My new car, a 1960 kieselgrau sunroof car. It belonged to a friend. I hope to start having it welded up soon. It´s not in a bad state, despite how it looks, seems to be low mileage (kilometerage?)and I know it´s been dry stored for many years. Has both original heater channels and no accident damage and a few not too clever repairs, but hopefully it´ll come good and I won´t find any hidden horrors.

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Cool :wink:


Andy W

Forgot to ask - who does the best heater channel bottom panels? I need one to repair the drivers side. I guess Hookys are the best for the rear bumper mounts?

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Looks like a great car! What are your plans for it?

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Thanks!

Just get it back together over the course of the next year, as money allows. Welded and painted. It´s been sitting for at least a couple of years and its at the point where it wants doing properly now, rather than just being patched up again. Gives me a car to take to shows when the cabrio comes apart to get restored.

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nice looking car! :thumbup:

hookey will also do the heater channel bottoms too, i think he makes up the earlier ones on request :thumbup:

What kind of front bonnet should I have? What is fitted is one with no crest and a raised hump for the VW badge, which can´t be right, but what is correct? A pinned on VW badge, or one with tabs?

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Car is bougth and paid for as of today. Anyone know about hte bonnet? What sort of fixing does the VW badge have?

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James,

The '60 models still had the earlier 4-tab bonnet. I am pretty confident that it was January '61 (part way through the '61 model year) when it changed over to the early 3-pin type. So you will need a Aug '57 to Jan '61 bonnet.

Rich.

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Ah thanks very much Rich - my pal has one, but we weren´t sure if it´s too early for the car, it may be off an Oval.

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You can tell the difference between oval and later ones easily enough. Oval ones had no re-inforcement panels in the top corners (you can see them on the underside).

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Out of the barn last weekend.

 
 

The new workshop is an old commercial greenhouse and you can beleive that it was damn hot in there!

And stripped the wings, running boards and bumpers off, and scraped a lot of underseal off under one back wing. That came off easily as i think the previous owner may have done the job already and applied some fresh underseal. Anyway, it scrapes off really easily and leaves mostly bare metal.

 
 
 

The metalwork looks pretty good, aside from the dodgy rear bumper hangers and some old gas welded repairs.

 

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will this be at Hessisch? 😎

Comedian! 😛

The next one maybe. I could have probably got it through the test again as it was, but tbh it needs doing now, rather than letting it get any worse.

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MmmmM... That's nice, especially with the sunroof. Steve Hook's heater channel bottoms are spot on (early ones are available, just not advertised on his website). I've just welded in a pair of Hooky's bumper hangers tonight on my '59 - such a joy to use quality panels. Hooky's also do the rear body mount brackets - 2.0mm steel with the side swages!

Small update. I was there at the weekend stripping more parts off the car.
Also, on two trips to Wanroij in Holland and Hessisch I picked up a pair of early sixties front wings for not too much money. One has a lot of fairly heavy surface rust underneath, but is dent and split free. I think a good sand blast will sort it out. The other is spotlessly rust free (despite the lack of stone chip underneath - just paint!) but has been bashed in on the top and then rather poorly beaten straight. That was delivered to our friendly local panel beater for spot of ironing in his English wheel. Should come out nice enough. I think I´ll get him to flatten the badge bump on my bonnet too. Makes it look a bit more authentic.
I also bought some early single chamber tail lights and semaphores at Hessisch, so that´s two big purchases done with.

Couple of pics of my progress.

 

Pretty clean!

 
 
 

53 years of dirt under the trim.

 

More scraping. Thrilling work!
Those tyres could be yours, if you really twist my arm.:rofl:

 

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Hi James,

Nice to have met you at Hessisch.

A little tip for removing the underseal from your inner wing panels that I used was to heat a small area at a time with a heat gun. This softens the underseal making it easier to scrape off. If you want the panel really clean, heat it again, and spray white spirit on,the remainder of the underseal should run off. It's very messy, but I think you'll find it quicker.

My car came from Sweden, and it was caked in the stuff! An afternoon on each inner wing, and the job was done!

Best wishes,

Gavin.

Hi Gavin - nice to have met you too.
The underseal comes off pretty well as it goes, but I´ll take your tip about white spirit to get the residue off.

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I was doing a bit more on the car on saturday. Mostly scraping some kind of bitumen substance off the rear parcel area, to see what was lurking underneath and chiselling off some of the repair panels.

Drivers side. Not bad, and never before repaired, except with a bit of mastic.

 

Passenger side, where it has been welded previously. I left the bitumen in the middle. I guess it won´t hurt to have a bit of sound deadening on the car.

 

"Endspitzen" which surprised me by having been repaired twice by the look of things. The older repair was removed and the newer panel welded on - both times without cutting away the metal behind. That seems to be Flint grey original paint you can see. The panels are quite warped where it´s been welded twice, unfortunatley.

 

 

Pushed the front and rear screens out, just to get some air through the car. It´s no joke working in a greenhouse in the summer. Not much rust found in the screen corners either.

 

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