GLI Neglect...

 Ok, where did the GLI go?

It's still patiently waiting for finishing the A pillars in the garage.  The Superbeetle is much closer to getting completed, as it needs no interior or bodywork/paint.  Just structural frame body work.

Here's a look at the old...NASTY framehead rot....here's an example of where the reinforcing piece that bolts to the front is actually doing its job!

Firewall is garbo....drivers pan is gonzo...

So, brace it up and cut it out!

I Zee cut the framehead out at the spine, I wish the Colorado cutoff I got was 6" longer, as the joint underneath  is a bit thin with rust.  I cut it at the pedal cluster hole just for ease of not cutting any of the cable tubes inside the tunnel, and using the pedals themselves to help line things up.  I probably took the new framehead on and off 20 times just to make it all line up perfect.

With the pan out, in all honestly, it's not too bad panwise.  The pass side pan is actually in awesome shape.  I have a klokkerholm front pan section for the left side I got for $25 so in the heavy-budget-minded premise of this restoration, I'd rather fork that out than $700+ for new pans.  Maybe in the future, but who am I kidding.  I'm not that motivated....

When I moved into this house 11 years ago, I found 2 quarts of old formula grey Tremclad, so being so cheapass, decided to give them a good stir and pour it out on the pan.  That should work for the interior, I'll get some proper Eastwood chassis paint for underneath.

Now to turn my attention to my rather unorthodox idea for steering.  The steering box setup is shot, and I always thought it was the dumbest idea, (like most of the SB front susp geometry) an inner fender mounted box and idler with 6 balljoints of connection to the wheels. WTF VW?!?  If you look at the superior VW 411/412 front suspension in 1968, you will scratch your head as to why VW removed some components for the SB front susp design.  Anyway, I was looking at around $500 work of work to resurrect.  So I thought, may as well use some of my rabbit racks, and while the idea was cool, the rabbit is rear (of pivot) steer, and superbeetle is front steer.  SO that meant I couldn't use my racks, or even an Iltis rack I had on hand, cuz they were reversed.  So dismayed, I checked out RHD racks online for shits and giggles.  It turns out they are not rare in the UK, and relatively cheap. (one would argue cheaper than new LHD racks) so for around $180 to my door, I have a RHD rack that will mount (eventually) to the top of the frame head ahead of the wheels.  I will have to cut out some of the spare tire well, but who gives a f^ck about that on a weekend cruiser.

Now to flip it up on its side to needle gun the bottom...hope to have her back on the road for Sept.... fingers X'd.  There's the GLI in the back...waiting her turn!