(04-30-2009) slow...

Progress has slowed down on the Beetle. The wheels are done, but not much else has happened. The floor pan is scrubbed and ready for welding, POR-15 and paint. Not much else to report.

(04-22-2009) Rinse and repeat...

Another night spent masking and painting wheels and grinding on the floor-pan of the Beetle. More rust holes found... Removed some more interior bits, and most of the floor is prepped for POR-15 now. One heat exchanger is being a pain to remove. Once that is out the Beetle can get a little welding, POR-15 and interior paint. Also, I ordered the "Viper Red" for the interior today.

No progress on the '32 Chevy. Flash hasn't had time for trivial things like tinkering on the Chev, and I promised not to touch it as a project until I have the Beetle done. Maybe that's why I've been motivated to get the Beetle done. ;)

(04-21-2009) Deconstruction continues

I wire brushed part of the floor pan, and uncovered some nice hidden treasures. A line of holes along the edge on the driver's side.

Also, I did a test paint on one of the wheels to see how they're going to look. Not sure I like the black...

(04-18-2009) Spring is here...

This weekend I ripped out the interior from the Beetle. Chiseled out the old tar-based sound dampening material and found a few rust holes in the driver's side floor board. I also finished polishing up the wheels and they just need paint. Hope to paint the wheel centers and POR-15 the floor boards this week.

On the 1932 Chevy front: Flash rebuilt the carb and the fuel pump. The fuel tank was still in great shape, so we have a fully functional fuel system now. I need to pick up some gear oil and some carburetor springs today to finish up the known issues.

(04-15-2009) The next step...

Last night I worked on polishing another wheel. It looks fair, but a heard of people came over to see the 1932 Chevy and I didn't get much work done.

Flash rebuilt the fuel pump and it works great now. Need to finish the engine repairs (carb rebuild, cooling system, oil change), but it's getting closer. Also, talked to Jerry this morning about a '37 donor truck for some wheels and tires.

(04-14-2009) Parts arrived.

Bob at MarxParts.com wasted no time getting the parts in the mail. Sometime this week we'll get to putting the parts on the old truck and see what happens.

(04-11-2009) Wheels, 1931 Truck, Vinyl Cutter and other stuff.

Saturday was a busy day. I stripped the paint off the wheels for the Beetle. Flash worked a little on the old '31 truck, and Bob at MarxParts.com gave me some more good information (Thanks Bob!!). Also, got a line on a '37 Chevy truck for parts, so we'll see if that pans out.

Witt and his friend, Joe (sorry if I got the name wrong), came by to check out the '31 Chevy and hear it run. They also enjoyed looking over the 911 with the Chevy 350 in it. That was a lot of fun.

The new vinyl cutter arrived on Friday and so I spent Saturday getting it set up and testing it out. Pretty cool little machine, now if I can just knuckle down and learn the software.

Other than that, I spent the day mowing the lawn and just trying to catch up around the house.

(04-09-2009) More work on the wheels.

Spent a little time finishing the rim of one of the wheels for the Beetle. In the picture you can see an example of before and after. Didn't have much time to devote last night, but it looks a little better. I think it's passable for the Beetle.

I also got all of the information I need from the old '31 truck to order fuel system parts. Bob at marxparts called me this morning and helped get the order together. Great place to find your vintage Chevy replacement parts. If things go well, this may be enough parts to get the engine up and running completely. Bob informed me that the engine block was a 1930 (January 10th, 1930 if the casting numbers are correct). Bob is a wealth of knowledge on these old engines. He really amazed me with knowledge of each year's changes to the engines.

(04-09-2009) Progress?

So, last night I started working on the rear wheels for the Beetle project. They're smoothing out and looking a little better. I placed the wheel on the car, and ran the car as a makeshift lathe to smooth and polish the wheels.

On the 1930 pickup things are progressing. Found a place that has lots of parts for these old trucks, but I found that the truck isn't a 1930, but it's a 1931 or 32 model. It was built in Kansas City, Mo. and came from the factory with dual wheels - but that's about all you can gather from the VIN tag. As soon as we figure out the exact year, we can order a rebuild kit for the carburetor and fuel pump, as well as all of the rubber needed to cool the engine.

(04-08-2009) 1930 progress...

Flash has been working on the 1930 Chevy truck. Yesterday he unlocked the transmission and today he pumped up the oil pump to make sure it works correctly. I ordered some parts (key switch, resistor to save the coil from the 12v battery and a valve cover gasket, oh and a service manual).

Still lots to do: fuel system (tank, pump, filter, carburetor), cooling system (radiator, fan-belt, water pump), clutch (probably stuck from the years of sitting), tires, brakes and some wood work to save the cab.

