My VW 117 1960 Sunroof Sedan restoration project
It was early Janyary 2001 I heard from my friend, that there´s a bug for sale. It was placed nearby Helsinki, and of course I had to go and see her. It was model 117, sunroof sedan, yearmodel 1960, and it was brought from Sweden last October by Kentsu.(Chassis number 2765855, so it´s very,very late 50´s, made in december 1959)!
It was 24th January I got to the platform, my coming bug (and restoration object ) was. There was atleast 10 inches snow on it, and some had got inside also! Little cleaning, and the bug looked like below on the left: all windows were frozen, both in- and outside, and interior had a "nice" patina on it, eventhough i sold the seats and ripped the rest to junkyard. The right picture is taken when car was still in sweden, before Kentsu brought it to finland.
After couple of hours fighting, we still couldn´t get the engine running, and we decided to pull it onto trailer, and surely it wasn´t easy job: three guys pulling and pushing old bug on slippery court-yard. Well, at least we got good exercise…This one is taken right before the decision to begin the workout:)
But adversities weren´t even near to end. After couple of hundred meters (1/8 mile) I stuck with my daily vehicle, the trailer after that and of course the bug on it, just right before the hill top. And all because the road was so icy (flashback of playing ice hockey for the first time at the age of 6..). I usually don´t mind if there´s some difficulties ahead, but then I felt that this would be enough. Well, atleast someone had doog laugh at me, cause Kentsu had to pull my Saab and trailer etc. over the hill top with his 4wd Volvo…It was quite funnylooking combination! After some paperwork at the local gas station, the beauty was mine, and next thing was to concider if I´d take trailer and bug to home, or to my workplace´s parking area…I preferred the latest option ´cause the weather wasn´t so nice..
Next day, I had to take the bug to meet the customs of Helsinki. That because I had to pay some taxes cause it was brought from abroad. Snow kept falling down the sky, and it felt quite bad to tease almost 18 years old Saab in that kind of weather, and with that kind of load after it.
In the evening of January 25th we decided with my friend Mikko (
www.gutefahrt.com ) to pull the bug to our carage. It was still snowing, and the 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) trip took about 1,5 hours. Finally, we got there, and pulled bug off the trailer into garage. I knew, that I took quite a big project, but hey, it´s better to do than wonder..isn´t it? I had a lot to do: rearlights were from newer, interior was horrible (as U see from picture later), thanks to some Swedish guy who did it. It took about 1 week to rip it away, and still there was some crap stuck to chassis..
After few hours of work (about 70)my project was quite near to get to sand blasting..Well at least i got almost clean project back to our carage..uhh, an awful memory came back in my mind..those long nights in cold carage at 3.30 am..
Chassis after blasting - in quite good shape for being over 40 years old.. Of course there´s some welding etc., but not so much: only left side of floor and heat channels bottom + some small things in both rear wheel and spare wheel housings. The right picture is the last time chassis left from our Tervakoski base..nice and easy way to transport the chassis:)
The floor was in quite good? shape, eventhough i had to do something..
After SOMETHING is done
June went by without any major work with this project, but in July i decided to start to do something..
