Well, I've just finished three 14 hour long days getting the Oval finished and was chuffed to bits when I cleaned my tools away for the last time at 18.30 the day before the first show.

The last job was to sort out the paint issues where the dents were panel beaten out.

This was something of a dilemma as on the one hand, I was reluctant to add any paint to the car, but on the other hand, even though the shape was much better, it was still a little ugly with big blobs of chipped paint and bare metal showing, so I decided to compromise and just do a local 'touch up blend' where the dents were, but without using any filler whatsoever - just a little paint over the dimply metal, then flatted back to blend. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was expecting it to be a very wobbly and ripply affair, as even though the panel beating job was superb, there is always little dimples and bumps left over, but to be fair, there are very few.

Here is the result of my paint blend over the dents. You can still see where they were, which was my intention, but they now at least protected and a little prettier.










And here it is - all done!













And that, as they say, was that.

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Trip to Stanford hall was faultless and the oval performed perfectly - right up to the point when I ran out of fuel! A quick flick of the fuel tap saw me safely to the next fuel station, so all was well.

Over the 280 mile round trip, it recorded 34mpg which given we were not hanging around and often exceeded 65mph, I thought was pretty decent. A steadier 50mph would probably see mileage into the early 40's...

Anyway - Stanford Hall was a great day out and it was a wonderful feeling driving through the gates of my first VW show in my own car....





My good friend Smull kept me pointing the right direction!

















And on the way back, we rolled over 60,000 kms (37,000miles)



Cheers!

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Car looked great LT, had a good mooch around it today :beer:

It was great to meet you at last Andy and take a look over your beetle. It's even better in the metal than it is in the photos. A truely lucky find. Funny thing is, I felt I knew it already, having followed this thread diligently from the start.

Looks like you've got a glorious summer of beetle owning, show going coming up!

Mike :thumbup:

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Thanks Mike, it was a pleasure meeting you also.

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My friend with a pro camera sent me this shot which I thought was great!

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Just a quick thanks for the seals Andy, It would have been nice to have a bit longer chat, but I could see you were in demand. Your oval certainly stood out in the line up, hopefully next year maybe another '57' will be there, rescued from the brink.

Great to meet you too - can't wait to see your car progress too!

Oh, and thanks for the clips :thumbup:

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Is your car 3/4 scale or do your brown shoes have insoles? I am digging the combination of patina and Techtyl. Thinking about it are your brown shoes the old white trainers protected by a layer of mid tan Techtyl?

Seriously, good to see it in the flesh!

I fear you may have footwear 'issues' my friend! :rofl:

Yes, good to meet you too. Car isn't 3/4 scale - I'm just very long. :thumbup:

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When's the next outing?

Any NOS oil coolers?

Ps Driving and taking photographs of Chris Moyles is very dangerous particularly whilst not wearing a seatbelt:lol: :lol:

Just got back from a great weekend at Santa Pod's 'Big Bang' show!

Had a great drive down, superb weekend and a brilliant drive back.

Motor is getting better and better with a few miles on, and returned 38mpg this time round, even though I often hit 70mph on only part throttle!

Rain had been forecast over the weekend but I was determined not to let that stop me taking it to Santa Pod for the first time, so as the only unprotected part of the car was the door bottoms, I injected half a litre of waxoyl through the drain holes in each door to make sure they were thoroughly flooded and swimming in the stuff before unplugging the drain holes to let the excess pour out.... more of this later...

So - of we went to the 'Pod with a good 'boot full' to get us going...





By the time we got the the Pod, it turned out I'd not fully drained all the excess waxoyl, as some had dripped out along the journey making it look like someone had been sick on the running boards!



What's this? LT enjoying himself?



I was nervous leaving the oval out in the open air for the first time in decades, but he was never too far away from the tent!



And I then did another first, I parked him up amongst his peers for the show and shine!





On both nights it rained hard, so I was pleased that it didn't melt away into a pile of goo like I'd feared, but deep down inside, I know the occasional bit of rain won't kill it, especially as it is drenched in protective wax sealant.

The only moment of anxiety was the very short journey from the camp site to the show display area first thing in the morning, as the road exiting the camp was really muddy and I got mush all over the tryes and inner wings etc meaning I;d have to spend ages cleaning it when I got home..... however....

