Journey with me, back through the mists of time...

2003, an unsuspecting orange Beetle was purchased :)

As shiny as a shiny thing that's very shiny indeed!
Though orange really isn't my colour she seemed like a good purchase at the time, solid (or so I thought), 1600 engine, a GT (but I discovered later that the box had been swapped out!), adjustable front beam, disc brakes, zoom tube (which stayed on about a week, just long enough for me to change it for a different exhaust), and drove well...


By 2010 she was looking a bit the worse for wear :(

Used daily to get to and from a crap job that didn't pay enough for me to fix her up properly, or give me the time to do it as I needed transport (45 minute journey from home to work by car, 3 hours on 2 buses!!!), so I was just doing the bare necessities (plugs, pads, etc)
But I still hadn't found the nasty surprises waiting for me, that would be another 5 years later...

Happy Towel Day!

Shock! Horror! Consternation! Uproar!

Found a few pics of the wheel arches and heater channel before I started...

A brief detour...

I decided to do something totally not involved with the structural integrity of the car today!

The interior used to be black and furry (but I've ripped it all out now). When I did the interior I removed the vinyl dash (it was in a terrible state) and covered the metal with fur too...

Where the speaker grills were I made some crappy panels to hold various switches... it didn't matter how bad they looked as they were covered in black fur (the panels, not the switches)
See a panel in it's full magnificence!

I had some chequer (or is it checker?) plate left from when I panelled the rear quarter windows so I decided to make some new panels... and a glovebox lid!

I just have to find something better to fasten them on with, and make some holes for the switches...

I will be painting the panels black to contrast against the RED fur interior I'll be doing :)

I made a cockerel-up with the glovebox lid though and drilled the hinge holes in the wrong places!


Yes I did say I'd panelled the rear quarter windows :P

Channeling the spirits...

Trial fit of the new heater channel (I couldn't trial fit the old one of course as most of it had become
weetabix :P )

It's not quite ready for welding in yet, still a lot of cleaning up to do... plus I think I'm going to have to replace the rear crossmember as it's looking VERY bad, more welded on plates than member!

And while I was faffing around I tried the front wheel arch repair panel for size...

 There's a funny story about this panel...
I bought it in 2005 for a project that never happened, then as it wasn't needed anymore tried to sell it three times on eBay to no avail... lucky for me as I now need it myself!


Ok, so it wasn't that funny a story... or funny at all... look, if you don't like the jokes it's tough! Quite frankly I'm surprised you've made it this far, I'd have probably given up by now :P

Stop! Hammer time!

Another of Bodge's wonderful repair panels was discovered above the rear crossmember... it was so good that I put a hammer through it!

Napoleon would be pleased!

More fun at the front...

This is the end of the 'napoleon hat'...

It may need a touch of tlc :P
The rest of the hat seems ok, though I don't know what the other end is like yet, so I'm going to repair just the end. Now I don't want to spend £40 on a new one just to cut the ends off so, unless I can find a second hand one, I'll be making the end piece myself... but not in the manner of the infamous Bodge!