Getting Started

The first big goal of the project is to seperate the body from the chasis. Once this is done it will be much easier to assess the full extent of degradation (fancy word for rust/rot/cancer, etc). It will also make working on the chasis assembly and body assembly much easier. I purchased a set of dvd's last year that walk someone like me through the process of maintenance, repair, replacement, and overhaul of various VW beetle systems - including taking the body and chasis apart. Once all the loose stuff from the inside had been removed (seats, misc. loose parts, a rat's nest, etc) and a vacum ran through it (loose rust mostly), I could already see that the rust damage was more extensive than originally thought. The rear luggage tray is virtually "see through" and rust runs up the inner fender sections from the floor. Fortunately most of the seperation process went smoothly (like removing the gas tank). Unfortunately, the half-a-dozen or so bolts that didn't cooperate are gonna be tough to remove. They'll need to be cut out. Once that is done the body "should" lift off. Right now I need to get the air compressor working that my dad lent me (thanks a ton dad for the pneumatic tools, compressor, welder and other stuff that are gonna be great once I really tear into this thing). Once the compressor is working, I can cut off these few bolts and then we'll really see what's up with this resto ("restoration" - lingo I picked up from old car enthusist circles).

In order to show progress while waiting on the air compressor, I went ahead and removed the left fender. It will be getting replaced anyway. It is dented and rusted and the cost of a new one is very little. Removing the headlight from the fender was a bit of a challenge (had to cut out a bracket with a hacksaw due to, you guessed it, more rust) and pulling the wires out of the rubber bushing wasn't easy either (the connectors are larger than the hole in the bushing - putting them back won't be fun but that's not until the end of the project). Getting the fender off again exposed some of the rust running up the inner fenders from the floor. The left running board was falling off so I removed it as well. You can also see I set the front end on floor jacks which lifted it up just a little to allow more room underneath the car. This will help when cutting out the uncooperative bolts.