The Bug for Crane Blog

Today we began work early, at ten o’clock.  We are entering our final weekend to do work on the bug.  Jon, Paul and I moved the car out of the garage and onto the driveway.  Next, Paul and I set up a tent over the car and began to raise the car.  We jacked up both ends and placed two blocks in the front and two in the back.  We proceeded to remove the wheels because they still had a good amount of primer and paint.

All of the interior arrived yesterday so we will be able to finish the project this weekend.  Paul spent the morning working with Mr. Ingersoll reconnecting the cable that opens the hood.  Paul later went inside the garage and began placing the seat covers on the frames.  We purchased white seats and black carpets, all of which will be put in tomorrow.  We also inserted several repainted pieces into the dashboard and removed the glue on the rear windows.  The glue on the windows is from the tinting that used to be on the three rear windows.

Mr. Reussner headed over to help with the wheels.  Mr. Reussner, Jon, and I spent several hours sanding the primer and paint off the wheels using drills with steel wire bits.  We finished sanding the wheels and Mr. Reussner drove to several auto shops to have the tires taken off of the wheels.  Tomorrow Mr. Reussner will return early to show us how to spray the wheels.  We made a lot of progress today and the car is looking great!  The day ended around 5:30 with a quick meeting to go over tomorrow’s schedule, a phone call with Anthony Lombardi, and a clean up of all the tools and parts laying around the workspace.

Anthony came over today and pulled the engine so we could clean up the engine compartment and various engine parts.  We installed new manifold gaskets and tail pipes.

On Saturday, Cameron, Paul and I worked on the bug by ourselves during the afternoon.  We just began to add the new parts Paul ordered from Wednesday.  Paul focused on adding the black fender beading, which had to be redone multiple times to get right.  Cameron and I held the rubber in place and screwed and unscrewed the bolts to help.  We all worked on putting the left, aluminum running board in place: Cameron bolted the front, I bolted on the inner sides and held the board in place, and Paul wrenched the bolt at the end in place.  We were doubting whether it was done correctly so we left it loosely in place and did not attempt the other.  While Paul resumed loosening each fender, adding the beading, and tightening them up, Cameron and I drove down to Ace Hardware to pickup 13 bolts (12 for the bumper brackets and one that was missing for a fender) and two packets of gummy worms, because working for five hours deserves a snack.  We ended the day with one running board on, fender beading in place, and headlight rings questionably in the right positions, prepared for a long, intense day of work Sunday

We’re lucky to have a good local VW parts warehouse to work with down in Ventura (Airhead Parts).  We stopped by today to pick up a few misc interior parts and ordered custom white window rubbers.

Paul and Dave brought the car back from the paint shop.  They had to rent a flat bed trailer to do it and had a little trouble with the towing.  But it’s back safe and sound.

Big thanks to John McGovern for donating towing.  John arranged for a flat bed tow truck to transport the car down to Maaco in Ventura.  The owner Arun is really cool and gave us a nice discount!

We got a ton of stuff done today.  We finished up sanding, removed everything… turn signals, door handles and latches, windows, etc.  It’s going to paint on Monday.

Time has been slipping and nothing is getting done.  So we had a meeting tonight to refocus and get things rolling again.  Tasks assigned… Cameron in charge of coordinating actual work on car, Paul in charge of ordering parts and finding paint shop, Ben overall project manager.

We ordered a Vanity License Plate for the car today.  We considered a few different plates using the words Crane, Love (or luv), and VW, and in the end chose…

The order was placed 7 weeks  before the event.  The DMV says it will be ready in 6 -8 weeks.  Let’s hope it gets here on time.

We had our first work day today.  Everyone was here, including several visitors.  We stripped down all of the old rubber under the turn signals, door handles, etc.  We pulled the seats and removed the carpets.  Bumpers came off too.

My dad and Dave went for a second look at Pumpkin and came home with her late Wednesday night, almost six months after we grouped together to begin this project.  The car is awesome and it is such a relief to finally have a car to work on.  I spent an hour in the afternoon taking pictures of it because this weekend we will begin work and i have a feeling that the car will change a bit during that one day.

Richard found a lead on a bug out at Winchester Canyon.  Dave went out to see it today.  It’s an orange ’72 named “Pumpkin”.  She runs great, has no rust, and is in good condition all around.  Priced a little high, but still a very good candidate.

Dave had business in LA today and was able to get over to see the Lomita bug only to find out that it had been sold.

My dad had business in OC yesterday and hoped to stop on the way to see the LAX and Lomita cars.  Things didn’t work out.

My dad is going to Orange County tomorrow and will check out two cars on the way.  There is a blue ‘65 with black plates and a roof rack near LAX and a lowered blue ‘67 with cool wheels in Lomita.

Found a detailed video posted of this car.  The good news is the video really shows the car in detail.  The bad news is we can see how badly rusted it is.  I guess it saves us the drive.

Not finding much in the nearby area.  Now looking for cars in LA & OC.  Found a few possibilities for my dad to look at on his next trip south.  A ’65 near LAX, ’67 in Lomita, and 67 in Costa Mesa.

Today we went back to look at the white ’67.  This time we brought our new expert advisor along with us.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we have a new expert advisor / mentor… Anthony Lombardi.  Anthony is married to Crane upper school English teacher Mrs. Lombardi and has tons of VW repair and restoration experience.  He was not excited about the white 67.

My dad and Dave drove to Casitas Springs to see a ’71 convertible.  It runs well and is pretty much rust free, but needs a new top.  An offer was made, but not accepted.

Today we went down to Ventura and saw three bugs.  A white 67 looks interesting.  Gonna have to come back as the owner wasn’t there to show it.  Saw a custom modded bug that wasn’t exactly what we are looking for, although we would have taken the exhaust.  The last one was a dump.  Back up to SB.  Saw a blue 65 near Monte Vista School.  Wow!  This was a piece of… uh… work.  An automatic stick shift, rusted through, silicon window rubbers.  Run away!!!!