1963 Gulf Blue bug - Blue Bug III

Been a while since I've been on here. I started this project about two and a half years ago and after moving and storing it decided to get it on the road before Bug-a-Paluza.

When i got the car, it had chevy rallies on the rear and no front beam. It came with a 1300, ragtop clip, and lots of parts.







Once it was home.





Some pressure washing, easy off, and Dawn power dissolver later.





I was trying to get it on the road as is when i was drilling out the spot welds in the shift bushing bracket, when i fell through the floor pan. I pulled the body off and bought pans, but thats when the project stalled out as i was getting married the next month and moving, so the car got packed up.

May 2010





Fast forward to March of 2012. I was talking to a co-worker getting ragged about not working on it. So here we go.
I bought an old pan section from Tim Baker and patched the napolean hat and panhead and after two years, got the pans in and aligned.

3-23-2012
Cheating with the lift

Body on and pans tacked in

Rolling it back out and back onto the engine stands to finish up welding and grinding.



3-24-2012
Finished welding. worked on replacing the hinge plate on my decklid and got the endplates welded on my beam.

3-25-2012
Off to Cedartown to sandblast the pan and some small parts.



3-26-2012
Ordered $325 dollars in parts from Bug-eyed.net including front and rear brakes, dropped spindles, control arm bushings, all the brake hardware and small parts, king and link pins, e brake handle etc. Great prices and they're in Fort Valley, so it'll be here tomorrow.

Nice work!!

Looking really good.

Thanks for the comments.
Some of the parts are in, still waiting on a few. Spindles wont be here till Monday, but the new master cylinder and reservoir should be here today.

Pan is primed, seam sealed and painted along with the beam and control arms.



Toyota work bench.








Pan is too glossy for me, but oh well. Start bending break lines monday hopefully.

10 more off days till BAP.

Looking good. Keep up the good work.

Nice work!! Are you going to put the ragtop clip in it? I think that would be the icing on the cake...IMO.

Thanks. got along way to go. The rag clip will be a later project. Still not sure if this car will see metal work and paint one day, or just roll it as is so Im holding off on the top for now.

A lot of progress today. Metal lines are done. Master cylinder, transmission, shifter, all cables, rear brakes, and ebrake handle. Thanks to matthew and john for the help.

Awesome

Looks really good!

Trust me when I say you're going to want to flip the res on the master so the fill is in front. Easier to get to that way. Looks great other than that!

Glad to help. If Matthew will let me know in advance when yall are going to work on it, I will be glad to pitch in. We need more cars heading to the Chattanooga show.

thanks for the tip bumblebuggy. Will do. no more real progress. lowered spindles are together and got the tires in and mounted today. 165s for the rear and 145/65r15 for the front. Still waiting on a starter bushing and Bugpack bushings for the beam. The Empi's were a no go...

lots of pics to go, but we'll see you at BAP. Its been a long week.

Congrats on the assembly. I hope she makes it worry free.

Thanks Tim. It died in the driveway saturday morning, some tweeking and we were on the road to East Ridge. Still got some bugs to work out, but its going down the road pretty good.


4-18-12
2:30 am Wednesday morning.

4-19-12
Finally got some lights




spot welding the decklid at Jerrys


Some of the interior panels



Almost there.
Friday 4:30 am. Windshield is in, turn signals working, decklid on, gas tank is in and hood is on. Had to tear the carb apart 3 times, but Matthew got it straightened out.


Friday night. Bumpers on, axles boots on, shocks, new gear dope, alignment and a 1 mile shakedown run.
12:30 AM 4-21-12
Drove from Armuchee to Calhoun with no issues.

First time out of shop under its own power, Click for Video.

First bath at the car wash in East Ridge.



Finally at the show.

Cool! I saw it parked over there (our campsite was right on the other side of the fence) and didn't even realize it was your car. Glad you got it up and going and made the trip.

Thanks fluxcap. Maria snapped a pic of your bus in the camping area and commented thats what we need next.

that's awesome man. I'm glad to see that kind of spark in people to get there vw's going just for a show. VW people are the greatest.

Nice work !!

very nice

finally got around to getting the 4.5 inch narrowed beam installed and the raders. we dropped the rear a little too.

Very cool. Looks good.

Nice.

I definitely like the stance on it.