And so the game commences .... for the usual fee ... plus expenses

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

1. Strip interior, remove battery
2. lift the car on to stands and blocks and made level ready for re-indexing the rear suspension
3. remove wheels and rear wings
4. grind back all the rust where the rear wings mount to the body and seal with Kurust
5. 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 below)

 So what have I found?

• The car is very solid indeed. The chassis needs a little scraping back and re-undersealing but that's it.
• The body is solid enough but needs a little repairing at the back, and a little trimming ;-)

The next steps?

• Re-index the torsion bars so the car is both level and jacked up as much as reasonable at the rear (buying new bushes included)
• Start cleaning up the floor pan (inside and out) ready to repaint and seal
• get decent tuneable coil over shocks (Gaz probably) to cope with the load carrying and crazy torque
• Refit the wings and using great care, lots of measuring, thought and a delicate touch .... cut the arse off it.
• make a new mount for the bucket seats using the original seat rails while I wait delivery of the roll cage in mid November

 It's a bare back Beetle