VolksWeekend 08 August

It's been a while. With wife and sons out of town this weekend, I had a chance to spend time in the garage and knock out some VW projects. I finished fender beading on the front and rear passenger fenders and installed the gaskets on the rear hatch and forward trunk.


Rear hatch, before new gasket.


Rear hatch, after gasket, passenger fender beading, re-installed tail lights.

Front hatch before new gasket.

Front hatch after new gasket.

Front of the car, new fender beading on pax side. Finally got enough junk out of the trunk to close the lid!

New windshield

I finally got a new windshield installed. Now I can drive around without using ski goggles!





~ $236 from All Star Glass.

Still waiting for gaskets for the side pop-out windows...

Driver's rear fender

Today I re-installed the driver's side rear fender, including replacement engine air intake seal and black fender beading.

The engine intake seal (black rubber gasket beneath window) was $28 per pair from ISP west.

Here's the fender installed, with black fender bead (gasket) along the seam.

Tomorrow should be new windshield time!

Rear Windows, 12/26/08

My dad stopped by today to help re-install some of the glass. Could not do it with just myself and my 9-year-old son... needed some extra oomph! For those who have not tried this before, it takes a lot of silicone spray combined with a ton of pushing and shoving.



The black strips in the photo are electrical tape I used to hold the headliner (interior vinyl) in place. That's 3 windows down, 5 to go!

The Fat Lady Sings!

Ok, I found out that this body style of VW Squareback is called a 'fat chick' due to the larger trunk/'snout'. Could not resist using this in the title. Here are the photos straight out of the Escondido MAACO paint shop (windows still removed).


MAACO said they would re-touch this area on the gas lid for free. Otherwise no complaints for the $1500 they charged me.

10/13 Off to MAACO

I had a local shop quote me over $4k to sand and paint the vehicle. This included $1200 in materials (!).

I want to drive this thing before gas gets to be $10 a gallon and asked them for a referral. They said the local MAACO in Escondido should be able to do a serviceable job for under $2k. They quoted me around $1500 to do some sanding, prep, and re-paint the factory color. We'll see how it goes.

Not having a windshield installed made it a bit challenging to drive 6 miles to the local shop. Ski goggles came in handy!

Here's the 'before' shots of the condition of the squareback before drop-off:




Dig the plate?

10/11 Golden (Bondo) Shower

OK it's been a while... I went out of action in mid-March for shoulder surgery, adopted a baby in May, and was out of the country from mid-June through mid-July. Long story short, I'm back in action, and back to getting this thing ready for paint. There's lots of POR-15 in the window sills, covered up with some primer.

I wonder, of the old VW's still in existence, how much steel is remaining and how much POR-15 has taken place of the metal?

Did some more bondo/sanding work on the car to get it ready for paint. Here are the shots:


Before - Note the dings. I ground down a few inches of cracked bondo and then filled in w/Lead filler.




After. I used mostly lead filler with a 'skim coat' :) of bondo over it.
Here's the dreaded welded-in patch. After a full weekend of sanding and build-up, you can hardly tell the difference between the original and replacement piece.

Here's the area beneath the passenger headlight. Nice and smooth!

Passenger door and rear quarter panel... good to go!