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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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 Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:33 am Post subject: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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I have been in the Air-cooled VW hobby for a long time now, had several cars from beaters to show cars and some pretty rare stuff along the way. I enjoyed every car I had but for me the joy was just to drive them, and so I never built one on my own, just upgraded them as needed. I never had the time to learn how to really build a car so for me, finding a finished car or one that already was a usable driver was how I approached my cars. A sample of some of my past vws:
My 50 split fresh in 2000
my old 51 split
my 55 BD standard
and my 55 BD single
I lean towards original paint cars but I have had some painted cars in my collection as well. After a few years in the Porsche world I really wanted a Patina vw again after selling my last one off to Belgium
I missed the car more than I thought I would so.... The search was on.
After spending several months casually searching for a bug this one popped up on Samba and it caught my attention
It was a super OG 63 in ruby red which is a color I love! OG paint, and in rock solid condition. I knew it was the right car for me after talking with the owner and so I sealed the deal and bought the car.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:51 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Some additional shots of the car show just how nice it has been preserved.
Perfect front apron
heater channels are super solid
Factory undercoating kept the pan completely rust free and in incredible shape.
The night Ruby came home
Parked next to my OG paint 36 ford.
I was already making plans that first night. The car was in amazing shape. Zero rust, not even surface rust on any of the metal and the pan was really straight. The car had some accessories that weren't to my taste, and the stance was not quite right but all that was going to change.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:09 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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The day after I got it home, I rolled it outside for a bath and some shots.
Dig that fade
The seat covers had been replaced with TMI covers and the padding under them was dead. The carpet was TMI also. Headliner was original.
Dash is uncut and original with a VDM steering wheel added.
The OG paint has a great shine to it still!
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:27 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Motor in the car was a stock 1600 single port which ran nice but had a flat spot in it.
I found out the next day when it got much worse and left me stuck a few blocks from home...
Turns out the metal plug in the carb body of the H30/31 had fallen out which is very common. The carb must have had a nice air leak for a while and finally the plug fell out. I borrowed some AC ducting tape and was able to seal up the hole on the side of the road and drive the bug home!
A memorable morning to say the least.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:40 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Here is the hole where the factory plug goes on the H30/31 carb body.
I got a dime and ground down the edges slightly and it fits the hole almost perfectly. Then a nice generous coat of JB weld and a 48 hour cure time and the fix came out better than the original plug
Back on the road again and running better than ever with no flat spot at all.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 12:06 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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So fast forward a few months and I have been driving the bug sporadicly while working on other projects. Its a nice car but it has its short comings. Mainly the suspension. The front beam was a 2 inch narrowed adjustable beam with no drop spindles on it. At the low height it was set at the ride was all over the place, bump steer, no travel etc. I had planned to change all that anyway from the get go. The rear had stock spring plates that were turned 1 outer and several inner splines so the ride was sloppy there too. The wheels were BRM replicas which are not my favorite and the tires were more suited to Bus sizes than a bug so those were always on the list to change as well. Brakes were stock drums all around. Like I said before, the interior was a mix of OG and TMI and none of it was really that great. I decided that the best part of the car was really the body. It needed nothing aside from some new brightwork and rubber.
So this is where I decided that I was finally going to do a car myself. The body would be left alone but everything else was going to get the resto treatment. All new suspension done the right way. All new freeway flyer trans. VW Paradise built stroker motor. Chrome and detailed Fuchs, new West Coast Classiscs interior. Powder coated pan, pretty much everything this car needed to be a killer patina cruiser.
I started to pull and sell all the accessories on the car that I did not plan to use like the wheels, rack, steering wheel and clear out the garage so I could have space to do this build. Having never done a build like this before, I planned for the worst and prepared myself for hidden rust, broken bolts, and all the other horror stories I figured I would run into along the way...
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 12:29 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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So the plan was made and the day finally came to build Ruby.
My buddy had just purchased this 58 and it was staying with me for a few months so Ruby left storage and came to my house while the 58 took her spot in storage.
The last shot before she went into the garage.
Seats came out, Carpet came out, floor mats out. Also the restored OG steering wheel went in after the VDM wheel was sold. Much better.
So far no surprises, just rock solid metal all over.
I was really surprised to see that under the rear seat was not thin or rusty at all. The factory tar board had kept all the metal nice and the undercoating under the pan had done its job to keep the metal solid. Easily the nicest pan I have had, but then again, this car is much newer than most of the VWs I have had in the past.
