Sawhorses Part II

With help from my two older brothers the Bug is now up on the sawhorses giving me the space to address the rust and rot underneath. I'll be posting some additional photos soon in the Body & Paint section.

Sawhorses

When I built the second cart last spring to replace the original one I didn't take into account that I would need to be able to access the underside of the body to address a few issues before it goes back on the pan. Namely, repairing the front rusted out front firewall and dealing with surface rust underneath the front luggage area. I didn't want to build yet another cart so I bought a 2x4 Basics sawhorse kit along with the lumber needed, and built those instead figuring I can use them for something else later. All told I spent about $50 for all of it. Assembling it was pretty easy although the angles of some of the screws caused a issues making sure they went in without cracking the wood. My two older brothers will be coming over later this week to help me move the body over and I'll go from there.

Spring is Coming! Spring is Coming!

It's slowly but surely been warming up the last few weeks. While there have been some cold days here and there (and down in the 30's most mornings) it's been in the mid-upper 50's most days and even in the 60's quite a few times. It was a brutally cold winter with one major-ish snow storm a week before Christmas (Central Virginia missed the major, repeated snow that nailed the northeast thankfully) and I'm very glad to see it warming up. I haven't done much on the Bug in months but I've finally been able to make some progress recently.
The garage received a major clean up and I'm in the process of selling off pretty much everything I won't need to complete this project. It's giving me an infusion of cash to spend on the stuff I do need as well as clearing out clutter and freeing up additional space. I finally POR15'd the rear end of the frame last week. (For some reason I didn't do this when I did the rest of the pan but I can't remember why.). I'm also starting to price out getting the body stripped and painted. I view this as the biggest obstacle to making progress and am determined to get this done this year even if it's the only thing I end up having money to get completed.

'Twas Cold This Morning

Pulling out of my neighborhood this morning I was passed by what looked to be an early 70's standard Beetle. This wouldn't really be noteworthy I guess except for the fact that the temperature was in the low 30's. I don't expect to see Beetles or really any aircooled Volkswagens during the winter.

Years ago when I first bought my Bug I drove it through a single winter as my daily driver. The heat never worked very well and I have some not so fond memories of freezing while driving it in cold weather as well as using a rag to wipe the frost off the inside of the windshield. (As the defrost was pretty much nonexistent too.) The lack of heat was a major reason why the following winter I bought the '88 GTI 16v that became my daily.

Got a seat

Thanks to Ronnie over at the Bug Haus in south Richmond I now have a complete rear seat for the Bug to replace the one burned up in the fire years ago. He was parting out a badly rusted out '72 Super Beetle prior scrapping it and I was able to get the seats. They'll need to be recovered in black vinyl but they're in pretty good shape otherwise.

The Pan is Done

After working on it off and on for the last month and a half or so I've finally finished cleaning and POR15'ing both sides of the pan. I've added a page to the site detailing the process.

Don't Be Dumb With Power Tools

I'm about to admit I'm stupid but it's with the hope that the lesson I learned yesterday will serve as a warning and prevent the same thing or worse from happening to someone else.
I've been laid up for the most part since yesterday after a run in with an angle grinder. I was out working on the Bug's pan yesterday morning using a wire wheel on an angle grinder to remove the last bit of undercoating. I was sitting on my little Craftsman roller seat and in a brief moment of inattentiveness as I went to move the seat the wheel on the angle grinder made contact with the bare skin of my leg just above the knee while going 12,000 RPM's. The result wasn't pleasant. I now have a three inch or so long abrasive burn and it hurts like hell. I called my doctor almost immediately but luckily it wasn't bad enough to warrant a visit but rather I was advised to clean it thoroughly (which I'd already done) and apply Neosporin and a bandage. I'm also going in next week to get a Tetanus shot since I haven't had one in about ten years. (Something I've been meaning to do for a while.) By this morning it had started to heal and I've been able to leave the bandage off but it's still very painful off and on to the point where I'm walking with a limp at times.
So let this be a lesson to everyone. Don't be dumb with power tools. If I had just taken the time to turn it off yesterday before moving my chair and resuming work it would have saved me a whole lot of hurt.