Current restoration work: '54 Oval-Beetle Sliding-Ragtop, '59 Beetle Sedan, '60-'59 KG Cabrio, '60 KG Coupe, '63 Notchback, '64 KG Cabrio '64 Notchback, '65 Beetle Sedan, '65 13-Window Bus, '66 21-Window Bus, '69 KG Cabrio, '70 Bus, '71 Bus, '71 KG Cabrio, '74 412, '74 1303 Cabrio, '74 1303 Sedan,
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~ 1966 21 Window Deluxe ~ revolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolks |
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reVOLKS is in the process of performing a full restoration of this
classic type 2. Plans for this bus are to return it to a "stylish-stock" finish. The owner wants to go with Bernina Blue and White on top using dual stage paint done in the classic look. The interior will be finished with a complimentary color scheme that will allow for tasteful customization, yet retain that vintage appeal with two-tone panels and upholstery.. The engine is going to be upgraded to a 12volt, dual-port, dual carbed, big-bore to get this bus motivated quickly and it will be finished off with good looking components that mean show judges won't get their fingers dirty ;) |
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This is how far the owner got into the restoration of his lovely 21 window splittie before the events of Sept.11 took him to a higher calling. You see this bus' owner is a pilot with the US Air Force. So events as they were, he asked us to help out and see if we could get Boris finished for him. We gladly agreed. |
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Boris was all coated in grey primer when we picked it up. The body had been completely stripped down to the bare shell and all of the parts had been neatly bagged, boxed and inventoried for later installation. Something about a person in the service that makes them obsessively orderly :) |
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Interior shots give you a great idea of what it's like to be driving a split-window bus.
The interior of Boris is in very good shape too. |
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The last views of Boris we had before work began. Unfortunately, our digital camera developed (no pun intended) a problem and ate several diskettes all of which contained the early pics of the work to Boris.
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These pictures are hard to decypher and frankly it's not important to figure out where you
are looking, but what you are seeing in them.... A quick or general glance at Boris leads you to think it is 'pretty straight', but after a guide coat and first pass of the block sander you begin to see how 'untrue' that thought is. Check that last picture...This is how to achieve a straight panel. It's time consuming and tedious to be sure but the end results are worth it - very straight panels. Keep in mind that the difference between those colors is measured in thousands of an inch but even that teeeeny bit is visible to the eye! |
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These pictures show the correction of a stripped hinge block on the side doors. In the second pic you can see the stripped out, captive block that is used to hold the lower door hinge on the 'B' pillar. The easiest way to correct this relatively common problem is to cut out the hinge block and replace it. This can be achieved by buying and replacing the entire pillar segment, but that requires many cuts into the body and leaves many visible body panel sections with welds.
The simplest method is to cut into B-pillar from behind/inside the fender well, extract the stripped block,
replace it with a new one and then weld it all back. |
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While the final block sanding was underway as shown in the first five pictures, some mechanical components were
removed and sent to be media blasted. This included the front beam shown in picture 6. Once the beam was stripped to bare steel
it was cleaned and then given a liberal coat of POR-15. While the POR-15 was applied, the chassis and belly pans had a few reconstructive processes performed. The old belly pans were extracted due to rusting and replaced as were all four outriggers and a few other structural elements. |
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Once all the massive hours in block sanding was completed the bus was ready for paint. The two colors used are Pearl white on top above the belt-line and Light sapphire blue metalic on the bottom. Due to the relatively large size of the bus it's quite a job just to mask-off. The inside of the cabin was also painted pearl white in key areas such as the dash and seat pod as well as the divider walls. The end results are simply stunning! They are very complimentary and sure make this split-window bus look super vintage, yet modern in approach. |
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Well, it's no secret to readers of this web site - this is the fun part! Here we see Boris has received the full carpet treatment. This carpeting is custom made and installed by reVOLKS which allows us to make the carpet as just two pieces from front to back of the main cabin and eliminate all seams normally found in "off the shelf" kits. The bus has so many parts, especially when it's a 21 window deluxe! Sometimes the only space big enough to store them prior to installation is inside the bus itself! The final pic here shows Boris receiving it's new wiring loom and the beginning of the dash assembly. |
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While interior work is being done, some of the many other parts that need to be painted are moved
into the booth. Here we see the bumpers, the under-dash tray and some of the seat frames being
painted to match in the Pearl white. Once the various parts are painted they can be installed as seen here with Boris' front bumper adding yet more of that classic bus charm to the front profile :) |
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The split-window bus is without question the most difficult Vdub to install a headliner into.
There are so many awkward and difficult places to work over. It's definitely not for the faint
of heart! While the headliner was in progress we got a chance to review Boris' drive line. The owner decided that he wanted to have a freeway flyer transaxle installed. To replace the split-window bus' transaxle means extracting the whole assembly including the axles & axle tubes, plus the reduction gear boxes at the outboard ends. The reduction boxes were found to be very challenged internally with some of the bearings having fallen apart literally. This meant a rebuild was in order. Each reduction box contains 4 bearings and each bearing is about $35 so you can do the math. In the end this work was not an option since at least two of the bearings in each box were completly thrashed. The decision to swap the transaxle to a freeway was made to accomodate the highway speeds found in the owner's native state of California. There are several ways to achieve "freeway flyer" status and the one chosen by the owner after much consultation with the folks at RANCHO and TRANSform was to use a ring & pinion upgrade rather than change out just 4th gear and end up with a wide-spread shift issue. |
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This is very close to the wrap-up for Boris. The first picture shows you the panels that are going in the cabin. Very nice and well suited to match the over-all appearance of both the exterior and the seat upholstery. The second picture shows the side pop-out windows being installed and the skylight windows have been installed in conjuction with the headliner. Also seen here are the doors being hung along with the initial body emblems and body seals. The last picture shows Boris as almost completed. The only thing left to do at this point was to install the sliding rag top and take it out for a spin... :) |
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Here's project delivery! While there's no doubt 'Boris' is a beauty; the first pic here really shows the elegance of the color combination and the lovely delux bus attributes. How can you resist a set of safari windows or those chromed accents?! The interior in the second picture really shows off the lovely and complimentary finish with the body colors. The big bore engine is hooked-up to the freeway flyer transaxle and making some very sweet purring sounds. It's finally ready for the open highways and a long distance run to home. The last two pics show the happy owner taking Boris for the first spin. Days later, the second pic shows Boris at home in California with the palm trees swaying in the background :) |