Thing is almost ready!

[chinacat]

I'm very excited - my '73 is almost on the road! She's been at a shop that only works with old VWs since I had her delivered early this past summer. In that time, the engine's been taken out, torn apart and rebuilt. It went back in with the original dual muffler setup, oil-bath air cleaner, etc - totally stock. The entire brake system was overhauled, as were the front and rear suspension systems. No bug stuff here - all parts are 181-specific, and mostly NOS. She also got a new clutch, bearings, trailing arms, seats, side curtains, etc. The new floor pans and an oil temp gauge will finish things up (for now). Next spring will see a new soft top, roll cage, 3-point seatbelts and possibly a shiney new paint job. My first trip with her will be a 5-hour highway shakedown from the shop to her new garage. I SO can't wait! Just had to tell someone.

[chinacat]

Just an update: I finished the new seats yesterday & have to say that the thing shop's re-upholstery kit is the way to go. My original seats were in horrible condition (torn, flattened, rusted and some internal tack-welds had broken free. We stripped the old material from the seats and even found an old mouse nest complete with acorn bits (no mouse, though). The most difficult part of the job is unhooking the old vinyl from the sharp fastener tabs that are attached to the bottom parts of the fram. You have to take care not to break these, as you need all of them to fasten the new covers. Next, we sanded the old paint and rust from the frames, reattached the tack-welds using 4mm stainless steel bolts & lock nuts, and gave everything a protective coat of black epoxy paint. After the paint dried, we put on the new seat forms, cushions and covers (which are exact oem replicas). The whole project only took a few hours of work time - mostly preping the frames and waiting for paint to dry. The most difficult part of the job was probably attaching a protective vinyl sheet to the spring frames using hog-rings: only difficult because we made do without a hog-ring plier (used a grooved plier along with a channel lock). End result is a pair of front seats that look like they just came out of the factory. I still can't believe that we did it ourselves and they look so good. I'd highly recommend the seat rebuild kit from Thing Shop.