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[Virgs Sew n Sew]

:-[ Well now I feel like a blithering ass. You speak so modestly about your arrangements that I envisioned way less than that.Please excuse  my "presumptions" , and moderate some of posts. I was thinking cement walls, 3 pull chain lights, ---glazed cement floor.

LOL, not a problem at all.  For the record, before we remodeled, I only had one pull chain light and the vintage 70's foot square linoleum  ; )

I didn't realize I had been so modest in discussing Sew & Sew.   My bad -- it really is a cool set-up except for being in the basement.  I'd love a ranch with Sew & Sew being one of the wings.  When I win the Lotto.

Virginia 

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

It's been a good last week or so on the bug!  I spent some time removing all the old seals that go around the windows.  Lots of fun as some places weren't ideal for using the drill to remove the screws.  Of course those were the screws that really didn't to come out but I am very persistent and eventually got all the screws out.  At the last minute I had to replace the tension screws and cables.  I had one cable break last time I opened the top and the plastic cracked on the other cable so I replaced both this weekend.  That was fun as one of the crimpers had gotten bent enroute and neither Bob nor I could get the wire through it on the second pass.  In desperation, I went across the street to our neighbor who is a total car freak.  He ended up boring the crimper so we could get the wire through.  Spent parts of yesterday afternoon and this afternoon getting the insulation pad positioned correctly and then stapled and glued into place.  I need to cut a small piece of foam to cover the staples on the rear wooden bow tomorrow and then it is at last time to start attaching the top. : )

Seriously, I am just about giddy with anticipation.  I've read the manual on this part a couple of times and it is pretty straightforward.  The only part I'm apprehensive about is installing the rear window and Chuck (parts distributor) has said that as long as I take my time and follow the directions in his manual I shouldn't have any problems.  He has way more confidence in me than I have.  Though I've gotten this far pretty much solo so I'll just take it step by step.  At any rate, I smell victory and it smells sweet already!

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Put the top on the bug about a week and a half ago but there are lots of steps before it is "installed".  ; )

The first big step is to "lock" the top in place at the top of the rear end frame.  There is what is called a "U" channel and the top needs to be sucked up in that channel just above the welting and held in place with a cable.  The cable is also to be sucked in by tightening the nuts on either end, alternately, until you can no longer see any of the cable.  Sounds easy, huh?  What the manual doesn't say is that starting this process is definitely a 2 person job.  You need one person applying pressure on the cable as you force it in the U channel until the cable fits around the ends of the U channel.  Not a lot of fun as you don't have much spare cable.  I had a customer come by as I was trying this single handed and he graciously assisted me in getting the cable in place.  Bob would have helped but Ron had infinitely more patience than Bob would have so it worked out very well.  The next day I went out to start tightening the cable and discovered that the nut had fallen off one end -- arghh.  I was able to carefully get the cable loosened up enough outside of the U channel to start the nut tightening and then even more carefully pulled the cable back into place in the U channel.  That was the easy part.  Once you start tightening, you become a contortionist as you have to get into the back of the bug to get to the nut, give it a couple of turns, get out and go to the other side, climb into the back and repeat until you no longer see the cable.  For the most part, that job is done.  I don't think that the cable is visible but I'm going to tighten it a bit more as that pulls the back sides of the top in.  There are two places where the back sides are screwed.  I can stretch them in place manually but I think the cable will do it easier for me.  Once I'm satisfied with this, I cut holes in the inside of the top so that the tension cables can be pulled through.  Then, the front of the top gets spray adhesived to the frame.  I'm hoping for a slight warm-up in temps in a few days when I'm ready for that step.   Cut holes in the headliner and top for the rear window, insert the window, attach some seals and I believe I will be done.  Doesn't sound like much when I type it out but as I have learned from experience, what sounds easy when reading the manual can test my determination to get this car out of my garage.  Hoping that this goes easy, rather than hair pulling.

We will take pictures once finished so I can show it off as I am rather pleased with the headliner, especially since it was a first attempt.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Still playing with the bug; and the weather gets colder and colder and colder.   Actually have had nice weather this week and was hoping to get the top finished as well as starting to cut holes for the window.  I had been working with the top vinyl, getting it into position as much as possible using my heat gun (carefully).  There was still a bit of a gap between the welting and the top that is supposed to be worked out by tightening the cable.  I have been carefully tightening the cable as it is old and pretty frayed.  I gave it about a half turn this afternoon on the passenger side and that darn cable snapped.  So, one last order from my bug vendor. 

