Back on the Road - Again

It took all of Saturday and most of Sunday, but the Bug is back on the road.  I got the fenders color sanded and undercoated, the running boards polished, the HID headlights wired in, the turn signal lenses painted amber and everything put back together.  All just in time for the rain to start.

For the first trip, I promised the girls I would take them for ice cream if I could get it done before dinner on Sunday.  I managed to get it all assembled but had to wash it after dinner.  Close enough, so all 4 of us piled in the Bug and went to Blue Berries for some yogurt.

Outside Mirrors

I really like the swan neck mirrors, but I hate the way they mount to the car.  Yeah it's great that you don't have to drill any new holes to put them on, but really a single stud to hold that mirror on the car?  I decided to use some Q-Bond to cement an additional,
slightly larger stud on the other end of the base to give it some additional support.

I started by cutting a small piece of scrap sheet metal to act as a dam so I didn't have to fill the whole cavity with Q-Bond.  Then I cut a piece to hold the new stud suspended while I cement it in place.  Finally, I put the Q-Bond in place in 1/4" layers.  The mirrors are now way more solid.  I probably could have used J B Weld, but this stuff dries so much faster.

HID Headlights

 Since I had to take the headlights out of the fenders in order to paint them, I figured I would install a set of HID bulbs this time around.  I managed to find a H4, 8K, slim ballast kit for a reasonable price.  So I mounted the ballasts and igniters inside the headlight bucket.  The rest of it is in the corner of the spare tire well, out of sight.

I also had to take the front turn signal lenses out to paint the fenders.  Before putting them back in, I cleaned them up and used some amber colored translucent paint to give them a little color.  I also sprayed the bulb holder silver to help reflect some of the light back towards the lens.

More on the Doors

The doors have been color sanded, assembled and put back on the car.  The driver side required a shim behind the lower hinge because it sagged a ton.  But after putting a .035" shim between the hinge and the jam, it fits perfectly.  I'm happy I took the hinges off for paint.  It was much easier to work with.

Doors

Its taken the better part of the weekend, but my doors have paint.  There is a spot on the passenger door that needs a little more attention.  I got a hair in the paint and I tried to fix it...  I know better but I did it anyway.  Now I have a bigger mess to fix than just a hair.   Once it all dries, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to fix it.

Door Hinges

What do you do when the hinges on an oval are so rusty that you can't press the pin out?  You use a set from a Super Beetle of course!  With just a little bit of work a set of late hinges can be made to look just like a set of early hinges.  All I had to do was counter-sync the top of the hinge to accept an early pin, cut a notch for oiling the pin and drill the 4th hole.

The problem with the Super Beetle hinges I had was they were so warn that even a second over size pin would not take up the slop.  So I reamed them out to .347" and turned my own pin out of a Grade 8 bolt.  If you look close at the piece on the left, you can see all the work that had to be done to make this look like an early hinge.