The journey home was going great guns until about half an hour from home when the sky turned black and the heavens opened in biblical proportions. It absolutely monsooned it down, which introduced me to the world of torrential rain, high speed cross winds and cross ply tyres... Lets just say it kept me on my toes!

What was impressive was the performance of the wipers which worked very well indeed - fast, clear and effective, much better than I'd have imagined.

As soon as it started, the rain stopped and the roads dried out for the final part of the trip. Much to my astonishment and immense relief was that the water spray had actually cleaned all the mud off for me, and a quick peep under the wheel arches just showed nice clean sealing wax as if I'd just applied it - bone dry and clean with not a trace of dirt anywhere!

Result!

I won't lie to you, I'm loving this vintage Volkswagen lark!

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And why not:d

Just had one of those 'moments' in the garage. I was walking past the rear of the car whilst working my my wife's Golf and caught a glimpse of something on the floor under the engine...

I had that sinking feeling, put my finger in the very small spot and confirmed my worst fear... engine oil.

Oh well I thought, not the end of the world, but out of curiosity, I had a good look underneath and was bemused to see that the underside was still as clean and dry as a whistle...

Hmm, where is is coming from I thought? I traced a line perfectly vertically and found where it was coming from.... the end of the breather tube.

:D

I could have kissed it!

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i know you fixed your behind dash cover but theres a original complete one for £10 over on vzi

Thanks... :thumbup: Not sure though - kind of like it being original to the car.

Took a trip out to what is probably our most local show - All Types at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales, a gentle 45 minute drive away.

Most of the weather forecasts suggested cloudy and dry until about 4pm....

It started to rain as soon as we left the house. Got there at about 8.45am and the rain stopped at about 1pm.... for a bit.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all. With the weather being so poor, I had an early bath and headed back home mid afternoon. At least I got to drive the oval again and prove that I'm not scared of getting it wet! :lol:

Although I'll be the first to admit that as soon as it was back in the garage I completely leathered it off and then spent a good half an hour going over all the seams, nooks and crannies with an air line to dry it off!

Just a few shots to prove it wasn't just a figment of my imagination....

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Hi

With regards the exposed metal areas vs rain. I can recommend Swiswax proper old fashioned wax polish will impregnated the rusty areas and form a water repelant barrier.

Cheers

I sprayed them with tectyl, left them to go semi dry, then rubbed the excess off. Water just beads up nicely.

To be fair, I'm not planning on getting it wet any more unless I get caught out.

I've proved to a few people that it won't be a trailer queen, but no sense in getting it needlessly wet.

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Techtyl Rules OK:d

After it's first session of shows, and with it resting in the garage for a while, I jacked it up, removed all the wheels and had a general poke around and clean up.

Didn't need much cleaning other than a little dried on mud from the last show that was wet.

Can't believe I've already clocked up over 1,000 kms so far and the wax sealant is totally perfect and un-penetrated, even on high impact areas - super stuff.

I re-greased the beam and king pins and generally made sure all was well.

Whilst under the front end, I did notice a very small fuel leak - nothing major, but eough to let a drip form on the bottom of the fuel tap, which if wiped away, re-appeared then dripped within about 15 mins.... not good.

I'd always thought the garage had a slight fuel smell to it since I first put the tank back in with fuel and as there were no obvious signs of leaks, I just put it down to general old car smell, but here was the smoking gun.

It was coming from the top union nut, so not the tap body or hose connection. I tried nipping up the union nut, but it was already fairly tight (maybe too tight?) but could only manage another flat on the spanner which didn't cure it, so I decided to drain and remove the tank.

With the tank on the bench, I removed the fuel tap and found what think was the problem - the fibre washer had come apart and the aluminium filter ring that gets sandwiched between the tank and the fibre washer was partially chewed and displaced.

Whether this was done with the extra nip I gave the union nut, or whether I'd done this when I initially assembled it, I don't know, but I'll order another filter gauze and fibre washer and try again.

Question to those experienced with fuel taps.... with them having a double reverse thread union nut, is there a correct sequence one is supposed to use when fitting them - i.e are you supposed to tighten the union nut to the tank first, securing the filter in place, then screw the tap on afterwards, or the other way round, or at the same time, and how tight are you supposed to tighten each component.

Any experience to help me get it right next time would be appreciated.

Cheers.

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