Last night I pulled the doors out of the corner of the garage to start preping them. I started with the passanger side. I noticed that the window would not roll down and realized that I needed to take a look at the regulator. Getting the regulator out was no fun job. It took me about 4 hours to figure out how to get it loose. I finally found a how-to on TheSamba forums. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=335018&highlight=window+regulator

This was one of the best tutorials I have seen. It was amazingly helpful. I only wish I would have found it a few hours earlier.

Anyway, after getting the regulator out, it was evident that it was rusted solid. I ended up drilling out the rivets that held the crank mechanism together to free it up. I wire wheeled all of the parts and applied grease to everything. It moves freely now. A little noisy, but functional. I will either rivet the unit back together or tack weld where I drilled the unit out.

I have no pictures as of yet, but will post some a little later.

ALSO,

I noticed in my settings for the blog, that comments were set to be accepted from Blogger.com members only. This has been changed to allow for anyone to comment. So if you were trying to comment at one point and couldn't, you should be able to now. Thanks.

Nose Job and new trunk lid

Today I took some time to address the roughness of the front apron of the car. It wasn't horrible, but there were a plentiful abount of dents and dings. Also, the previous owner layered body filler over surface rust and many places that just plain didn't need it. After stripping down the whole apron, I DA sanded it to bare metal and cleaned off any surface rust that was left. A thin skim of glaze and some primer, and the apron looks like new. I also repaired the back of the apron plug since it was a bit rusted and not very strong. While I was working on the front of the car, I dry fit a new trunk lid that I recently purchased from a kind gentleman on craigslist (thanks Roy!). Here are some photos of the finished apron and new hood:

Aside from the apron and the trunk lid, I welded in a few captive nuts in to the fender mounting area. With the exception of the hood needing sanded and primered, all body work on the front of the car is done. I have one remaining wheel housing to primer and the rear louvers. Almost time for paint!!! WoooHoo!!

See ya soon!