Christmas

Etched and sealed the inside of the gas tank this week

Slow but steady progress

Tore apart the motor this weekend and started rebuilding the carbs. I had wanted to switch over to a twin set of Dell Orto FRD units, but based on my research into the Volkswagen world(where both are used on Beetles, etc) I just don't know If I would really gain anything there. Next up are the heads. Looks like a lot of grinding, sanding and polishing are in my future.

Dolly

Well, I finished the chassis dolly yesterday and it may not be all that pretty but it holds the unit body up and has casters for rolling it around the garage. Now we can park the other cars back inside the garage again.

4 weeks in.........

Its been exactly four weeks since we took delivery of the car and now it is a BARE monocoque! I'll be building a dolly/fixture this week to put under it to make moving it around easier.

Action!

Just a couple pics Tiff took of me in the shop this week.

Cleanliness is next to godliness

I thoroughly cleaned and then polished the window cranks and door handles today. Not too shabby, I think we'll just stick with these for now since I'm not building a trailer queen here.

Security, german security

14 bolts, three welds and two rivets. That's what was holding one front fender in place from the factory.

Engine and trans are out

Now, she's a true "rolling chassis."

Trim?

I think we'll loose the cheap factory trim. We can always glue some higher quality stuff on there if it looks bad without. Oh, and I was planning on installing a fancy Hella brand horn, but after seeing the Bosch one that was in there I'll be sticking with it for now. Although, its so heavy, I'm sure the Hella one would shave a few more precious pounds regardless of whether or not it sounded better.

Weekend slacker

Got some stuff done this weekend. Pulled out the fuel tank, fuel pump, brake master cylinder and some brake and fuel lines too. The original fuel pump is on the engine and is run off the camshaft. At some point, that was disconnected and the modernish electric one in the photo was installed. The other photo is of the dash from the backside.

Friday night in the garage.

Took out the air ducts, dash, rear side windows and all weatherstriping and associated trim. Also, am very close to having the whole wiring harness completely out. That old school fuse block is rad. My appreciation for the construction of this car grows with each component I remove. I also can't believe how little rust there really is in a car that's almost 50 years old.

A long day with much accomplished!

Well, I got almost all of the interior stripped today. I'm just having a little difficulty with all the acoustic insulation that is glued to the firewall. Also, I found more wasp nests than I can even remember in there. Oh well, its better than finding hidden body damage or more rust holes.

Tomorrow will be spent wiring and plumbing up the new air compressor we got to run the soda blaster, which will be showing up next week. The garage is really starting to turn into a viable workshop.

Just a sampling of the 100+ pics I have so far

I may have service manuals, but I am still taking a bit of extra time to document everything with the camera as I take it apart. The wiring harness is in such a sad state I may be making a new one from scratch instead of reusing it. There are a number of ghetto wiring repairs that have been done over the years. I mean really, how hard would it have been to cut and re-tape 3 feet of wire harness? Ooh, I know, about as hard as using different colored wires for everything instead of all yellow.

Organizing the bounty

There were so many "spare parts" included with the car, I had to do an inventory. There is a new clutch, replacement front fenders, various other parts and a set of factory parts and service manuals from way back in the day(1960's ?). Oh, and you see that tennis ball hanging from the ceiling? It hits the windshield of Leroy's F-450 to help park it in the garage. Yeah, this thing is so small I think we might as well not even bother with keeping the rear seat in there. I couldn't even get all the way into the back seat when I was cleaning it out yesterday. Plus, it might help with the front to rear weight balance of the car. I mean the motor and trans are back there, no need to be carrying extra weight in the back of the car for no reason.

Its Here!

Well, here are some pics taken right after taking delivery and doing a little cleaning. It looks kind of like that amphibicar without the bumpers on. It won't be staying like this for long anyway.

Finding the right project

I have been looking for a project over which to "bond" with my father-in-law recently. He expressed great interest in restoring/rebuilding a car. We came across this 1960 BMW 700 Sport for sale locally on craigslist and chose it due to its uniqueness, rarity and the fact that it uses a BMW motorcycle engine. I have worked as a BMW motorcycle mechanic for two different shops and felt very comfortable taking on this car based on its simplicity and my familiarity with the engine. It is currently not running and according to the previous owner has been sitting in storage for close to ten years. Our intent is to do a full "rotisserie restoration" to the body and to rebuild the original engine with a little more power as this car was quite slow from the factory. It is approximately 1400 pounds with a rating of 40 bhp. We will be keeping it as close to original configuration as possible while not overlooking some modern technologies that can increase performance, safety and reliability. Stay tuned for regular updates.............