Samco's weblog

After just a few evenings work the suspension was all back on and the car was lowered from the body spit onto its wheels. A few days later the rest of the bodywork started in earnest and the whole passenger side of the car was stripped to bare metal and sprayed with super etch primer.

It had been my intention to post lots of old photos of the build to date in this blog as I have been working on the car for over a year now but I have decided against it. Instead I will focus on the work currently taking place. Before the body comes off the spit I decided to clean and prime all of the lower panels as they are easier to work on at waist height. I finished that a few days ago so it was finally time to start putting stuff back on. The axle only took an evening to install thanks to a new bolt kit from Rimmers and it was finished off with new wheel bearings and tr8 slave cylinders. After a year of grinding welding cleaning and priming it was fantastic to actually pick up spanners and put things back on.

Had a major crisis this weekend. It all began last summer when I was told that solvent paints are to be withdrawn and if I did not act quickly I would be forced to have my wedge painted in water based paint. Where I live there are no body shops doing water based re sprays only main dealers and I was quoted over £1,500, so I picked a really cool colour in solvent, or (two pack) it is VW speed blue as used on the new beetle. It is similar to persian aqua but a little brighter. I actually bought enough paint to do the whole car twice. I was discussing this with an old friend last week who I had done a lot of cellulose spraying with years ago and he convinced me to spray the car red in cellulose so it can be polished afterwards to give a mirror finish, whats more I can spray the car myself as a fancy booth is not required. Now I do like carnelian red and the decision has been taken because I can save a fortune but I now have over £280 pounds worth of VW Speed Blue I dont need.

Since this was posted I ran across a speed blue convertable beetle with silver wheels and mohair hood. It looked so good I think I might have that colour after all.

I used to be indecisive, now I just cant make up my mind

Sorry guys, it broke my heart to do this but once the running gear was gone it was obvious that it was beyond saving. I am sure that in years to come people will say you cant get them that good any more, but currently that is beyond economical repair.

My restoration began February last year but although it feels like I have spent every spare hour on the car it feels like I have made very little headway. I began with a 1980 DHC v8 purchased from S&S but before I managed to get it home I found a really good 1980 DHC import from the USA. So it was decided to use the running gear from the v8 and the body from the import. I joined the TR Register and through that met another wedge nut called Gordon and he leant me his body spit, which has greatly aided my progress. Over the next few weeks this blog should have quite a few entries because I have a lot of work to catch up with.

The blue car is the v8 and the yellow car the USA49 state rust free beauty