(04-04-2009) The 1930 Chevy LIVES!!

Flash and I worked for on the 1930 Chevy truck today, and it now will start and run. We slowly went through everything: freeing the motor, checking the starter, checking the valves, checking the coil/plugs/wires/points and finally by pouring gas directly into the carb and firing the engine. But, all of the original equipment was used (coil, points, spark plugs, plug wires, etc.) and it runs! The starter works great! The engine runs great! This video is of the very first firing of the engine.

(04-03-2009) Who's the April fool?

I'm the fool... A new addition to the projects - a 1930 Chevy 1.5 ton truck. Rat rod? Street rod? Original? I don't know which direction to go right now...

It's been sitting in a barn for 50 years and is all original. No real rust, except for surface rust.

(03-23-2009) Do these wheels make my ass look fat?

Finally was able to test fit the wheels with the fenders on. The back wheels stick out almost 7 inches past the rear fenders and the fronts stick out about 4.5 inches too far. Not sure what I'm going to do. Cut the fenders? Go fenderless? Run the fenders as is and go for the fat-tire look? Just have to do some playing and figure out what works the best... The best solution would be to make some fenders that fit the wheels, but...

(03-22-2009) What's going on...

This weekend we had a movie day in the shop on Saturday. Lots of great food (Thanks Shanon for being so great!!!), some interesting movies and a great time with friends.

Sunday, I spent most of the time cleaning up and mowing the yard. On the good side, I did get a media center PC up and running in the living room and Jayme's Ms. Pac-Man machine is working again. On the bad side, my wheel adapters didn't work out of the box, but I think they will work with a little massaging. Also, I stripped the paint and gunk off one of the wheels for the Beetle and started sanding it and polishing it.

Earlier in the week, Jody, Shanon and myself went to Eureka Springs so that I could work on video games and pinball machines. Fixed a couple of issues and dropped off an NBA Jam machine that had been in the shop all winter. I picked up a Ms. Pac-Man machine while I was down there that would reset itself after just a few seconds of play, but it appears that it just needed a little cleaning of one of the switches to fix this issue. Thanks to Jody for helping me out and letting me use his truck to haul everything.

(3-15-2009) Beating and banging on the Beetle

Did a little envisioning of what the wheels might look like on the car. The back wheels are 10 inches wide, but the wheels don't have any tires, so the front wheels were used in the picture and just rolled in place to give the illusion of the wheels on the car.

Did some more grinding on the welds and sanding the filler. The rear sections are shaping up and getting close to being ready for primer and paint. Not sure if I can use the rear fenders or not with these new wheels.

It was a good day working around the house and on the car while Shanon, my babygirl, and my son, the Goose, were playing basketball and Wii Fit. Every day should be this good. Good times like this never last long enough.

(03-14-2009) It's warming up!!!

Spring is just a week away. The showers are starting to fall, the trees are budding out and temps are on the rise! That means soon I'll have no excuse not to finish the body work on the Beetle.

Shannon came over yesterday and finished installing the heater in the shop. He did a great job, and it will be great if we have movie day out in the shop on a cold winters day - like next weekend for example. :) I owe Shannon some beer for helping me out.

(03-03-2009) It's been far too long...

Nothing much has happened for the past month. It's been too cold, icy and snowy to spend much time out in the shop right now, but the weather is getting warmer and my thoughts are turning to getting the Beetle back on the road.

Flash just called to let me know that he had done a bit more welding and patching on the Beetle and that I should get my butt in gear and finish it up. Good motivation!

On February 13th, Flash and I did go look at a 1929 Chevy as a rat-rod project. It was a bit too much of a project for me, but the guy who owned it was very cool. We could have spent all day talking to him, and in fact, we almost did.

(01-10-2009) More patching to the Beetle

Flash did some more welding and patching on the car. This side was bad with rust, but it's much better now. The body filler is going to be a lot tougher on this side. And we still have to weld and fill all of the holes along the the car where the trim pieces went before. I started doing some filling on it yesterday (1-11-2009) but I didn't get too far in the filling process, so nothing to show, yet.

(01-09-2009 - 01-10-2009) Beetle work continues...

Friday evening and Saturday morning we finished sealing up the vent and smoothing it out a bit. Looks okay, but not perfect. I may try to smooth out the rest of the issues with some fill primer.

(01-05-2009) Not so fast...

I though we were done patching on the driver's side of the Beetle, but then I found that I wanted to patch another spot. Flash did the patching, and I sanded and smoothed the patch a little. Pictures are coming when I get it done. It's too cold to work on it right now.