After getting the buggy out in the week I was quite in the mood to get working on it again, so we agreed we would get it out over the weekend and see where we had got too and what the next stage was.
Saturday rolled round and we dragged the buggy out, I popped up the shops to get a 1st few we needed, nuts, bolts, washers, brake light switch, fuel line, low pressure brake line. While i was out we got some assistance from a mate who turned up to see how the project was getting on and ended up staying about most of the weekend.
While I fitted up the brake light switch and lines, Simon replaced our test engine wires with proper cables and I gave the body-shell a quick pressure wash.
We checked the chasis over for things that we still needed to do and it appeared to be that time, so before fitting the shell again we thought “Oh what the hell, lets start the engine”, out came the fuel can and the jump leads, after a few tries it fired up with a nice rumble.
A little off the side please...
Once this had been done we where really in the mood. So we lifted the body back on and realised that the fiber glass wouldnt quite bolt down as we had forgotten to remove some body mounts designed for the beetle shell, this was nothing the angle grinder couldnt take care of in a few seconds, with that done the body went on and car really started to take shape again.
Seeing as we had fitted the low pressure side of the brake system we decided to add some fluid and see if they worked so we topped it up and bleed the system through. Low and behold the foot brake started to hold the car without the handbrake.
Given that we had wires and pipes in place we decided it was time to bolt the body back down, out came the nuts, bolts and washers and i got to work with the socket wrench.
Starting to take shape again
As the sun started to set I decided to get the steering column out and see what it looked like with it fitted up, after a bit of fiddling it went in and i bolted the dash support in place to hold it up.
Following the success we had on Saturday we got up Sunday morning with a renewed vigor and set to work again.
We found the brakes had gone spongy and after a quick look around we tightened up one of the nipples on the master cylinder as it had been leaking. After bleeding the air out again, we started connecting up the wiring loom. We had previously fitted this into the shell so it just needed plugging into the engine components and did a bit of tidying.
I went back up the shops and bought a battery for the project and some other bits and bobs and we started working on the wiring. We connected up the engine electrics to the wiring loom and checked it was all in the right places.
Then came another big moment when we released we had the wiring all in place to fire up the engine from the dash switches (well by dash switches i may mean wires hanging out). So we moved all the loose tools and sealed a length of spare fuel hose into the top of a plastic bottle, filled it up with some petrol and taped it to the bodywork.
We put a spare battery on the floor as something to rest on, then came the big moment, we flicked the coil switch and touched the wires together, tick, tick, tick, BROOOOM. The engine fired up quite easily, all be it with a puff of blue smoke from one side.
With the engine running Simon jumped in, dipped the clutch and and popped the buggy into gear and slowly backed it off the drive. This is the 1st time the buggy has moved under its own power since we started the rebuild. I have this on video and will post it as a seperate entry once i have sorted it out and uploaded it, at this point the camera ran out of batteries so there are no more pictures from todays work.
Having archived this by lunchtime we both had places we needed to go so we tidied up quickly and went out with big smiles on our faces.
Getting back to the project a few hours later we fitted up the rear lights are back on and connected to the loom, I mounted the volt reg in the boot and tidied up the engine electrics, we tested all the lights worked by connecting up there relevent wires in the front of the loom to the battery, we also accidentally tested the horn.
After so much time and effort, I got chance to fire up the buggy and move it around the drive, oh what a feeling.
We finished off the day by wiring up and testing the headlamps, there where a few more jobs we could have done but we have run out of wire terminals.
– Simon).
This was a very worth while activity, as it’s massively rejuvenated our want to work on the thing! She sounded beautiful – see the video at the end.
