1973 VW Beetle, *Welder purchased*

To be honest I love the way it looks, it was one of the things that massively sold it to me, but then I really love the 90s style stuff. So I think it will largely stay the same. Just need to decide whether I fit the blade bumpers or nudge/nerf bars.
Tom

BUMPERS ALL DAY LONG

It was built in the early 00's but by a chap who has had a lot of Beetles right through from the 80's. Your plans for it are fairly close to mine to be honest.
Tom

Looks like a decent project! If it were mine I'd lose the W-decklid and put on a semi-W, or better still an Empi eyebrow or Aronson style lid (Google them! I struggle with pictures!) and I'm a sucker for T-bars! If you do go for bumpers, blades look good with the Euro overriders.

If you're still on drums on the front, you can lose the adaptors by swapping the drums for 66-67 drums - they go straight on and use all the same internals, backing plates etc - it's what I've got on mine. Back is a little trickier, but I think Machine 7 used to do a bundle with the correctly machined early drums and all the spacers to run them on a long spline axle. The Empis would look great with the centres painted in a grey textured paint so they look like the original 2-piece wheels - they're a classic wheel that have fallen out of favour, but I'm a big fan of those and the 8-spokes.

The welding on the crossmembers is easier with the body off, and it'll also make the body mounts and floors a bit simpler too. You don't need to take it all the way off, just up a foot or so. It's a pain, but it'll make it so much easier to get a good watertight repair!

It doesn't look like anything you couldn't do with the body in situ.
With regards to panels I've used Heritage, Machine 7 and Wolfsburg restos. All good service.

Another hour or two this afternoon.

Pulled the carb off and cleaned it out. Blew out all the passages etc with a bit of carb cleaner and put it back together




Then removed the rear wing and attacked the rust a bit more. Need to do a little fabrication of some closing bits, but the panels I've ordered or have should sort everything








Will hopefully get another few hours tomorrow, in which we'll start going the other way with more metal being added than removed.

I really hope so. I'm focusing on a corner at a time to stop myself becoming overwhelmed. Just view each section as a little project. Really can't wait to be able to drive it.
Tom

No photo update today, mainly because I didn't take any 🙄

Bit of an up and down day. Spent ages cutting the inner arch panel up and getting a really nice fit for the hole, then instead of spending 10mins setting the welder up again after not using it for about 9months I dove straight in and ended up blowing holes.

Then took the huff.

After a Wispa Gold and a bottle of water I spent half an hour practicing a bit on some scrap. I've come to the conclusion I need to stop messing around with Flux Core and get a bottle of gas, especially now I'm working inside. Saying that my welds have markedly improved.

Anyway won't get any more chance to play until Friday at the earliest.

Its a gas and gas less one and because of how infrequently I use it I've never really used it with a gas bottle, but I think I will now.
Just going to get a Hobbyweld bottle.