Bea's Restoration 2001 Page 3

Here's a few more words and pictures about the restoration of Bea the Beetle. More to follow as the restoration progresses.

20th October 2001

Rosey works on fitting the engine bay seals.

While Dale fits Bitumen sound proofing to the floorpans, with help from Rosey and Owen.

3rd November 2001

Front and rear wings fitted properly with wing beading.

Outer window scraper and chrome surround fitted to both doors.

Door latch, interior door pull, winder mechanism, door check strap, and door seal fitted to both doors. Notice that the bottom of the winder mechanism does not meet the door bottom. This is because it is a new Mexican door and an original winder mechanism. A metal bracket will have to be made to bridge the gap, and stop the bottom of the winder mechanism banging against the inside of the door. Alternatively you could buy and fit new Mexican winder mechanisms to get round this problem.

14th November 2001

Steering column, steering wheel, speedo, speaker grilles, glovebox, grab handle, ashtray, and some of the dashboard switches are fitted.

Chrome inserts are inserted (with GREAT difficulty) into the window seals.

Rear window chrome insert fitted, but we still have to fit the new HEATED front windscreen (when it arrives from Mexico)

Both engine bay seals fitted, now ready for the new firewall.

15th November 2001

Both running boards fitted. Underside of boards painted with both Hammerite, and then underseal.

Mexican bonnet seal installed., a bit of glue at the ends stops it flapping about. The rest of the seal clips to the bonnet itself, which means that you don't need a groove along the tops of the front quarter panels and valance for the standard bonnet seal (known water trap, and partly the reason why the front quarter panels and valance were replaced)

Ears (as Dale likes to call them) cleaned, polished, and refitted. Everyone else calls them half moon vents.

16th November 2001

Exterior door handles fitted to both doors. Plus trim clips for chrome side trim.

Sun visors and rear view mirror, cleaned and refitted.

Fuel filler flap and locking petrol cap (not visible) fitted.

Rosey makes some adjustments to the catch on the rear valance so the decklid can latch properly.

Decklid fitted, and latching properly. Mexican decklid seal fitted for the same reasons as the bonnet seal. Rosey is still in the engine bay and you can just make out her nose, sticking out the hole for the number plate light! You can also see masking tape marking the extra holes needed to fit the rear light pods as the holes on new Mexican wings don't line up as they're designed for the elephant feet style rear lights as opposed to the tombstone style rear lights that Bea has.

18th November 2001

A day off from the workshop, but only to go shopping at VW Retro in Sheffield for some new wheels for Bea. Porsche Fuchs, in the size we want (6x15), with tyres and centre caps. Now all we need to do is get them refinished as we'd like them for Bea. Perhaps some colour coding?

8th December 2001

Headlight bowls get a coat of underseal. Plus the new wiring loom starts to get fed round the car, much neater than the old spaghetti that was the old loom!

Holes drilled and rear light pods fitted ready for the wiring.

New door window glass and runners arrive, so quarter lights and sliding windows can be fitted along with new felt channels and inner window scrapers. Again, because the doors are new Mexican ones, it meant that we needed new runners for the door glass to slide in as the securing brackets for the runners didn't meet up with the holes in the doors.

Z shaped metal brackets fabricated (bent in a vise and drilled) and fitted to the bottom of the winder mechanisms.

Exterior chrome side trim fitted both sides.

Turn to Page 4 to see more of Bea's Restoration