Spyder Bait

[Humble]

Quick update:

The bug has been almost entirely stripped down and sent off for body and paint. I wish I had the time (and experience) to do it myself but I have 3 projects on my plate at the moment. On the plus side the body shop will be documenting everything and I'll put some of the photos up when I pickup the bug for final assembly.

Current eta is 2nd week of april...

[Clatter]

Hi,

Hope you can share the name of the shop doing the paint/body, and the results you are getting?

Having lived in Santa Cruz for a long time now,
Am really anxious to get current feed-back on some of the local shops.

My other car will be going in somewhere hopefully soon, but my past/current experiences fill me with dread.

PM me?

[Humble]

Big update time! But first an answer and a story...

Clatter, The shop I went to is called Prosport Auto Body at Stevens Creek and Bascom Ave. in San Jose. Jewel is an awesome old car guy from the south and has done tons of VWs. He did an awesome job on my car and I've already sent a few people his way. He does have a waiting list and about a 2 month back log if you can wait.

And now a story...

I dropped the bug off at Jewel's shop at the end of march hoping to have it back in a couple weeks with the goal of having the bug fully restored and finished for Bugorama Memorial Day weekend. After 4 weeks I finally get to pick up the bug, now towards the end of April, and take it over to Bugformance, where the headliner and rubber will be installed. They sit on it for a week with a mad rush of cars that need work also trying to make Bugorama, but once they unwrap the fenders they find that 3 of them have deep scratches or chips in the paint. So I call Jewel and since he wrapped them up he takes responsibility and offered to respray them for free. Another couple weeks go by and the deadline looms large. A week until the show now, fenders are back at the shop and the whole car is on hold waiting for the headliner to be installed. It's the Wednesday before the show and I have no illusions about finishing the bug in time, but I'm looking forward to a nice holiday weekend working on the GSR.

After a stressful day at work, I drive my Excursion and race trailer down to pick up the bug, get everything paid for, go out to move the tow rig, and the Excursion wont start. I do some troubleshooting with fuses/relays and it looks like the fuel pump died right there in the parking lot. Damnit. I call for a tow truck as I watch the shop close up with the GSR still inside and wait. The first truck that comes out can't drive me home because it'll put him over 40 hours and he can't have OT. Whatever. He calls a second truck and after another 30 minute wait I finally have a way home. We put the Excursion on the flatbed, and he tells me that towing the trailer home will be $250. That's cheaper than a new trailer and I don't want to leave mine behind with the good chance it would get stolen, so he hitches it up.

We get on our way and as soon as we leave the parking lot, the dip at the parking lot entrance causes the trailer to jump off the hitch and slam into the back of the tow truck. The trailer jack is messed up, the equipment box on the tongue is smashed in, and we are blocking most of a busy road during rush hour. While the tow truck driver, Jose, scrapes my trailer off the road, my phone starts blowing up with emails about databases going down, and various failures I can do nothing but watch because my laptop bag is in the Excursion. Once we get rolling again Jose and I chat about what a ****ty day I'm having, and hopefully my luck turns around. After nearly getting wrecked twice on the way home by inattentive drivers, we finally make it to my house in the mountains and park the trailer. Were in the middle of unloading the Excursion and my asshole neighbor starts causing a scene. He races to the edge of his driveway in his car with his brights on, and revs his engine like he's got somewhere to go. We have a history with this guy so I know he's just being a dick, and he does this whenever we block the road (moving trailers) or use the easement that leads to one of his driveways (he has more than one) to turn trucks around. Jose gets flustered by the guy's actions and moves out of the way for the neighbor (who parks in front of his garage with the car idling and won't acknowledge our presence). Unfortunately, the Excursion was in neutral but still on the winch, so it didn't roll off the back of the tow truck, but instead slammed into the steel light bar folding front of the hood on the Excursion nicely. Fantastic. I can't even get mad, this bizarre series of events is just unbelievable. We unload the Excursion, roll it into the driveway and I call it a night with a bottle of La Fin Du Monde, very appropriate. The tow company will cover the damages so it's just a waste of my time to get the estimates done, but now I get to spend the holiday weekend replacing the in-tank fuel pump on the Excursion instead of the bug.