It turned out to be a good thing as the manual made it unclear that the top will not close with the top glued to the front of the frame UNTIL the window holes have been cut.  I would have spent the winter trying to get that baby stretched.  So the vendor and I talked over, pretty much step by step, until I felt really confident.  Also, there is what is called a boot, that goes over the top when it is down.  There are "fins" that are placed inside the car that the boot snaps onto.  The fins have been in pieces in the back of the car since I received it, with no hardware to attach to the car and that is also part of this process so I got those things ordered as well.  Chuck promised me that there is absolutely nothing left to order.  : )

I'll have the parts in Monday's mail.  My drop dead date to finish this (to myself) is the 1st of the month.  Chuck said that it is absolutely within reason to finish it.  I know that the cable will be in place Monday afternoon.  Tuesday I want to get the top attached to the front of the frame. Wednesday put in the window.  Thursday replace all the window seals as well as the seals that go on the post by the front window and that would leave getting the "fins" for the boot in place on Friday.  Now, I just have to be able to keep to that schedule.  I've got afternoons left open all next week so fingers and toes crossed, this should work. 

You know what they say about "plans", right?

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Last of my parts arrived in today's mail.  Weird weather.  It was fabulous when I first went into the garage.  Front definitely came through as by the time I came in, I was thinking that long pants might be in order-brrrrrr.

At any rate, the new cable is installed.  I will take a butter knife out tomorrow to push the cable into the U channel in a couple of places and then one or two turns on each side.  But it is basically installed.  The difference in the two cables was just amazing.  The first cable was pretty stiff and so getting it over the top of the channel so that I could start pushing it into the channel was darn near impossible.  I really didn't think that first cable was going to stretch over.  And I had a helper assisting me.  I pushed the new cable through each side by myself as Bob had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, gave the nuts 2 or 3 turns so that the cable would not come loose, stretched the cable over the top of the channels and away I went.  It was pretty easy getting the top and the cable pulled in the U channel this time as the top fabric was already stretched and so it just kind of popped back into place.  The only issue was that the nuts are supposed to be a metric 10 and they were an 11.  I used a metric 10 wrench on the old cable, the manual says to use a metric 10 but the 10 just wouldn't fit correctly.  I fought for about 10 minutes and gave up and went in the house and raided Bob's tools for an 11.  Went back to the garage and the 11 worked perfectly.  Otherwise no hitches.  Hope the next 4 steps go like today.  If so, I will be finished Friday.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

This is such a sad topic for me.  I alternate between frustration and loathing for this project.  I did research what this entailed but had not found the samba website and what I read outside of samba made it sound like not a big deal to do a headliner/soft top replacement.  LOLOL.

The weather has been absolutely glorious most of last week and so far this week.  A little windy today but if you're working in a garage not a big deal.  My five day schedule got shot all to hades last week.  One of my steps was to pull to cables attached to the tension spring through the top and then attach them to a bend tab on the convertible frame.  This particular make of top has a string that you attach to the crimped area and then pull the other end of the string and voila, the cable pulls through.  Right side went without a hitch.  The left side not so much.  After working and working to get the strings moving, I discovered that the string was either glued or in the wrong place at the wrong time and when the top was pressed for imprinting the string is not immovable.  So, I learned about using an old coat hanger and got the cable through.  That turned out to be the easy part.  Took maximum effort to get the left cable hooked over the pull tab but I did.  Right side I could not get closer than 1/4". 

I decided to see how the left side was lining up.  There are flaps at the top of the frame and the quarter panel area that get glued to the frame.  There was simply no way that those were lining up correctly.  I got out my hot gun and loosened up the vinyl a bit and worked on the flap to see if I had made any gains.  Much to my consternation, the wires in the flippin' cable that I just received decided to pull out of the cylinder that the nut is tightened around.  ARGHHHHH.  That was Monday.  My vendor is closed on Monday always but was also closed on Tuesday this week for some reason.  I called and got his voice mail on Wed, called again this afternoon and got a return phone call about 30 minutes later.  We talked about the top issues and he agreed that I have been following his manual religiously.  Finally he asked the 64 million dollar question which was what brand of top am I using.  VW owner bought the top and when I told him the brand (TMI), he said that he doesn't carry that brand because they are a royal pain in the backside to install.  Basically they do not want to fit properly.  I don't have much choice as I doubt that Frank is going to want to buy a new top.  Vendor did say that you can get them to fit, just have to go about it differently.  I hopefully have the necessary information now and am just waiting on the new cable to arrive.  He said that I should get it Monday but after I hung up, I realized that Monday is Veteran's Day so probably not until Tuesday.  Hope the warm weather continues a bit longer.  Basically, he said to cut the back window hole before trying to secure the flaps and usually it is done with the flaps attached first.  But by starting to cut the window, you get "relief" and that allows you to adjust the position of the top without breaking cables and such.  He said to make a small window cut, no more than 3 inches and then work the front of the top into position.  He said that I should be able to get the front of the top glued as well as the flaps that are glued to the front sides of the frame.  That will start compressing the foam and then he said I should be able to work the quarter panel flaps into position and get them glued. 

Once those pieces are secured into position, the top is correctly installed and I can finish cutting the back window, install window and then start installing the window seals and other finishing pieces of hardware.  Sooo, another really sucky bump in the road but after typing his instructions it doesn't sound horrible and should be doable.  I am a very stubborn person and I refuse to have a crappy little hunk of metal get the better of me.  : )

Virginia