1974 VW Beetle 1303

Cracking work so far mate.

Re. The struts, aren't they the same as a mk1 golf !!? - So should be fairly easy to source ?

Yeah thats not a bad price. An escort inner is £300.....
Anyway.
I'm enjoying your progress reports, so thanks.

Lots done today.



I am starting to get bored of this area under the fuel tank, I think I can safely say it is improving though.



O/S front quarter is now fitted.



I then added this patch to the front corner of the spare wheel well.



Which gave me the structure needed to do this.



before offering up the partially repaired wheel arch.



at last it's starting to resemble a beetle again.





Thats all the funny bits and strange angles done so I should be able to get the under the bonnet bit completed in about 2 weeks. It would be quicker if I didn't work 50 miles from home or had this coming weekend free.

Mostly from VW heritage but I have also been trawling facebook marketplace, eBay and autojumbles for bits as well. I also spotted a place called parts emporium which seems to have a good stock of second hand parts but also seemed a little on the dear side considering they are second hand (sometimes in need of extensive repair) parts.

On a side note, I found and made this little model of a 1303s and obviously I had to paint it orange.

Any progress is just that...progress!

Recently we have been focussing on a different part of the restoration as the welding has been getting a little tedious. So onto something a little more immediately rewarding. I am very lucky to have a leather workers sewing machine here and the expertise of my mother who restores and re-upholsters antique furniture. Calling on this expertise we have been making new covers for the recaro seats, as well as the rear bench, so that we have matching upholstery throughout.



This is what the seats looked like coming out of the beetle. Rotten fabric and absolutely minging!



First job is to strip the seat down to its bare frame. Not too bad a job on these at all as they are a pretty of good quality and are well designed.



Squab is then separated from the backrest, and seat patterned panel removed. This is simply held in place with a large plastic clip and a few hog rings. The patterned material cleaned up nicely and is perfectly usable after darning a small cigarette burn. The side bolsters and webbing straps however are fit for the bin!



Good news all the foam is in good condition and can be reused. The grey vinyl is also in good condition, so the only material that must be replaced is the black fabric. I am in two minds here about replacing the patterned material as although it is in good condition I need to make a cover for the rear bench from scratch and I don't know that I will be able to match the pattern. Would it look to odd if the front seats had patterned inserts and the rear seat left plain? Otherwise I could do away with the pattern completely and just use plain black fabric for everything or purchase some new pattern so that the rear seats can also have matching inserts.



The next stage is to very carefully unpick the stitching and use the old fabric to make paper templates in order to cut the new.



Then we cut the new fabric to shape, sandwich some fresh piping between the layers and pin up, tack sew by hand using a long stitch and remove the pins before turning it right side out to make sure the piping is in the right place.



Everything looks to be positioned correctly so next stop is onto the sewing machine. Oh and I have matching yellow piping on the new carpets and think I will be painting the body either black with yellow coach lines or vica versa.

I had a pair of those Recaros in my 71 bay. Lovely, can't wait to see them re done.

It's proving to be not a particularly difficult job. Time consuming yes, but not overly difficult as long as you take your time to measure accurately and have reasonably strong hands to get good tension on the fabric. Unfortunately I found this out the hard way and have had to remake one bolster cover as I forgot to take into account the hem line.



First trail fit of the side support and it looks pretty good



The centre section of the seat has come up really well and the new fabric has tensioned up nicely. Once the final hog rings are positioned the remaining creases will disappear.