Yeah, the jack is bent and that lid doesn't close any more...


...and the Excursion needs a nose job.



btw, Jose has been a tow truck driver for over 15 years and never had an accident. He had 2 in one day... in a brand new low truck, it still had paper tags. I know they were both preventable accidents but I just feel bad for the guy getting collateral bad juju by proximity.

[H2OSB]

Day-am! That IS a sh*tty day.

[Gerrelt]

That's a terrible day. I hope you get to work on the bug soon.

[owdlvr]

That day is so bad, it's pretty comical. Sorry, I laughed.

-Dave

[Humble]

Now for the good parts

I did finally get the bug home on May 27th, and after the last trip with the Excursion this time felt like an eternity. I grabbed a pic that evening after we unloaded the trailer.


That's not even in the sun and the Saturn Yellow still pops. Here's a couple more shots, fresh paint, new headliner, and some of the interior that was installed at Bugformance.






I've been chipping away at all the (seemingly) little jobs, but they take longer when you're cautious around fresh paint and new carpet. Paint the things that need paint, and glue the things that need glue, but nothing else!

New door panels w/o map pockets. Notice the nice refreshed black detail on the door sill, also all the rubber on the bug is new.


Rear quarter panels, grab handles, battery are in and the sub just chillin in the rear luggage tray.


Simple things like new sun visors make me happy, but it forces me to up my game. Cant have old and busted clips, or chipped/scratched trim pieces when everything else is so mint. I keep making trips to get new fiddly bits just so I know its right.


Here's a "before" shot of the engine bay. I had cleaned and degreased it but it just looked okay. Not good enough. I debated getting new tar board like the factory but there's still ugliness behind those panels. I taped everything off and very carefully sprayed new undercoating and the results are worth all the stress. Unfortunately, the car is so bright it's hard to get a good shot of the dark engine bay. BTW, I used 3m high build undercoat, great stuff, one can for the engine bay.

[Humble]

But wait, there's more!

Up on jack stands because I'm swapping the disks out soon, but before that I couldn't wait any longer and had to do the trim. The trim, wipers, headlight rings, and turn signal covers were all looking a little ragged so they all got sanded and hit with a fresh coat of satin black paint. Once on the bug it makes a nice but subtle difference.




The trunk area also got a respray so it's shiny new as well. The freshly powder coated sports rim barely fits thanks to the width of the 205/50r15 Dunlop Direzza ZII. Sidenote, those headlights are hella h4 conversion glass straight from Germany thanks to Uwe.


More interior work now, rear seat back is in to test fit stereo equipment. Might as well install that while I'm here.
A short list for the stereo:
Pioneer DEH X9600BHS head unit
Infinity Kappa 62.9i fronts
Infinity Kappa 693.9i rears
Pioneer TS-W2502D4 10" sub
JBL GTO504 280w amp for front/rear
JBL GTO501 770w amp for sub


Rough position of the sub and amps. 6x9 go in the rear shelf over the amps.


Chasing ghosts of wiring past, a few of them mine.


Wiring front to rear for speakers and amps done, and front speakers/kick panels/and carpets in. This took way longer than I thought, being extra careful around new carpets.


That's how far I've come as of the weekend, trying to chip away at little jobs every day after work. Going to try and get the trans out and put the old race trans in this week. Should be a great match for the smaller diameter wheel combo.

[owdlvr]

"I keep making trips to get new fiddly bits..."

Those of us not living in California envy you for comments like that. :P That paint is fantastic! The car is going to look incredible when finished. What's the final wheel choice going to be?

-Dave

[H2OSB]

I agree with Dave, the car looks outstanding!

[Oval]

terrific car, I have almost finished a Sports Bug replica...well... I painted my '74 Saturn Yellow

[Humble]

Going with the Lemmertz sports rims that were stripped and freshly powder coated. They look great and should hold up very well now. The disks are dual drilled for 4x100 and 4x130 so I have options, but I think I want to stick with a vintage look.

[owdlvr]

Where's the huge thumbs up icon?? Proper wheel choice, I approve. ;-)

-Dave

[Gerrelt]

Looks great!

[NO_H2O]

Looking very sanitary.