V8 1973 VW Beetle Project by V8 Super Beetle

9 minute(s) of a 270 minute read

Some updates on the bug.

Still doing body work a little at a time. The front end is pretty close to being finished. I still want to shave the bumper up front and the handle, but I've got to wait until I can get a hold of my brothers mig welder just to make the job easier than using a stick welder. Hopefully I can get my hands on it this weekend.

At this point I'm just tapping in high spots and filling in little low spots and trying to get the body as smooth as I possibly can.

9-22-2008

All the body shaping of the front is pretty much done. Next I'll shave the bumper holes and front hood handle, but the hard part is pretty much done with for the front. Now I'll move onto the rear fenders.

I mocked up the steering. I've got a manual GM steering box and linkage. The steering wheel will be in it's stock location. I've just got to figure out what to use to mate the VW spline to the GM box / linkage.

9-30-2008

This weekend a few buddies came over to help out on the the car, well, it was supposed to be one but four showed and more talking than work was done, but they got to check out the car for the first time. What basically got done was we positioned the body in it's finally spot and we lowered the passenger side 3/4"to level the body out. Friday I went and bought 5 sticks of angle iron to get it all done.

Last night I cut and tack welded in the floor support using angle iron. For just being tack welded at the moment the concept seems very sturdy.

Next I'm going to weld in the body mount rails that bolt up to the heater channels.

10-6-2008

S10 2" drop spindles came in.

This weekend I finished welding the floor support in. Well, I didn't get to the welding underneath cause I'm not great at overhead welding. So when I take the frame apart to rebuild it I'm going to flip over the frame and tackle those welds and others.

It's been a little while since I've last welded and I was working with different rods. I had to redo a few welds cause the rods I have are coat with less coating / flux so I wasn't use to them, but quickly got the hang of it. Not the greatest weld, but looks decent.

I made some mounts for the body to bolt to. Still have to weld them in though.

10-9-2008

Radiator for the bug in exchange for a little photoshopping. Courtesy of Ray. Thanks Ray! Needs a little cleaning but it's in great condition.

I did some test fitting / mocking up of the radiator and seems like it'll have to go in the back cause the sway bar and steering box is right where I need the radiator to sit. So I'll be building a place for the radiator to mount in the rear. Having the radiator and battery in the back should help distribute a little bit of the weight.

10-13-2008

Well, this weekend I managed to finish all the metal work on one fender and I got down a layer of bondo. Looks like it'll turn out just like I want it to. My metal work isn't the greatest, but I'll make it up in body work. Stick welding sheet metal is a biotchhh! 

MasterSeries paint came in! This is what I'll be using to seal and paint my chassis. 2 quarts of silver and one gloss chassis black.

Next weekend I will hopefully have the other fender to or past this point.

10-17-2008

My goal this weekend is to finish the metal work on the driver's side rear fender (cut / weld / grind), to get some body filler down to smoothen out the transition from the natural fender to the widened strips, and to start shaping both of them.

I was thinking, the only thing in the way of me mounting the radiator up front is the sway bar. I'm wandering if I could cut it a little wider than the radiator and weld some metal, say angle iron or even some round tubing, so it's out of the way.

Like so...

I guess the first step would be to see if the radiator is narrower than where the bushings mount for the sway bar.

hmmm.....

I'm thinking it could be cut and be tucked under the clip where the hood will latch, but above the louvers.

Well, here's the same radiator. What I mean by the same is I mean this is the radiator from this bug. The owner gave it to me. His bug is a super as well so there's the same amount of room. Just has to be slanted.

10-20-2008

A little update.

Finished the metal work on the driver side fender and got down the first layer of bondo.

I started sanding the passenger fender with some 60 grit. Seemed like it took forever to knock down the bondo. I ran out of time before I could make any real sanding progress, but I'll need to get some 40 grit to move things along quicker.

10-27-2008

Quick update...

I worked on the rear fenders some more this weekend. I sanded down the first layer of bondo, tapped in some of the high spots and filled in some of the visible low spots. So far it seems like they'll come out decent. The shape is pretty much there, but there's a little filling and tapping here and there that needs to be done. And more sanding of coarse. Another weekend or two and I should be finished with them. This time I used a file to knock down and shaped the bondo as suggested.

These first three pictures are after sanding down the first layer.

Here's where I'm at after sanding down the second coat of bondo. Still a lot more work to do but it's getting there.