Almost a barn find - Bahama blue '66 Fasty

eXraycer · 2012-06-10T08:05:08+00:00

Hooray, I finally found an early type 3 fastback. I have been looking for a long time without much joy. Hoping to get a registered vehicle but I was getting pretty frustrated until now. What I found quite by chance in a small text ad online was an unmolested original vehicle with so much potential that only you guys would appreciate. I'm truly gushing great gobs of joy at this dusty old car that most avaerage people wouldn't look twice at. Unregistered and sitting under a car port since '93 in NSW central west it has all original panels, never been crashed and most importantly, no serious rust repairs needed. I guess that has something to do with the location. NSW central west has been in drought for a very long time. Paint is dusty and a few car park dents and nudges here and there, rubbers perished and tank rusted so it doesn't run but overall it's a beauty with nearly all the original chrome, interior intact except for the drivers door arm rest, battery tray surface rust only, no rust holes in the pan. Vinyl seats aren't even cracked. Hopefully the engine will fire eventually. Brakes need doing for sure and a general machanical overhaul.The Empi look mags were a bonus, so was the mouse poo in the spare wheel well. The owner I bought it from had secured the car off a local lady whom had it stored for nearly 20 years in her car port after the tank got rusty and it never got back on the road after that. Someone dropped a beetle tank in there but gave up on trying to make it work. The guy I bought it from has had it on a concrete slab in front of his house for about a year and a half but decided his plans for a resurrection were not going to happen and he had better sell it before it started rusting out in the weather. He got as far as putting the new empi look mags on it but that's it. I got it for a very reasonable sum which I don't want to disclose but suffice to say it was a good price.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 10 May 2013, 7:08 pm

#955109

Update.
Picked up the rear sub-frame from the welder. See pics below.

5.5 hrs worth of welding and fabrication in addition to all the prep work I did. It's really a far better welding job than I could have done.
I am very pleased with the results. The reinforcing plates next to the pivot boxes were an addition. So was the additional welding
welding of the Empi HD rear trans mount. Although it's heavier guage steel it was a little light on welds we thought.

Here's the pics. The Mohr mid mount is just placed under the frame. They don't require any welding. Was going to use a Berg mid mount but to be honest
I like the simplicity of the Mohr style one.

vlad01 Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber

4,270 posts · joined Jun 2010 · 11 May 2013, 9:16 pm

#955269

thats very nice work, I see you got all the other weak areas welded too.

71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 19 May 2013, 8:10 pm

#956260

This is me tonight.

One small step for veedub,
One giant leap for sandkind.

vlad01 Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber

4,270 posts · joined Jun 2010 · 19 May 2013, 10:10 pm

#956273

must be so good having your own blaster. I bet you would save a heap by having it done your self.

71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 19 May 2013, 10:33 pm

#956276

vlad01 wrote:must be so good having your own blaster. I bet you would save a heap by having it done your self.

Biggest advantage is you get to do things at your own pace.
Ebay for the blaster $165 cheap.

Aluminium oxide. 3 x bags. $60 each. It's exxy but you can use it at least 10 times. I started with a heavier grit on yhe chassis and reuse. Do chassis first then by the time you need to do any panels it's clearly finer grit. you can buy fine grit from the start but I plan to down grade it for finer use the more I use it.

Edit: I should mention, you need a good air supply to run this sand blasting rig. About 80-90 psi. Also you need to fiddle with the lower supply lever under the tank which lets out the pressurized sand from the tank into the jet stream of the gun hose. At first it was just pouring bucket loads of sand at low velocity until I reduced the amount of sand coming out of the tank. After that it worked fine.
Also the rubber hose blew open right at the lower exit of the tank feeder after a couple of hours. admittedly I wasn't aware but I had a bit of a tight bend coming out of the tank so I probably should have kept the hose straighter. Its a thick hose so I imagine this sand is very abrasive and the hose will be a consumable item.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 20 May 2013, 11:45 pm

