Now with our Mini Mark back in a rolling state, there were a few other tasks before getting it ready for paint. After all that time in pieces I could now put some gas in the tank and fire it up. Before that, one last bleed of the braking system, verifying the engine electrical and Vrooom! Pouring a little gas in the carburetor and a few cranks of the starter and there was life to my Mini Mark. At this point there were no doors, hood, engine cover, mirrors, windshield, or lights, but I couldn't resist taking it for a drive. It wasn't far, just up and down along the street, but if felt good to have it running again. Back into the shop, and let the body work begin. I didn't want the two spare tires, and rather than cut the wells out, I decided to fill them in, just in case someone ever wanted to return it to original. Fiberglass matting, resin, building up each well until they were ready to get the contours. Plastic body filler, sand, more filler, more sanding, sanding, sanding , primer, wet sand, finally getting both where I wanted them There was lots of other body work to do. I removed all the snaps from covers and tops, Plugged holes from the original antenna, the power outlet for the hardtop, holes from the two driving lights on the cowl which I didn't plan on putting back on, and a few other holes which weren't needed anymore. Some had the edges cleaned up and resin added, other just received body filler. The whole body was sanded with 120 grit and then worked down to wet sanding. Red primer and more wet sanding, then finally a micro mesh pad over the whole body. Washing the body down and looking at the body lines until It was ready for paint.
Finding the right body shop was quite a challenge. Since I wasn't able to drive the car to each shop to get an estimate, I took pictures of the car at different angles and the loose body panels taking them to the shops I selected. A few came out and looked at the car in person, others just gave me a price, and a few never got back to me. The final decision was for the body shop I originally wanted to do the paint. I knew they would do a great job, and it wasn't far to trailer in. Dan's Body Shop in Michigan City, IN took on the job of turning my Mini Mark red. Jim, at Dan's made sure everything went according to plan. My son was given the task to pick the shade of red from all the color swatches. Dan's used PPG products, and this was actually a water base paint. PPG Mercedes Red was the final choice. I finished up the prep for the paint and asked my brother in law to trailer it there and back for me.
The day finally came and I rushed home from work and dove it up on the trailer. We got it down to Dan's and off loaded it. I gave Jim the keys and left it in his hands. While it was in paint for the next few weeks I started getting ready for assembly when it came back. Buying new Ford tail lights, polishing the aluminum brackets, polishing all the hinges and hardware, and doing something which wasn't done on the original. Each piece of hardware had a EPDM rubber gasket made for it where it would meet the body. The original had all the hardware screwed in with phillips head sheet metal screws, and direct contact to the body. Many of the screws were stripped or missing by the time I started the rebuild. My plan was to use stainless carriage bolts and serrated flange nuts for all the hardware mountings.
Three weeks after dropping the car off for paint I received a call that it was ready. The week was going to be busy and the weather just as unpredictable. The weather report called for light rain in the afternoon when I picked it up, and we made the decision to give it a try. Since the car was completely open, I didn't want to move it in a rainstorm. We were able to get the car back to my shop during a small window of no rain, or just light drizzle. WOW, what a change from the original tan to the new shade of red. The job of putting parts back on began. I installed the engine cover hinges first. That small porthole behind the passenger seat came in handy. I wouldn't be able to reach the nuts for that side without it. I was able to reach up to fasten the driver side hinge. Polishing the molding on the engine cover , re-installing it, and then attaching the engine cover to the hinges. The stainless carriage bolts looked great. I buffed and polished each head, cutting the bolts to length before installing them.
The first step after getting the body into the shop was to drop the gasoline tank. Four bolts, the hose clamps around the filler hose and down it came. The tank actually is rather heavy, so plan ahead for this and put a jack under it. Disconnect the sender wire and slip the tank out from under the body. You can now pull the sending unit and flush the tank. You can pressure wash the inside with special detergents to clean it. You will probably find a lot of rust inside, so clean it well and leave it dry out well. There are special gas tank paints which you can put inside and seal the inside of the tank, slowing the rust. You can still get the sender and gasket for the tank as it is original VW. They don't cost much and it is a lot easier to replace it now than once it is back in the body. You may have to bend the float arm a little to match what you took out. Put on a new gasket and tighten the screws down. It wouldn't hurt to get the outside of the tank cleaned and painted, then you can put it aside until you are ready to put everything back together.
