So we lifted the body, or should I say, I watched my four friends lift the body and I directed them onto the platform. It fit pretty much perfect. I used four 3/8" x 1 1/2" lag bolts, two in the front body mount locations and two in the rear to mount it solidly. It is very convenient now to move it around my garage, and I actually have more room to move around in there now than when it was stationary. Even with my other car and the chassis in there I still have plenty on room. When I pull the car out and roll out the chassis, I'm left with a cavernous work space!

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:41 am

When I disassembled the car, prior to removing the carpeting, I was very happy, because the rocker/heater channels looked good and solid. The LH side was indeed solid, but once the carpeting came out it was apparent that the RH side was shot. It appeared to have rusted from the inside out, because the outside and bottom (to the outside of the pan) was good. The guy had a cheap sill plate on, so I couldn't really see the top, and the running board mounting was solid. Anyway here's a picture of the outside, and you can see it looks pretty good. That's my stool sitting inside the platform in case you were wondering.

And then here is all the actual damage that needs repaired.

Here's the front firewall damage and the replacement part. I haven't decided yet if I want to install the entire assembly or just cut out the bad part and a matching piece from the repair panel and weld in there.

Here are the pictures of the new replacement RH heater channel. It is another nice heavy duty piece and is complete top to bottom. I am going to weld some bracing into the door jamb and across in the body to prevent anything from moving when I cut the old channel out.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:54 am

Well I officially started the body restoration yesterday and found a few unsettling surprises during the process. I guess that is not all that uncommon when restoring an old vehicle. It just means more work and more money to make these additional repairs. The first thing I did was to round up some metal for the structural bracing. I changed my garage door opener a couple of months back, and I saved the tee iron from the track mechanism. I knew I would be doing some bracing and felt this would be an excellent choice. I also found a piece of 1 1/4" angle iron lying in a corner, so I should be all set. So I studied the structure of the car and the way I had it attached to my work cart and proceeded to weld in multiple braces. I also attached it to the cart in two places as well to prevent any possibility of it shifting. Here are the pictures.

The surprises were found when I started removing the seam filler in the rear. I found someone had made a poor attempt at repairing rust and rot, just behind the tube exiting the heater channel. They had used foil tape and bondo, no metal and no welding! To make it worse, the rot continued into the rear body bulkhead and mounting flange, so this will all have to be fabricated from scratch. I have not seen a patch panel for this location. The problem and feeble fix continued onto the outside as well, the rear quater panel has rot in the lower rear corner and it continues into the wheel well. They also bondo'd in a galvanized strip all the way from front to rear on the outer rocker panel. Of course this is part of my new heater channel. Here are the pictures of the rear areas.

The front lower wheel well had the same galvanized strip bondo'd to it. Here are pictures of that.

Here I started pulling the strip away. It was easy, as there were no rivets or weld, only bondo.

Ok, so after I finished fuming over the additional work and botched repair job, I got to work. First I took some reference measurements and wrote them on the car in the door jamb in marker. I cut the heater channel in half about mid point in the door opening. I did this for two reasons, first it will be easier to remove the heater channel in two pieces, and second, I wanted to make sure I saw if there was any body shift or distortion when I cut it. There was no movement of anything when I cut through. The two pieces stayed in alignment, so I must have done good on the bracing. Next, I drilled out all the spot welds in the front lower wheel well, and using a cutting wheel on my air tool, cut around the lower front door jamb. With a little finesse, the front section is out. See the pictures.

I plan to try and get the rear half out this morning.

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:44 am

So I got the rear half out this morning and assessed the remaining damage. I will need to rebuild that whole rear section at the front of the rear wheel house. I cleaned up all the areas where the new heater channel will weld in and decided I will leave the front bulkhead issue until tomorrow. I came in and ordered a few parts from CIP1 that should make things a little easier than fabricating everything from scratch. I know I will have to make some of it, but at least not all of it. I ordered a lower quarter panel, an upper and lower front rear wheel house panels, and a lower rear front wheel house panel to replace the swiss cheese up front where I drilled all the spot welds out. I used to have a pneumatic panel flanger years ago, but I haven't seen it forever. I guess I'll check with Harbor Freight to see what they get for one. Anyway, here are the pictures from today.

Here's the galvanized Strip that was only held in by bondo, and what it was hiding.

Channel removed and things cleaned up a bit.

And the area I need to rebuild highlighted with black marker. It will take at least a week to get the parts from CIP1, so I'll probably start on it next weekend.

rokemester · Post by **rokemester** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 8:21 am

The body cart is very clever. I bet other people who restore bugs will be inspired plus you don't have to go out and purchase some expensive body dolly. I'm enjoying watching the fruits of your labor. Well beyond my capabilities. When did you pick up your welding skills?

agggilli · Post by **agggilli** » Sat May 01, 2010 8:54 pm

Well it took two weeks to get my parts this time from CIP1. I washed the car with my pressure washer and cleaned the the under coating off the inner wheel wells. I started working on the rear section this week and it was worse than it appeared. I needed to cut away a lot of material and wound up taking out most of the quarter panel just to gain access to the inside area. It actually will work out, because once I get everything welded in, I can use seam sealer and paint it all inside there, then put the new quarter panel on. I can also weld the heater channel from inside the posts as well as outside. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures of the destruction this week, but I did take some pictures today when I got the heater channel tacked in and the quarter panel processed and fitted. I started tacking in some new metal at that rear corner and it is starting to come together.

My welding skills are limited to heavy stick or mig. I am not great with sheet metal. I basically am tacking everything together and a friend of mine is going to do the actual finish welding. Here are the pics from today.

Undercoating removed and nice rust free drivers side wheel well and rocker.

The heater channel tacked in place in front and rear. I made sure my measurements were exact to what I recorded on the jamb a few weeks ago. Also a shot of the quarter panel all ready to weld in once that rear section is completed, sealed and painted.

Here is the rear section about 50% made and tacked in. I had to cut some of the inner rear interior metal to gain proper access. This will be welded back once I'm done in there.

The plan is to get this all made and tacked in place this week. My friend will probably come over this coming Saturday to do the finish welding. I'm also in the process of building a spot welder to weld the new hood weather strip retainer strips and front and rear aprons in place.