#956405

Gonna be a long night. Last night finished late sandblasting and tonight got a late start after my day job and did some final prep work. No point waiting any longer to get paint on. Using up some POR 15 I had bought already but I think I might do the underside with KBS cause its a little less shiny and I want to top coat the underside with satin finish polyurethane.
Doing the pan floor with a brush cause its a little pitted and I want to get an extra coat in this area. The rest I'm gonna spray. Two more spray coats over the whole lot. The tunnel I didn't strip cause was not rusty. I just sanded a little and sprayed with POR acid etch primer.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 21 May 2013, 2:45 am

#956407

Not much else to do between coats. May as well update photos.
First full spray coat. Thinned down 10%. Seems to spray well.
Underside will have to wait for another day cause I'll have to use the metal ready rust converter to re-apply the zinc phosphate coating. Its been a while since I sandblasted the underside. I spoke with the supplier of POR 15 a while back when I realized I needed to do a bit of welding after I sandblasted the underside. Knowing it was gonna be delayed a while before I could paint I asked him about the procedure. He said no prob, just do the work then reapply the metal-ready coating before painting.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 1 Jun 2013, 11:18 am

#958092

Did the old 'strip-n-flip' last couple of days, preparing to paint the underside.
All things going well I'll get some paint on the underside today.

shaven Insano Dub Head

729 posts · joined Jul 2007 · 1 Jun 2013, 8:46 pm

#958154

mate great job... love reading this thread.

"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends"

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 3 Jun 2013, 5:13 pm

#958392

A productive weekend. Achieved that OEM look with satin black but I doubt VW ever layed this much paint on the chassis.
I also sprayed over my front beam which I did in grey gloss a while back. Wasn't a fan of the glossy grey so I went for satin black. It's the UV stable top coat you paint over the rust sealing paint. $80 a litre for top coat is not cheap but if you spray it in the same paint session as the rust paint you can get away doing 2 coats black rust paint sealer followed by one coat of black Top coat satin.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 19 Jun 2013, 12:03 pm

#960303

Update.
Put dimples for cv joint clearance.

And did more sand blasting.

Took parts to powdercoaters. Have no time to paint atm.

Damn engine tins have a couple of cracks in them apparently where everybody gets cracks. Slight design flaw i'm told so got to weld that up and reinforce before I get tins powdercoated.
Would have been nice to drop them all off at the same time.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 22 Jun 2013, 11:59 am

#960642

Fresh powder coat on the rear subframe and a few other parts. Looks very close to the satin black I sprayed under the car and should be a little tougher. I try to save money and do work where I can but I just wanted this done so I could move on. Good choice too cause today would have been my first chance to spray paint and its a miserable, rainy day here in Sydney. I'm itching to start work on the body soon. Kills me to let it just sit there while I'm preoccupied with other jobs.
Once I bolt these front and rear ends on the pan I can have a big clear-up and get back onto the body.

eXraycer Seriously Crusin Dubber

166 posts · joined May 2012 · 18 Aug 2013, 6:31 pm

#966828

Just an update. I've been spending some time with small parts prep, rust removal and such. I purchased a nice bench grinder with a wire wheel. Can't believe I've lived so long without one of these. I also constructed an electrolytic rust removal bath. Works a bit like molasses except its a lot quicker and no sticky goop to contend with.

Anyhow, I recently turned my attention to zinc plating. Wanted to set up a little hobby style tank and plate a few nic nacs on the car.
After much trial and error I've got a reasonably good finish on my first few parts.
It uses vinegar and epsom salt as the electrolytic solution and sugar as a supposed brightener but the finish is quite dull straight out of the tank and it requires a hit on the wire wheel to get the finish I want. Overall I'm pleased that I didn't spend a tonne of cash on a DIY kit considering I'm only doing a few parts and not requiring a 'copy-cad' yellow zinc finish.