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| Work resumes on a weekend sandwiched between
the DKF Fall Cruise and the re-scheduled Litchfield show. The weather
is getting brisk, I really had to make the final push to get this project
done. Tucking the split in there today would give me the chance to
get the oval out and get it ready for the show on Saturday.
I construct the frame for the large end door. |
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| I add sheathing and tar paper. Note the side door is sided vertically and ready for paint. |
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| The end door is sided. I decided to use a piece of trim wood in the center of the vertical siding to give the appearance of being two doors, rather than the one huge door it is. |
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| How's this for cool? Wheel runners. I got the idea from the car wash. The "rails" are 2x4s ripped at a 45 degree angle down the center line. The near ends are tapered to "receive" the wheels. Prior to screwing them down, I re-measured the track of the '50 in the garage. I figured this would help guide the car into the box, and wouldn't chew up the sidewalls. |
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| Custom, double mitered stop blocks. I'm getting pretty good with that compound miter saw. These aren't screwed down yet as I don't know where the optimal resting position is yet. |
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| Detail of the near end of the runners. The tapered ends are beveled and ground down so they have no sharp edges. |
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| Drum roll please!!! Even the neighbors come over to watch. You have to understand that while I had taken many measurements of the Beetle, many times, I still had never "fitted up" the car. Despite my confidence in my measurements, I still was very anxious about this. I brought out the '50 as a "test vehicle".... |
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| Pretty tight huh? Note that the car isn't quite lined up with the ramps. I think this might be going to create a real problem getting the car back out. |
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| At this point there is a good inch of clearance on the drivers side, and over on the passengers, about 2 and a little bit. |
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| The car is on its way in. Here, the
misalignment of the rails first becomes evident. The rails guide
the wheels pretty good, but the left side rail is too close to the wall.
I did realize, as I was screwing these down earlier in the day, that I really don't need two rails on each side. Either just "inside" or "outside" rails would do just as well. |
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| You can barely see it, but the inside edges of the tires are both up against the rails hard. Also not that as the end door isn't quite swinging fully open (it interferes with the trim board, I have to pull it off and bevel it) it is costing me nearly 2 inches of clearance. Didn't really keep me from proving success today, but it will give me a little more breathing room later when I re-set the rails. |
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| It's in!!! Snug as a bug.....! (pun intended) It is evident here that the clearance on the right is greater than that on the left. |
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| The other big anxious moment, would the side door dimensions allow me to open the passenger door and get out of the car.....? |
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| Yes!! |
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| Here is the edge of a disaster. Something I never even measured. Look how close the top of the Beetle door comes to the bottom edge of the box door header! Literally a millimeter or two! I guess had it been too low I could just let air out of the tires... ;-) |
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| I still don't really know why this was out so far. You can see the tire is in the extreme right side of the rail channel, yet it clears the left wall by only about an inch. These rails will have to be removed and re-set to the right a bit. The track of the rear tires might be less than what I measured up front as they are cambered in a bit. |
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| So the car is in there for now anyway.
I think backing it out might be real tough, especially the way it is in
there now. You can't "point' the rear end of a car very well when
you can't even swing the front end either way more than about 3/4"!!
And it looked like if I backed it straight out, the left rear fender would
hit the door opening. Worst case, I jack it up a bit while it is
in there and scoot the back end over a bit.
I think if I re-set the left rails to the right a bit, and get the door to open all the way, getting the car in and out won't be such a heart stopper. I stall have a few trim pieces to put on, and paint the whole deal. The '57 will actually be the car to ride out the winter in there this year, I have to pull the engine on the split and do some detail work. |
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| And on the seventh day, it was painted.
Still a few more small details to tend to like weather stripping, trimming shingles, door latches, etc. But basically 4 FULL weekends and, say, $400-$500. I got lucky with some of the materials scoring good used stuff. I spent $700 on my 10x12 shed, for a comparison. A few more pics below. |
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