Change of style.....Now with pictures and Video !

This section was supposed to be about the great BMW E28, But over the weekend I received so much feedback about my new Blog that i`m gonna be changing the style a little bit.Everyone wanted to see pictures!!!,I too like pictures as its saves a moment in time.Getting on with matters, This blog is gonna display pictures of cars which has been restored and the whole process documented down for your viewing pleasure.

The hardest project so far done by us was surprisingly not a BMW but a 1967 1.3cc Volkswagen Beetle, I say hardest because the condition was so bad that this Beetle looked more like a fish pond on wheels rather then a car.This 1967 fish pond only cost us RM350 to purchase( RM350 bucks!!!the same price as a bottle of  Whiskey in a club... and you cant drive a Whiskey! ).Now the full story.....The Owner had abandon this lovely Sky blue beetle at one of the workshops we usually frequent. I called her a fish pond because all I could see in the abandon Beetle was water,algae and rust which look like sea coral (Even the steering wheel was missing!).She had been sitting motionless since year 2004. And now car porn of her on the first day of her journey,

I knew the day when we brought her back she wanted to live again, Her 4 tires were pumped up with air and to our surprise they did not leak(been flat for about 4 years). Towing charges was more then 50% of the cars purchase price but it was necessary as imagine starting the car in the above picture.Everyone including my mechanic thought this car should be junked rather then restored. But My brother and I are rather darn stubborn and as usual we wanted to give it a shot because nothing ventured is nothing gained. So first thing at the workshop was to check if she could start or was her engine a gone case. First we removed the fuel line from the tank to the carburetor and redirected the fuel line to a water bottle filled up with some fresh fuel, reason being that the original fuel tank was so badly rusted on the inside that even if she did start up the rust from the tank would have got sucked up into the engine and the engine would have eventually stalled. Next step to was to get a new battery and check if the starter would crank. Please view the YouTube video link below as nothing I type can give you same feeling I had when we started her for the first time.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4AWUc4Z2I


She sounded awesome and her heart did not skip a beat,I mean she did not misfire. The guy in the video is my trusted mechanic and not my brother or myself.

Now since she could start we needed to sort out her brakes,bodywork,suspension and of course get her a  new steering wheel. Below are pictures of her deprived rusty bodywork,

And below how her interior looked once the water in the cabin was cleared out......Still missing a steering.

Every car can be restored into 2 categories, Completely restored to mint original factory condition or restored according to our personal ideas and of course BUDGET. So beetle lovers I`m sorry but being a budget concern freak I choose the second option. So a budget was set and the work began almost immediately.

The new steering wheel below was a 1992 Mexico type beetle steering wheel because the original 1967 type steering wheel cost around RM700 and we were trying to keep within the budget.

Next was to overhaul the entire brake system and replace all 4 brake shoes. The job was pretty simple and only cost a couple of hundred bucks.Below picture is the old brake shoes.

 

And now the first step in addressing the bodywork , We had a Mongolian worker fabricating the entire floorboard and it took him almost a week to complete the job. We did not buy a new replacement floorboard as it cost more and we wanted to test this guys talent on a so called un-salvageable classic.Pictures of the entire process below,

The outer body panels were later removed and prepared to be anti-rusted and primed.We were quite glad that most of the body rust were only surface rust and no holes were present on the main body. 

To be continued next week ..... Hope you all like it better this way... Less technical stuff but more pictures....still open for ideas and input...... cheers