A simple hint here. When you get back to working on the body, on the passenger side, way up on top, make a port hole in the body panel behind the passenger seat (I suggest around six inches in diameter). If you ever need to access the sender unit, you can get at it through that hole (you will never reach it through the engine compartment). It is also a lot easier than dropping the engine and tank to change out the sender. Make a cover plate when you are finished and screw it in place from the inside. Now that the tank was out of the body, I took my overhead hoist and turned the body onto its side. With the heavy fiberglass there was no worry of damage. Fabricating up some supports to hold the body in place on its side, and leaving the straps in place to the hoist I didn't worry about the body falling while I was working on it.
The inside of the body looked rough. The wiring harness was a mess, and the inside of the body was not painted. Under the dash was even worse, loose and frayed wires, bad splices, and a nightmare of wires running everywhere. There had to be a plan, so it was start at the back and move forward. Each wire was traced, labeled, splices soldered, heat shrink, tape and plastic wiring loom cover. I chose red loom cover, taping the ends, and lots of plastic wire ties giving it a professional look. Little by little, wire by wire, inch by inch I made it through each section of the body, painting the raw green fiberglass black, working the wiring at each section and finally ending at the dash. With all the ends of the wires labeled, it was now time to label the start of the wires and rebuild the dash. Patience was the key word here, I polished all the bezels on the gauges, checked each one for operation and cleaned the lenses. Once the dash was stripped out. I painted the under dash, put in a piece of plated steel angle for a ground buss bar, and started putting the dash back together. The front of the dash was a hand painted wood grain which didn't look very real. I also wanted to change some of the locations for the radio, lighter, and switches. I was able to find a wood grain Wilsonart laminate. It was a thin gauge, not like regular counter laminate. Making a pattern, checking it twice I cut the laminate and contact cemented it in place. I am a bit of a naturalist and would have preferred real wood for the dash, but with the constant sun, UV rays, and atmosphere, real wood wasn't practical. The color of the laminate matched the grain and color of the steering wheel and looked better than the hand painted dash. The naturalist side did come out however. I crafted all new knobs for the dash, (four-way flasher, lights, wiper, and inside door handles) from Padauk with a bit of stain to "brown" them up. I finished them with super glue, polishing them up to 12,000 grit with a final wax burnish on them. An added touch was to add a small polished stainless steel button in the middle of the wiper and light knobs. I finished putting the dash back together piece by piece.
Wiring all the instrument lights, reinstalling all the gauges, tucking and looping all the wires in a pattern and following the same red plastic loom and wire ties the dash was starting to take shape. Part of the rebuild of the dash was a new sound system. The original was an AM-FM with cassette player. The new was a Pioneer AM-FM-CD with MP3 and auxiliary input. I could listen to just about any format currently available. Commercial station, CD, flash drive and MP3 or Ipod. Along with the new radio were new speakers using the the speaker cups built into the front firewall, and adding three inch speakers to the center console. Rather than an external antenna I chose a hidden antenna which mounted on the front of the firewall close to the top. Since the body was fiberglass reception for a hidden antenna was better than a steel body. It actually took more time to complete the body than the frame, but the inside of the body was finally complete. Lowering the body back to the floor, and re-installing the fuel tank the two halves were soon to be reunited. When you put the fuel tank back in, don't install the filler yet, That will be after final paint.
I purchased new stainless bolts and nuts, a new VW pan gasket and after lifting the body high in the air, wheeled the frame back under it. Connecting the steering linkage and shaft, assembling the brake reservoir, fishing some of the wires through openings and aligning the bolt holes joining the two halves back together again. A few hours later the halves were back together as a car. The body was still the tan color and it needed body work before it went to paint.
