The beginning

I've always wanted an early small windowed ragtop. I originally brought a 63 ragtop but it was a wreck! In fact all I could salvage was the goldie roof section! However another fairly solid roof 63 shell came along at the right price, so I brought it and begun doing all the welding needed (not surprisingly on such an old car!). The plan was to make the car solid and then chop the goldie roof section in. However, about half way through the welding marathon, a very solid 58 bug (original heater channels) came up for sale at a price I couldn't refuse, and the 63 went to make way for the 58!

Ragtop install

In order to make my dream of owning an early rag top come true, the first thing I did after purchasing the 58 was to install the important rag top! This was skillfully done by myself and Phil of Autobodyworx, whose help I am very grateful too. Shown here is one picture of the finished job, but more pictures will be added soon!

Strip down and inspection of the body (the bad bits!)

Probably the first thing I should have done before installing the roof, but here are the photos showing the true extent of the work needed once the shell has been stripped out. Not a lot for such an old car!

Rear window aperture repair

Although this has been done now I will actual redo this in the future as I hadn't realized the pressings are slightly different on the later vents I installed, compared to the earlier ones. Thanks for pointing this out Phil! :-)

Small drivers side front wheel arch repair

There was a small rust patch in the drivers side front wheel well, but it had to go!

Front nose section replacement

Although fairly good, when the front valence was removed, the front edges of both sides on the nose were found to be in need of replacement. This was done by using pattern panels which were cut and reshaped so that they matched the correct pressings of the original panel, removing as little original steel as possible.

Wheel well replacement

The wheel well was, as with most old cars rotten and beyond repair. Thus an identical pattern repair panel was found and installed. To get it per original tabs were welded on to give it a factory look. The only custom modification was the removal of the locating tab on the gear stick linkage access plate, which was replaced with stainless button head screw fixings.

Bracing the body

The cars not mine!

Heater channel repair

Although the heater channel was fairly solid for its age, it did have a few holes at the back by the rear quarter. Rather than patch them, I decided to replace the whole outer side giving me a chance to repaint inside the channel. All the factory pressings such as the dimples on the channel lips were reproduced using specially made tooling.

Driver side A post repair

A few holes had started to creep into the bottom of the A post on the drivers side, and therefore I decided to replace this with a excellent reproduction panel from Hookeys Panels Shop. As little as the overall panel was used as possible.

Drivers side rear quarter panel repair

Drivers side rear inner wheel arch repair

Drivers side rear wheel arch stud line repair

Drivers side rear bumper hanger replacement

Miscellaneous repairs