Bugs N Brats IV

Well it is the last sat of Sept. That means that it is time to host our shops show. While it is a pita

it is kool at the same time. I have spent the last week cleaning sorting putting away all the extra

vw parts that just seem to accumulate in the dark corners of the shop. I swear it is like the reproduce faster than rabbits. Which would be kool if they were good parts, oh well.Not only do we clean and sort, but I also try to set up displays of some of our processes , still got to do that. Most people do the mass/thorough clean in the spring, but since the show is always in early fall, we do it then.

Our show is a bit different . We don't do registration, trophies , entry fees or anything like that . It is a cookout, bbq, bring what you got kind of show. I suppose that we will have to change that at some point. but not yet.

See you here

split bus door glass restore part 1

Split bus front doors windows are a neat piece of engineering . With the shop truck  getting

a slow rebuild,  part by part, I am  taking each subassembly 

 all the way apart

 then fixing anything that need to be fixed , M8 studs in this case . After removing all coatings we now have bare steel, 

well that needs to be sealed with an epoxy sealer then paint, 

after letting the parts cure assembly begins, in doing these windows I found that the og hard ware was to far gone so I replaced them with stainless hardware .

I sourced  replacement rubber/seals/windowfelts  from Wolfburgwest . and started putting it together. The first seal is the vent wing scraper

then the vent wing outer seal start in the bottom and work up the wing window

part 2 I will finnish up the assembly and install the windows

 

fall cleaning

Well we are almost a week away from Bugs n Brats IV. I have been doing a 'fall cleaning' this week and installing a few pieces of equipment that we have bought and not installed, and uninstall a few old pieces . Cleaning out the misc pieces of VW's that seem to collect and multiply all over the shop and get tucked away in the dark corners of the building. I started in back area of the shop and just worked along each wall and keep going till its all done. As of this morning I have on more wall to go, then the front pad. This process takes about 60 to 70 man hrs for the whole shop. the nice thing is I have to do this anyway, ( for my own sanity) . But with Bugs n Brats IV fast approaching, I have to stage the shop with what we have been working on and what process its in and how we do things. We will be having quite a few guest , clients , potential clients and lots of friends over. I like doing this little show. I would like to get our parts room cleaned up and organized my if I get my office cleaned up that would be kool.

On a personal note, Congrats to My brother and my sister in law , they are going to parents again. I love you guys.

out gas

ain't she perdy

This is pattywagon, we have been playing with her for almost 2 years, she is at first stage clear, and out gassing, or

curing. She will sit like this for two weeks. After that we will be scuffing her down , or leveling the clear,and shooting

her sec stage clear. then she will sit for a couple of weeks then we start the polish

9-11

"Least we not forget"

new week, same week

new week, same week, the title says it all, we are in the middle of Pattywagon's paint.

We are coming down to the home stretch for the shoot, All the masking , degreasing ,and tack raging is done, I am waiting on the paint Co to deliver a can of sealer. In out scuffing and last prep some bare metal spots have been exposed, and need to be sealed before color can go on. With that we are still in the same week as last, in the paint booth.

the devil is in the details

In a good paint job there are many thing involved to make it look right. Any monkey can pull the trigger and squirt paint. Body work and prep are critical . If it ain't straight underneath the paint

it will look like crap, shinny crap, but still crap . While you can polish a turd, ( thank you myth busters) it is still a turd.

The Human brain is an amazing thing, the way it processes what it sees, and inputs it to the brain , The way that I understand it the eyes only pick up a certain number of things in a mental image and the mind fills in quite a bit of the picture. As a result a few small 'errors' in a car will not be picked up by the human brain, but the more 'errors' there are the more the mind will pick that up, once it reaches a certain level , or crosses a threshold, the part of the mind that does the filling in, says , " something isn't right". It isn't exclusive to cars, I learned this while I was in my last career , real estate .

The threshold is different to every single person. While I have trained my eyes and mind to have a very low error rate. by looking close and slow, using your eyes, as a secondary sense and using the skin of my finger tips as my primary sense.

We, ( 00 dub and I) well spend 16 man hrs , or more, doing this prep work on each of the sections before we shoot. The reason we do it in sections is more to do with not being overwhelmed , or overloaded with the scale of what we are working on, by breaking it down to a manageable level we are able to make a as close to perfect surface as we can.

All we are doing is eliminating the errors . you must be in the moment and in tune, if you rush it or push it, you will miss the devil because he is in the details.