Build: Zippy the Wonderbug

Things have happened and almost all of Zippy is in a single color!

The hood at one time was from a yellow bug, like school bus yellow. Pretty neat to see. Lots of filler covering dents, creases and rot.

The driver's door ended up being the only panel on Zippy that wouldn't be considered scrap by less sentimental folk.

The filler below the driver's rear quarter window was covering fiberglass.

The fiberglass below the driver's rear quarter window was covering a whole lot of nothing.

The front apron consisted of nothing but bondo, rust and brazed shut overrider holes. What kind of bastard doesn't like overriders!

There was a strip of bondo across the whole top of the hood that covered hammered in rust holes.

The driver's side of the hood had bondo packed into a rust hole that you could reach your hand through.

Taking a tally of Zippy's body, it's not such a glowing review. Literally every panel but the driver's door is heavily damaged, rotten or both. If this had fallen into someone else's hands, I imagine they'd simply cut the sunroof out of it for use or sale and scrap the rest. Luckily, I don't care. I love Zippy for all his flaws. He's like me, hastily bandaged and doing his best to hang on :) The plan to get him back on the road continues.

That being said, some planning adjustments will be made.When I thought there was more metal and less filler, I had hoped to buy quality replacement panels where needed and try to end up with a solid body and pan to put back together. In it's current state, I couldn't afford all the metal needed to properly restore him. Even if I could, doing a full body disassembly and restoration in a sloping mud driveway in between rain drops is just not possible. Finally, let's not forget that I'm not talented enough to do all that, even if someone gifted me all the metal and a fully stocked workshop.

I don't know what direction I'm going to take yet. I have always liked the ragged builds but I didn't intend to have holes big enough to toss turkeys through. I've got the metal for everything on the driver's rear quarter except for the window surround and I will try to get that all together and I've been building patches to kind of rebuild the heater channels so that will kind of get most of the lower half of Zippy back together. Depending on how it goes, I might try to join the pan and body back together at that point before tackling the upper half. It will just likely depend on when the pan is ready.

I know I should be upset at the recent discoveries but I'm not. In fact, I kind of feel like the pressure is off of me. I don't have to succeed at restoring Zippy now, I just have to keep him alive until I die and my wife sells Zippy to pay off my vegan ice cream debts.

Hey, good to see some progress!

OK, some of the latest findings were sort of downers...
But on the other hand you wormed most of his secrets out of Zippy by now!

And again Chloe was in the front line... It seems she became quite attached to Zippy.

I like your idea of getting the lower portion of the body ready first and put it back on the pan before going further.
Considering your local conditions this sounds like a feasible plan. And the pan turned out quite nice so far IMHO.

You took and will take good care of Zippy and I'm very much looking forward to your version of a ragged build.
It may take some time but Zippy will be rock solid and very special one day.

Way to go!

Maddel wrote:

Hey, good to see some progress!

OK, some of the latest findings were sort of downers...
But on the other hand you wormed most of his secrets out of Zippy by now!

I think I'm pretty close to it. I wonder if the ragtop opening has anything to surprise me with, I hope not! :)

Maddel wrote:

And again Chloe was in the front line... It seems she became quite attached to Zippy.

She loves Zippy and to be completely honest, she and her boyfriend Allen are really playing a huge part in the continued progress, so a lion's share of the kudos goes to them for keeping me moving.

Maddel wrote:

I like your idea of getting the lower portion of the body ready first and put it back on the pan before going further.
Considering your local conditions this sounds like a feasible plan. And the pan turned out quite nice so far IMHO.

I think I can pull it off this way. If I put the Zippy sandwich back together on the large scale, I really think I can continue his progress while consolidating the effort in one location. He's currently spread far and wide :)

Today, I had to fix a neighbor's riding lawn mower for them so Chloe stripped the rear decklid. It's ready for sanding and the same protective paint that's been sprayed on the rest of the panels. I would love to get a lot more of the metal working done to the lower body before it gets too cold but when it does, I've got plenty to keep me busy on the pan, drivetrain and associated parts in the basement.

