Dropped off the drivers seat from the Oval this morning to a local trimmers to have a bit of piping stitched where it had failed.

In some places, the 'tongue' had actually split from the 'pipe' leaving precious little to sew to, but he's going to have a loot and see what he can do over the next few days.

In case he comes back and says it can't be done without new piping, where might one get the correct colour creamy off white piping from to make the appropriate repair?

Ta

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As a matter of interest have you relaxed the wing bolts then sprayed Techtyl behind the wing bead?
Gives you more corrosion protection in the places you can't see.

Cheers

Wow - a reply, I'd almost given up! :oops:

Not yet, but it is on my list of pre Stanford Hall jobs to do!

I've got a panel beater coming round this weekend to have a go at all the wing dents to see if I can tidy them up a bit.

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Hello Andy

It might be worth your while sending a pm to Glyn aka trimmerguy on this forum. He's a car trimmer and old beetle enthusiast. Given that combination, he might be able to advise you where to get the correct piping?

He's a nice guy too and a very good car trimmer. :wink:

Mike :thumbup:

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Cheers Mike, will do. :thumbup:

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Today I witnessed a miracle!

Seriously, I really truly did....

As previously arranged, our most skilled and talented panel beater from work agreed, to give up a full Saturday and come over to hit my Oval with a hammer - nice work if you can get it....

Since I've owned the car, in the back of my mind has been the knowledge that the wings, especially one of them, were beaten up, ugly and in need of attention.

One of them was so bad, you'll notice that throughout the entire thread and all the videos of the car, nowhere is there a clear shot of the right rear wing.

Until now....











As you can see, not only are there some hefty dents, there is also evidence of a less than successful attempt to beat out a crease from decades ago.

The other three wings were not as bad, but all had battle scars that needed some surgery....









I literally stood in awe of the skill and talent that unfolded before me. I felt humbled in the presence of someone so ahead of their game. Richie worked solidly all day and carried on working on each corner long after I'd thought that they were fine.















And the results?

Unbelievable!











And are you ready for this....?









OMFG!!!!


I was speechless...

Clearly there is some paintwork issues to ponder over in respect of how to best deal with the aftermath - I've got a few ideas that I'll consider over the next few days ranging from doing nothing, to trying to blow in the repairs (unlikely) but that is for another day.

Would anyone not be over the moon with that?

.

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Super Impressed:thumbup:



I'd leave them now.

Magic! Great work.

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Super stuff. A craftsman at work!

Good lord. I can't think of a single 'bodywork expert' around here with an nth of that talent. Fantastic stuff!

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Come on guys, I really need some piping for the front seat repair....



Where can I get some please?

I can't go on driving around like this....

I've tried Woolies and that place in Germany but no joy.



Amazing how the flash makes it look almost white...

Any clues guys?

Really need some correct smooth 4mm PVC piping in the correct shade of cream/beige ^^^

Any one got an old and torn front or back seat cover I can scrounge the piping from?

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West Coast Classic Restorations?

https://www.classicvws.com/56red_interior.htm 

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Spoke to Lenny on the phone last night but his stuff is Ivory not beige and he said therewas a definate difference and couldn't get hold of the beige. I can get some made as a perfect reproduction but the minimum order quantity for extrusion tooling is to order 25kg, which they say is approximately 1 kilometre of piping... Which would leave me with a bit of an off cut.

Don't get me wrong, if I can't find any new or used, I'll have it made, as I simply refuse to be defeated.

I've got someone who might have an old seat cover I could caninalise if needed... Fingers crossed!

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Hi, could you paint some ivory piping beige and them stitch it in, modern plastic paints can be quite effective.

Might come to that.... what paint would you recommend?

On a separate point - would there be a market for beige stuff if I had a batch manufactured.

I can get a perfect replica made and have spoken to manufacturers already who can match the profile and colour to perfection, but the minimum quantity would leave me with somewhat of an off cut.... :roll:

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Perhaps you could offer it to the major Interior suppliers such as West Coast, Wolfsburg west, Himmel services etc?

:?

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Some good news - my first batch of 36hp crank/flywheel spacer shims came off the production line today, and even if I say so myself, they're absolutely superb.

To keep quality high, I avoided the tempting route to just get them stamped in China as this left them open to dimensional errors and that horrible raised lip that stamping leaves.

These have been individually precision laser cut here in the UK in three different thickness's 0.25, 0.30, 0.38mm which in the correct combination, will cover every possible shim thickness required to keep within factory spec of 0.7 - 0.12 (wear limit 0.17)

Really pleased to get my first product into manufacture.

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Got home from work and just couldn't resist taking the oval out for a run in the dark for the first time!

It's just such a giggle!

Don't know what all the fuss is about 6V lights - mine are great, no issue at all on dip and high beam.

The last few nights have been spent carefully rubbing away the areas that have seen a little paint over the years back to original paint/primer.

Still more to go, but it's getting there, then I'll tidy up the paint round the dents - nothing spectacular, but a local blend to pretty it up where big chunks of bare metal are showing. We'll see.

:)

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Not much to report other than a little news on the drivers seat...

My local trimmer decided to back out of doing the job for fear of making mess of such original and precious seat covers - fair enough.

I then made the decision to go straight to the top, and after a detailed discussion with Chris at Trimming Tonic on the telephone, I delivered my drivers seat to him on Wednesday for him to look at and assess what might be done...

https://www.trimmingtonic.co.uk/trimmingtonic/tt-splash.html 

Chris is an absolute star and clearly understood what was required, why it is so important to me to retain as much originality as possible and most importantly, how he might sympathetically repair the seat.

I've left it with him for a couple of weeks and after meeting him, have no doubt that he'll do a fine job....

I will report the results as and when.

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Don't worry, I haven't been abducted...

The last few days have been spent just fiddling and messing around with little cosmetic jobs here and there whilst I wait for the seat to be repaired in preparation for it;s first public outing at Stanford Hall.

The last undiscovered frontier was behind the running boards, and as I wanted to clean and protect behind them with sealing wax, I took them off for a look see.

Always nice to find this sort of stuff on your 54 year old Volkswagen...






:D

Here's a teaser shot to keep you going....

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