Bub: the Buggered Up Beetle

Last night I got busy with the BIG angle grinder, the small angle grinder, several hammers and a tap & die set .... proper video will be uploaded but in the meantime here are a few photos and a time lapse video which stops tantalisingly close to the back being finished but the battery ran out! Big angle grinder took the rear valance off Small angle grinder for wing trimming tap & die set for chasing the threads of the wing mounting captive nuts (I even drilled out and tapped the sheared bolt) Hammers (and panel beating dollies) for  bending the new lip under and stretching the wings out a shade wider. Of course, this is not the end of the bodywork, I've still to stretch the wings out a bit further, weld the cuts up to make the wings solid again and I may change my mind and do a full Baja (cut back to the firewall behind the engine) as I have an option on some excellent wide full height wings. Video is at the bottom This is before .... and this is after

After a weekend away at a wedding, I'm back and ready to get a move on ... only 3 weeks until the roll cage and shocks arrive and I have the interior to brush down, rust treat and paint, build the bucket seats on to the original seat frames and fanny about with the electrics to be sure everything works. The rear suspension has now been completely revamped with new bushes and caps and although the new shocks have yet to arrive you can really see the difference. I couldn't move on to anything else until this was done. The next job is to trim the back end to make it look like a Baja Racer. Beetle engines are attached to the chassis not the body so I can take out basically everything from the firewall back if I wanted to. I'm going mild rather than wild and want to keep the original wings so a little trimming first and see how we go. I'm also planning on using the engine lid as a spoiler/engine cover but that will also need trimmed back quite heavily. T

While I’m waiting for parts and a repaired petrol tank here’s a bit more about Metrinch tools

What did I do today?   re-indexed the torsion bars to half cover the bottom rear spring plate cover bolt hole   any further sage or weakness will be sorted by the Gaz coilovers which will arrive in a few weeks realised the end caps and donut bushes were wrecked so ordered new ones de-rusted the spring arms investigated the fuel leak from the tank   begun to realise that the guy who did the work on the car (not the guy I bought it from) was a complete plum ... watch this and you'll understand

Lots of videos and lots of things done, problems discovered and by the simple expedience of having the right tools for the job, solved or made ready to fix. Videos and photos at the bottom as usual but if all you want is videos (Andy P) then.... Stripped interior The nearside rear wing is off Rounded torsion bar plate Metrinch saves the day Jobs done Strip interior, remove battery lift the car on to stands and blocks and made level ready for re-indexing the rear suspension remove wheels and rear wings grind back all the rust where the rear wings mount to the body and seal with Kurust start dismantling rear suspension Problems found one sheared wing mounting bolt (passenger side) - Not a problem, I'll ignore it. rust needing repaired properly (driver's side, at torsion bar), I'll either weld it, or ignore it rounded bolt at passenger side torsion bar plate - used a metrinch socket and will replace it with a new one - not an issue (watch the video belo