I didn't get any pics of the decklid yet but I don't think there's a single dent or damage on it, it's by far the nicest panel, condition-wise and it was a fairly inexpensive purchase on the classifieds over on the Samba. An awesome purchase!

Putting this here because it answers two of my questions.

1) What does unfinished bare steel look like? Great!

2) How does it look with undressed patches and repairs? Great!

you ever seen full metal jacket split? its bare metal, a little ruff looking outside, lettered, pinstriped, and clear coated.
https://www.oldbug.com/fmj.htm

schwim wrote:

Putting this here because it answers two of my questions.
1) What does unfinished bare steel look like? Great!
2) How does it look with undressed patches and repairs? Great!

Great answers!
Which raise new questions... :D

What is the best clear coat for bare metal?
How to apply it?
Spray, roll, brush or a combination of the aforementioned?

Maddel wrote:

What is the best clear coat for bare metal?
How to apply it?
Spray, roll, brush or a combination of the aforementioned?

I imagine I could just use any exterior grade clear coat, like what you'd find at hardware/farm stores. With something so rustic?, if needed, I could always touchup or reapply anything that took damage or degraded over time.

I'm also not sure it would matter too much the way it was applied, if matte finish. I should level and hide any finish issues.

Super_Randy wrote:

you ever seen full metal jacket split? its bare metal, a little ruff looking outside, lettered, pinstriped, and clear coated.
https://www.oldbug.com/fmj.htm

I've never seen that but it's great!

On a side note, I would have paid the 32k asking price for it if he hadn't put M16 A2s on the hood when everyone knows that M16 A1s were used in Full Metal Jacket.

schwim wrote:

Super_Randy wrote:

you ever seen full metal jacket split? its bare metal, a little ruff looking outside, lettered, pinstriped, and clear coated.
https://www.oldbug.com/fmj.htm

I've never seen that but it's great!

On a side note, I would have paid the 32k asking price for it if he hadn't put M16 A2s on the hood when everyone knows that M16 A1s were used in Full Metal Jacket.

it was built like 12 years ago by "Pip" of The Compound, pre Compound. one of the cars that put the compound and DBK on the map. believe it was featured in Hot VW's as well.

anyway some early pic's of the car

here it is being striped and lettered, looks clear coated, im sure the strips and stuff could be removed without destroying the clear if that's the case.

and here it is as a fresh built. based off this pic VS the oldbug pic's it appears as if the car is continuing to rust under the clearcoat...

Wheels(with a caveat)!

This is just a test assembly, no brakes up front, nothing tightened down, just a dry run to find out what I'm missing or is wrong. For instance, the dude that sold me the beam and tie rods on the TS classifieds sold me a shortened beam and left tie rod but a full length passenger tie rod. I've ordered the necessary tap so I can shorten it to the proper length.

Other than that, it's all looking good, albeit crazy low. I imagine at this setup, we'd be scraping pans once the body went on. Adjustments will need to be made if I want to make it out of my driveway.

Dry run or no, I'm super stoked to see the wheels bolted to the pan for the first time in like 7 years.

i hope you put front shock towers in the cart when you ordered that tie rod ;)

I think I'm going to have to do some creative cutting to the front clip before I make some. From what I've read, I'm at the threshold for fitting some and that's with a straight nose. Mine's all crumpled so I know I'm not going to fit them if I just throw some on there. I'm going to wait until I can drop the body before I decide on how I'm going handle them. Maybe get a little creative with their placement.

Time will tell how I end up sticking them in up there :)

Shortened the tierods, retapped, cross cut and beveled them so my shit doesn't self-adjust while driving.

Cleaned up a couple years worth of the latest round of dust and debris:

Installed the rear brake lines. Need to drill and tap for the distribution block. Current captured nut is too rusted to hold the retaining bolt.

