Thought it was time for an update on progress with KO587.
Although my original timetable was to have this car ready for the VolkEnthusiasts Club of SA's RATEX run through the Flinders Ranges in August 2010, this proved to be too ambitious a target. It has taken much longer than anticipated to sort the rear end (IRS had been fitted but was 100mm too wide each side to suit balloon style off road wheels -had to rework spring plates, switch to T1 drive shafts, remount shockers etc). Then once rear was at correct ride height had to fit adjusters to front end to bring that bag to nominal height (beam had been set even higher to match rear end). Metal work is complete and now trying to get panels flat enough for paint - oh for the metal finishing skills of an old fashioned panel beater!. Hope to have it all ready for primer soon. I have been speaking to Bill M & Tony B about front end repairs and will pull my front end down again and send to Tony to have King pins redone. After seeing how well Guy S' CB performed through the Flinders in the mud, I will swap the road tyres for some nice chunky off-road rubber

Looks much better without the flares....

Yeah, looks even better with a bit of primer over the bodywork. Still finding it hard to get much time on the car. Have bought a copy of the Owner manual and spar parts manual from CB Bill. Wow, brilliant - why didn't I know about them before I started. Will try to this weekend take front end off again and send spindles off to have the overhauled

Hi all. I have managed a bit more time on KO587 in the last few weeks. I sent my front spindles up to Tony Bevan for overhaul and they came back absolutely marvelous. I wold recommend that anyone tackling a CB, first check the play in the king pins and link pins and, if there is any sign of wear, pull them off and send them to Tony so he can work his magic on them. You can find more about what Tony does with the spindles in his own post (bevoracing). When you consider the difficulty in getting the king pin bushes for these front ends and the amount of time needed to fabricate and fit new ones, it represents amazing value. I just left the car on jack stands for a few weeks while I removed everything, sent them to Tony & then found a chance to refit them. The old girl is now back on her wheels again, making it easier to work on. The last couple of weekends have been spent stripping paint form the bonnet, engine lid, cargo tray and interior. A bit more effort with the paint stripper & wire wheel and I will be ready to prime all the body work. Then its on to spray putty & finishing bog and more sanding... Hopefully be able to get some colour on it before the weather gets too cold again. After spending some time thinking about how and where to mount a car radio and CB, I have decided to use the "glove box" section on the passenger side. I have made up a bracket which will hold the radios which can be mounted with a few screws inside the glove box. I am now fabricating a new "lid" out of a spare CB instrument panel. Will have to rat some hinges from a beetle glove box and adapt them to fit. I also dragged out the vinyl roof and curtains and set them up with the roof hoops to see what it all looks like. As I did not have the brackets for the hoops, I fashioned some up out of some scrap steel. It looks like the side curtains I have are from a different car to the roof: the doors have a zipper on the trailing edge, but the side curtains don't have a matching zip. Still, looks pretty cool with everything on.

Here is KO587 from last weekend back on her wheels

Here is a pic with the roof on. I will have to chase Guy (with the CB retrieved from kangaroo island) and find out where he had his new top made up so I can take mine down and have the same done. Although this one looks OK on the surface it has a couple of big holes and all the clips are kaput

Hi Peter
Thanks for the kind words. Your machine is looking great. Good to see it coming along so nicely. Body work is tough and time consuming. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Tony