(o\_!_/o) Project: 1959 Ragtop VW Beetle

[AsadIshaque]

Another view of things...

[AsadIshaque]

The roof had a repair patch done before. This had not held up well so was cut out and a new patch applied. Note that the margins have been lined up and not overlapped like all denters do. Patch would be seam welded and not spot welded. Surface rust needs cleaning.

[AsadIshaque]

[AsadIshaque]

More areas awaiting repairs.....

[AsadIshaque]

One of the doors in the car. You can see two stripped fenders too....

[AsadIshaque]

Closeup of the rear bonnet hinge support bracket. This was rusted and weak. One of the items in Basits wishlist.......

[AsadIshaque]

Another tech area......

The 67 vintage doors on the car accept a different locking mechanism.


The B pillar had been modified to accept the post 67 style stiker plates. To reverse these back to the pre 66 kind, I had sourced 64 vintage pillar cutouts......credit goes again to the poor deceased 64. This would give us some original metal to graft on for a quality repair.

[AsadIshaque]

Ustaad Basit himself!

    I photographed him telling that these would go on the internet. Look closely what he has in in his hands.......;)

[AsadIshaque]

For people who have not guessed what is in Basit ustaads hands above....how about this???

"Ice-pick" VW handles!!

 How many here know how rare these pre 59 handles are???? Very hard to locate and very expensive!


 The 64 doors need slight mod to fit these. The front hole obviously needs sealing up. The door lock mechanism inside the door need a bit of tweaking.

[funkycapricorn]

The project is going on a good pace...

As for the bonnet thingy could it be a slight difference in the W pattern? And the handle... Perhaps the handle was fixed the opposite way than post 60's... I recall seeing something like this on older Beetles or someone telling me about this...

Those handles look awsome

[Storm]

Storm, what is that "thing" in the corner??

are you reffering to the hardtop of the thing lying on the roof of the 69?very tasty!

[Storm]

asad, where do i start? WOW!! you really have been stockpiling alot fo good/rare parts(Y)

i'd not worry about the bean which holds the tank, if the welds are done correctly then there will be no issues, but i have seen many graft jobs where the welds have faild in spots because the welder saved a few grams of wire.

those ice picks are very rare adn i am surprised to see such a clean pair in PK. most people have swapped over to square button ones so you car is going to have some prety RARE stuff on it.

as for the badges etc being made by basit, excellent idea. i had my door pins and gear knob cast since i preffered the metal look and they are nice and clean. however ther eis a massive shortage of correct badges, finger plates etc so i'm sure this stuff will be in high demand (i'm sure the local chrome will be better than the cheap mexican stuff).

i'll check my catalogues to see if SSP or VW heritage have a listing for the rollers andif they have them i'll grab them for you on my next trip to the UK for sure.

let me know what can be done from here to help you out and keep the pics & details coming. to a VW nut this thread is like porn!

[AsadIshaque]

The project is going on a good pace... As for the bonnet thingy could it be a slight difference in the W pattern? And the handle... Perhaps the handle was fixed the opposite way than post 60's... I recall seeing something like this on older Beetles or someone telling me about this... Those handles look awsome

 Thanks Arsalan.


 The rear bonnet/decklid for the 59 year was originally called a "semi-W". It had the smaller licence plate light housing (called a 'Pope's Nose in VW circles recently although stictly speaking a Pope's Nose light is the even earlier kind) along with the embossed pattern similar to what you have on your 66 beetle.


 I have two rear bonnets for the car. One is a 64 bonnet which you see on the car now. This would be slightly modified to look like a 58 to 62-3 one with the larger light housing removed. The smaller one would be bolted up by simply drilling new holes and welding up the previous ones.


The other bonnet is the replica W decklid, pics of which I posted a while ago.

Which handle are you talking about??? The outer door one??? These handles are the pull type ie the handle itself pulls off towards you being pivoted on the rear side only.

[AsadIshaque]

Storm, what is that "thing" in the corner??

are you reffering to the hardtop of the thing lying on the roof of the 69?very tasty!

[/quote]

 Sorry but the pic was on the previous page so I guess you missed what I was saying.....Ill repost the pic here for you.........now look hard at the LHS corner of the pic....

