Old Pan Removal and New Pan Fitting

I removed the old pan on the passenger side with some help of this video by Duckman Cycles and VW Garage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkahP6TE0A&t=1286s and a sawzall. With the sawzall, it literally only took about 5 minutes...amazing! In the video, the chassis is lifted onto it's side. I was able to hoist the chassis on its side to do this with the bucket of a tractor, a lot easier than trying to lift it. But, unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it - DAMN IT!

I removed the remains of the pan from the tunnel with an air chisel, just like the video above. I can't believe how easy this turned out to be. Thanks Duckman!

After I got rid of the tar board, it was apparent that the rust damage was worse than I had thought. It had eaten through much of the passenger side pan. Replacing the whole passenger side pan is needed.

I ordered a new passenger side pan from Wolfsburg West, the best available according to many on the Samba. The steel is as thick or thicker than the original. The only issue that I had - when I received it, the front was curled upward. I flattened it out without a problem, but it was kind of odd.

I really wish I would have took pictures of it without the pan, it was quite the accomplishment. But it all turned out well, so far.

Chassis Cleanup

Today I removed the rubber floor mats and blew all the dirt off of the chassis. Blasted the chassis off with a pressure washer, trying to remove all of the dirt and grease, which didn't work as well as i'd hoped. But I was able to get a lot of the dirt and grease off so I could start removing the tar board soundproofing from the floors. I would suggest using a heated pressure washer if you're going to go this route. As I planned on sandblasting the chassis anyway, this wasn't that big a deal. 

The pressure washer did a decent job of making it easier to remove some of the tar board, but I'll have to go after the rest with a putty knife.

So, you've decided to restore your classic Volkswagen...Separating the Body from the Pan

After I installed the radio, I realized that it was time to focus on the restoration of the car and not buying random parts... I knew I was going to be separating the body from the chassis so that I could go through the car completely and address every aspect of the car. After some research, I learned I would need to build these "sawhorses". These were also documented in the BugMe video series (great videos for working on your VW). The construction of these stands were very simple and straight-forward. It took 6 4'x4'x8' beams, about 4 2'x4'x8' boards and 8 Simpson brackets.

The only regret that I have is that I should have made them a little taller. I had to remove the stick shift to roll the chassis out. These are about 26" tall, a few more inches would have been better. 

After the stands were ready, I removed the engine. This is a pretty straight forward process, jacking up the car at least as high as the engine is tall so it can be dropped and slid out. Remove the wiring and four bolts holding the engine to the transmission. With some pulling and some force, we pulled it off of the transmission and dropped it, put it on a piano dolly and rolled it out of the way.

Next, I removed the bumpers and rear fenders to make room for the stands. I then removed the bolts holding the body to the chassis, except for the two in the front under the gas tank and detached the steering wheel from the steering box. I kept the two bolts in the front in until I was ready to drop the chassis in the front to keep everything from completely pulling apart in the process. 

Jacked up the back (adding jack stands and several wood blocks on top until it was high enough to reach the rear stand. I slid the stand in and dropped the chassis. Lots of creaking and cracking as the seam was broken for the first time in 57 years, very cool.

Next, I jacked up the front, doing the same with jack stands and wood blocks. I removed the two bolts and dropped the front of the chassis. Something was caught, the speedometer cable! I forgot to unhook it from the wheel! I removed that (luckily it wasn't damaged), removed the stick shift and we rolled the chassis out. We rolled it next to the body and were ready for the next project.

Replacing the Original Sapphire Radio

So, I pulled the VW out of storage last August and I've thought about restoring it ever since. After some consideration, I decided that this was the best time in my life to work on restoring the car, so I started my research. Many of the resources that I had used 15 years ago were still around (Wolfsburg West, TheSamba, etc.) and there are now many more that I had never heard of. For the most part, anything that you could think of on a VW is available on the internet through retailers or private parties.

I started looking on eBay and The Samba for things that I had always wanted to replace on the car. The washer bottle for instance, found it on eBay. The ultimate accessory that was missing from the car ever since I had it, the original Sapphire I AM radio was missing. I researched VW radio history and came across this web page that explained it all by Mr. Rich Langenwalter. I've heard of Rich on The Samba and from what I've read, he does great work in the Sapphire radio restoration field. He'll even upgrade your 6 volt AM radio to 12 volt, get FM stations and add an AUX connection. I researched Sapphire radios and what they go for for about month or two on eBay and The Samba for the most part. Many of the radios being offered for my model year - 1963 - were worn out with broken knobs and buttons, dirty and did not work. Finding a radio with knobs and preset buttons that were intact and not stained was most important to me. After some patience, I finally found one:

It needed some cleaning, but the major things that I wanted were there: clean knobs, preset buttons, it worked and it even had a very clean undamaged face plate, I couldn't wait to install it.

Seeing a complete dash board without a giant empty hole in the middle of it was pretty awesome.