'72 Bug

After a strip down it needed:

4x wings, bonnet, (which I had in the shed) front valance, some hammer & dolly work to the wheel well, 2x heater channel bottom plates (1 side had been welded to the pan mot style), 2x running board mounting panels (rest of the d/s channel were rock solid, p/s will need attention in the future). Inner wings were sound as were the floorpans except for one small bit, There were a couple of minor bits here and there too, although this is just a get it on the road rather than a resto at the moment. The engine needed replacing or fixing, some front end re-wiring (see pics!), a couple of tyres and the carpets putting back in. Eventually there's a couple of bits on the gutters and around the engine lid-roof join and some repairs to the door bottoms & both door to wing panels but that's for a later date.

The heater channel bottom plates were replaced and some minor bits of welding here and there were attended to. The vinyl graphics were removed - some paint came with them in places so this will need covering. I added a new front valance to replace the battered one and a spare bonnet as that was badly dented too. Both are currently sprayed with 2pk rattle cans I had left over so it's a bit multi-coloured but sealed from the elements.

The engine was taken out, stripped and will eventually be reconditioned. A spare 1600 I had was fitted in it's place. This is a known engine which has a good carb, distributor and dynamo so should be good and reliable. A good pair of heat exchangers were added so there'd be heating over winter (which works too).

Previously it had sloping front wings with ford side indicators in them as front indicators.  Not to my taste, plus the wings were knackered so set of standard day mouldings wings from the shed were fitted in place.  They are a bit scruffy but will do fine for a daily. A set of T bars were added as there were no bumpers

Electrics needed a fair bit of tidying. The ignition switch was broke and there was a push button on the dash and washers and various switches taped to the column stalks. These were removed and relocated under the dash beside the headlight and hazard switches. Lots of extras had been added with those horrible crimp blocks so all the extras were ripped out to give a good base for renewal. The main loom itself was in good nick which was a bonus. The set of 3 extra gauges were also taken out for the time being. I might let these into the dash at a later date. The speedo face had been painted to match the car (another 80's trick) and had stuck on lettering, so this was changed for a standard 70's face to keep things accurate. As it had been stood for a year or two the brakes were thoroughly inspected & bled with new fluid. Interior just needed the carpet refitting and the 3 point harnesses changing for the intertia type so Jen's seat will fit in.

After driving it about for a bit and raising the back end (too low for the speedhumps round here) and adding some coilovers, I changed the front shocks for some bugpack lowered ones. It had some short shocks (mini?) on but these gave very little travel which made things a bit harsh, especially coupled with the 135 tyres on front., the bugpack ones made things a lot comfier. Got the tracking done which improved the handling considerably too. 18 months later and she's still going strong. Only a ball joint was needed for the 2nd MOT, other than servicing I haven't had the time to do anything to it yet, although the d/s door hinge has worn so I'll sort that soon as the open window, lift door to shut is starting to annoy.

Starting to collect the panels for the full resto at some point. To get it to the standard I want I'm planning to go for front clip, 2 rear door to wing panels, 4 wings and 2 doors - the rest is pretty solid. Currently thinking off-white 70's cal look style.