So what have I been doing? And why?
11 October 2006
Picked up latest ebay purchases
A lucky find on ebay has led to a lot of parts coming my way. There was a chap in County Durham breaking a 65 type 1 so I bought a lot of the bits he was clearing out - a lot of 'em brand new. Caster Shims, wiper buttons, wiper arms, brake shoes, clutch cable, pedals!!, wheel bearings, fuel guage, speedo etc etc etc.
12 October 2006 Dismantled the speedometer.
Since I have now found myself with an extra Beetle speedo, I felt it was safe to dismantle one of them to try and reset the mileage and clean up the face, bezel and inner black ring etc. Not too difficult either. Prise the chrome bezel off gently with a scredriver arounf the edge. It will eventually lift off, along with the glass, rubber seal and inner black ring. Then lift the needle gently over the resting pin. Make a good note exactly where the needle rests before removing it (a permanent thin marker at the edge of the outer case worked for me). YOU MUST DO THIS OR YOUR SPEEDO WILL BE OUT WHEN YOU REINSTALL IT! Then undo the screws at the back of the speedo and the inner workings will pull out of the outer case. Remove the black plastic post with gears top and bottom, then spin the little gear clockwise/anticlockwise as quickly as you like to move the mile readout (cobbling together some type of set up with a drill might save a few days of your time!). I then felt confident enough to tackle the nicer one of the two. It now looks fantastic (I resprayed the inner black ring satin black with enamel paint, cleaned up the face, glass, chrome etc) and it has 00000 miles on the clock. One very happy chap.  14 October 2006 An order from CIP1.com.
3 brand new 4.5 x 15 Flat 4 Fuch alloys for the front (and the spare) to accompany my original Fuch 5.5s at the back. Add to that the various boxes of bits and bobs from CIP1 - disc conversion kit, 2 new OE quality towel rail bumpers - the front of which is dented 3 times - and you've got a pain in the backside. And front side. Of the car. Believe me. 17 October 2006 Order now placed with Machine 7 Automotive (again).
My 3 new Flat 4 Fuch alloys for the front (and the spare) have arrived. Nice and shiny too. Now placed an order with the awfully nice chaps at Machine 7, Michael and Matt. New dual circuit master cylinder and braided brake hoses and lots of other nuts and bolts for disc conversion kit. These guys are awesome. Deal with them. They rock! Their phone number is 02476 356 465. Website is www.machine7.com Saturday 28 October 2006 Body off. Then off to get painted. Again.
She's off. And going to get hopefully sorted out, straightened and painted with a beautiful new coat (or 6) of shiny new paint. The new colour is to be L572 Panama Beige. Sam at PFP Coachworks - he comes highly recommended. Let's hope it's not going to have to be painted again a 3rd time. Pics: Off it goes.  With the body now off, I painted the floorpan etc in POR 15. Nasty stuff, but hopefully keep the rust away for years to come. And on went a brand new steering box and dual circuit master cylinder too.  Then fitted CB dropped spindles and hubs/discs  Then a 4.5 Fuchs went on. Now that was an exciting moment. It's all starting to come together. A big smile went on my face and didn't disappear for a while...  21 November 2006 Front Fuchs got their boots on!
Got 2 new tyres from Mytyres.co.uk - 145/65/15 Pirelli P6 (originally for a Smart Car). Good old, trustworthy Barry's Tyres in Gateshead fitted them on the alloys. They're looking the business.
27 November 2006 The front end is coming together.
After getting lots of nice new boxes from VW Heritage, they were duly rifled and the parts fitted. The calipers are on. The rotors on. The bearings in (hopefully the right way round...). The wheels now both on. Master cylinder on. New brake pipes on. Track rods on. New steering damper on. Rock on! (See what I did there?)
7 December 2006 The wonders of wipers.
Found the original wiper assembly and motor in a box amongst lots of very rusty bits of metal. It was looking pretty shoddy and rather old (mind you, it had been in a barn for the past 16 years or so). Sand paper, check. Elbow grease, check. Spanner, check. Primer, check. Enamel paint, check. And abracadabra. One slightly better looking wiper assembly. Under the dirt on the wiper motor, it says BOSCH 12V. Excellent. With any luck it will work when it's time to go back into the car.
