George’s Cars

Well, i haven’t updated this in a while. Since i last blogged, I finished stripping the donor van, its now ready for delivery to its new owner.

I also got back to working on the doka. I got the old 1.9DG engine removed but not the gearbox. The drive shaft bolts on the donor where allen keys bolts, according to the manual the doka’s ones should be allen keys also but they are not, they are some sort of trox like key but with twice the number of splines so until i can figure out what they are they gearbox is still in the van.

Dad and i also attacked it with angle grinders and removed all the rear panel work. This produced a few surprises!! There are some holes in the inner wings but again its apparently a common problem.

Drivers Side rear wing

Passenger side rear wing

Holes in the drivers side inner wing

This is from the inside looking out, as you can see, the bottom of the inner wing is also gone.

Thats about as far as i got saturday, today i cut out the rust.

And replaced with good metal

I also cut out the top part but didn’t get an after pic, annoyed too as that repair was nearly seamless!!

I also had one or two smaller holes to fill also then the rewarding part, putting the outer panels back on!

So thats where things stand at the moment.

Here are some old wheels i have up for sale.

These are the square headlights from my van that i’m selling.

This is whet they look like fitted

And close ups off the van

For various reasons I have got very little done on the doka for the last 2 weeks. Firstly i was waiting for panels, then paddys day and a few family commitments kept me away from the garage. Today i got back into the garage but the focus has shifted from bodywork to mechanical. I have the remains of the donor bus sold so i have to strip what i need off it before its collected so that is getting priority.

Today I got the old 1.6TD JX engine out of it.

Also dropped the 5 speed gearbox and all the linkages.
Took out the radiator and front screen.

Have to give credit to dad for the front screen, he went at it completely arsewards from the way i would have done it but it was out in less than 5 minutes and no damage to the screen or the rubber. Sweet!

I know where most of the wiring goes and what it does, except for two wires.

The yellow wire with a red stripe and the blue wire with the white stripe. They go onto the back of the head but i need to get a wiring diagram to figure these out.

So this is where it stands, i still need to strip out some of the smaller stuff, hoses, throttle cable, wiring, speedo cable. Hopefully i’ll get it finished tomorrow.

Well i forgot to put this up but we sold the 1972 blue beetle we had.

This is her loaded up to be delivered to Kevin. I know she is gone to a good home.

Well finally after 12 months waiting I got around to installing the car kit in the Toledo.

Its a Parrot kit and was a smooth install.

Besides ripping the car apart and putting it back together its an easy enough job.

Well since the doka was going badly and the day was so nice I decided to put some miles on the buggy. It put a smile on my face for a little while.

Well i have been working on the van again. Its going slowly at the moment but that is to be expected. I’m trying to reuse panels off the donor van which slows things up a bit but its saving me money.

I remembered a few important rules about welding today. Never wear loose sleeves. I have loads of burns to prove it!! Always wear a hat under the welding helmet. I have a burned forehead, you’d swear i was out summing myself. Then again i didn’t get this burned all last summer!!

Started with the passenger side rear quarter panel. The rusty panels where cut out.

And replaced.

They will look good when they get a light coat of filler. I just used a bit of areosol primer to keep them protected until i get to the bodywork.

I started filling all the small holes in the passenger side of the body. Got most of them done. I was going to move on to the front half of the arch on the rear but the repair section which i was going to use was full of fillers so no point putting it on. I’m going to have to leave it until i can get a repair panel in.

No this shouldn’t be rated 18′s, not just yet.

I started the doka project today. But it was a short day. I spent the morning cleaning up the garage to make space for the doka, the parts that have to come off her and the other cars so nothing gets damaged.

Then the stripping could begin. I only got about 3 hours stripping her so I’m happy with the progress. There are a few stubborn bolts that don’t want to come out so they are left over night in WD40. If they don’t come out tomorrow the drill will have to come out.

There are a few extras i didn’t know about, one fairly big one. She must have had a little tip at some stage, nothing major but its a lot of cutting and welding for me to fix it and i wasn’t expecting it.

This is the back section under the light, again the bumper was hiding it but there is a common enough panel to go but again I just didn’t know about it.