[AsadIshaque]

asad, where do i start? WOW!! you really have been stockpiling alot fo good/rare parts(Y) i'd not worry about the bean which holds the tank, if the welds are done correctly then there will be no issues, but i have seen many graft jobs where the welds have faild in spots because the welder saved a few grams of wire. those ice picks are very rare adn i am surprised to see such a clean pair in PK. most people have swapped over to square button ones so you car is going to have some prety RARE stuff on it. as for the badges etc being made by basit, excellent idea. i had my door pins and gear knob cast since i preffered the metal look and they are nice and clean. however ther eis a massive shortage of correct badges, finger plates etc so i'm sure this stuff will be in high demand (i'm sure the local chrome will be better than the cheap mexican stuff). i'll check my catalogues to see if SSP or VW heritage have a listing for the rollers andif they have them i'll grab them for you on my next trip to the UK for sure. let me know what can be done from here to help you out and keep the pics & details coming. to a VW nut this thread is like porn!

Thanks a lot!! Heartwarming comments keep me going all the more stronger! :D


Yes a lot of parts have been stockpiled for this big project. I realise now how easy it is to rebuild a sixties or seventies Beetle, comparitively.


The Icepicks are *brand new* but old stock though not NOS. They do make me grin ear to ear whenever I see themB-).


Did you say you had door pins cast??? Im sure thats a typo since door pins can be machined but not cast. I am using genuine VW door pins......you shall see soon.....


Yes the cast items are replicas of stuff often short in the market.... The chrome does hold good onto the brass/alloy as Ive seen the big VW custom logo last for years on some cars including basit's own custom 74 bug.


Thanks for your generous offer on the roller set. I shall let you know if I need them, maybe I get lucky if My brother is kind to me!


Have been visiting Mr. Amin ul Haq a lot these days and having long interesting chat sessions with him. He is guiding me with a lot of stuff including fabricating things out of Teflon. He has some uncut Teflon rod which was used to fabricate Door inner handle escutcheons for his 56 oval. Has given me a lot of tips where to buy the raw material from etc etc.

Now let me update this thread with more pics........my system software is acting up and I fear it might crash anytime so Ill be quick in 'saving' the pics here!

[AsadIshaque]

Back to our story.....

The day these last pics were snapped Basit had an "assignment for me"........he asked me to go to Shershah scrapyard along with the following shopping list:

• LHS front fender

• Door bottom hinge RHS (the RHS 64 door I bought did not come with a bottom hinge)

• Door upper hinge LHS with a threaded pin (to accept a LHS side view mirror)

• Front bonnet hinges in excellent shape (the ones on the car were ok but Basit rejected them)

• Rear bonnet hinge foundations (a close up posted a while ago to show the rot)

  Basits eyes almost fell out of his head as I told him I wont have to go to the scrapyard but dig in my stash at home to locate all these items.....

  So went home and dug out the treasures......

[AsadIshaque]

Above fender does need a bit of repair but is in overall good unmolested shape.....

 Isloo crowd....I know you guys see better body panels but we salty Karachi wallas are not so lucky.......

[AsadIshaque]

Rot on the rear of the fender seen above....low res pics from cell camera....

Front bonnet hinges pair in excellent shape.....bought on the recommendation of my scrapyard contact many moons ago as he assured me that they were good as new..... Sorry for the bad pic as they are in a shopper.....I was too exhausted to display them properly after the massive hunt to locate these!

Some pre 64 door lock mechanisms. I found five in my stash! Three of these had been gifted by Mr. Amin ul Haq long time ago. Generous of him.

A small collection of door hinges.

[MSKhan18]

......... WOW ..... what are you cooking there bro? This is a very interesting post not to mention a crazy project. Wish you luck. I expect a ride in the car when its complete? ( I have no idea why you would do it but I expect it).

A question..... When you take out rusted parts, and put in new material, isn't it best to have the edge straight? One of the pictures had rough edges and I thought maybe you'll use filler material with it. What gives?

Keep up the good work!

MSKHAN

P.S: NOT FOR ASAD eyes .... hey you guys, anyone for storming asad's home for treasure? (Storm??).

[AsadIshaque]

@ MS Khan

Great to have you here! Please feel free to comment on every step of the work and recommend anything you feel is not being done the right way or has room for improvement. I shall take all critisism constructively :) I am quite sure you can give me valuable input here.

You would surely get a ride once the ride is complete, promise!

You do have a point regarding keeping the edges straight, its a thought which did not strike me. I guess the denter wanted to keep as much as healthy original metal as possible in place. I think a straight edged repair would have been easier for him.......making an odd shaped piece is difficult.

Wait a bit to see the next step for the piece you have seen......I was quite shocked to see it a couple of days later.....Ill post the before and after pics together to give all an idea.

I wont worry about the treasures as they are being guarded by a fire breathing dragon! The 'dragon' takes the shape of a nerdish looking doctor when people are looking :D.....