Today was a mish-mash of little things. I drilled and tapped the mount for the brake distribution mount and installed the rear hard lines. I removed the pedal assembly, wire tied the clutch cable, reinstalled, cleaned up the brake pushrod's threads, sandblasted and painted the shift rod cover plates, installed that nifty little brake and clutch pedal stop plate and replaced the swing axle boots.

I ordered brake line clips and grommets, some metal for the body and I ordered some different torsion rod rubber bushings as I'm pretty sure the ones I installed are the wrong ones.

Another thing I want to put here is landau foam and fabric for a simple headliner. I saw this over on the Samba and I think I might use the idea:

I installed some air shocks to the rear. I'm hoping I can get it up where it might need to be for any inspection Virginia might have :)

The front will have to wait until the body is on so I can make some shock towers that work with the narrowed beam. The front end is reassembled, brakes are installed, all lines are tightened and I'm just waiting on a reservoir and grommets to install on top of the mastercylinder.

I also ordered the throwout bearing as it seems it's the one thing I never ordered. When that shows up, the engine will go on and the pan will be rolled out of the basement and under the covered area beside the house. Battery ordered as well so there might be some sparky spark and putt putt by the end of the week!

(but probably not)

Busy as a beaver - a quantum leap towards a rolling chassis!! 8-)

schwim wrote:

... there might be some sparky spark and putt putt by the end of the week!

Now THAT would be awesome...

We have a contract on the house so I'm trying to get the pan and body back together so I can fill it with parts and load it on a flatbed for towing to Virginia. We're going for a visit next week meaning I'll lose a week of work on it so it's crunch time.

Now that the house is done, I have to readily admit when I'm just trying to keep from working on it. I'm having to embrace my procrastination hangover:

The Procrastination Hangover
Procrastination is often a symptom of perfectionism. Because perfectionists fear being unable to complete a task perfectly, they put it off as long as possible. This stems from the fear that not meeting the goal means that there is something bad, wrong or unworthy inside of them.

Having perfectionism tendencies isn't an issue. Having those tendencies while knowing you can't do that good of work creates this weird cycle of dodging what you know you have to do. It's why this car has been in pieces since I bought it. Now, I have to embrace my lack of skill and just get the car together, results be damned :)

schwim wrote:

We have a contract on the house so I'm trying to get the pan and body back together so I can fill it with parts and load it on a flatbed for towing to Virginia. We're going for a visit next week meaning I'll lose a week of work on it so it's crunch time.

Wow, the "house affair" went swimmingly. ;)
I keep my fingers crossed and hope you'll find something new timely (if you haven't already).

schwim wrote:

The Procrastination Hangover

AKA "Studentensyndrom". Something I experienced with my thesis back then. :D

Maddel wrote:

That's my whole life! :)

Got my throwout bearing, fuel line and some other stuff so I'm going to try to get some stuff done. The buyers are having some inspections tomorrow so I don't know how much time I'll get to work on it but hopefully I'll get it ready for engine install! Fingers crossed!

It won't be running this week but the engine is on!

We're loading a U-Haul tomorrow to take some of our stuff to Virginia so we don't have so much to move when we finally close and it's time to head that way.

schwim wrote:

... but the engine is on!

show off :P

Awesome!!
The engine sounds great - just the idle seems a bit high :D

Maddel wrote:

Awesome!!
The engine sounds great - just the idle seems a bit high :D

And it's got a bad lope to it :)

With the goal of getting Zippy to Virginia, I needed to squish the two halves together so I can fill it with parts, load it up on an auto transport trailer and hooked to the back of the latest UHaul truck. The issue is that the bottom half of him was in the basement, trapped behind a well-fastened door.

Door out and pan seeing unfiltered light for the first time in close to 8 years:

One thing to note, this is not a proper assembly, things just got bolted together until I can get it there and get some metal welded in on the body. Once I get to the new place, the lift should make quick work of getting the two separated long enough to get the metal welded in. Nonetheless, seeing it together took my breath away and almost brought me to tears.

All bolted together and waiting for the trailer.

Absolutely fantastic - what a relief!
I'm really happy for you that everything turned out so well and Zippy is going to join your journey. :)