I decided to try chipping off the tar board but that was nothing but a giant mess.
The drivers side took me almost an hour so I decided to stop on that project until the body was off. Oh yeh, the body is coming off this one 
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stale air
Samba Member
Joined: August 23, 2007
Posts: 5151
Location: Senoia Ga, formally NorCal
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 2:05 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Looks like you have owned some pretty sweet cars over the years. It looks to be a super solid car, and I forward to seeing the changes your going to make to it. 
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 3:55 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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| stale air wrote: |
| Looks like you have owned some pretty sweet cars over the years. It looks to be a super solid car, and I forward to seeing the changes your going to make to it. |
Thanks. I have enjoyed them all but like I said, this is my first personal build done at home, by me. I hope you dig it too.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:12 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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So here is what the seats looked like after coming out of the car. TMI covers on blown out OG seat pads. The seat frames were nice but the paint was worn on them.
Window rubber and trim was shot. Years in the CA and AZ sun has that effect...
Gas tank was super clean. That came out next. OG spare and Bias ply tire still on it
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:30 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Next I had to drain the gas tank so a couple of floor jacks and a gas can later...
I rolled Ruby outside to get a few shots with the glass out and tank out. Sits like a Cal Looker now with all that weight out of it.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:48 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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So in an attempt to keep this build as orderly and compact in the terms of space used to do the build, I decided to look for a dolly design that would keep things efficient. I came up with this dolly which I modified from a few I saw on the site here.
It will allow you to store the body on top of the rolling pan and sit in the space of one car, which allows me to still have another car in the garage. That makes the lady of the house pretty happy
After getting that built, I decided to get all the parts off the car I could so that lifting the body would be as simple as possible. Bumpers came off.
Not bad for OG bumpers at all. Off to the chrome shop for a refresh
And now comes the fun part
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:53 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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All the pan bolts came out with no drama. No broken bolts and no rust to deal with. A few friends later and the body was on the dolly.
The pan is super nice and straight. Not a spot of rust and no damage. This is going to be an easy straight forward clean up.
With the dolly I am able to get the pan under the car and store it all in one parking spot and still access the body or pan easily. Pretty happy with how that came out.
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62beetle
Samba Member
Joined: August 09, 2009
Posts: 30
Location: UK
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 8:27 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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| Looking forward to seeing the progress on this, looks like a pretty good buy |
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:21 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Thanks, Yes I am very happy with the car and it would have been just fine as it was for a nice driver, but I want a little something more out of this car so taking it apart was really the only way forward for what I have in mind.
My wheels arrived and so I took them to get the tires on. Flat for Fuchs in Chrome 4.5 and Deep 6's which were then detailed. Tires are my standard fit 125x15 Firestone fronts and 205/70 Firestone rears...
Got some OG caps chromed and detailed from Paul Salinas and they came out killer too.
To run the drop plates that I plan to run on this car, the rear bump stop metal snubber needs to go.
I also picked up my first batch of "smalls" from Powdercoat. The Gloss Black looks awesome compared to what I started with.
I took my seats up to Lenny and he knocked them out with some of his killer seat covers. That gray is going to look awesome in the car.
Seat frames powder coated and covers on. I also picked up my headliner and carpet kit so the interior is done!
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:49 am Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Of course I couldn't resist positioning a wheel or 2 just to see where this was all going.
Thats motivation... all thats left now is everything
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 12:54 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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My homie Jason up at the Rust box built up my drop spindles for me for my disc brake kit.
All new everything These could have been left in bare metal and worked fine but again, for the build Im doing, everything is getting painted, coated, plated or polished, even the spindles. Pretty happy with how these came out to start the front end build
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:14 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Some random images of the pan before it was torn down. Motor obviously came out of a later car but pretty much everything else is original and untouched. Trans is OG to the car. I think the rat turds were OG also...
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:25 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Pedal cluster came out next. Pretty nasty under there with grease and old horse hair, but no rust or rot. No damage either.
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jasonvw
Samba Member
Joined: June 22, 2005
Posts: 773
Location: so cal since 87
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:42 pm Post subject: Re: Preserving Ruby, my 1963 Patina restoration project |
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Since that was out of the way, I got the suspension off the car. Beam off and motor and trans out. No issues here either, everything came right off. Beauty of working on a totally rust free car!
Someone did some grinding to fit that 12 volt flywheel and did a pretty amateur job. Thats going to be fixed though
And now we have a pan
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