Part I - Catch Up

Early in 2005, I had the opportunity to purchase 4 VW Beetles on an Ebay auction. All of them were in pretty rough shape and the common 'Beetle Rust' was far beyond started. I really wasn't sure about purchasing them though as I had no idea where I was going to keep them. I didn't even have a garage at the time, and all of my parking was on street. So on a whim, I brought the lil buggers home in the hopes that someday, one of them would make it back to the road. My mother and father housed 3 of the cars for a short time while I came up with a plan. (Thanks mom & dad!)
I carefully looked over all of the cars, trying to decide what would be done. After much poking and prodding, I decided to keep the 1976 Standard Beetle that had, so lovingly, given me the hardest time during transport. It was painted (hideously) between a shade of purple and pink, and looked like the paint was done with a mixture of a Wagner power painter, like the ones you paint your house with, and a paint brush. The paint was actually so bad, you really couldn't tell if there were any dents or body work. This is a pic just before the long trip home from Ohio.

I stripped the other 3 cars for parts, sold one, scrapped another and the last sits somewhere out on the outskirts of town in the clutches of an evil presence.
The first few months, I got alot accomplished on the car. I completely dismantled it and began stripping it of it's thick exoskeleton of paint. This is a picture of the body in it's semi current state.

After about 2 years of not working on the project, I finally picked it back up and really started tearing into things. One thing that I learned.... Rust can hide in MANY places! Official work resumed in late July 2008.

I started with some brand new floorpans from the JC Whittney catalog. Shortly after recieving the new pan halves in the mail... I discovered that they were made in Brazil. Brazillian pans are not quite the strength and quality that German made pans are. (Glad I ordered the Heavy Duty set.) It took me about 2 days to prep the chassis for the installation of the new pans, which included alot of grinding, sanding and welding some miscellaneous patches into the frame area. Welding in the pans actually only took about an hour for each. I was quite pleased with the results. A nice coat of Rhino Liner on the belly will make these last a very long time...

I'll end this post here to keep things at a readable length. I'll do some more catching up on the next post. Stay tuned.....