vintagewerksvws

I started the restoration by preparing to remove the body from the pan. The preparation of body from pan removal is quite simple. I started with removing the engine. The engine removal is quite simple on a beetle. After disconnecting the wiring and the fuel lines from the engine there are 4 bolts that hold the engine to the transmission. After the removal of the engine I began to remove the fenders, doors, hood, gas tank, running boards, and engine lid. This is not necessary for body to pan removal but for the restoration I decided to go ahead and remove these body parts. There are 44 bolts that hold the body to the pan: 13 around each side of the underside of the pan, 2 that hold the front suspension the the body, 2 that hold the rear suspension to the pan and 4 under the rear seat that bolt the body to the pan.
  After removal of the 44 bolts It takes about� 3 guys to lift the body from the pan. Here is a pic of the body removed from the pan. As you can see I have already removed the front and rear suspension. I will start restoring the front suspension and will write a complete post on the front end soon.

I purchased my first oval window from a guy in Salt Lake City, Ut. in September of 2005. I had been searching for a good oval project for about 6 months and after posting a wanted add on thesamba.com I was contacted by a man who said he had a car for me. He said that the car came originally from Germany and was hit in the rear during some kind of parade in Germany in 1959. The car was repaired and “updated” to 1959 specs in the rear end at the volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. Soon after, the car was shipped to the US by the original owner. Some years later the owner started to tear the car apart for a complete restoration. He wasn’t able to finish and passed away before he was able to completly dismantle the car. His widow sold the car and six months later I purchased it for $2000.00. Here are some pics of the car before I started the resto:

In this Blog I will continue through the restoration of this 1954 Volkswagen bug posting as many pictures as I can through every stage of the restoration. This blog will be divided into three parts: the chasis, the body, and the interior.

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