One Step backward, two steps forward...

OK, so one of the frustrating things you run in to in doing this kind of work is that sometimes you have to do the same job over, and over, and over. Even when you do a good job the first time. After doing a great job on that huge patch panel behind the rear seat, another friend who was helping out ground the welds down too far, and trashed the panel. So now we're making another one, cutting the hole slightly larger to make everything "clean" and rewelding the whole thing.

That in mind, yes we probably could have fixed the panel we already made - but the bar is pretty high for this project, and we want to keep it so...

It seems like each time I write something here, I get a bit jynxed in that something goes wrong, and I have to eat a little crow. (Mmmmm... Crow...) A month or so ago my good friend Stephan in Germany called me up and told me he found a "never run in a car" 36HP from 1955. It was originally cared for as the pump motor on a fire truck. It would be started regularly, run at a constant RPM, and recieved the kind of care that fireman give their critical equipment.

When it was decommisioned, a man bought the pump to bring lots of water to his garden. He decided to swap the VW motor out for a heavy duty diesel, and there it sat. When my friend found it, the guy couldn't believe that anyone would want it.

So, on a pump there is no transmission and no starter. If you notice the distributor looks a little funny, its because it's a magneto. And the gland nut accepts a crank. By 1954, you could order this on your Deluxe as an option, but few did. That makes an Oval with a crank start a very rare option!

As Stephan was picking up the motor to take it home he noted that it was too bad the crank wasn't still with it. After a short search, the man produced a box with the sheet metal and original crank for it. I guess it pays to ask!

So, now I've got to figure out how to get this thing home. Since we've already got tickets to Bad Camberg, I'm sure it will probably come home with us in some way, shape or manner. The tin is pretty much rust and dent free, so although we set out to just pick up a few more engine parts, other than the muffler I can't imagine not using what we have.

But that whole transportation issue is one I think I can live with!

In other news, the Planishing Hammer is now in. 4000 beats per minute -hope its well worth the extra cost over the inexpensive one we almost bought. We've got to take a break from the car for a while to get the new tools set up in the shop, and to help build some of the stands and jigs we'll need. After all we bought all that steel. ;)

Great strides

We're at a point now where it seems like we're nearing the end of the disassembly, and we're starting to put things back on to the bug now. THAT is a good feeling!

It's been really hard to find the time to get up and work on the car, but Renae and the boys went to PA this weekend. It was "payback" for G and I going camping two weeks ago I suppose. So I have been taking full advantage of the situation and using my time wisely, if you will! Unfortunately, I also spent most of this weekend so far pretty sick - so out of three days, the first two went pretty slowly, but today as long as the cold meds were working so were we!

We've been making up hard to find panels from scratch. Sometimes that is pretty easy, like the inside rear apron that nobody is really going to see. But other times that is pretty difficult, like making up the outside "H" apron that EVERYONE is going to look at. We spent a little time today shaping the bar stock that will form the "H" and the little bars to either side.

Once the relief is made up, a template is used to cut out a steel blank. That steel will then be clamped to the form, and then hammered into shape. Hopefully soon we will have a planishing hammer (its on order) which will make this much easier, faster and more professional looking. The bead roller helps make the long, even grooves and shapes. It's really cool!

We got the transmission out pretty painlessly today. That was a real relief after it taking more than a dozen hours of hard labor getting the motor out last fall. We were able to save the emergency brake cables and tubes, complete with zirks. We're going to change over the brakes to a larger dual cylinder system, so most of what we took out won't necessarily be reused.

I spent a good deal of time cleaning up hardware though ~ ironically, while we can make panels large and small, matching hardware seems to be quite a problem!

There was a bit of rust that had formed in the center of the rear seat area. We knew a while ago that it had to go, so we made the repair panel some time ago - but we didn't get to actually cut out the bad area and weld in the good until now. I have to say it was a pretty challenging piece, as we had to line up panels and grooves coming from several directions.

After lots of cutting, welding, hammering, cutting, welding, hammering, cutting, welding and hammering... We got something that looks pretty darn good!

We got all of the butt welding and most of the rough shaping in tonight, but we sort of lost our light - and our steam.

So - we'll see what tomorrow brings!