The Rear End

The back end (inner wings, brakes & suspension) of the car got very much the same treatment as the front.

The wings were removed, and some time was spent removing the bulk of the underseal that had previously been applied. It seemed to have done the trick, as there were no hidden nasties!

Most of what was there was removed using nothing more than a plastic scraper, or a metal one with rounded edges on the tougher parts.

In order to get it to the kind of finish that was achived with the front inner wings, and to ensure there was nothing hiding in the way of rust of rot, more time was spent cleaning the inner wings up.

After a while, lots of scraping and some sore hands, they looked like this:

A very typical place to find rot on beetles is the heater channel closing plates. The shape of them tends to lend well to rot, but luckily after cleaning back nothing more than some very minor surface rust, mine looked like this:

What a relief!

Logically, the next step was to prep them for paint, and get them in primer. As with the front inner wings, they would end up with a coat of Hammerite stone chip. To reduce any chance of reaction, the primer used was Hammerite rust killing primer. Whether or not the rust klilling properties are worth having, I don't know, but it can't do any harm. With a good coat on, the inner wings looked like this:

Hammerite stonechip was then applied with the air gun - The kind of thing that's marketed as an underseal gun, with the long attachment removed. It sprays it really well, and the finish is great. This photo shows the stonechip applied, and followed up (days later) with a coat of grey primer. This was applied to reduce the chance of any colour alteration when the top coat was applied. The stonechip is quite dark, and could alter the depth of the red.

Finally the Mars Red topcoat was applied to the inner wings and the other parts were prepped and details. The rear end was then assembled:

You'll notice a few nice things in those pictures. Adjustable springplates have been fitted, which were an arse in themselves. The adjuster screw had seized solid, and managed to destroy a number of Snap On allen keys before coming loose, despite heat being applied. Before being painted with POR15, they were blasted and prep'd with Metal Ready.

The other chassis / running gear componants were also stripped, cleaned and details.

Where possible the assembly used stainless fixings. Rather than usings the standard bolt head set screws, allen / hex head versions were used. They look nicer, and are much harder to round off. Anything that required higher tensile than stainless was replaced with new mild steel. That applies to the entire car build.

The rear brakes were built using all new cylinders, seals, springs, shoes, clips and any other parts that may be involved.

New Porsche pattern rear drums we bought, prep'd and painted, as with the front discs, to ensure they didn't just go manky like usualy. The satin black finish hides them nicely behind the wheels too. I'm not overly keen on seeing drum brakes!