"El Nino" - '56/'52 VW Beetle Drag Car

[Keefy]

heres a few of the pics from Tash's album ... cos if you are like me, you won't be bothered to click the link lol









VERY excited about getting this back out again next year, and looking better than ever too!

[Seth]

Why didn't you post this one Keith?

[Keefy]

Nov 2, 2009 20:48:00 GMT Seth said:

Why didn't you post this one Keith?

cos Tash gets embarassed seeing pics of her from when she used to smoke! ;D

[Peaches]

My

[Keefy]

its proving really positive having the chassis up the workshop. I'm continuously seeing it, which means i'm getting plenty of time thinking about different things, and being to actually visualise them.

I decided that the dzus must be removed, recoated, and then refitted once the chassis is finished.

So, I found myself back up the workshop this evening and once i'd finished some jobs I turned my attention to the racecar.

I was hoping to drill out the fasteners, and be home in time for the birth! As with every great project, things did not to to plan ... and when 5live was telling me the footy was about to go into added time I realised it was already past when I had promised to be home (but the birth still hasn't happened, so I'm ok on that front).

I grabbed a couple of pics for your viewing pleasure;

Before


After

I whizzed a wire brush over this area quickly so you get an idea of how every part will look when its all finished.

I'm about half way through ... so if I can find another evening free then I should have it finished. Then all the fasteners will go away to be stripped and recoated. While they are away the chassis will be cleaned up, and POR15'd. Ideally the fasteners will come back just as the chassis is finished, and they can be rivetted back into place. Easy.

[bigkris]

Everythings looking wicked

Sure would love a go in something that runs tens!
One day ill have something that quick.

[bboyblue]

Oh man! I knew you had the racecar but didnt know it was this one! I'm Jealous but it will be brilliant to see it up and running again!

Nice one Keefy (and Tasha)

[Keefy]

cheers guys

Got a few minutes free towards the end of today to have a quick play, and finish removing the fasteners. Very pleased thats all done, it was neverending - i have drilled out over 100 rivets easy!

clean the chassis, get it all painted - job done.

Going nicely so far. Now starting to do my research on regs for bits i need to buy/update. Harness and bash hat are very high up on that list!!

[Speedman]

Nov 2, 2009 20:27:36 GMT Keefy said:

Thats juts plain evil looking

[Keefy]

As I'm trying to get the car rebuilt as quick as i can, and I'm facing 3 weeks with nothing happening during xmas and new year, yesterday i actually wrote a list of pretty much every job that needs doing and scheduled them all into a project manager programme.

Its nice to have everything written down, and it means a can visably see where I'm at with the project at any stage. Its also helped to work out the order things need to go in to make sure similar tasks get done at once.

Its gonna be interesting to see how this works - if i use it and keep it up to date then its definitely something i'll be using in the future.

[kee]

i have a funny feeling that sleep will be the biggest issue over the coming months
i didn't get a full nights sleep for 8 months ;D

good luck with car and baby

[Keefy]

with a timetable to try and stick to, i'm squeezing every minute into racecar doing or thinking right now.

We are away for christmas and new year, and i am planning jobs that can be outsourced during that time. Next on my project list was to strip the doors down - all the mechanisms will be stripped and re-coated, and new windows will be made. These are 2 jobs that might be outsourced while I'm out of the country.

Here's how the door looks to start;


There was a thread on the main board about windows, and you can see here the tabs Tig'd in place for the windows quite nicely here. Similarly, you can see the bespoke door opening pull. This is ali, and will be polished before being refitted.


So, after much undo-ing of little allen headed screws i was left with a pair of doors looking like so;


and finally a small collection of parts removed. Whilst the door pulls are being polished, the latches and catches will be blasted and re-coated.


So far i'm still fairly pleased with how everything is progressing. My next item on the to-do list is the chassis though, so it will be interesting to see how quickly i can get that back to bare metal.

[Deleted]

I love this build. It shows awesome drag cars don't need to be made in some clinical workshop on an industrial estate. Keep it up!!!

[rainking]

[Keefy]

right - quick update.
progress has been a little slow over recent weeks, largely due to the new arrival to the family. However, i've still managed to keep things ticking along and last week took delivery of my chassis black paint, and also eastwoods grey to detail items such as the steering box.
I serviced Tash's skoda on Tuesday night, and managed to find a few minutes to clean back some of the chassis. Its going to get done piece of piece, primered as i go, and then chassis black the lot in one hit at the end. I'm still hoping to have this done by the time we fly out to Gibraltar on Dec 15th.
I've realised there are dzus fasteners on the body and some of the ali panels that need to come off, and I'm slowly working my way through these so that they can all go off and be recoated while we are away.
I've confirmed that the chassis will still be up to spec, and that as long as i leave its previous inspection sticker in place i wont need to get it looked over again.
I'll get some pics as things progress this week

[judgie]

good to see this getting the tlc be orsum to see it running again.

[streetvw]

glad to see this car is going to be resurfacing I remember seeing it at Johnny Rath's work shop when he first opened and it lok like it was going to be good ;D as I remember john had just finished cutting the dash out of the shell and had the starts of the chassis done so it was a good while ago.
any way keep up the good work? whats the plan with the paint work? I always liked the way Johns car looked

[streetvw]

anything happening on this one?

[tootall]

Yeah, come on, what's happening with this ??