27 December 2006 Happy Holidays....up to my elbows in grease.
Got the pedal assembly sorted out with the various hardware to attach it to the car (from Volksmagic). It's all starting to look like a car. Attached the clutch cable to the pedal - trhat was a bit of a pain - you have to attach it to the pedal before you put the entire assembly into the middle tunnel of the floorpan. Difficult when your hands are massive and the hole to play with is about 2 inches in diameter. Once that was sorted, I turned my attention to the back hubs. New brake shoes, cylinders, handbrake cables. Then put my new hubs, pre-drilled to accecpt Porsche pattern wheels. It's all starting to happen...
14 January 2007 Cracked it.
The rear wheels have just come back from the polishers - Henderson's Metal Cleaning Services, Jock's Lodge, Edinburgh. Steve spent around 20 hours polishing them, and it shows. They look like they've been chromed. Best wheel job he's ever done, he said. That brought a nice big smile to my face. Now for the tricky bit - there's a crack in one of them, so I've had to get it welded, while I was in Newcastle - Neil Ferguson at R & A Sheet Metal, Washington, plugged in the gas and got to work welding the crack back up. Then I spent all of my evening with a dowel drill bit and lots of wet and dry sanding the weld back down to flat. It's not finished yet. But the non cracked wheel has had a nice big boot put on it - Pirelli P6000. Nice. Big. And fat.
20 January 2007 Almost done.
I opened the garage, armed with a collection of nuts and bolts. And the right nuts and bolts at that - a major first. On went the new shocks. On went the various bolts that were missing. On went the wheels studs, into the drums. On went my non cracked rear fuchs with its new tyre on. In went the handbrake, adjusted, so it works really well! On went the boot, once the cables were all tightened and locked. The floorpan is pretty much done. Just waiting patiently for the body top come back from the sprayshop. Missed out on an AO code gearbox on Ebay, but another one has appeared - so fingers crossed I'll get that one!
Feb 07 Pass the razor blades.
Not good, really. Big change. The paint that's already on the car (including earlier respray 20 or so years ago) has been given a verdict. It's shite. The solution? Strip the entire car back down to metal. AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I'm taking a week off work to help do this. And it'll save me money to the tune of four figures. I'll scrape the paint off the car. And then scrape the loot together.
March 07 Let's do Panama.
Sam at PFP has come up trumps. A great job of the bug has been done. I helped out with a fair bit of the prep to save some cash (which thankfully Sam agreed to!) and the result has been well worth it. The rear air scoop has been welded in too (as you can see in the first pic). It's a pipe originally for an industrial air conditioning unit, but will draw up air from underneath the car (above the gearbox) straight through the firewall into the air intake. This was Laurie Petit's idea. Excellent stuff. It'll ensure the monster of an engine has enough air to keep it nice and cool. Nice and cool, indeed. The colour (Panama Beige) is very unusual. In some light it looks beige. In others, it's almost green. I like, very much.
April 07 Really coming together. Literally.
Once the ultra shiny new paint was on, the car was put together, piece by piece. Now that's the most exciting part, watching a car come together. 
Sam and I sorted out the floorpan, armed with its shiny coat, dropped spindles and Fooks and new brakes. And off it went to PFP, ready to get married to its body once again. It was the first time I'd seen it with its Fuchs on as part of a car too. Note the colour coded beading - looks so much better than black or white, don't you think? Sam was very pleased with the finish of the car. That makes two of us.
May 07 Boy's own.
My baby's back. And I can't get it put together fast enough. Started to set about putting runner boards on, trim (inside and out), handles and bumper irons on. Put the steering column in too, which I've painted a shade of white, bright enough to blind a very blind person. 
The interior didn't lose out either. Got a rather nice chrome starter button (German made, too) in there to boot. None of your faux modern nonsense with Honda or BMW starter buttons here thank you. Nope, not me.
June 07 Spag(hetti) ball. Wiring loom put together. Now that's a bit of a pain. I have a diagram of 65 beetle wiring if anyone wants it. It really helped me out.
Oct 07 Headlining.
A very nice chap by the name of Dave Hannan fitted out the saddle coloured headlining. Another nice job. It's gradually coming together. 
And then it was time for door cards. I put some heavy duty plastic lining in already. This is a vital step, so Malcs assured me - it makes sure that it keeps moisture away from the door card itself and stops it warping. 
Then in went the door cards. Saddle and off-white. I fitted an original ashtray in the back that was bought on ebay. 3 hours of metal polishing and it's come up a treat.
