1957 Oval Ragtop - the sympathy purchase

[nmshaikh]

Nice to here that Oval is clear nowHave you retained a colour copy of that, here in Islamabad Ayub Photocopier, melody market has very nice photocopy machines even color, try them

Why didn't I think of that??? I guess its too late now. The papers have already been submitted but I hear that they return the original file to the owner these days so maybe if I requested, they might give all the original paperwork back. Thank you for the reminder re. Ayub Photocopier business. They do have tens of machines ..even upstairs where they handle non-routine jobs.

[nmshaikh]

Another day of magic being performed by Arshad on the Oval. The complete side from the donor car was cut off yesterday and today, after removing the badly dented and poorly repaired side of the Oval, he set about grafting the piece in place. It sounds easier but Arshad spent a lot of time taking measurements and marking. The lines appear straight for the first time and the final finish would be wave free. Luckily the side of the donor car came out very clean under the layers of filler so the sacrifice was worth it. I would like the Oval to be as close to original as possible when restored.

I will post the pictures tonight and that should give you a better idea of the progress.

[nmshaikh]

The Good....

Both of the rear flanks are super clean with slightest of surface rust..

[nmshaikh]

The Oval window area and the air intake is in v. good condition with zero rust and no signs of trauma

[amirhasan]

nmsheikh bhi plz post more pic in detail

[nmshaikh]

The front is again in v. good condition with no signs of an accident. Its uncommon to find a car of this vintage in Pakistan that has not had a front or rear accident but the Oval has had her share of bash-ups. We'll come to that in the next few pictures.

[nmshaikh]

The Bad!

The right side was hit sometime in the cars life and was done up quite shoddily

[nmshaikh]

The UGLY!!!

The left side of the car was either hit quite bad or the car rolled on her side at some point in its life. the repairs done were of a poor quality and liberal amounts of filler were used to mask the un-even sheet metal.

[amirhasan]

more pic plz

[Xulfiqar]

what was the cutoff year for the cable and hydro brakes.

[nmshaikh]

what was the cutoff year for the cable and hydro brakes.

I would need to check because it may be different for different markets. The new features were first introduced (a year ahead of others) in the US market. My Oval is a Left hand drive and a European car but in any case it may be the last year for cable brakes as the 58 Europeans did have hydraulic brakes. The last cable brake standard VW produced anywhere in the world was in 5-4-1962

[reezvaan]

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[reezvaan]

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[nmshaikh]

This thread should provide a lot of "reference" material for this restoration, just saying: TheSamba.com :: View topic - Barn Find '57 Oval

The reference material is all there on the internet for anyone looking. My threads are more the day to day progress and the fun I have restoring and driving my Vee dubs. I wouldn't want to change my style. Thank you for including the link. I am sure anyone wanting to confirm the spark plug gap or how the tappets are adjusted would find it handy. Meanwhile there is always Youtube you can turn to for help

[reezvaan]

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[nmshaikh]

They say you filter information you intend to extract. What I saw in the thread was the 'originality of the 57 Oval with low miles. And that was I about as I remember reading somewhere on this thread that you were about "purity" in this resto but unfortunately it looks like you're pretty annoyed about ppl doing things with their bugs themselves and documenting every step for future reference of those who "seek" and may be your judgement on the barn find post is marred by that annoyance.

However, works for me either ways. Have it your way.

I fail to understand what you mean by
pretty annoyed about ppl doing things with their bugs themselves and documenting every step for future reference of those who "seek" and may be your judgement on the barn find post is marred by that annoyance.

maybe I should use simple language or maybe you should stop reading between the lines. It is just a thread that would tell how the Oval ragtop was restored. I can copy and paste all the references I need to add pages to my thread but Why? What has 'purity' got to do with the way I want to describe my experience? LT (the fella in the Samba link) chose to describe this experience his way, I choose to do it differently.

I am no expert in VW's. I know a few things, the rest, if I am faced with I'll look up in my reference books or google them. I do not want to create any other impression. A visitor to the thread asked about the year cable brakes were discontinued. I know from experience that they were not present in 1958 cars. I also see that they are present in my 1957 car. I could simply google and quote a response but I'd rather someone else did that and maintain the interactive feel of this thread.

Thank you for your input.

[romano]

Nasir, lets keep this thread purely 'subjective'; i.e., stick to the work at hand. if you start cross referencing data for every off topic question posed by members, you will never get off the PC! Just saying

[nmshaikh]

..moving on..

I shared with you the pictures of the poorly repaired side of the Oval and my decision to 'slaughter' or 'sacrifice' another bug to harvest the panels required. Arshad did a lot a calculations and marked the lines on the oval this time so the offending panels could be cut out for removal. It is a delicate task, one that requires precision and dead accuracy. My input in the process was almost that of an observer. We did however agree that the original joints would be preserved to maintain the authenticity of the structure. To get as close to original as possible the donor car selected was a 58 rag top. Even then there are the minute differences in measurements that were taken into account and adjustments made as to where the cuts and welds were made.

I would have liked to have a Mig welder handy but unfortunately we could not find one and had to rely on the gas torch. The problem with a gas torch is the heat it transfers to the surrounding area that can warp the sheet metal. We used almost a dozen tins of paint stripper to avoid this issue but at the welding stage we had to improvise and rags soaked in water were placed around the area being gas welded to prevent heat travel. In addition to the wet rag solution Arshad used the dolly and hammer every few inches to ensure that the sheet metal was not warped even in the close vicinity of the weld.

The progress is painstakingly slow but the whole panel was welded in a day. Check out the pictures to appreciate the work of a master panel beater. The oval now has a complete new section with hardly a sign of accident damage.

The inner layer/ frame of the body would be left un-welded until all the panel beating is done and a primer applied. Irfan -the painter would then check the surface for any imperfections and advise. By leaving the inner crust unwelded, Arshad would have free access to make good any flaws.

The pan was restored before I bought the car and it had been left to rot without any protective treatment. I have decided that we would re-do the pan before treating the pan with POR -15. However for now we concentrate on the body work as having a rigid body (attached to the frame makes it easy to take accurate measurements, cut and weld.

[Basharatu]

Good progress on ragtop, I am having issues in viewing the pictures relevant to last post.

Allah Arshad ku lambi zindagee dey, he is a great help in keeping the Bugs aLife

[reezvaan]

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