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Starting a restoration

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September_1968

September_1968

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Well, I've owned my BE for 40 years and I just started the project. It's been sitting for the last 20 years. I just pulled my engine and transmission. I'm having a real mechanic rebuild them.

I'm probably going to have the body work done by a professional as well, but I'd like to do as much of the rest as I can. My car (OEW - AN5L 37060)has 64,000 miles on it and not very much serious rust. It has many old dents and dings though - from the previous owner(s). It's been sitting in a garage for about 20 years. I'm not sure what to pull off of it before I send it to the bodyshop....how should I evaluate the wiring....or should I just pull it no matter what? Do I even have the option of leaving the suspension on it?

Any suggestions would be great.
Steve on Cape Cod
 
First of all welcome Steve. I'm just a bit North of you. If you need any help let me know.

If you are having the tub blasted then you'll need to strip it, if you are just doing cosmetic body work then you can leave the suspension in. It really depends on the type of restoration. As for wiring I think the consensuses is to replace it with a new harness from https://www.britishwiring.com/ . See Drew Fink's documentation of his BE rewire here.
 
Welcome!

As Chris mentioned, I redid my wiring when I bought the Tunebug. Not too expensive, and simple to do on a Bugeye. I figured it was one less thing to worry about in the future. Probably took less time to replace it than it would have to sort out all the old stuff.

If you replace you harness, keep the old one handy. I did wind up needing to splice in one of the old light sockets for the dash. I did the whole thing over a weekend, just because I was a novice and working slowly and methodically.
 
Ore you can get 7 rolls of wire and a 12-pack......


(Not advisable bTW)


IMG_2039.jpg
 
blkcorvair said:
Ore you can get 7 rolls of wire and a 12-pack......


(Not advisable bTW)


IMG_2039.jpg
Click to expand...

I understand - at least 24
 
You could make it really interesting for the
next owner - do it all in Red.I guess that after
a 12,or 24 pack,that might seem like a really
great idea.

- Doug
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]You could make it really interesting for the
next owner - do it all in Red.[/QUOTE]


I did an outboard motor like that once. Course you could see pretty much where every wire went... and I think it was actually an 18 pack. That was in the days before I was a beer snob.
 
Morris said:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]You could make it really interesting for the
next owner - do it all in Red.
Click to expand...


I did an outboard motor like that once. Course you could see pretty much where every wire went... and I think it was actually an 18 pack. That was in the days before I was a beer snob. [/QUOTE]

We do stuff like that at work all the time (Golf Cars) or do things like hooking a positive to a neg battery terminal in a set of batteries thats wired in series. I love watching them scratch thier heads.
 
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