Off to Chrome Shop

Thanks to a local plating shop source from Bob Walton I was able to gather the chrome parts and get them sent off. Expected costs: $250 per bumper (3pcs), $60 per guard (for the pot-metal pointed style), $25 per headlight ring, $60 vent frame, & $10 per license light ring. I'm having the four holes in the front bumper piece filled, dented/rusted hub caps fixed, and extra holes in the headlight rings filled (all at no extra cost). Warning: be sure to have the studs in your pointed guards masked-off so they don't get dipped, as the acids will eat the studs down to little stubs rendering them useless (been there, done that).

NOS Pointy Guard

My wife always laughs at me for spending so much time searching the web for T34 parts, theSamba, eBay USA, eBay Germany, & emailing with so many T34 owners worldwide. But I got the last laugh this week when I scored an extremely rare NOS pointed bumper guard (right front) from an old friend in Ohio, Phil Lucas. Phil used to be involved with Bugs For You (Orange CA) and was recently doing some spring cleaning. Franck Boutier shared the ad with the PureT34 e-group and within a few seconds I had fired an email to Phil asking to buy it. He responded, "The T34 group is strange, I'd had this part listed for 90 days but only now you asked about it at 3:41 and Paul Colbert replied at 3:43! And the PayPal fees were $3.43 to accept your payment!" Strange & wonderful numerical coincidences! My wife still doesn't get it ... but that's OK, I'm thrilled with this score.

First Look: Paint!

Chemo just sent me the first-look photos of his paintwork, L41 Black roof & pillars with L554 Cherry Red dash. The body will get shot next and then it'll be delivered to San Diego. WAHOO!!!

Body Dolly

I've got little extra space in the garage for the reassembly process, so I decided the best way to store & work on the body & chassis would be to design a wood body dolly. Over the weekend my son & I built a 72"x65" rolling platform that will allow the painted body to be stored above the chassis. Total cost was $175 and it took several hours to complete. The wheels have locks when the dolly is rolled out of the garage into the driveway with a ratcheting strap to secure the body to the dolly.

Ready for Paint!

I got a surprise phone call this week from Chemo ... "your M346 is ready for paint"! What fantastic news after almost 5 long years of body restoration work with two different bodyshops, "Jeffrey" will soon have a new suit of clothes. Chemo said the sunroof drain "weep holes" were restored (which had been rusted & hacked by a previous owner), the front hood hinges & hood was replaced with better donor parts, the NOS door hinges were fitted, the final bodywork is completed, and he's ready to buy the paint.As this is a legacy car (one that I'm keeping forever), I want it to be as close to original/stock as possible. Since VW originally painted in a single-stage enamel (7 coats I've heard) in 1962, that's what we've ordered for this M346. Chemo found a paint shop that was able to order the Dupont Nason single-stage paint in Cherry Red (L554) & Black (L41) for only $150/gallon (about one-sixth of PPG two-stage cost)! I've ordered two gallons (plenty on reserve if anything ever happens to it) of the red, and five paint touch-up sticks. That was a stroke of luck!

Chemo sent updated photos of the finished bodywork as of March 1st. What an amazing transformation Chemo has done with this rusty T34! The fresh-air vents are perfect (previously were filled-in with bondo), the rockers from Lars are smooth, the spare tire area is clean, the rear shelf is renewed, and the holes in the roof are gone.

I hope my next post will share the fresh Cherry Red & Black painted body!

Rear Shelf Repair

Back in September (when I last visited the M346 at Chemo's shop) I discovered that the rear shelf really needed to be replaced. One phone call to Larry Edson (Mr. T34 sheetmetal source) and a rust-free rear shelf (in Sea Blue) was on its way to Chemo. Chemo removed the spot-welds on the swiss cheese shelf and welded-in the new one. What a huge difference (even though it'll be completely covered by the liner.




I just got photos in the mail today from Chemo even though this work was completed in October last year. He sent more updated photos too ...

NOS parts in 2009!

When restoring a T34 you really need to be diligent in your searching for parts and it never hurts to get lucky. When Mel Thompson from Tennessee (Black 1968 M345) emailed me after 10 years to help him sell his left-over parts, I agreed. In the stash of used parts were a couple gems: an NOS vent window & two NOS fog light trim rings! Mel was gracious to allow me to buy these without popping for the whole stash, so thank you Mel! Then while watching the new parts on theSamba I discovered Mark Smith from Oregon (vintage T3 source) who always has interesting T3 parts and sometimes a T34 part if you're lucky. Well he listed some NOS early Anthracite plastic heater sliders, so I scored one of those. He mentioned he had some NOS T3 compartment material as well, so I quickly added two of his better pieces. And lastly, I was extremely fortunate to find a complete set of T34 hinges for an amazing price from an old T34 friend. So it always pays to help other T34 owners, keep your eyes open for new sources, and always ask the sellers for other T3/T34 parts.