This time the Donor is a Beetle !, not a car I have worked with before , turned out to be quite an education what with Torsion suspension and the ability to remove the whole body by undoing a few bolts, well that's the theory anyway.

30/10/2010

Pictures above taken soon after arrival, I was lucky enough to meet someone at the Exeter Kit Car Show who had a Beetle for Sale. This is a Tax Exempt 1972 Beetle, which it turns out has very good 1300 twin Port Engine, bargain. Seeing as the kit is much lighter than the Beetle and the wife will drive it, this engine should be plenty,although I might upgrade to the big bore 2.0 Ltr at a later date when she is not looking :-)

31/10/2010

Huh, so much for 'just undoing the bolts and removing the body !! Every single bolt was rusted in solid and I had to cut with the angle grinder. I ended up cutting the body into 3 separate sections and lifting each one off in turn , and dragging out to the drive. I went through several angle grinder disks and 4 reciprocating saw blades, (and every swearword in the book.. twice).

07/11/2010

Finally got rid of the body parts and removed the engine, doesn't look much yet but once cleaned up, chromed, powder coated etc, it will look great. Next job is to cut out the rotten floor pans, and replace with new units.

14/11/2010

Doesn't get more stripped down than this.. All the front and rear suspension stripped off and dismantled ready for re-furbish. I intend to replace the front Shoes with Disk brakes as used on the Beetle 1500, as you can see the replacement floor pans are leaning against the wall ready to weld in place.

Right.. this is it for the Donor car section, from now on progress will be in the build section as we are finally in the position to start building up the kit..