August 08 Are we sitting comfortably? Um, no. Time for the seats to go in. Surprise! I've now realised this car wasn't meant for someone who is 6'7". I don't fit in the car very well. Bunch of arse. I've put them in anyway. Down the line, I'll get the driver's seat rail welded back on the floorpan to give me more, um, essential inches.   
17 April 2009
A bank of parts. I've ordered all the parts for my 2017 engine from VW Speedshop. Here's the list: Crankcase: Mag AS41 2017 Case Crankcase fittings: Harware and fitting kit Elring Gasket set and silicon crank seal CB 78.4mm forged Crankshaft Mahle 90.5 Stroker Barrel and Piston Kit CB Unitech HD 5.4 Conrods 044 Magnum 42x37.5 Cylinder Heads Chromoly 13lb 8 dowel flywheel 8mm Chromoly Cyclinder studs Chromoly 38mm Gland Nut Main Big End and DT cam bearing kit Berg Oil Pump and ff cover Engle FK8 Camshaft (1.4 rockers) Straight Cut Steel Cam Gear
Scat Lightweight Cam Followers CB Pro 1.4 Rockers Zinc Plated Pushrod tubes Dynamic Balancing - Crank Flywheel Kennedy Stage 1 clutch Daiken STD clutch centre plate EMPI 3.5 quart Deep Sump Hey!!!!! Where d'all the money go? I think I'm going to be saying that phrase a lot.
Sat 6th Feb 2010
Off we go again.
The bug goes off to Jay at the Bugshop in Newcastle. The plan is for it to be finished by 12 June for my birthday - and in time for the summer shows. It's very exciting. 
Thursday 18th March 2010
The best gear.
The gearbox mountings of my little car has been major league reinforced. Jay informs me the major amount of forces on the mountings of the gearbox are rather large, so everything needs to be seriously strong. If it had the original VW mountings, everything would be blown apart. It's all good stuff. I'm getting excited. Well, as much as one can, when it comes to gearboxes.... 
Thursday 23rd April 2010
Bender. Got sent some nice shiny new number plates for the bug. They were bent in the post (the manufacturer had run out of boxes....what the?) so he sent me a new pair of plates. They were bent too. Strightened them out and they look decent enough now. I'll always know though..... 7 June 2010
Stop!The bug will finally be coming to a halt. No, not what you think - Spanking new CSP rear disc brakes have been fitted. They cost almost as much as my new car.
11 June 2010
Say hello!
My beautiful daughter Annabelle has arrived into the world. She was a week early! Life is good.
12 June 2010 My Birthday. The bug isn't finished. Not even close. But my gorgeous other half has bought me a fab stereo for it. It'll be nicely tucked away where nobody can see it (that's why it's remote controlled) and go nicely with a pair of JBL 6"x9" speakers. I think this project is going to be long, long, long overdue. Although Jay reckons it'll be 4 weeks.
4th July 2010
Sorry, I canny hear ye... All of this week, every lunch time, I've been lining the inside of the bug with self adhesive roofing underlay to soundproof it. It's a pain, but hopefully it'll work.
Wed 28 July Back on the rails? Jay has got round to getting the seat mounts welded back 5 inches, so that a 6'7" giant can drive his own little car. What a difference - I can fit in it. You can see what it looks like here. 
28th July 2010
On the deck. The deck height is being set.
The details go like this: Engine Bore - 90.5mm
Engine Stroke - 78.4mm Deck Height - 1.85mm Combustion chamber CCs - 56 Compression ratio - 8.4 
16th September 2010
Sticking the heid on it. The engine is actually looking like an engine. There are carbs out the sides, too, which is good. The heads are waiting to go on, with shiny Scat covers. The rods have to be properly cut down to length first. 24th September 2010
In, out, shake it all about. I had to rub my eyes. I looked up at my little car on the ramps. There was an engine in it. It was only fitted to see if it, well, to see... if it fitted. It did. Joy of joys. It won't be long now, apparently. March 2011 Now all of the bug is back in Scotland. The car went on the back of a low loader. And now it's the engine bit. I had to keep the engine at the back door of my work until I could get it to the farm to join the car. Engines are heavy. It took two of us to lift it into the 9-5. 
April 2011
We're back in Scotland. Be brave. Up goes the rear end of the bug. And in goes the hefty engine lump. And back out it goes again. 
On went the flywheel, using an alignment tool. 
And once we realised the gearbox needed filing down, it was time to strip everything down. You can see the nice black trim on the firewall in the pic. should set everything off nicely. 
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THE JOURNEY