|
|
Aarons Project
Good story here reuniting two old class mates. I was surfing Facebook and stumbled across a picture of an old Beetle in someones profile, so I clicked on the picture and found out it was my old class mate Aaron who I hadn't spoken to in over 14 years. I thought what the hell i'll send him a message and see what his plans were and what he had been upto over the years. Turns out Aaron lives about 5 minutes walk from me even though we are 45 minutes drive from where we grew up.
Over the weeks we got chatting and shared a few beers and Aaron had decided to restore the Beetle, I called past his yard one afternoon and see the extent of the restoration required. I suggested he give up, chop it and build a buggy. After a week or so of convincing him the Beetle wasn't worth saving he gave in and said he was building a buggy. So the journey begins.
I advised Aaron that he needed to get the car body off and back to a bare chassis. This didnt take us too long, I then told him to pick a shell what he likes and gave him loads of literature on whats available. He found a reasonable conditioned GP Mk1 SWB shell in Manchester and promptly purchased it.
 He then set to having his chassis shortened to the correct length to fit the tub, which on a GP is a 15.75" chop. 
After the shortening was done he set to painting the floor, beam and gearbox assembly.   
The rolling chassis looks superb. Aaron wasnt happy with shells strength so set about re-inforcing parts he felt was weak and making appropriate repairs too.
During the time Aaron was repairing the shell, I was on the constant look out for parts he may need. I sourced him a nice set of Wolfrace Slotmag wheels and also a rough looking roll cage amongsth other bits. 
After a trip to the powder coaters the roll cage looks great
The repairs to the shell were complete and Aaron had also sourced a pair of Weber 40IDF carbs and manifolds. The only issue was clearnces, but I said they will fit but you may need a set of Type 3 short manifolds. Our next task was getting the body painted. We traveled all across Essex and East London getting prices, but they were so high it just wasnt viable. The option left were to paint it ourselves or get a new Gel coated Shell. Aarons facilities were not upto scratch to produce a good enough finish so he looked into getting a new shell. He initially done a deal to get a GP MK1 shell that was old stock from Pro-laminates but upon inspection found the flake wasnt even all round, so he dismissed that idea. He was then given a chance to buy a new Sidewinder Style Buggy for very reasonable cost.
And so the new shell was bought in Kawasaki Green with a Miraflake finish. It fits the chassis perfect too.   In addtion to the new shell Aaron also splashed out and had a set of moulded rear seats made in body colour and also in the mean time we have also found ourselves a new workshop which should make our builds much easier.    The build continues, Aaron hopes to have this ready for Summer 2011
|
|
 |
|
